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  • Supply chain management in Australia - Part 3

    As if data quality and stockouts weren’t enough of a day-today worry for CIOs, added pressure to serve demanding online customers and keep up with changing legislation are creating new challenges. With several retail giants lumbering online and the looming introduction of the government’s new carbon tax, CIOs need to be working with procurement, financial and other business leaders to ensure supply-chain systems are up to today’s new challenges.

    Written by David Braue • 21 Sept. 11 07:00

  • Is the future of CRM in the Cloud? - Part 1

    It is just on 10 years since Salesforce.com unveiled the first preview of its customisable online customer relationship management (CRM) software at the annual DEMO conference in California. DEMO had previously been the launch platform for ground-breaking technology such as Netscape Navigator, Sun’s Java and Adobe Acrobat, but attendees in February 2001 would have had little idea that they were witnessing something that would turn the world of customer management software — and enterprise software generally — on its head.

    Written by Brad Howarth • 18 April 11 11:22

  • Apocalypse: 52 percent of CIOs plan to blow up IT groups

    The saying goes something like this: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The statement is, of course, embraced as dogma by those fearful of change and by automobile owners praying for a reasonable bill of charge while waiting at the mechanic's garage.

    Written by Thomas Wailgum • 24 July 10 09:00

  • Mobile technologies ring in change

    When it comes to getting closer to your customers, Ryan Klose says nothing beats mobile technology. As chief information officer for Australia at the global wine and spirits group, Pernod Ricard, Klose is getting applications for Blackberries and iPhones into the hands of sales representatives, major customers, winemakers and consumers. And it seems to be working.

    Written by Brad Howarth • 17 June 10 09:18

  • Advice for Evaluating CRM Cloud Platforms

    A day doesn't go by without headlines about cloud computing, virtualization, and the next computing platform. No doubt these computing models are important, but when it comes to CRM - what's important about cloud computing? And how should platforms be evaluated for CRM applications?

    Written by David Taber • 04 May 10 02:07

  • Why Salesforce.com Chatter Matters

    CRM systems have large and intricate databases that describe customer interaction, and most of the effort goes into recording and managing the ongoing conversation between your firm and the customer. CRM systems have information about prospects, customers, e-mail/phone conversations, sales opportunities, and post-sale support. But look inside most CRM systems, and there's very little information about collaboration among your employees: just basic profile identification information and a dozen settings. In most CRM systems, it's difficult to see the totality of a user's activities: the system's focus is on the customer and the development of a deal, not about the conversations happening between users and their attempts to leverage information across your company.

    Written by David Taber • 16 April 10 04:34

  • CRM's Identity Crisis: Duplicate Contacts

    At the core of customer relationship management is "who am I talking with?" In a simple SFA or CRM system, it's obvious: you called them, or they called you. But in enterprise CRM, it's tricky to identify exactly whom the interaction is with, and every new data source seems to make it harder. The problem occurs at two levels: contact information blur from multiple databases, and avatar confusion from multiple entry points into your company's web and social networking sites. This week, we'll cover the top layer of the problem.

    Written by David Taber • 11 March 10 06:30

  • When Your CRM System Passes 1 Million Records

    There isn't a sales force in the world that says it has enough Leads. And you won't find many marketing VPs who want to do fewer campaigns. So there's a never-ending stream of new leads, prospect interactions, and conversations to be stored in the CRM system. At companies in consumer markets, open source software, and other categories it's not unusual to find a million leads or more. But that's just the beginning: if you're using the latest marketing automation system, every e-mail, web download, and prospect response is recorded in the CRM system. And if you have a large call center, every call and e-mail exchange should be recorded well.

    Written by David Taber • 04 March 10 08:18

  • CRM tips: The trouble with activity management

    CRM systems are almost always used for lead, contact and deal management. Sales and marketing put data into the system so that pipeline formation and deal flow can be seen and worked in a systematic way. Many companies also use CRM for customer service, which uses calls and cases as the core workflow. Once your company gets a decent proportion of the customer interactions in the system, you can easily produce reports and dashboards that allow management to see more about the business, spotting bottlenecks or other problems in your operation. Consequently, most companies use data from the CRM system to set standard performance levels for the sales, marketing, and customer service organisations, measuring them against quotas by month or quarter.

    Written by David Taber • 16 Feb. 10 08:11

  • CRM Tips: Delete the Delete Privilege

    CRM systems are designed to be user friendly, not imposing undue security in the interest of usability and fast adoption. CRM users are business people who aren't likely to put up with sound arguments about the need for data hygiene. After a few months of disappearing data and incomplete reports, they're more likely to listen...but not at the beginning.

    Written by David Taber • 16 Feb. 10 05:55
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    CRM Deployment: Users Can't Set Timetable

    With most enterprise applications, the executive champions and the user community are typically measured and have manageable expectations. Think accounting. With CRM, it isn't necessarily so.

    Written by David Taber • 25 Jan. 10 06:52

  • CRM Team Staffing - Inside or Out?

    In the good old days of CRM, the software ran on your servers and needed heavy customization to really work with the rest of your business. The staffing decisions were pretty straightforward: There might be implementation consultants, but the system needed an ongoing team of your own staff. In one of these classic on-premise implementations I came across just last year, the CRM "permanent staff" was 1 development/operational person for every 100 users.

    Written by David Taber • 13 Jan. 10 06:48

  • Touchy-Feely CRM: How to Get More Customer-Driven Data

    Almost all CRM systems are full of data that's been populated by your company's people. Sure, the notes and updates are about the customer relationship, but it's put in from your perspective and for your reasons, not the customer's. In many cases, the only information that has actually been put in the CRM system by the customer themselves is their name, e-mail address, and phone number.

    Written by David Taber • 12 Jan. 10 07:34
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    Four Dirty Little Secrets of CRM Requirements Lists

    In an ERP System, the core functionality has been well defined since the 90's. Some companies might need a different distribution module or a fancier scheduler algorithm, but MRP is pretty much MRP. An accounting system? You'd better not have a lot of creative requirements.

    Written by David Taber • 08 Dec. 09 06:22

  • CRM: When Should Customer Service Run the Show?

    CRM systems tend to have a wider user base across enterprise organizations than most other software applications do. Industry analyst surveys indicate that over 60 percent of CRM systems are used by sales teams, about 40 percent used by marketing, and about a third of the systems are used by customer support. Despite this wide range of users, my guess is that the real driver or "owner" of the CRM system is even more strongly biased towards the Sales VP.

    Written by David Taber • 27 Nov. 09 06:46

  • Bad Metrics Can Doom Your CRM Project

    With the scope and amount of data in modern CRM systems, it's easy to ask for reports and get nice-looking dashboards, and get them in short order. Unfortunately, you could ask for lots of meaningless data on these dashboards, and subordinates aren't likely to say no to your requests. How do you avoid the trap of reports that practically beg the users to game the system?

    Written by David Taber • 17 Nov. 09 05:56

  • CRM: How Marriott Broke Down Customer Data Siloes

    Make every interaction meaningful: It's the Marriott philosophy. This is not an easy task given the multitude of Marriott brands and the plethora of campaign management tools used to contact customers. By partnering with brand leaders and marketing leaders, Marriott's IT department built a unified framework for engaging with customers.

    Written by Rick Swanborg • 16 Nov. 09 09:14
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    CRM Tips: The Fixed Price is Not Right

    Imagine a CRM consulting project with inadequately specified requirements, no clear internal project manager, and ill-defined success criteria. Your consultant bids it on a time and materials (T&M) basis. You're in a rush, no time for a detailed RFP - you know the consultant can do the job, but you need a budgetary number to get approval. We've all been through this drill: somebody brilliant suggests that this has to be fixed price, it'll be easier to get project approval and manage to conclusion that way. You know, just like it would be when buying servers.

    Written by David Taber • 03 Nov. 09 08:33

  • Publishing 2.0

    Social networks, e-readers and other technologies are transforming the publishing industry and heralding a new era of reading and learning.

    Written by Brad Howarth • 24 Sept. 09 06:37

  • How to use Salesforce.com for non-revenue purposes

    As a "horizontal application," Salesforce.com can be used for SFA and CRM across a wide range of companies and use cases. It's also a platform for building business applications in vertical industries such as financial services or real estate. Almost all these classic CRM applications involve customer acquisition, service, and relationship management-all related to revenue.

    Written by David Taber • 25 July 09 01:40
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