Crm News & Articles

In the age of social and mobile customers, all paths lead back to your website.

Nimble, the CRM app that brings together collaboration, contacts, communication and social networking into one interface, has released version 2.0. The update introduces a cleaner interface, and a host of features that make it easier to manage contacts and engage with one's network.

 We all know about the importance of the customer experience, but because there's no magic formula for what works and what doesn’t, it’s often challenging to know how your company’s efforts stack up against the competition. Until now. Forrester recently announced the results of their 2012 Customer Experience Index.

CRM is nothing really unless it can adapt to business users’ changing marketplace. Microsoft, since the release of Dynamics CRM online last year, committed itself to providing agile CRM and preparing companies for the release by flagging changes 90 days in advance. It has now flagged that it is making Dynamics CRM mobile.

Sage N. America's top ERP partner, Laguna Hills, CA based Blytheco LLC, announced this week it has has partnered with SugarCRM, "...delivering to its clients the ability to effectively boost sales and retain customers, while saving money," the company said.

Customer Experience Management (CXM) is important to all businesses, there is no argument there. But what seems to be a common misconception is that CXM comes from a software product you install and that with the click of a button and a short download you can provide the ultimate customer experience.

 After a short delay, Oracle has completed its deal to acquire RightNow, a cloud-based provider of call center automation, sales force automation and customer relationship management solutions.

You can’t swing a cat these days without hitting something with the prefix “social” stuck to it – especially if you’re at work when you’re swinging it. Which, I believe, would be an HR violation in most companies.

But I digress.

For the last few months, we’ve been talking about big data. From social media to customer experience to cloud storage, the enterprise is struggling to manage and leverage copious amounts of data. The real issue for big data isn’t just where to put it all, but rather how to gain access to it when you need it.

The future enterprise is one where the systems we use will provide the features we need when we need them rather than a complex, convoluted dashboard that stuffs every option into one viewable area. In this future enterprise, end users will focus less on how to use the technology and more on getting actual work done.

2011 was dominated by the trend of convergence; more than one WCM platform began the transition from digital content management tool to customer engagement and marketing platform by improving the analytic and personalization capabilities of its offerings. These efforts are a step in the right direction. Content will forever be the “meat” in the marketing sandwich, so building out from this center only makes good sense. However, even this new breed of Web CMSs have a long way to go before they singularly provide the tools and functionality that savvy, enterprise-scale marketing and IT teams are demanding right now. To meet those needs, the biggest trend of 2012 is likely to be the emergence of digital marketing platforms via the integration of existing enterprise software tools.

Multichannel marketing in practice is hard and will become even more challenging to create delightful customer experiences across channels with a single brand identity without the right strategy and tools. While customers usually accept different levels of interaction across a growing number of channels and devices, they expect the overall experience to be one and the same. In a recent article, Deloitte pointed out that “Multi-channel customers are increasingly the most sophisticated, demanding and time-starved customers; they’re also among the most valuable… who often spend three-to-four times more on retail purchases than their single-channel counterparts.” So it is clear the hard work to attract and engage multichannel customers is well worth it, when done right.

Rapidly expanding customer relationship management company SugarCRM announced integrations with IBM, including support for IBM DB2 database software and a move to IBM SmartCloud Enterprise.

As social business vendors grow, especially those who provide solution suites, there is a greater need for professional service consultants/analysts to undergo rigid vetting appraisals and skill certification testing similar to military training courses. It’s one thing to be dedicated to social engagement and quite another to be both committed to improving the business bottom line and the overall experience for the customers and having the skill to do so.

Now that the holidays and the 4Q rush to close business is behind us, it is a good time for sales executives to think about their team’s performance and how it can be improved. Of course, the big buzz in 2011 was around the emergence of social business, so now might be the time to explore if social technology can help your sales processes.