Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) might has been clearly demonstrated recently, with its Google+ social network closing in on 20 million users sharing more than a billion items a day in the first few weeks of operation. The fact that the service…
Our first two CRM buying guides covered the enterprise CRM and midrange CRM markets. This article will focus on the small business customer relationship management (CRM) market. Note that it ignores companies like Microsoft, SAP and Oracle, who increasingly serve…
Our Enterprise CRM Buyer’s Guide covered Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft, RightNow, Pegasystems and Sword Ciboodle. While many of those vendors also play in the midmarket and small business CRM markets, they won’t be included in this midmarket CRM guide…
ERP systems were once used almost exclusively by large companies. In recent years, though, an increasing number of ERP solutions for smaller businesses (SMBs) have entered the market. Some are sold by vendors that primarily serve SMBs, although software giants…
A few months back, Enterprise Apps Today published an Enterprise ERP Buyer’s Guide. That first ERP buyer’s guide focused on market giants SAP (NYSE: SAP), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Now it’s time to visit the ERP software…
Business intelligence (BI) remains one of the hottest enterprise technologies, but finding a BI solution that fits dependably into your organization remains a challenge for enterprise IT buyers. Boris Evelson, a business intelligence analyst at Forrester Research, notes that business…
Gartner Business Intelligence Summit 2011, held in Los Angeles earlier this week, attracted a record crowd of more than 1,000, showing that business intelligence remains one of the hottest enterprise software markets. Gartner analyst Bill Hostmann discussed how the business…
Social CRM was by far the most dominant topic at the Gartner 360 CRM Conference in Los Angeles this week. Gartner analyst Gene Alvarez said customer relationship management (CRM) is at a crossroads, and social CRM is the way forward.…
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a hot software market, according to Gartner. Global CRM spending hit $23.2 billion in 2014, up 13.3 percent from $20.4 billion in 2013. Mobile CRM apps, which connect systems to many more users, account for…
Customer relationship management (CRM) Guru Paul Greenberg said in a recent webinar that traditional CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a system and a technology, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment. Social CRM,…
There is so much buzz about social CRM these days. Companies like Intuit, Procter & Gamble and Citigroup have embraced it in a big way. Gartner is now devoting magic quadrants to it and a slew of companies have raced…
Mobile business intelligence is getting a lot of ink these days. Yet according to Forrester Research, that coverage has far outweighed its importance in the grand scheme of things — for now. Boris Evelson, a business intelligence (BI) analyst at…
Last month, Enterprise Apps Today wrote an article on the top ERP trends. As it turns out, there’s a lot more going on in this vibrant $20 billion market than could be squeezed into one article. So here are 10…
The enterprise resource planning (ERP) market for large enterprises these days is dominated by three companies — SAP (NYSE: SAP), Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Their rivals have either been acquired, gone by the boards, or settled into…
A decade ago, enterprise resource planning (ERP) was the panacea for all enterprise ills (remember Y2K?). There were even several magazines devoted to the subject. But they all went away in the 2000-2002 tech downturn as the ERP hype died…
Open source business intelligence has been gaining momentum in recent years, so much so that it is even showing up in Gartner Magic Quadrants and Forrester Waves. “Adoption of open source platforms will grow faster than adoption of commercial platforms,”…
Tablets have been hyped for a decade without much buy in from the user community — until the iPad came along. Recent IT conferences have featured a growing number of techies tricked out with Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) new toy, most…
Over the last decade, many companies have invested in business intelligence (BI) software to help them gain a better understanding of key business and sales metrics, and to predict future performance. The sector continues to grow as companies are eager…
Pella is a manufacturer and distributor of windows and doors. It runs a lean manufacturing operation, keeping little inventory in house, so it’s important for the company to keep its finger on the pulse of demand so the supply chain…
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) gave a lot of air time to its new Fusion application platform at last month’s Oracle Open World Conference in San Francisco. CEO Larry Ellison said Fusion was five years in the making, as it had to…
Which business intelligence (BI) product is right for you? Info-Tech Research analyst Gareth Doherty cautions users that the BI field has so many tools and sub-categories that evaluation can be confusing. This buyer’s guide to enterprise business intelligence, therefore, takes…
The business intelligence (BI) market has changed dramatically in recent years, as mergers, the cloud and the rise of open source and lower-cost alternatives have shaken up the landscape (see Business Intelligence Vendors Wrestle with Mergers, the Cloud and Open…
Open source CRM software projects are growing in number, but analysts question whether they’ll meet with widespread acceptance by enterprises. Rachel Flewelling of Info-Tech Research Group said flatly, “Our clients just aren’t interested in open source CRM, so we don’t…
When it comes to customer relationship management (CRM) software and services, there are a lot of choices out there. But which one is right for you? We’ll look at a handful of enterprise CRM vendors — Oracle, Salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft,…
Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) has been a dominant force in the sales force automation and CRM markets, thanks to the company’s early embrace of the cloud. Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) hopes to halt that momentum. At this week’s Oracle OpenWorld conference in…
Back in the old days, customer relationship management (CRM) was a simple affair: It consisted of a receptacle for customer information, a means of accessing it easily, a way to track activity on specific clients, and a few reports. While…
The business intelligence (BI) market has been expanding at a rapid clip — 20 percent a year for much of the last decade. But the rate of growth slowed last year and may remain subdued for some time. According to…
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants Internet users to be able to opt out of behavioral tracking across the Web, which some say could hurt online marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) efforts. The FTC will soon propose voluntary measures…
Recent Harris Interactive surveys reveal that most customers still do not trust companies to handle their personal information responsibly. Reflecting consumer mistrust, several governmental regulations have emerged to legislate security and build consumer trust. The laws are complex, demanding stiff…
The facts of life regarding Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are both shocking and remarkable. On the plus side, the technology’s popularity is obvious — from annual revenues of about $2 billion in 1999, CRM vendors are expected to rake in…