MindTouch Partners to Bring Collaboration to CRM

We know MindTouch for their open-source social enterprise collaboration platform Kilen Woods -- the latest release just coming out late July. Now, they have come out with a new solution Deki for CRM, partnering with SnapLogic, a SaaS integration company. MindTouch claims their new offering eases some of the issues related to using CRM applications by bringing better collaboration and additional intelligence.

CRM Solutions are Great, But....

According to MindTouch, Salesforce.com and SugarCRM are great, but these CRM applications have a few limitations that they believe their solution helps overcome:* Information Silos: CRM solutions are only piece of a bigger puzzle required for managing a sales cycle* Context Switching: CRM solutions don't track information critical to the selling process like website information, blogs and product announcements* Lack of Collaboration: Very little collaboration capabilities for teams to do research and strategizing on accounts

Deki for CRM

Enter Deki for CRM, a solution that provides all this additional information and functionality to your existing CRM application -- SugarCRM or Salesforce.com -- in an integrated approach.What exactly are you getting from Deki for CRM?

Sales and Marketing Dashboards

Sales and Marketing professionals are given a customizable dashboard of dynamic reports. They don't have to leave their CRM app to see this dashboard -- it's integrated. The dashboard offers widgets that pull data and content from a number of back-end applications and online Web Services.

Collaborative Dashboard
The dashboard makes it easy to create and collaborate on new reports and mashups, pulling information from both their CRM app and other services without having to be a developer genius.

Team Collaboration

Along with a reporting dashboard, the Deki for CRM solution also provides a wiki-based collaborative interface.

Deki Editor
The wiki interface is built using SnapLogic data pipelines into CRM applications and other applications such as external financial systems, product databases and order processing systems.

Online Intelligence

How Does Deki for CRM Work?

Deki for CRM is a solution developed by MindTouch and SnapLogic. MindTouch uses its Deki Enterprise Server offering all the dashboard and wiki collaboration functionality required. Deki Enterprise enables information to be shared in a wiki environment through mashups created from various enterprise applications and other web services. Deki Enterprise has been preconfigured to read data directly from SnapLogic, rendering the information in the CRM.SnapLogic brings their open source data integration framework and Solution Packs for SugarCRM and Salesforce.com. With the help of SnagLogic, organizations can connect applications inside and outside the firewall creating rich internet applications and enterprise mashups without the need for programming or advanced design knowledge. The SnapLogic pipelines have also been preconfigured to integrate data from database tables and provide that data to MindTouch Deki.

Try it Out Before You Buy It

According to Chris Marino, CEO of SnapLogic, "This powerful combination of MindTouch and SnapLogic gives users a more complete, up-to-the-minute view of customer data, product data, order status, and more. SugarCRM and Salesforce.com customers can rapidly and easily put Deki for CRM to work addressing real-world business challenges.”MindTouch and SnapLogic are offering a free 15-day trial of the Deki for CRM via a fully functional VMware appliance. It's a good way to give the solution a run for it's money. Once you decide to go all the way and purchase it, pricing starts at US$ 15,000 -- available on MindTouch only.Curious to know what Salesforce and SugarCRM think of this offering.