Recent Articles

1. Does SFA improve sales performance?

   Explore Article Editor's Picks (Aug 26 2010)

   Most SFA solutions do pretty much the same thing. They manage contacts, accounts and pipelines. And give nice looking reports to sales managers. But automating these basic processes is not a source of competitive advantage. However, the lack of these tools may be a disadvantage. Said another way, you need SFA to keep up with everyone else using SFA, but you can't get ahead. So where is the real leverage in improving sales performance? Here's what I learned in my research study a couple of years ago. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   RightNow   Salesforce.com   Microsoft

2. Agencies stay watchful amid social-media fervor

   Explore Article fiercegovernmentit.com (Sep 1 2010) CRM

   Hyper-vigilance on the inside and the outside seems to continue as the watchword for government attitudes toward social media. For example, should you happen to say anything about the Food and Drug Administration in a social media context, the agency wants to know about it. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article

3. All Hail the Late Adapters

   Explore Article CRM Outsiders (Sep 1 2010)

   Which is the greater challenge, and why: “adopting to the technology or adapting to the technology?” It is possible that this is an unfair question. The second use of the word "technology" could be "customer," "culture," "communication." My sense is that people like to focus on one, or the other, while they should be looking at both. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article

4. Six Benchmarks To Help Scope Your CRM Project

   View all 2 articles » Explore Article Editor's Picks (Sep 1 2010) CRM

   Every year, I get hundreds of inquiries about CRM business process project strategy and technology selection: “How many solutions should we look at? What criteria should we use to evaluate the vendors? How much do the solutions cost? Who should lead the implementation project? How long will it take to deploy the solution? How likely are we to achieve the business results we are targeting? What pitfalls do we have to watch out for?” I just published a report based on a survey of 99 companies that provides answers to many of these questions. Here are some of the highlights: (Read Full Article)
   

   Top Twelve Evaluation Criteria For CRM Professional Services Selection - Editor's Picks  
   

   Comment on Article

5. Cloud disruption gains momentum driven by lower costs and greater simplicity

   Explore Article Editor's Picks (Aug 31 2010)

   The Cloud is the biggest disruptive force to hit the IT industry for the last 20 years; and by the way that's why it's not "the same" as using AMS as an online service bureau 20 years ago although for some bizarre reason people feel compelled to say that the Cloud is "nothing new". There are a whole lot of astounding things about the technology which is making Cloud such a force, but the reasons people are buying, and will do so in increasing numbers, can be boiled down to two basics. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article

6. Social Servicing – A First Step to Social CRM

   Explore Article Editor's Picks (Aug 31 2010) CRM

   Although I’m certainly not an expert in SCRM, I’ve been working over the past few months with several companies that I would say are building the foundation for what their companies’ SCRM may look like in the future. These Fortune 500 brands are not fully focused just yet on SCRM, or even totally understand the implications of social media on their traditional CRM systems. However, what they are doing is what I classify as “Social Servicing” – an important first step in understanding and addressing the needs of customers online and figuring out how to measure those efforts. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article

7. Shortcuts to Your CRM Shortlist

   Explore Article (Aug 31 2010)

   In order to select the CRM software that’s best for your organization, companies have to enter into a process that is far different from the typical IT purchase procedure. CRM affects all aspects of the business, and thus a thorough understanding of sales, marketing and service processes is needed in order to narrow the field down to a final set of vendors. Organizations must understand not only the products and vendors available to them but the way their own business works. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article Mentions:   Graham Hill

8. Social CRM as the excuse to avoid the hard stuff.

   Explore Article blogs.gartner.com (Aug 31 2010)

   Right now the customer service rep is suffering from a lack of good tools in hand to sound and act more informed and more empowered. Trust me: they don’t enjoy knowing less than the customer. Their esteem drops when the customer has broader access to information than do they. They are frustrated that the right information is not at their fingertips, or that they do not have the authority to take/make a decision. (Read Full Article)
   

   Comment on Article

9. What Does a Social CRM Process Look Like?

   View all 2 articles » Explore Article cmswire.com (Aug 31 2010) CRM

   One of the things we haven’t really been able to see is what a SCRM process or flow of information could look like. I’m not going to argue the definition of Social CRM but I’d like to get into more detail in terms of what I think the process actually needs to look like. A little while ago Chess Media Group, in collaboration with Mitch Lieberman, developed the following image which I believe is a great starting point for visualizing Social CRM within an organization — a sort of Social CRM “map” if you will. (Read Full Article)
   

   Business Problems that Social CRM Helps Organizations Solve - Editor's Picks  
   

   Comment on Article

10. Influence This: 10 Loathsome Technology Industry Types

    Explore Article CIO - Blogs and Discussion (Aug 30 2010)

    It's despicable to stereotype people. I know. But the technology industry offers (or suffers from, depending on your view point) so many fascinating caricatures of people trying to act like everyone else, who are trying to act like everyone else, that it's difficult for me to not highlight the insanity. Plus, I just got back from my vacation, and I'm a tad grumpy. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article Mentions:   IBM

11. How CEOs Will Use Social Media in the Future

    Explore Article mashable.com (Aug 30 2010) CRM

    Today’s CEO is not social. So says Forrester Research’s CEO George Colony. Very few of the CEOs at top companies in the U.S. and the rest of the world have any material presence on the popular social media sites. Colony believes they should be social though, and all signs are pointing to a future filed with CEOs who can speak the language of the people — social media. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article

12. Social Crm - another crock?

    Explore Article zdnet.com (Aug 30 2010) CRM

    As far as I am concerned SCRM expressed in terms of crowdsourcing is yet another case of a bloviating crowd of vested interests yelling as loud as they can in the Twitter circle jerk. Desperately seeking attention for something that is far removed from reality while tenuously linking to things already done rather than things in the future. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article

13. Influence This: The Life Sciences CRM Challenge

    Explore Article Innoveer's CRM Insights (Aug 30 2010)

    Pharmaceutical executives in the Americas cite their industry’s changing business model (for 35% of them), pipeline growth (24%), as well as the impact of impending regulatory reform (16%) and generic competition (16%). Those results come from a recent survey of 211 pharmaceutical executives conducted by Cegedim Dendrite and analyzed by GreyHome Marketing and Research Consulting. Interestingly, the survey also found that when it comes to selecting CRM software to help increase sales in a rapidly changing environment, experience—versus price, customer service or technological flexibility—trumps all other factors. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article

14. Social CRM? Or more disconnected workstreams?

    Explore Article blogs.gartner.com (Aug 28 2010)

    I happen to know that Marketing and the “Web Channel” executives “OWN” Social Media at this company – it is NOT a joint venture with the retail stores. I also know that they have a frosty, ‘hands-off’ relationship with one another – “Store” and “Web.” There are historical, political, and savvy internal reasons for this. For example, all web sales go to the “Web” sales organization, but the cost of all “Returns” from the website fall to the local store where the return is made. (Read Full Article)
    

    Comment on Article

15. The Social Work of Social CRM

    View all 2 articles » Explore Article destinationCRM.com (Aug 29 2010) CRM

    With the rise of product and service communities, ratings and review sites, and you name it social forums, it's time to offer personalized interactions with customers no matter their preferred communication channel. Mix in mobile devices and now there are a remarkable number of channels to manage, more interaction data, and increasingly sky-high expectations from customers who are conditioned to want their information and answers in real-time. (Read Full Article)
    

    Text “WhoCares?” to 66863 - Editor's Picks  
    

    Comment on Article

16. See all articles >>