International Data Corporation (IDC) has announced the launch of the industry’s first global tracker covering the business intelligence tools market on a semiannual basis. According to this news release on Business Wire, the Worldwide Semiannual Business Intelligence Tools Tracker covers…
When shopping for the right hosted CRM solution for your business, do you find yourself inundated with too many options? This TMCnet article explores hosted CRM options and offers tips on what to look for to ensure the one you…
B2B has often been left out of the conversation when it comes to social. As reported in this article on Destination CRM, from Starbucks to Comcast to Dell, since they were first out of the gate, examples tend to come…
Infor CRM Epiphany Data Advisor acts as an adjunct to a company’s CRM system to help cleanse customer data. As reported on Managing Automation, the standalone module is primarily a tool to automate the collection, aggregation, and cleansing of customer…
HyperQuality has recently announced the release of ClearMetrix 2.0, the company’s enhanced version of its contact center quality assurance workflow software. As noted by the company in its official news release, the software enables companies to gain unparalleled customer experience…
Salesforce.com CloudReplicate service by Jitterbit enables customers to more easily mirror their data in real time to Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud with a new service. As reported on PC World, the new CloudReplicate service dynamically updates the EC2 database schema…
The appointment of JP Rangaswami as Salesforce.com’s first chief scientist is an interesting move. As reported on ZD Net, Rangaswami is highly regarded as something of a visionary among CIOs and will be a huge asset in taking the company’s…
Yesterday CRM buying was like choosing a garden hose, but today this Forbes Blog article says it is really more like buying a car. The comparison: when you’re buying a new CRM system, just like when you’re buying a new…
Salesforce.com (CRM) has recently announced the availability of new Force.com Labs apps Chatter RSS, Milestones and SurveyForce on AppExchange 2. As mentioned in this news release on MarketWatch, these solutions are three of the latest applications to come out of…
Eloqua has announced the availability of Eloqua Discover for Salesforce.com with Salesforce Chatter integration on AppExchange 2. As noted by the company in its news release, the Salesforce Chatter integration within Eloqua Discover for Salesforce.com provides sales teams the ability…
A myriad of issues still blight CRM projects – some of which are much the same as when organizations began to implement CRM a decade or so ago. This report on MyCustomer offers experts discussion of the main obstacles to…
SAP is stepping up its security stance as its once-isolated systems become increasingly connected to the Internet, posing new risks as hackers diversify their targets. As reported on PC World, companies can set up Web-based customer portals that lead into…
Mindjet has recently announced the availability of Mindjet Deal Navigator on AppExchange 2. As noted in the company’s news release on Market Wire, Mindjet Deal Navigator gives sales teams a visual map of sales opportunities, account and contact data within…
CRM systems have a set of use cases, strengths and weaknesses. As noted in this article on CMS Wire, as a starting point for understanding the possibilities of Social CRM, one has to get past the existing uses of CRM.…
The demand for Business intelligence, service management skills and the increased use of external providers in the NHS were key drivers for IT jobs demand last month. As reported in this Network World article, there has been a steady rise…
This interesting article on Forbes likens the experience of buying a CRM system to that of making a garden hose purchase. There are too many garden hoses to choose from and, likewise, too many CRM systems. According to the story,…
The new Robert Half Salary Guides offers insight into several fields that show increases in starting salaries and growing demand among employers. Included in the top 11 are jobs for ERP technical developer, Business intelligence analyst and Data modeler. According…
There’s an old saying that people buy things because of how they think they will feel after the purchase. According to this Computer World article, it may sound ridiculous, but it drives plenty of IT purchase cycles. Unfortunately, buyer’s remorse…
Customers with legacy J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft applications have some big decisions to make about Oracle Fusion in the coming year. As reported on eWeek, many of them will be looking beyond the enterprise software giant out of feelings of…
At the User Group Conference in Manchester, SAP revealed its hybrid cloud and on-premises, mobile strategy. As noted n this report on Computing.co.uk, two or three years ago most businesses had on-premises IT. Now the conversation we have with companies…
Insurers have long used blood and urine tests to assess people’s health but data-gathering companies have such extensive files on consumers that some insurers are exploring whether data can reveal as much as a lab analysis of bodily fluids. As…
Salesforce.com’s (NYSE: CRM) Service Cloud 2 integrates social media and telephony, allowing contact centers to track key terms and pull them from Twitter conversations. Also noted in this CRM Buyer report is that the Web-based Service Cloud 2 platform also…
SAP has said it will have mobile versions of its business software ready for Research In Motion Ltd.’s new Playbook tablet computer when the device hits the market early next year. As reported in this WSJ.com report, all of SAP’s…
Having a more sophisticated approach to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is fundamental to a businesses’ sustainability. In this IT-Director.com article, Paul Elswood, MD, CDC Software UK & Ireland describes his top 10 CRM lessons which have been learned from 2010.…
Today SAS has more than 11,000 employees and operates in 100 countries on projects that range from assessing risk for banks to catching tax cheats for governments to planning routes for airlines. In this WSJ.com interview “Mr. Goodnight: We do…
For HEROes (highly empowered and resourceful operatives) busines sintelligence (BI) is a key technology. As reported on BeyeNetwork, business intelligence helps these employees make sense of the mountains of data that they have to deal with and also allows them…
Web-based customer support software provider, Zendesk, has announced a new Twitter feature for its help desk software. As mentioned in this news release on Market Wire, Zendesk for Twitter now allows customer support agents to navigate Twitter posts from within…
As business analytics and predictive analytics become indispensable to business strategy and execution the industry is experiencing a rippling through entire organizations from supply chains to merchandising to sales and more. As reported in this article on Information Week, this…
Financial service firms are embracing new customer-facing tools. According to this report on TechTarget, the financial services industry has moved into online banking and web forms for submitting applications, to taking a cautious look at social CRM channels, like blogs…
When purchasing ERP software there are a number of critical decisions to make. As pointed out in this article on Network World, companies must consider the differences in vendors’ features and functionalities, support and license costs, TCO and ROI estimates,…
While the promise of social CRM (SCRM) is well known, this CRM Buyer article suggests that what is lacking in the industry is the courage to take the first step. Holding organizations back is its need for SCRM best practices.…
For those with an interest in the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform industry, the independent community DynamicsExchange.com says it is offering a definitive “What’s New in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011” website. As mentioned in this release on PR.com, Microsoft CRM Certified…
Investing in a new or first-time CRM system is an expensive and complex purchase for an organization. Due to high costs of purchase, it is important to choose the right CRM software. This TMCnet article offers 8 tips to help…
Integrated media intelligence solution provider VMS was recently selected by the Boston Celtics to provide media monitoring and analytics services. According to this Market Watch news release, the Celtics are one of many professional sports franchises that use VMS’s platform…
Sage North America has announced a new version of its MAS 200 ERP (enterprise resource planning) application, offering expanded support for Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) SQL Server database in the upgrade. As reported on CRN, many of Sage’s products are acquisitions and…
Start-up Gravity has announced new and ambitious advertising concepts at this week’s Web 2.0 Summit. According to this report on CNet, the foundation of the company’s pitch is quite simple: CEO Amit Kapur says Gravity knows what you like and…
Today, under new co-CEOs, SAP innovation is back and frustrated customers are now excited and delighted. As reported in this Information Week story, SAP this year has totally recast how it creates products, why it creates products, how it engages…
Sungevity, a solar energy firm involved in designing residential solar energy systems in three states wondered about all the valuable free data Microsoft and Google float out on the Internet. According to this USA Today article, using modern business intelligence,…
As first-generation CRM systems near end of life, Microsoft is offering replacement systems that have been the beneficiaries of significant investment over the last several years. According to this report on CRM Buyer, when you add to that its stance…
If you can’t find an organizational goal that social CRM will support, then you may need to think long and hard about whether it makes sense to embark on the process of getting social CRM up and running at your…
Nutshell CRM recently launched to a crowd of 500 plus gathered in New York City for the Future of Web Design conference. As noted in this Nutshell news release on PR Web, Nutshell provides powerful sales process management tools, powered…
Jos van Dongen, an associate and principal at business intelligence (BI) consultancy DeltIQ Group recommends that businesses should not deploy open source software for data mining just because it is generally cheaper. Also noted in this Computer World UK report…
Business Intelligence (BI) solution provider, Panorama Software, has announced support of the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse through its flagship business intelligence solution, Panorama NovaView. According to the company in this recent news release, the solution allows…
Most companies collect huge amounts of data from its business operations. To keep track of that information requires a wide range of software programs and different database applications for various departments (e.g. sales, finance, supply) throughout the organization to access…
Kenya is taking on India in bid to be considered the call center capital. As reported in this CNN Marketplace Africa, Kenya’s first call center, is part of a growing business that is challenging Asia’s long-held dominance of the international…
Paul Greenberg has offered up the initial CRM 2011 Watchlist Preseason list in this ZDNet blog. The goal is to see who will make the team after final nominations are in. “There are three categories this year. First – and…
There are a number of revolutionary and vital applications on the market. According to this Globe and Mail story, all of them promise to make your life easier, but each one is unique. Just like your business. The sheer quantity…
Navigators Software Pvt. Ltd. has launched Engage CRM, its flagship web-based CRM product. As reported in this news release on Add PR, Engage CRM blends CRM capabilities with social networking and Web2.0 technologies , allowing users to interact with each…
Salesforce.com (CRM) was open for business before the first dot-com crash and survived. According to this Forbes report, this customer relationship management software outfit continued on much like a start-up, its revenues growing rapidly but profits—not so much. “Mark Benioff,…
Performance metrics can be used to manage the call center, drive sales, improve efficiencies and increase overall customer satisfaction. As noted in this TMCnet report, a sampling of common measurements include: first call resolution (FCR); customer satisfaction (CSat); agent utilization…