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IBM to Acquires Cognos
On November 12 IBM announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Cognos. Cognos is a large provider of business intelligence and performance management solutions, with more than 25,000 customers and over 3,000 partners. Cognos provides a complete BI and performance management platform, fully integrated on an open-standards-based service oriented architecture (SOA), and has a strong history of supporting heterogeneous application environments, consistent with IBM's approach.
Fonality Acquires Insightful
Fonality, a provider of business phone systems, announced that it will release a phone system that unifies both telephony and CRM technology for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB). As part of the initiative, the company has acquired Insightful Solutions Pty Ltd., a hosted CRM solution provider and a SugarCRM Gold partner for the Australia, New Zealand and Asia Pacific regions. By combining Insightful’s CRM expertise with Fonality’s telephony suite, small businesses will have an affordable solution that unifies employees with presence management, instant messaging, fixed and mobile calling, and provides a single 360-degree view of customers and business partners.
Day Software Ships New Web 2.0 Collaboration Solution
Day Software, a provider of global content management and content infrastructure software, has announced general availability of its new Web 2.0 collaboration solution. Part of Day’s Communiqué family of products, Communiqué Advanced Collaboration (CQ AC) offers wiki, blog, and calendar functionality. Providing centralized management for social media and essential metadata information, CQ AC enables connectivity to social computing, social networking and user participation. By providing efficient management through a central repository for all departments in the enterprise, CQ AC extends the value of rich media.
Ads-Click Unveils Ads-Click Mobile
Ads-Click, a provider of solutions for search and contextual advertising, unveiled Ads-Click Mobile, a comprehensive turnkey solution for advertising to mobile users. Ads-Click Mobile allows advertisers to go beyond targeting just computer users to reach targets at any time, no matter where they may be, by delivering offers to their mobile phones. Ads-Click Mobile offers a cost-per-click (CPC) pricing option to advertisers.
Sage CRM and Talend Join to Provide Seamless Information Exchange
Talend, a provider of open source data integration software, and Sage CRM Solutions, a provider of CRM solutions, has announced that they have entered into a strategic OEM partnership. The partnership entails the use of Talend’s open source data integration technology with Sage CRM to enable seamless data exchanges between Sage CRM and a multitude of operational applications and external files.
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Featured Survey: Trends in Customer Relationship Management
CRMindustry.com is conducting a benchmark
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| Experiential Marketing Increases in Effectiveness
From traditional methods including television, print and radio, to mobile marketing tours, advergaming and the creation of virtual worlds, experiential marketing — the methodology of engaging consumers with brands in personal and memorable ways — can be delivered across any media. It is quickly gaining strength as the most effective marketing approach in today’s oversaturated media landscape.
AdweekMedia has released the findings from a survey on experiential marketing conducted by the Experiential Marketing Forum (EMF) to gauge the methods and frequency in which marketing and advertising professionals use experiential marketing as a meaningful branding device.
Key survey findings include:
- What Experiential Marketing Means: Advertising and marketing professionals are consistent in their association of experiential marketing with the words, “sensory experience “, “interaction” and “relationship.” More than half of the participants also selected the word “memories.”
- How It’s Being Used: Approximately one-third of the respondents said they consider experiential marketing to be the “lifeblood” and the core of their organizations — used to build relationships, engage prospects, stimulate trial and create buzz.
- What It Delivers: The vast majority of professionals indicate that “engagement” is the strongest suit of experiential marketing, delivering results such as loyalty, relevance, attention, emotion, memories, trust and product desire.
More...
Ongoing Fallout from Compliance Activities Raises Cost of Finance at Typical Companies
Fallout from compliance-related activities continues to prevent CFOs at typical companies from resuming more than a decade of cost reduction efforts, according to new research from The Hackett Group, a global strategic advisory firm and an Answerthink company
Hackett's 2007 Finance Book of Numbers research found that the typical Global 1000 company saw the cost of finance increase slightly over the past year, and is now spending 12% more than they did three years ago, in part due to increased focus and spending on compliance-related activities. World-class finance organizations, which have continued to reduce costs over Hackett's 15-year research history, are now spending less than half what typical companies do. At a typical $22 billion Global 1000 company, this spending gap now amounts to savings of $138 million/year for world-class companies. In addition, world-class finance organizations operate with less than half the staff in virtually every key area of finance.
Compliance-related activities played a key part in ending the 14-year trend toward lower finance costs at typical Global 1000 companies in 2004, and according to Hackett, it is very likely that typical companies may face long-term challenges in their efforts to continue to reduce finance costs. As a result, the gap to world-class performance is expected to continue to widen. Companies with world-class finance organizations are now spending 47% less than the industry average on external audit fees, and operating with 44% fewer compliance staff.
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Open Source CRM Not for Everyone
Over the course of the last 24 months, open source CRM has hit the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) online market with a large number of start-up software publishers vying for customer share.
The net takeaway from a survey recently conducted by CRM Landmark is that while most respondents believe open source CRM will have its day, current solutions are not ready for all except the small business early adopters and leading edge technology pioneers. There was a noticeable difference in responses by role. Open source CRM solutions were viewed more positively by network and technology positions, while sales and business management positions were far more skeptical, cautious and generally unwilling to accept increased risk for a decreased acquisition investment. The majority of respondents felt that open source solutions attempted to offer very broad CRM systems at the expense of CRM depth. While acquisition cost was the most cited open source CRM benefit, the primary deficiencies cited in the survey included the following:
- Lack on integration to MS Outlook and lack of integration tools in general.
- Lack of customization capabilities and tools.
- No intermediate functionality capabilities such as workflow automation, information analysis or wireless.
- Companies obtaining open source have for the most part simply shifted their budgets from software capital procurement to higher labor investments.
As expected, almost all of the mentioned Open Source CRM products operate on the LAMP stack. For reference, the first three letters in LAMP stand for Linux, Apache and MySQL, which comprise the OS, Web server and database. The P in LAMP is a matter of preference - it stands for either Perl, PHP or Python - although some would argue that other scripting languages, such as Ruby, should be included as well. While several (generally smaller) organizations believe open sourced CRM solutions must operate within LAMP, other midmarket or larger organizations commented that the LAMP foundation doesn't provide the scalability required above the small business market. This technology foundation may be why open source CRM is starting to see some acceptance among small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), however, appears relatively absent in larger organizations.
Still, say Gartner analysts, while most open source CRM offerings are targeted at SMBs, they may be better suited to enterprises. Analyst say it’s interesting how you can now find free lead tracking, contact, account and task management, executive dashboards, and customer services applications. The challenge is most small and midsized businesses don't have the resources to take on an open source CRM project. Most companies with less than 1,000 employees do not have the IT resources to develop open source CRM themselves. In fact, software is only 15% of the total cost of ownership over a five-year CRM project, she said.
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US Interactive Marketing Spending To Reach $61 Billion By 2012
Interactive marketing spending in the US will more than triple over the next five years, reaching $61 billion by 2012, according to a Forrester Research Inc. report. Forrester expects that a maturing perspective about interactive channels coupled with technology advances will eventually lead to interactive technologies infusing all marketing efforts, and the interactive marketing organization will dissolve.
As firms continue to make customer centricity a higher priority, they will recognize that maintaining separate marketing teams to manage different sets of channels that all target the same customers makes no sense, says Forrester. Over the next five years, interactive technologies will gradually infiltrate all media — including such traditional paragons as television, billboards, and direct mail -- and the concept of a separate interactive marketing organization will disappear.
The growth in interactive marketing spending represents a 27 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years. Interactive marketing -- which currently comprises 8 percent of all ad spending -- will grow to 18 percent of total ad budgets in five years.
The Forrester forecast is based in part on a survey of 344 interactive marketing professionals and their budget decisions affecting display ads, search, email marketing, online video, and emerging media (social, mobile, and advergaming). Forrester's breakdown of spending includes the following:
- Search marketing will triple in five years. Mainstream marketers' aggressive use of search marketing will grow the category at a CAGR of 26 percent to $25 billion by 2012 due to the increasing costs of paid search, additional spending on optimization tools and services, and international expansion.
- Display advertising will reach $14 billion by 2012. Display ads will be a key factor in the interactive marketing budget by having an essential supporting role for all interactive campaigns.
- Services and integration -- not volume -- will drive email marketing growth. Spending will focus on improving email relevancy with analytics and data management, and will grow to more than $4 billion by 2012.
- Online video ads will significantly increase. Growing consumer adoption of online video will result in a dramatic 72 percent increase in online video ad spending to $7.1 billion by 2012. More customer-centric online video applications will increase the medium's appeal for consumers and marketers.
- Social media will drive emerging channels to $10 billion by 2012. Mainstream adoption will boost spending in emerging channels such as social media, mobile, game marketing, widgets, podcasts, and RSS. Spending on social media alone will grow to $6.9 billion as marketers understand how to use and measure this channel.
- Mobile marketing will grow to $2.8 billion. As consumers become increasingly tied to personal computing handsets, they'll want to extend their mobile utility to accommodate transactions. This transition will drive mobile marketing to grow to $2.8 billion by 2012.
More...
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| Don't Care For Software As A Service?
Software as a service is still an unsavory prospect for many business technology professionals. Their point of view: If information is the lifeblood of the 21st century organization, then ceding management and ultimately control of that information to third parties is something of an unnatural act. But if we're to evolve our thinking about the role of IT, software as a service can be a fertile testing ground. Which applications must IT govern directly, especially in a world where regulators lurk around every corner?
Full Article...
CRM Lapses Beginning to Cost Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart has long been the 800-pound gorilla of the retail world, able to bend suppliers to its will and use its renowned supply chain to move goods like nobody’s business. Its model was based on selling stuff at low prices, driving volume, volume and more volume. Wal-Mart has largely ignored the warmer-and-fuzzier aspects of customer relationship management — and now that indifference is starting to cost the retailer.
Full Article...
Can Web 2.0 Evolve Into an Enterprise Technology?
Forget outsourcing. The real threat to IT pros could be Web 2.0. While there's a lot of hype and hubris surrounding wikis, mashups and social networking, there's also a lot of real innovation — much of it coming from increasingly tech-savvy business staff, not the IT department.
Full Article...
Homeshoring Helps Companies Improve Customer Service
There’s increasing interest from U.S. companies in locating operations in small American towns rather than offshore locales like India. With offshore salaries on the rise, it’s an economically friendly option, since companies can save on remote management, travel and other costs. And it’s a politically friendly move, hailed by folks who want to see more jobs kept on U.S. soil. An even more cost-effective alternative for customer service positions is employing folks who work out of their own homes.
Full Article...
A CRM Value System: Five Metrics of Success
In the best definition of CRM success, five key metrics became apparent — five key values that define the critical path to success in any implementation. They are strategic alignment, user involvement and acceptance, improved process effectiveness, information sharing and visibility.
Full Article...
CRM: from Technology to Business Strategy
Customer relationship management has been a funny old ride. Back in the mid to late 90s, CRM was all about the technology. Tom Siebel was selling his salesforce automation and companies shelled out the cash in order to embrace this new customer strategy. By the end of the decade, there was a new addition to CRM and contact centers became another must-have addition to ensure that you were out there on the leading edge of customer management. And then we sat back and waited for the benefits to roll in. And waited. And then Gartner confirmed what we all feared – we could be waiting a long time.
Full Article...
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|  Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business
by Larry Weber
Weber understands that the world is going digital and that competitive advantage will accrue to those who understand the transformation. CEOs can take this transformation and learn from Weber's insights how to navigate this new landscape to fully maximize their business opportunities.
For
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| Check out the CRMindustry.com Blog!
The CRMindustry.com blog provides readers with access to the latest Customer Relationship Management (CRM) industry buzz, analyst data, and an in depth look at the tools that are shaping CRM. http://crmindustry.blogspot.com/
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