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SAP Unveils Next-Generation Customer Relationship Management Solution
SAP AG has introduced the next evolution of SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM), an important component of the SAP Business Suite. With an eye toward empowering the growing business user market, this breakthrough new product has been co-innovated with leading customers and partners, and is designed to be simple and powerful to solve real business problems.
Telrex Announces CallRex Multi-Media 3.7
Telrex, provider of the CallRex suite of IP call recording and call center optimization solutions, has announced CallRex Multi-Media Release 3.7 optimized for formal and informal call centers. CallRex Multi-Media software provides live monitoring of employees' computer screens, records screenshots, logs web activity, tracks emails sent and received, and provides comprehensive reporting on individuals and groups.
Wetpaint Launches “Just Add Wetpaint” Service to Power Online Customer Communities
Wetpaint, an enabler of consumer-friendly wiki communities, has announced the debut of Just Add Wetpaint, the company’s new turnkey service that powers online communities for enterprise brands. Beyond simple avatar-and-messaging social networks, the social computing platform offered by Wetpaint adds the best aspects of wikis, blogs, and forums, resulting in the perfect online environment for fostering deeper customer engagement and content creation activities around a company’s brand assets.
Educational Supplier Deploys IP Telephony from Swyx
Swyx, a vendor of IP telephony solutions, has been selected by The Consortium, the largest independent supplier of educational resources in the UK, to replace their outdated TDM based system. The new SwyxWare ‘pure’ IP telephony system was implemented by Swyx partner GP Telecoms. The new system will enable the company to capture all its customer calls, and reduce call waiting time during peak periods. The Consortium employs 240 staff in the UK and is headquartered in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Agentrics Selects Webmetrics to Provide Performance Monitoring for Retail Industry Collaboration Platform
Webmetrics, a provider of web performance monitoring solutions, has announced that Agentrics, a solution provider to the world’s largest retailers and their suppliers, has selected its GlobalWatch Services to provide performance monitoring for Agentrics’ on-demand Retail Information and Collaboration Solutions. Agentrics will utilize Webmetrics’ GlobalWatch Services to continually test and measure the availability and performance of its technology platform solutions, which are used to streamline collaborative supply chain processes between 50 of the world’s largest retailers and more than 80,000 of their suppliers.
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| Key Strategies For Evolving CMOs Into Strategic Business Leaders
Two-thirds of chief marketing officers (CMOs) want more involvement in business strategy development and increased profit and loss responsibility, according to a joint study conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. and Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. The survey indicated a disconnect between the career aspirations of marketing leaders and how they spend their time. When asked which competencies are the most important to their personal success, 82 percent of chief marketers identified strategic thinking as a top imperative. Other leadership-driven competencies such as people management/team development, relationship building with the senior executive team
One way CMOs can forge a business partnership with key stakeholders in the organization is by creating brands and offerings that are highly relevant to customers, therefore helping the company acquire new customers, drive stronger customer loyalty, improve retention, and enable bottom-line growth. However, according to the survey, one-quarter of CMOs are not involved in any way with customer service and support, distancing marketing from what customers are saying in the field. In addition, less than half of CMOs identified being the voice of the customer a top priority for their personal success, with even fewer identifying listening to/interacting with customers, and personal knowledge of customers as crucial to their jobs.
More...
Is Open Source CRM Ready for Prime Time?
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, according to a survey by CRM Landmark.
The net takeaway from the survey responses 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.
More...
Mobile Service Providers Are Failing to Meet the Needs of Corporate Customers
Many mobile service providers are failing to capitalize on potentially lucrative corporate contracts because they don’t focus enough on client’s business needs, according to Gartner. Service providers that don’t update their sales strategies to provide tailored solutions to businesses risk losing valuable corporate customers and becoming chiefly consumer players, analysts warned.
Many mobile service providers would argue that they already have a dedicated corporate sales force that focuses on business requirements, but Gartner has found that for the most part, providers are not fulfilling these needs. Instead, the focus is on selling SIM cards with complex, non-transparent pricing schemes and giving discounts related to total spending, rather than delivering individual, tailored services.
According to Gartner, large organizations have four main priorities when buying mobile services: managing costs, managing services, dealing with increased mobile data services and centralizing resources. Only service providers that meet these demands by addressing the contractual, commercial, services and solutions needs of large companies will retain corporate contracts in the long-term.
Managing mobile services is becoming increasingly important to businesses that require different user profiles such as ‘international traveler’ or ‘domestic high data user’. Service level agreements (SLAs) with defined key performance indicators to measure the quality of help desks etc, as well as monitoring the performance of wireless email, are also growing in significance. Device management services are becoming more widespread with over-the-air disabling of lost or stolen handsets via a Web portal a key feature for corporate customers.
Gartner recommends that service providers focus on providing large organizations with a single point of contact for contract negotiations, management and solution issues, and recommends the use of Web-based procurement portals to include handset orders, installation and online order tracking, as well as multichannel support by phone, e-mail and fax.
More...
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| Lessons From FedEx, Schwab, eBay, And Others On The Customer-Driven Web Economy
Are you plugged in to your customers? The old days of companies tightly controlling a marketing message are gone, and there's probably more you should be doing to use the Internet to connect with consumers. The interactive forces of the Internet--including social networking sites, online discussion boards, and blogs--are arming consumers with tools that can quickly and exponentially spread the word to other would-be customers if a product stinks or a company blunders.
Full Article...
Expert Advice on Taking CRM Mobile
Mobile CRM makes customers happier, because their provider has the right answers, and it makes providers happier because they can dramatically boost efficiency and effectiveness while capturing valuable customer information. In almost every case, there are positive, tangible ROI statistics once mobile technology is deployed in the field.
Full Article...
The Year in Advertising
"Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking." In the vast chamber, high ranking marketing executives, attending a conference organized by industry paper Advertising Age, shuffled nervously in their foldout chairs before a couple of stifled chuckles drifted over the room, mingling momentarily with the familiar buzz of twitching BlackBerrys. Breathe everyone, breathe. The damning words came from Robert Stephens, the charismatic founder of Geek Squad and builder of one of the growing number of brands that have been built without the help of Madison Avenue. He's done a pretty good job with marketing.
Full Article...
Customer Service, Government Style
Who's the best at customer service? This question is asked often in the business world primarily because many company philosophies are based on how well they serve and retain their customers, and how well they keep their profits flowing. Knowing who's the best and how they do it is highly sought-after information. Until recently, customer service had less priority in government - no one attempted to rank the best or learn how to best serve citizens. This isn't the case today, however. Citizen-centricity way is the new mantra, and the public sector is plowing huge investments of time, labor and taxpayer money into the issue.
Full Article...
A CRM Value System: Five Metrics of Success
When reflecting on 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...
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|  Do
It Wrong Quickly: How the Web Changes the Old Marketing Rules
by Mike Moran
For decades, marketers have been taught to carefully plan ahead
because you must get it rightit¹s too expensive to change.
But, in the age of the Web, you can know in hours whether your strategy¹s
working. Today, winners don¹t get it right the first time:
they start fast, change fast, and relentlessly optimize their way
to success. They do it wrong quickly, then fix it just as quickly.
In this book, Internet marketing pioneer Mike Moran shows you how
to do thatstep-by-step and in detail. Drawing on his experience
building ibm.com into one of the world¹s most successful sites,
Moran shows how to quickly transition from plan then execute to
a non-stop cycle of refinement.
For
more information, or to order your copy...
You can find
more industry sepcific books at our web site:
http://www.crmindustry.com/
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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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