CRM

CRM = Customer's (don't) Really Matter

2011-02-17T22:27:00.001-08:00

CRM was supposed to bring companies closer to their clients. The basic idea was to; find out what a client wants and needs, give it to them, and get them to be your client for life.

But as with all good technology, it hasn't actually brought the sales teams, marketing departments, R&D, or customer service departments any closer to the customer at all! Technology is a poor subsitute for the human voice and social interaction.

I really feel sorry for the companies that struggled with the software, spent hundreds of man hours on design and implementation plans, dumped thousands and thousands of dollars into consulting sessions, developed training manuals and trained the trainers, held the meetings and issued management memos only to find that the problem of customer loyalty was the same if not worse.

They had the right idea but they were listening to those lame marketing gurus again! The same guys who have been promoting direct mail postcards as the best choice for farming prospects at a whopping 1-3% response rate!! (Whopee! Where do I sign up?) Seeing technology as a cure all for customer service is a grave mistake.

First, there is a serious problem with the oxymoron Client Relationship Management. Intimate loving families and friends can't manage their relationships, hence a 50% divorce! How in the heck is a company that sees its clients only a few hours each year going to manage the relationship?

At best, you can sustain, grow, and cultivate the relationship. At worst, you will lose it due to changes in the client's circumstances or aging, competition, economic and political factors, changing markets or (heaven forbid) your own terrible customer service and shoddy workmanship. But you will never be able to manage your clients. As a matter of fact... it is the client who manages you. They tell you what products they want, and what your product is worth, how they want it delivered, and like green french fries and the Edsel, whether they want it at all!

Companies that have to fight for their customers usually have internal problems. I heard that the CEO of a major insurance company said, " We stopped advertising once, we lost 50% of our business that year." This is a company that has trouble with client retention!

Retaining customers should never be a major struggle, and if it is, you are doing something wrong. It usually stems from not understanding the customer. Going to a computer program to improve customer relations, or find out what the customer is thinking is, quite frankly, nuts.

Let me give you an example from my own shopping habits. There are 4 major supermarkets within a 5 mile radius of my house. One has great produce prices, the others don't. I usually shop at that market for produce only, because their other prices are too high. I have a membership card with that store. Do they know why I only shop for produce at their store? NO! Will my shopping habits change if their prices change? Yes. Do they know that? No. Can they get that information from my membership card? No. Can they get it if the guy at checkout asks me? You bet! As a matter of fact I have volunteered the information. I have told checkers in passing on several occassions I think their produce prices are the best in town...do you think that information got to the store manager? Probably not!
Am I going to seek out the manager to tell him? Probably not!
But if I do, is he going to go in the office and make note of my comment somewhere so he can serve me better? No way!

Now,do you think the other stores know why I don't buy their produce? They have no clue, even though I have a membership card with them as well, they have no idea why I never buy their produce.

In-house customer surveys and focus groups and even "Hi, how ya doin?" conversations put the client and the company on the same side of the table, working together as partners to develop better products, services, and processes, and to cement relationships.

Here's another example of CRM failings, current gas prices are driving down SUV sales. Can CRM software tell you that gas prices are going to hit an all time high in summer? Can CRM software tell you that your competition is coming out with a hybrid that will save produce 50% higher MPG. Can CRM software tell you that your customer was in an accident that will make getting into an SUV painful and difficult, and that for the next few years he is going to buy sedans? No...but a single follow-up phone call by the salesman will tell you everything you need to know if you ask the right questions.

Building layers of insulation between the company and the client; software programs, autoresponders, marketers, voice mail systems, web sites, and self serve check outs are the death of communication between a business and its clients. Most people won't try to navigate the maze to tell you they are dissatified, they will just leave...and you'll never know why because they won't leave a message on your voice mail or tape a note to the self serve register.

But if you see frustration on a clients face, you can act immediately to turn a problem into a success. Some of the most loyal customers come from a bad situation turned surprisingly good. Case in point, At a fast food restaurant near my office I was carrying the tray to my table loaded with food for 4, all adults from my workplace. Another customer turned suddenly in front of me and all the food was on the floor. Frys and drinks everywhere. The manager immediately came over, dropping what he was doing during the busy rush hour, asked for my receipt, told me not to worry about it, to go sit down, he remade the order and had it delivered to my table within 5 minutes. For months afterward we ate there everyday, partly out of a sense of obligation, partly because we now trusted this restaurant and liked the manager, and we often brought other co-workers with us or brought back food for those to busy to leave for lunch. The restaurant certainly got its money worth on that $20.00 investment. And if we had had to replace that meal ourselves it would have had a totally different outcome. CRM cannot be credited with the success of the managers handling of this problem.

Hire a customer service team made up of people who love people, are excellent listeners, and who genuinely enjoy their job! Hire a customer service team of problem solvers, people who enjoy the challenge of creatively solving problems for people, pay them what they are worth! Train them to pass on all information from the customer to management immediately. Then train management to act on that information immediately. A free service call or product is a small price for retaining customers and gaining referrals, and costs much less than CRM systems. There is no better client relationship than the one that is face to face, person to person. Your customer service employees are the front line. They are your company image, they represent your company much more than your logos or ads. It's a lot cheaper to pay your customer service people a living wage and use them to get the information you need, than to squander thousands of dollars and man hours on CRM software that cannot.

How CRM Can Build and Maintain Customer Loyalty

2011-02-17T22:26:00.006-08:00

Is your business's shop floor taking full advantage of a customer relationship management (CRM) system? If not, you might not only be failing to earn your clients' loyalty, you might also outright be losing them. CIS Magazine found this topic so important that it recently ran a feature article titled "Top Ten Tips to Build and Keep Customer Loyalty with CRM."

Before delving into some of those strategies, let's get a better picture of CRM. Short for customer relationship management, CRM is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) module that is a key element to factory floor efficiency. A "company-wide computer software system" ERP is "used to manage and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of a business from shared data stores," explains Wikipedia.

Shop floor managers can get the most out of ERP (and CRM) with a real-time data collection system that utilizes touch screen capabilities. That's because such a scheduling system visually improves the sequencing of production (and raw materials) through a PC-based system that is completely interfaced with most ERP and MRP systems.

Now that you know what ERP and CRM are, let's get back to their customer loyalty advantages according to the experts at CIS Magazine.

1. "One experience does not fit all." - Software switches inside a real-time data collection system allow shop floor managers to configure the product to match the way they do business.

2. "Don't wait, anticipate." - A solid factory floor management system enables managers to touch, monitor and adapt every one of their specific shop processes for real-time improvement that delivers greater profitability.

3. "Strive for 'first experience' resolution." - A high-quality management system helps factory floor managers discover and resolve problems faster. Reminders appear to inform of special instructions. Shift-to-shift information is contained on screen. An easy-to-use email system distributes messages to specific areas or persons. Automatic notification of a floor problem is displayed so action can be taken immediately.

4. "Respond fact to critical interactions." - A shop floor management system allows businesses to compete on speed. While traditional planning systems are accounting based - meaning they measure cost, but do nothing to improve performance and increase production speed - a real-time management system is based on the actual "activity" of the floor. It modifies and adjusts work in progress based on actual "real world" production events, with the goal of improved performance.

5. "Increase access to real-time information." - A shop floor management system delivers real-time, continuous improvement for greater profitability and faster delivery to customers. By blending planning technology with new, factory floor activity technology, such a system affords employees the opportunity to use touch screen computers right where they need them - on the factory floor. As a result, they can enter and retrieve data on the spot, providing their clients with new instantaneous updates. They simply touch-in current job data in a real-time environment that improves accuracy and provides a faster time to discovery of problems.

To get the competitive edge that keeps you in touch with your factory floor - and that builds customer loyalty and retention - look for a reputable enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that implements a solid customer relationship management (CRM) module.

Contact Management (CRM) For Small Business - What Works Best?

2011-02-17T22:26:00.005-08:00

Contact management for small businesses is a big deal often having a big impact on your bottom line. After all how well you connect and stay in contact with customers (and potential customers), track and manage your sales and marketing data, and drive business to your company is crucial to your overall income numbers.

Here is a quick "Guide" with strengths and weaknesses of three CRM software packages I'm comfortable recommending:

1. Salesforce.com

PROS: Integration with dozens of 3rd party tools including marketing automation. Hands down the most powerful import functionality of all CRMs. Salesforce.com allows you the most flexibility with mapping of data ..... and gives you full control of what data gets overwritten, merged, and updated. It is also easy to use and quick to navigate.

CONS: Expensive compared to other alternatives. Little to no contractual flexibility.

2. SugarCRM

PROS: Nice interface and powerful customization, most powerful if you count the ability to edit code. Flexible contract terms. More cost effective than Salesforce.com in the OnDemand version and free if you host the Open Source version yourself.

CONS: Little support for third party applications out of the box. Import process is limited in that you can only overwrite, versus update existing data records. This can be bad if you like to regularly update your database and import tradeshow and other marketing data.

3. QuickBase

PROS: Month to month contract terms, ability to host unlimited instances or have unlimited applications. As low as $15 per user per month. Easy customization.

CONS: Tedious import process with no ability to update certain fields versus overwrite. Little to no ability to connect to 3rd party applications.

My friends use Salesforce.com for their sales and marketing. They use Quickbase for delivery of their services.

Tidbits on a few others - Act and Goldmine require more IT resources for multi-user environments, and you will have trouble with people not syncing often enough. I have yet to meet anyone who has used Microsoft CRM and liked it.

Whatever program you choose really depends on what are your priorities and needs within CRM. Is it sales driven, customer service driven, internal help desk driven, campaign management drive. There are always some niche tools that are for specific needs and still people develop custom development. Proposal Making is a separate software in the CRM space for instance.

One thing to always remember when selecting, and integrating any CRM product. Installing and running the CRM is the easy part, no matter which one you chose. The hard part is tailoring the CRM's robust feature set to the unique aspects of your business, your sales goals, and the personality of your sales team. This tailoring will cost far more, take far longer, and incite far more arguments than you could ever imagine.

If it's so hard, then why even do it? Because that IS the payoff for CRM. A lot of people spend a lot of time analyzing all the features and choosing one CRM over another, and my point is, the feature sets aren't what matter.

The real beneit of CRM software isn't the automation, it is that in automating, it forces you to have all those tough arguments, make all those tough business decisions, and have all those debates about sales philosophy.

And if you do it right, you will be richer for it, no matter which software you choose.

CRM isn't simply contact management on steroids, it is your company's opportunity to identify best practices in customer life cycle management, codify those practices into defined processes, and an automated system to help your sales force understand and follow those practices.

Financial Accounting Software & CRM Solutions

2011-02-17T22:26:00.003-08:00

Most people find accounts tricky. They'd rather be out there finding new customers, selling things or making things to sell.

With an expanding business, your accounting needs are more sophisticated than basic bookkeeping. You need an all-in-one solution that not only takes care of your finances but also supports your business, helps you make informed decisions and lets you plan your business.

Implementing a new financial accounting software application in your business is actually one of the most important financial decisions you are likely to make. The effect of choosing the right financial accounting software system can benefit you for years to come.

Choosing the wrong financial accounting software system can mean years of hassles, high expenses, and a dead weight that your business does not need.

By choosing the correct financial accounting software package for your business is simpler than you think. It allows you to take your financial accounting out of the closed walls of your office. A global access of your financial accounts gives you greater control and thus allowing faster decision making.

But it still needs to be simple, accurate and straightforward to use.

It's all about control:

o Credit control

o VAT Payments

o VAT Returns

o Invoice Payments

o Bank Reconciliation

o Sales and Purchases

o Case Flow Management

o Budgets and Reporting

o Invoice Payments and Quotes

o Profit & Loss and Balance Sheets

o Stock Allocation and Management

You need products that can offer you simple, cost effective software that does all this hard work for you. It'll help free up some time so that you can concentrate on running your business and looking after your customers.

The next important aspect of a total business solution is to have your back office accounting systems integrate with your front office Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

2011-02-17T22:26:00.001-08:00

Success of every business depends upon how good a relationship it has with customers. This basic fact has catapulted the concept of customer relationship management to the forefront of many businesses' strategic planning. With increasing competition, companies are forced to deploy new strategies and think over the old ones.

The dimension of business has changed over the years. In earlier times, customers did not have many choices and they had to choose whatever companies use to offer. But now-a-days, the number of products has increased and there is not much difference in the quality of same category products offered by companies. Customers being the king today, it becomes quite easier for them to look for other options in case they are not satisfied with the services offered.

Customer relationship management, which is essentially directed towards maximizing profitability, by adopting customer centric strategies, helps organization to differentiate themselves amongst its peers. CRM is the sum total of all the employed methodologies encompassing all the functions of business including sales, marketing, human resource management, customer service etc. It is instrumental in coagulating consumer's loyalty, reducing overall costs, increasing revenue, improved cross-selling opportunities and streamlining inter-related business process by having a holistic approach. People, process and technology are prime constituents of customer relationship initiatives. These constituents help in identifying consumers' needs and behaviour which in turn leads to better relationship between customers and companies. Right execution and implementation of CRM gives organizations a huge competitive advantage. Even a minor shift in the consumers' perception about how companies are treating them, makes a big difference to the business' money flow.

Today, consumers want to have an experience while shopping. They are the active participants in the process of selling and buying and they prefer to return back with happy experiences. Various researches show that one satisfied customer manages to bring five new customers whereas one unsatisfied customer takes away nine existing and potential customers. This fact makes it very imperative for organizations to provide high quality pre-sales and after sales services. Another observation is that, it's easier to retain an existing customer compared to make a new one which also helps companies to devise new ways to serve customers.

CRM Demands Continue To Grow

2011-02-17T22:25:00.005-08:00

Business and the staff of business don't want to work the way the use to. Today business recognizes the power in being organized, having things flow smoothly, and keeping things on track. In fact Customer Relationship Management is as close to automation as you can get while still having that very important human interaction.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Software can meet your highest expectations providing you with a seamless operation and plenty of room for flexibility and growth at an affordable price. Still not sure why you should choose CRM? Not sure what the others are seeing in it? Stick around and we'll show you.

Anyone involved with sales knows that getting new customers is critical to business and once you get that customer you need to be able to service them in manner that keeps them coming back because if you can't retain your customers your business simply won't grow and become stable.

That's where CRM comes into play. It can help keep track of your customers from start to finish; you can incorporate strategies with each customers file, integrates sales and service, incorporate your marketing strategies for the future and in general maximize your revenue on every customer.

But why Microsoft Dynamics CRM rather than one of the many other choices. Why that's easy! They are one of the best on the market. First generation CRM software was expensive, complex, and certainly not liked by the staff that needed to use it. In fact a larger percentage didn't even achieve the basics. Microsoft Dynamics CRM was the first to address critical issues and ensure that the software not only did what it needed to but that it did it well and for a price that most budgets could handle.

That's one reason why so many thousands of users around the world use Microsoft Dynamics CRM . With no time manpower to waste and not time or money to through out on inadequate software the professionals head for professional software. It's that simple. They seek out the most cost effective, flexible, and functional software they can and in this case it happens to be Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

CRM has the potential to benefit just about any business or any department from sales right through to human resources and anything in between. One the biggest challenges facing business is the fact that there is a culture entrenched so deep it becomes difficult to implement change without facing a great deal of scrutiny, and heel dragging related to change.

But what CRM has to offer is more like an entire makeover. After all it is a complete back to front company operation software that can incorporate the executives at the top to the sales staff at the bottom. This is technology that works and although at first staff may drag their heels in no time they are completely on board.

The key to success with CRM is a customer centered business philosophy and that philosophy much incorporate actively serving the needs of the customer. If that's your company philosophy than you shouldn't be without a CRM platform. It fits your business philosophy and can maximize your revenues in no time.

Here's a system that almost automates the entire process but it keeps the human an integral part of dealing with the customer. What it does automate is all those notes, steps, next call dates, customer likes, dislikes, potential customer buys, and just about anything else you can think of. So with all the tedious tasks taken care of you can spend your time focusing on the customer. The CPM system will be fondly referred to as the CPR system.

Is it right for you? Only you can answer that question but it has an excellent reputation for increasing customer loyalty and maximum profits. But buying in has to be the full deal right from top to bottom for you to experience the success this software can bring to you and your company.

It's got plenty of benefits such as timely customer service, targeting customers, increased per customer revenue, trimmed sales cycles, improved sales forecasting, better informed marketing decisions, and the list goes on.

The demands for CRM continue to grow as more and more people recognize the value to their bottom line.

All About The CRM Software

2011-02-17T22:25:00.003-08:00

The Business world is actually booming with the introduction of all sorts of software products which have continued to change the way business is managed in the recent times. The CRM Software is one of such latest inventions that have really changed the business world for the better. Let's take a look at what the product stands for.

What actually is CRM Software?

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a unique application that has been designed to assist many business outfits in organizing all data that has to do with their operations and customer base. These include areas that deal with sales and marketing, follow-ups, customer care supports and so on. The software builds a comprehensive profile of your clients and makes that accessible to every other member of the business empire. This helps a lot in allowing every member of the company to network more efficiently and also access their common schedules.

The software comes in a wide variety of types. However, they all could be grouped into two major types namely, the Locally Hosted and the Remotely Hosted Versions.

Locally Hosted CRM Software

The Locally Hosted Version is usually installed on your company server and also tailored to have control over other applications you're using in the organization. This version works exactly as you desire. The only problem is that it requires proper technological expertise to function well. You have the responsibility to watch over its security. You also need to upgrade it from time to time as your business grows.

Remotely Hosted CRM Software

The Remotely hosted version is run on the external CRM Company's server that provides your business with the CRM service. In this system, your CRM provider runs the application smoothly from its own server. All your company data are properly secured. Again, the CRM provider has the responsibility of solving any application problem that may occur anytime.

Features of the CRM Software

A good CRM Software normally has unique features. Before you install any kind of CRM software, you have to make sure it has quality features such as, efficient upgrade path, handheld connectivity, import and export features, proper integration with latest application such as Outlook Express and so on.

Installing the Best CRM Software

If you desire to install the best CRM, there are certain points you have to bear in mind. First of all, you need to go for the type that has sales force automation feature. This is used as a special sales tool that helps in streamlining all the phases involved in sales beginning from lead management to forecasting and sales analysis.

Again, you need to engage the services of a reliable CRM provider that is well experienced in the business. You need to compare the cost of installing such applications from various providers before you go ahead.

Finally, always make sure you install an easy-to-use CRM application through the help of a reliable company. The software when properly installed can take your company to greater heights.

CRM Software - Your Entry Point - What Initial Strategy is Right For You?

2011-02-17T22:25:00.001-08:00

CRM Software is a key business strategy whether you are a large enterprise with thousands of customers or a small business with a select, but equally important customer base. Generally, your strategy will be the same - to keep customer information in a single place that allows you to have everything about that customer at your fingertips. This will mean that you maintain a link between your sales, marketing, customer and even your finance information. The goal however is to increase opportunities and sales and maximise the productivity of your staff.

The type of system you choose will be determined by your needs now and in the future. Do you build and configure your CRM software solution based around a specific product or do you use a web based CRM software solution to suit today's needs with a view to growth? Either way, your CRM system will be a function of budget and requirements.

Configuring a CRM system may cost the same whether you have 20 users or 100 users so economies of scale do exist. The return on your investment is better the more users you have as a customised system could have theoretically the same amount of consultancy time if the roles were the same.

Your decision point for an in-house configured system is made for you if you need to integrate into your own systems. For example, do you need to integrate into your accounting system, your distribution ERP system or your warehouse? This solution will also require specialist consultancy support and is not a normal function of a "off the shelf" stock standard systems.

Web based CRM software, using software as a service provides a substantially lower entry cost into CRM than an in house configured system. For many small to medium enterprises, paying monthly fees based on the number of users yields a more cost effective initial price point. If your needs are based around CRM software traditional applications such as contact management, marketing & lead management and activity management such as calendars, phone calls, then a web based approach will probably be right for you.

Web based CRM software however may not be as flexible as you want and have limitations on how you can customize your CRM because they are multi tenancy. This means that you have many people using the system and so parts of these systems must be standard. Therefore, you can't make the changes you need for own situation. It may well be that web based CRM is a good fit for you if you want a stock standard CRM system for marketing, sales and customer service teams.

Your decision point is therefore whether you need to integrate into your other business systems or not.

A typical CRM strategy is to begin with a web based CRM. Small, but growing companies might deploy their CRM in a hosted environment initially with a view to migrating into an in-house system when financially appropriate. The initial cost of ownership does not justify an in-house system and budgetary constraints may prevent owning a system. Today, such options exist. For example, Microsoft Dynamic CRM can be deployed in a web based CRM software environment but later the configurations and data can be redeployed into an in-house solution. This is incredibly flexible and totally seamless.

Planning CRM strategies is therefore a key element of your business strategy. Having a three year cost of ownership analysis, together with understanding your integration requirements into other systems will determine whether an in-house CRM is suitable or initially you will be better placed with a web based CRM software solution.

Antony Dutton is Managing Director and co-founder of Aaromba - CRM software & service management software

Building Your Business With Web Based CRM Software

2011-02-17T22:24:00.001-08:00

The soul purpose of CRM software, otherwise known as Customer Relationship Management Software, is to aid business owners in building and maintaining important relationships between customers and the business itself, often times reducing overhead and driving more repeat customers as a result. Many businesses that are just using a CRM software for the first time tend to find themselves a little overwhelmed with the power that many of these solutions provide not to mention the depth of features and sometimes extensive learning curve.

While often times the features of a CRM will vary from software to software, the reality is that they generally have very similar functions, covering everything from business automation, task specific, to storing customer information and analyzing customer data such as purchases, time of visit and so on. CRM software truly is a very powerful tool for building a successful business both online and offline.

Wikipedia describes CRM as: "Customer relationship management (CRM) is a multifaceted process, mediated by a set of information technologies, that focuses on creating two-way exchanges with customers so that firms have an intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns. In this way, CRM helps companies understand, as well as anticipate, the needs of current and potential customers. Functions that support this business purpose include sales, marketing, customer service, training, professional development, performance management, human resource development, and compensation. Many CRM initiatives have failed because implementation was limited to software installation without alignment to a customer-centric strategy."

Now you may have already figured out that CRM software is a must have for any growing business, but did you know that it can be affordable too. The secret is in the type of CRM that you choose. For instance, web based crm software is often times much more affordable than other types of CRM, but still has the important features that you will come to rely on as your business continues to grow. Web based CRM software can also drastically cut down on increasing advertising costs by allowing you to keep track of current and past customers and enticing them to possibly buy again.

Choosing the Best Web Based CRM Software:

If you have been searching for a web based CRM software, you will soon find that you have some choices to make. Now it is virtually impossible for me or anyone for that matter to tell you which web based CRM software is the best choice for you or your business. Why? Simple, because as I briefly mentioned above, all of the different services offer different features to go along with them. For example, while one CRM software might focus more on analyzing customer data another one probably has a more concentrated focus on effectively storing customer information.

Choosing the right CRM Software, especially when it comes to web based CRM software, really depends on your companies specific needs that's very important to remember, its crucial that you figure out what exactly your business needs out of the software and then work towards finding a software that caters to those needs. Now that you know what CRM software is, you understand the benefits of using web based CRM software and you know what to look for, you are ready to move forward and reap the rewards that CRM has to offer.

CRM Applications Are Necessary For Online Business Management Success

2011-02-17T22:23:00.000-08:00

CRM applications for your lead management system are a must if you want your online business to skyrocket. There are four basic things you need to realize in order to achieve success.

1. You have to be at the right place

2. Deliver at the right time

3. Provide with the right message

4. Offer the right product or service

Obviously these basic concepts have been known facts forever; there is more to the story. However, missing any of the components from this formula, your leads management strategy could spell failure.

With all the competition, price wars and other challenges you are faced with, you also have to learn how to become a master marketer.

There are a variety of ways to attain these sometimes monumental goals of your lead generation service. Marketing is a bit different than selling, because it is based on developing relationships and staying in front of your customer, providing continuous quality information and support through a variety of email marketing strategies.

A business owner who has good marketing knowhow, is one who is developing their business for the long haul, and not building a hit and run gig.

Most often this will include direct response marketing methods, which offer free stuff through writing compelling copy. You also must know how to write a message that matches what your target market is interested in.

What most business owners do not do, which is the most important of all ...and that is to simply "follow up". It has been proven that following up with consistent email deliverability, maximizes sales. Bottom line is you need a computerized, automated system or emailing software that does not waste a lot of man hours.

Now we all know there are different types of leads, great- hot, ok-warm and bad -cold. Heck we all want the hot leads, but what do we do with the others?

We pick through these leads and do minimal, tedious, follow-up, grunt work. The warm leads get cold and the cold ones die, so really, no one is really tracking leads. This is costly and a big waste of money. So the brilliant idea would be to create a system to follow up for you. Perhaps it is time to think about a CRM for small business program.

Would it be great to close more deals at the end of the month from one set of leads? I have heard all too often that when you hear "no" it is really meant to be "not right now". This could be true, because people will most often buy when they are ready. The question then becomes are you going to be there when they are ready to buy or will your competitor?

So if you have a plan and an email marketing system that will follow up often that provides quality information when you do, then your sales are likely to increase. We all know staying in front of your prospect is the single most and greatest challenges a business owner faces.

Follow-up is a gut-wrenching, time-consuming, wearisome and labor-intensive task that is nearly impossible for the human mind to maintain. If you can tackle this, you will realize BIG profits.

To be honest, efficient, effective email marketing campaigns are a critical component to the success of any online business. They say, doing this correctly shortens the sales cycle, increases your capacity to handle more deals/sales and increases your closing ratio because you spend more time communicating with highly qualified, informed prospects with a proper sales management system.

I was taught that you have to be a harvester. You have to nurture relationships and warm the leads as you move forward. Learn to close the gap between getting the lead and closing the deal.

So here are five tips to cultivate your contacts.

1. Send initially disinclined prospects relevant, valuable information on a scheduled, frequent basis through an email marketing system.

2. Stay in touch with your prospects efficiently, aside from the normal, time-consuming, one-on-one method.

3. Record all communications involving your office and the prospect in an organized manner.

4. Arm yourself and your sales reps with a battery of detailed, value packed information that can be sent off to prospects upon request.

5. Track the progress of each lead through the sales funnel with CRM software, so you always know where every one of your leads stands.

Developing these relationships overtime will provide amazing results. This could also prove to be an enjoyable process while Building and developing your customer base that is the backbone of your business. Keep in mind that you must actively, systematically and methodically build your customer bases and keep it living and breathing at the same time. When done correctly, your prospects who will always buy when they are ready, will know exactly where to go... To YOU!

Flexibility is a factor when sorting through your database. When you combine a solid customer database with the power of sequential, targeted, timely, value added, direct email marketing follow-up campaigns, you have the capability to land lots of new business in a short period of time.

How CRM Software Works -- Creating Customer Satisfaction with a Click

2011-01-19T02:44:00.004-08:00

CRM in the broader sense encompasses not only customer relationship management itself but how customer relationship management is handled and the most important elements of a CRM program that are essential to its being successful. The range of CRM software options vary from those that provide simple customer tracking and live chat capabilities to the more complex CRM solutions that can integrate all of the customer relationship data an enterprise has on each client past, present and future in a dynamic information data network.

What should I look for in a CRM software package?

If there's an ideal CRM software package that works for every company and every situation, it hasn't been discovered yet, simply because every company has slightly different needs for their customer relationship management needs as well as software implementation.

In general, however, when you are looking for a strong CRM software package there are a few things to keep in mind. If you are shopping for a CRM package, try to forget about the initial price tag at first (as difficult as this may be) and focus on the adaptability, usability and integrity of each system you evaluate as it relates to your particular needs. A few things to consider:

o What are the most important facets of customer relations are we looking to address, and does this CRM software support tracking and updating all aspects of this? For example, if your company wants to customer service to have ready access to changes in customer spending habits and an opportunity to offer new product options based on these records, make sure this capability is built into the software. Customization down the line will be time-consuming and expensive -- if you have a primary goal, make sure it is standard in your CRM software package.
o Will the CRM software package integrate smoothly with all platforms currently in use at your company? If you will have to re-enter all databases such as client names, addresses and phone numbers, this will significantly increase the amount of money you'll spend in the long run. Make sure that you can either integrate smoothly or import all information needed flawlessly.
o Is the product more than you need? An enterprise solution that offers fifteen functions you don't need and never will isn't a bargain if you will never expand into that market niche. Just because it's available doesn't mean you have to have it. Selling custom-sewn hats? You won't need a CRM software package for tracking million-dollar overseas accounts.
o Has this CRM software package been used for a company of your size before? If it has been used for companies up to 10,000 and you have 150,000, the system may simply not be able to sustain the volume of data and crash or develop glitches. Look for something more powerful with a support system capable of understanding the size of your company.

Can you build me a dream CRM software package?

Hmm...let's see. The best CRM software package would be optimally functional across all platforms and have its own customer support backing it, and .... Well, let's take a look at our own list of what we'd really like in a CRM software package if money was no object and we could "have it all," so to speak:

o A CRM software provider that has partnerships with other vendors for support in the event you need it for integration of platforms.
o Extensive training from certified CRM software technicians who will walk your people through the process of setting up, using and training others on the system.
o Full data migration capabilities to and from all programs in current use to the new CRM software.
o Offsite server storage backup for all information in the CRM system for added security.
o A toolbox for company programmers for customizing templates for company use -- this will save huge amounts of time by eliminating the need to write custom codes from scratch.
o Either in-house consultants or a choice of contracted consultants they recommend (try not to be at the mercy of one consultant when there is a problem).
o A CRM software package designed by a company familiar with our specific industry and its structural needs.

The best CRM software packages enable customer service representatives to review the account information of each client or customer when they are talking to him or her and immediately understand something about that person's needs, wants and spending patterns.

For banks, CRM software can indicate their banking patterns -- are they investing through the bank? Have they recently looked into a money market fund? Do they have substantial funds that could be put to better use than languishing in a simple CD?

A mail order company can note your shopping tendencies and make Christmas shopping suggestions based on past purchases by seeing that you buy a lot of kids' clothes and that you spend about $200 each holiday. Used correctly, a toy company can steer you toward some bargains and suggest alternatives, enriching your shopping experience and building customer loyalty.

Why does CRM software fail so often after it's put into place?

You've heard the stories about a company buying a CRM software package and then realizing it hasn't really changed anything. The big-wigs are disappointed, customer service is frustrated, and the clients are aggravated with the new changes that don't seem to show any improvements in customer service or client relations. How does it happen?

Because CRM software was purchased that wasn't appropriate, was purchased too soon, or wasn't implemented properly. If you don't purchase CRM software that specifically addresses what your customer concerns are, you may have software that is very detailed in an area you don't need and somewhat lacking in exactly what you do need.

Purchasing too soon means you bought the software before you had evaluated what you really wanted. Many companies by CRM software with a goal "to improve customer relations," which is not a clear business goal! You should have a very specific, well-defined objective that your CRM software solution can address, and you company should have developed a formal objective before you went shopping for a solution. Retaining customers? Improving the size of current customer portfolios? Penetrating a new market niche? Reduce customer complaints? Improve customer repair response? Determine what it is you want to focus on as a goal, and then choose your CRM software solution based on how it will address it.

Finally, implementation of a new CRM program requires proper management support and effective training. That means that management must be behind it one hundred percent, and not have "head in the sand" approach where they determine that "that's for customer service, I never did understand that stuff," and avoid learning how the CRM software works. It is an attitude that will pervade the company.

Second, training is essential and must encompass the company to ensure that all levels of personnel will embrace the new system and understand the genuine need for it and the real goal of what you are trying to achieve with your new CRM software solution.

Some CRM software options for small and medium sized businesses

For small and medium businesses, the most common customer relations management software request is for anything that enhances online communications and improves the time between a customer complaint or question and resolution of the issue for them.

For many companies, there are software solutions that can be purchased or downloaded to be used through their Internet website for basic services such as online customer support through live chat and customer assistance with online purchasing that is both efficient and relatively inexpensive. If your need is primarily to improve sales volume, improve response to customer questions and complaints and to make your company website more personalized, look into these solutions that are at the lower end of the price spectrum while providing solid CRM products:

o LivePerson offers two different versions, Basic and Enterprise that provide live chat, email and a variety of interactive forms customized to meet companies' needs for customer relations. This company has developed live chat solutions and online forms for everything from universities to financial services firms. This company provides a wide range of services, including online marketing, case studies, and software designed to improve online shopping cart capabilities.
o LiveHelper offers many of the same features, and adds real time traffic monitoring and other data assessment features as well. For the price, LiveHelper is a very good CRM software value.
o GroopZ includes customer routing software so that you can transfer entire chat strings from one customer service rep to another if you need be, along with an efficient filing system for chat transcripts and customer records. For improving customer relations, the software support suggests pre- and post-service questions for all customers who contact you.
Also included are templates you can set up with specific, pre-scripted answers to frequently asked questions in online chat to save customer service representatives time and make the process clearer and more efficient. This company does a bit more customizing on the front end to fit your needs, and pricing is adjusted accordingly.
o SupportWizard gives you three CRM options that give you some flexibility -- you can buy, lease or let them host your customer service/relations solutions. Interactive FAQs, live chat, standard answers to frequent questions, and Boolean search capabilities to review past interactions all make this package extremely effective. SupportWizard also has more customizable features than some, including an "escalation alert" that can be tailored to specific situations when a supervisor would be notified if a customer service situation exceeds certain parameters.
This is one of the more expensive packages available, but rather than a monthly fee you are paying for lease or outright purchase options, so factor this into the cost. You will also get spectacular customer support and constant upgrades and patches when necessary. The integration of email, live chat and telephone information into one database is also a plus with SupportWizard.
o BoldChat offers free CRM software for online customer service chat that you can use for a limited time, and offers a $9.95/month and a $39.95/month customized version of their CRM software. Both offer live customer service chat, but one adds customized windows and more options on buttons and the number of available customer service reps you can add.
o CSLive offers the most comprehensive CRM software solution available for small and medium businesses, with live chat, email, and the usual customer service features you expect from a small business CRM solution, but with plenty of extras. CSLive also offers an extensive tracking and filing system, an Internet server site where you can upload and store files of customer help articles that customers can be referred to that can by emailed directly to clients by your reps. Throw in the message center and online meetings, and this is practically an enterprise sized solution at a small business price of $29.95 a month.

CRM software, whether on a monthly user basis or purchased outright and downloaded onto your own server, will make serving and understanding your clients and customers a more productive experience, and you will all be happier for it.

Advantages of CRM Software

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The CRM software is a system that enables you to manage the customer database online. CRM stands for customer relationship management. It is a system that allows you to improve productivity and efficiency. Handling a large customer database can be very difficult. It can hamper the productivity and performance of the frontline staff. It can act as a hindrance and affect the smooth operations of your business activity. The Microsoft CRM software offers solutions for managing, handling, and maintaining customer database in a systematic and organized manner. It also helps in analyzing and evaluating the data. In fact, it can also be used for generating reports.

There are many benefits and advantages of using the CRM software. In a competitive environment where customer is the king, it is important to focus on customer satisfaction. In fact, companies are going a step beyond customer satisfaction; they are focusing on customer delight. As such, it is imperative that you upgrade your systems and adopt the best practices in the industry. Here are some ways in which you can benefit from this system.

Benefits

Marketing: This system can be a great marketing tool. You can study the past trends and anticipate the future prospects by analyzing the customer database. This will enable you to identify the needs more effectively and assist in planning and organizing. You can also introduce cross-selling of products and identify your regular customers through the reports generated by this software. The CRM software helps you to retain existing customers and expand your business by effectively marketing your products and services.

Interactive Channel: This software acts as a channel of communication between the company and its customers. It enables better interactions online and is a cost-effective way of managing the customer database. There is no paperwork involved in maintaining customer queries, complaints, feedback, to name a few. In fact, your staff can resolve customer queries online and the interaction can be updated in the system.

Convenience: Pulling out old records or tracking customer history has now been made easy with the CRM software. You can track trends that are as old as few months ago. Not just that, you can also generate reports and study customers' history for targeting a niche market. You can also plan your future advertising strategies with the help of the information available through this system. Moreover, the information is available at the click of a mouse.

Cost Effective: This system helps you to manage the business effectively. It increases productivity and saves the valuable time of your staff. Saving man hours would mean that you could utilize the services of your staff for some other purpose.

There are different types of services that you can expect from the CRM software. For instance, you can manage customer accounts, inventory accounts, sales data, internal office communication, internal customer database, payroll data, and much more. This system is useful for measuring and monitoring the performance of your internal staff. It is also beneficial for the data management of external customers as well as of prospective customers.

Whether you operate on a large scale or a small scale, this software solution can be of great help. The solutions can be customized to meet your specific needs.

What Is CRM Software?

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If you are new to the different types of software in the work place, then you will probably find yourself asking what CRM software is. CRM software is very important when it comes to organization for customer relationship management. A lot of people will end up assuming that CRM software is a software application. This is actually not true it is a type of a strategy when it comes to doing business. Between this and helpdesk software you are going to find that organization and running your business are going to go a lot smoother whenever you have these tools on your side.

What is does

Basically, the methodologies that go along with CRM will be focused solely on building the individual customer relationships that you will have. They are going to be designed so that you can get a loyal customer based created and most importantly, maintained. This type of software is going to work along with any type of corporate department that you will find. It is going to help to keep the customer base harmonized with the way that your particular organization works. You will also find that when it comes to the interdepartmental cooperation, costs are going to be reduced while efficiency goes up. This means that customer satisfaction is going to be improved greatly.

Availability

You are going to be able to rely on a lot of the CRM packages that are commercial will be available to you on the market. They will be easy to find and get your hands on because of how well they work with any type of business. These particular packages are going to represent a different type of software offerings from what you are used to. Whenever you do your research on CRM software you are going to find that the open source packages are very highly rated when it comes to any company that uses them. They will easily compete with any other type of commercial products that are out there.

Features of open taps

Whenever you are dealing with the open taps of CRM packages you are going to be able to expect a suite that can deliver to you a 360 degree view of your company. This means everything from the customers to your orders and even the inventory. You can even get a good look at how your accounting is doing. You will not have to worry about dealing with integration ever again whenever you have open tap.

It is just one application that has more than 700 tables. You will also find that open tap is going to be completely compatible with any type of major open source as well as commercial relation data bases. No matter what you have. It also works with local and remote synchronization. This will help when it comes to scalability as well as any type of high availability that you will be working with. It has an easy interoperability when it comes to legacy or even external applications.

Customer relationship management is something that is as old as commerce itself, although it takes many forms these days. Ensuring the customer is hap

2011-01-19T02:43:00.003-08:00

Many ideas have been tossed around regarding how to compare customer relationship management (CRM) software programs. These ideas have been passed along by well-known business owners and business managers who have had successful experiences using the software.

This powerful software has been used by lots of business managers in large companies in the past. The CRM software back then was exclusively for big companies because its features were not yet flexible enough for medium to small sized businesses. CRM software programs in the past were very costly because they were complex (that and there wasn't any competition to drive prices down).

Now, the customer management software is available for medium to small size enterprises. The software underwent changes to make it more flexible and adaptable for any kind of business. The technology is more innovative and customizable compared to the previous versions. CRM will give businesses a brighter outlook by helping businesses that are tired of trying to increase collaboration.

Businesses are using this type of software to manage their data and to find effective strategies, solutions, and tools to promote and maintain excellent customer service. There are a lot of businesses that cannot handle the customer data management aspects of their companies. They cannot afford to hire new staff to perform the tasks of recording and managing customer information. Some businesses lack time and they are not able to perform the repetitive tasks of managing, recording, and sending data. A good customer management software package can perform these tasks for you.

When trying to choose the right CRM software program for your business, you should know the relevance and uses of customer retention management first. After knowing these things, you can already formulate your own perception on what you think are the attributes necessary for this type of software. You can read reviews on the internet that present facts about the different packages available, including the advantages and disadvantages of each program.

Another important point is that you must be aware of the needs of your business. Don't just buy software because everybody else is doing it. You must have a good strategy in mind if you are to find technology that will help your company.

Find out as much as possible about the software programs that you are choosing from. Good CRM software will support you from marketing to sales, service to payroll, research to development, and even in accounting.

Once you know the different factors to consider when choosing for the right software, you can already start comparing these software programs. Your knowledge about the basics concepts of customer management will definitely give you ideas about how to compare CRM software programs.

What IS CRM Software Actually Used For?

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Customer relationship management is something that is as old as commerce itself, although it takes many forms these days. Ensuring the customer is happy is something that people have done throughout time - from ancient traders on the Mediterranean to the British East India Tea Company - right through to famous American coffee shops who sell their brews around the world; all businesses need to keep their customers happy and CRM software can help them do it.

For all sizes of business - small, medium and large - keeping track of your customer relationship can be a tricky and confusing business. You need to know what issues, if any, are pending and require attention. If you lose track of things that need doing, you run the risk of alienating your customers and in the worst case scenario you stand to lose them altogether. Modern CRM software can help you do this.

Not only does CRM software help you keep track of the day to day running of your business, but it also helps to ensure all avenues of sales are taken care of. This means that if there is a product you sell that your existing customers do not currently buy, but might be interested in - you know that sending them appropriate communication could help bring in extra business.

One of the main advantages of CRM software is that people right across a given business can access data on a customer and are immediately aware of what the customer knows and how the customer relationship is at a given time. As well as being very helpful within a company based in one location, a flexible piece of CRM software will allow different offices and branches to know exactly where they stand with clients, and they'll know exactly what services or goods they have been offered or could be offered.

There are a great many different pieces of CRM software available on the market today, and choosing the right one can sometimes seem tricky. One mistake some firms is that they buy software that is too complex for their needs and means that they have a piece of expensive software that they cannot get full value out of. Equally, if your needs are complex you need to ensure that the software you buy can cope with what you need.

Any reseller of this kind of package will be able to advise you as regards what software to choose in terms of your precise needs.

Why Zoho Small Business CRM Software Could Be the Answer for Your Business

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Do you use Zoho small business CRM software for your business? If the answer is no, you're missing out on a lot of benefits. The major players of numerous industries use Zoho-and with good reason, too! Zoho can help you grow your business and empower your staff in ways you wouldn't be able to do on your own.

Most of us who are over the age of 30 could never have imagined that we would all be doing so much business online these days. And, if you are old enough to remember the floppy disk, then you could never imagine that software would be run on the internet instead of on an individual computer. Zoho is one of the most amazing technologies to come around in a long time, and it is proving to benefit small and large companies alike.

Zoho is an online suite of programs - the very same programs that you would normally be running on your computer using your own software. From Zoho CRM to its word processor or calendar system, all of the software is run online. What this means is that your computers aren't bogged down by dozens of applications that you have to run manually simultaneously.

What is even better is that the applications on Zoho are all integrated so that if you are using Zoho small business CRM software, you can easily hook it up with billing or the email system already in place, to automate much of your business. This will save you an enormous amount of money over traditional CRM packages. Yes, traditional CRM packages are designed to make you money and at the same time, save you money. What Zoho does is save you even MORE money. Whether your company is struggling or not, you can benefit tremendously from these savings.

The other benefit of using this small business CRM software and the other applications is that because not only is the software online but your data is as well, all of your staff can have access to the same set of updated data all the time, wherever they may be. Your sales staff can work from the road, your technical staff can work from home, and you can work from wherever you are. Zoho almost makes it possible to have a company without having a home office, something that will save you even more money. More importantly, the level of automation that the Zoho small business CRM software provides ensures you make each of your clients better satisfied.

How To Streamline Sales Leads Management With CRM Software

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Streamline Sales Leads Management with CRM Software

A good CRM program can help simplify sales leads management of even the largest databases. When it comes to Customer Response Management programs, there are a number of great programs tailored for use in companies of all sizes. Whether your sales force numbers in the hundreds, or just consists of a few professionals, this software can streamline information sharing and ensure that your clients are well cared for, no matter which team member fields their call.

One of the most important functions of CRM software is its ability to house data on everything from ordering history to the content of phone calls and email exchanges. In most systems, each client or prospect is given their own entry, containing contact information and data on their history with your company. As a phone call comes in or is about to be placed, your sales associates can access this data and familiarize themselves with each client's dossier. This will enable them to quickly pick up each conversation where the last left off, facilitating better follow up and customer satisfaction.

As soon as a field is updated after a meeting or a phone call, any member of your staff can access these new notes. This is a great tool for sharing best practices among team members and ensuring that nothing is overlooked in case of territory shifts or employee turnover. Not only that, but this information can be a great management tool when it comes time for employee evaluations and bonus reviews. With quantifiable data about the average number of sales calls each team member makes per day, you can make performance reviews more quantitative and less subjective.

Customer Response Management software can also make identifying problem areas in your companies outreach programs far simpler. As each contact, from promotional emails to sales calls and order histories is logged, managers can use this information to determine how best to allocate their company's human resources. By generating reports on how long lead conversion takes and which outreach methods are most effective, marketing can be better informed when planning future promotions.

Insurance CRM Software

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Insurance is a precaution taken by an individual or business enterprise against any uncertain risks, which may arise in the future. This precaution is taken from an insurance company in return of the payment and is known as Insurance.

In today's world every industry is in a pace to enhance their business with the motto of increasing the customer database, along with the utmost satisfaction. And as a result every industries do prefer to use Customer Relationship Management Software to provide their customer with state of the art services and with the most prominent and effective solutions. In the field of Insurance it works the same way; this results the software companies to develop the most cutting edge and tailored made CRM solutions for their stakeholder (the insurance companies).

Insurance CRM Software has many unique facilities that help its stakeholder (the insurance companies) by delivering the most efficient and cost-effective business management and customer management solutions. Moreover being CRM software it could be available in both web-based and desktop-based solutions and could be customized meeting the requirement of the stakeholder. In fact these solutions are for both insurance sector; personal and commercial. Insurance CRM Software is in-budget, robust, scalable and reliable solutions to cover all the sector of the insurance market, starting from the implementation till the end.

Insurance CRM Software provides the solutions in different areas, which are as follows:
• Insurance Policy Administration
• Claims Management
• Insurance Agency Management
• Insurance Agents Management
• Policy Management
• User Management
• Endorsements Management
• Data import / Export
• Policy Registration and Quotations Engine
• Insurance Administration Management
• Content Management Module
• Insurance Document Management
• Insurance Accounting and automation
• Workflow solutions
• Auditing
• Business Intelligence
• Online Data Back-up
• The benefit of Online Insurance Management

Every solution's has its own unique advantage in its own area. Moreover all these solutions could also be compiled together to meet the clients specific requirements. Indeed for any insurance company or agency, Insurance CRM Software is a boon. As it not only helps in enhancing the business covering all the sectors, but also proves to be the most comprehended solutions for various Insurance companies.

CRM Software for Customer Relationship Management Fits Businesses of All Sizes

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Learn how the right CRM software can help your business. CRM which stands for Customer Relations software is a hot topic for large and small businesses alike. Businesses of all sizes are placing greater importance upon not only converting customers but maintaining a long term relationship with them. CRM software makes this process much easier and can even help automate sales and marketing campaigns.

While elaborate tracking and marketing software was formerly the province of corporations with the capital to afford to deploy the software, as well as an IT department to keep them up to date and resolve software conflicts. This worked so well that solutions for the small and medium sized businesses were developed. Open Source Software such as Sugar CRM software is now hosted on the internet and affordable for any business large or small to implement.

The idea behind the open source CRM software is great but for it to work for a business it usually needs to be configured to their business and tracking needs. Companies that specialize in assisting businesses of any size to implement CRM software solutions that work for them are available in almost any region. Some specialize in configuring the software and interface for particular businesses while others also host the software on the internet, so the sole proprietor or small business can take advantage of CRM software without the need of a dedicated IT department and the investment in specialized hardware to host the software.

Any business that deals with customers benefits from Customer Relationship Management tracking and sales marketing software. Every stage of the customer relationship can be tracked so that when a lead becomes a customer the customer service department is alerted, the customer can be included in the automatic marketing initiatives as well and the likelihood that a customer will slip through the cracks is lessened immeasurably.

Corporations have found that it is easier and more cost effective to nurture to the current satisfied customer than it is to convert new customers and sales increase because of it. Profitability is an issue for businesses of any size these days and retaining and reselling customers, converting leads and superior customer service is a well worn path to profitability.

However, not all solutions work equally well for every company. Even some small businesses are not comfortable with their data residing on an outside server. In that case custom CRM software solutions can be configured and deployed on site. On the other hand, web hosted CRM solutions can be individualized for a small to medium sized company and the cost of hardware and software licensing can be minimized as well as become predictable.

Companies that specialize in customizing customer relationship software can work with the business to find a solution to their individual needs that suits their need for security, tracking, and sales and budget as well. When it is time to move up in business it is time to maximize customer retention and take advantage of the automated solutions available now.

Small Business CRM Software: Why It Is Necessary

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We should first clear up something that many people think of customer relationship management software. If you are one of those people who believe that small businesses do not need CRM software, you better start changing that idea. It does not matter the number of clients that your business has got, small business CRM software can be very helpful to you.

This software helps the business owner keep track of the needs of their customers. The fact that customer needs keep on changing make it very difficult to try attending to them by manually keeping their records. Small business CRM software is highly flexible in that you can easily change the records of a customer to reflect their current preferences. The details remain in record and easy access.

Another benefit of the small business CRM software is that it enhances communication among the employees in your business. When you have this software in place, more than one employee can view the company's data. This makes it possible to take care of customer orders more easily and effectively.

You need to keep in mind that your business is growing. It is advisable that you do not limit the growth of your business by not being ready for it. This is a mistake that many people do. They put everything in place ensuring that business grows. They get a great number of clients when they least expect them and if they had not put a customer relationship management software in place, they find it difficult to handle the customers losing some of them in the process.

The small business CRM software will also enable the business owner create customized services for their customers. This is because it enables one to see the customers' requirements and the problems they have faced in the past. This information is updated, sometimes automatically in the database of the software.

Do you want to stay ahead of the rest in your business line? Then one thing you should do is be able to predict what customer reactions will be with the introduction of a new product. If you think that customers would be positive would be positive with a new product, then you can go ahead and introduce it before your competitors and you will have an advantage over all of them. The best way to be able to predict consumer trends is by studying the data from small business CRM software.

Scala and Microsoft Become (Not So) Strange CRM Bedfellows Part Two: Market Impact Continued

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During these days of frenetic mergers and acquisitions in the enterprise applications arena, there still seems to be a place for some co-opetitive alliances too. Namely, at the end of July, Scala Business Solutions (ASE: SCALA), an Amsterdam, the Netherlands-based provider of collaborative enterprise software for mid-size enterprises and subsidiaries of global corporations, announced it has signed a letter of intent with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), the largest software provider in the world, to extend Microsoft Business Solutions CRM (Microsoft CRM) software and integrate it with its iScala Collaborative ERP system. The agreement is expected to be final in September. Part one of this note detailed the agreement, which is a major part of Microsoft's foray into the CRM arena, and began a discussion of the market impact.

Indeed, Microsoft's foray into the CRM arena has not been a bed of roses, despite its indisputably large marketing muscle and R&D investment, its strong channel, traditionally attractive pricing policies, and the aura and experience within the market segment. For one, the experience of penetrating the desktop market can by no means be replicated in the case of the CRM market, given the different nature and complexity of the product groups (i.e., mere technology versus business process enhancement products). While small enterprises desire products and services designed, priced, and delivered from vendors that understand their needs and are focused in that regard, Microsoft would definitely not be the only one that fits the picture. Indeed, the functional, process, and integration requirements of a small-to-medium enterprise (SME) can be just as sophisticated as those of a large enterprise, particularly if it is a multinational entity.

Further, the Microsoft Business Solutions (MBS) division has been swamped with soul-searching issues of handling multiple disparate product lines, some of which already have native CRM capabilities that overlap those of Microsoft CRM. While the Microsoft CRM product's delay was not a train smash matter, and from a product perspective has changed almost nothing for buyers, it does reinforce the concern that the market has voiced about Microsoft's fledgling experience in the enterprise applications market. The question remains how efficiently MBS will continue to provide CRM functionality as part of the single-database integrated Navision, Great Plains, Solomon, and Axapta products, and whether the envisioned and still maintained integrated products' delivery dates at the end of 2003 will also be delayed like in the case of Microsoft CRM's delay.

Further, MBS is not yet exactly a uniformly global company, as its product offerings and channel strategy differ notably within different markets. Not many customers can still integrate or use interchangeably MBS' Great Plains, Solomon, Axapta, and Navision product lines. Thus, while MBS gets distracted by its efforts to provide a clear and concise product roadmap for partners and prospects, as to neutralize significant overlaps in the applications and a hefty cost to maintain and enhance the products, other vendors will have been using that time to perfect their functional differentiations.

Many competitors have already come up with their products' Outlook integration (which is currently Microsoft CRM's strong selling feature) in addition to their compatibility with other e-mail clients and server platforms, and now have time to further establish their expertise in some vertical industries. If nothing else, Microsoft CRM remains both a threat and an opportunity for the most nimble mid-market CRM vendors. Microsoft's entry with CRM evangelism through an array of seminars nationwide has bolstered the market's awareness of the need for CRM applications. Given Microsoft's belated entry and still immature and unproven features without industry-specific versions and limited support for mobile (offline) users, mid-market CRM vendors such as Onyx, Pivotal, Kana, and E.piphany as well as many mid-market Microsoft technology-centric ERP vendors with native CRM capabilities (e.g., Epicor, Sage/Best Software, SYSPRO, ACCPAC, Exact Software, etc) might have acquired another life extension. They now have time to regroup and they have frenetically been redefining their value proposition.

How Scala Fits

Having said all the above, Microsoft might currently need all the help it can muster, particularly from renowned independent software vendors (ISVs). While it boasts over 100 ISV partners that will build advanced applications and solutions atop the Microsoft CRM platform, many of these are fledgling startups, with maybe the most honorable exceptions of Epicor and Scala. Further, Microsoft CRM is not yet available in Europe or almost anywhere else outside North America. Thus, Scala, with its main direct office coverage in Europe and the Far East, and through its network of partners and dealers in most remote, esoteric and still low-penetrated markets, and which delivers software and services that are available in over thirty languages in more than 140 countries, perfectly fits the description of an ideal Microsoft CRM promoter.

To refresh our memory, although the market turbulence during last few years has also taken its toll in the company's restructuring and cost-containment exercise, still, with estimated revenue of ~$74 million in 2002, a 4 percent growth over 2001, Scala remains a prominent mid-market enterprise applications provider. Another factor that may bode well for its future is its vast international coverage, and a broad geographic revenue mix (over 4,500 customers with over 7,500 sites worldwide), which not many (if any) peer vendors can tout. Scala has over 600 employees based in offices in over 30 countries and with local distributors increasingly handling the rest. As for the overall picture, the estimate is that more than two thirds of revenue comes from existing customers, with new business accounting for the rest.

The above facts have promoted Scala to a serious mid-market challenger, especially in emerging markets like Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and China (possibly the local market leader therein), given that Scala reported both growth and stable financial performance in 2001 and 2002 while many of its peers have seen a corresponding decline. In addition, the company continues to offer its products and services through the reseller channel/VARs, which has expanded lately, with 54 percent license revenue growth in 2002 and with a 34 percent growth in number of partners now amounting to over 140 partners worldwide.

Although its license revenue declined by 7 percent in 2002, the maintenance revenue increased by 23 percent, given that more than 90 percent of existing customers have been gladly paying for maintenance. This was, in part, due to an aggressive development program, which saw the release of iScala 2.1 mid-2002 (see Scala Shows Far More Than A Bit Of A Backbone) and a new version of iScala 2.2 being slated for the end of the third quarter 2003. From 2001 to the end of 2002, the company doubled its R&D headcount to over 200, plus 50 contractors, and geared up its in-house training center, the Scala University in Budapest, to train and certify its growing ranks of 140 resellers that accounted for 23 percent of its business in 2002. Contrary to many of its rivals, Scala has achieved this growth throughout eight consecutive profitable quarters through 2002. Further, Scala is one of only a few ERP vendors to publicly display its customer satisfaction records, which it claims have seen an average increase of 4.7 percent during 2002.

The former flagship Scala 5.1, a mature but less technically apt ERP product suite, has traditionally covered the full spread of core ERP modules, including logistics, manufacturing, financials, project management, and service management, with the indication of high levels of customer satisfaction. Like SYSPRO, Epicor Software, Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, and Exact Software, Scala's functionality is equitably solid in accounting, manufacturing, and material management areas. This is an advantage compared to competitive products that are either mainly strong in accounting (e.g, MBS Great Plains, Sage, ACCPAC, Coda, SunSystems, Agresso, etc.) or in manufacturing and distribution (e.g., Lilly Software, SoftBrands, or QAD).

Scala Product Strategy

Two and a half years ago, the company began redesigning its ERP software and building a new platform specifically for online collaboration. It has meanwhile packaged together the functionality required in one standard software system, which means a business can begin collaborating with its subsidiaries, customers, partners, and suppliers. To that end, iScala 2.1 is the successor product to Scala 5.1, since it contains all of the basic ERP functionality that was available in Scala 5.1 in addition to the collaborative capabilities inherent to the new XML web services-based design. Scala 5.1 was withdrawn from sale in December 2002, although existing customers will continue to receive support well into the future.

iScala 2.1 comes in two flavors to satisfy needs of both local mid-size businesses and of smaller global corporations (and their subsidiaries, divisions, and suppliers). The iScala Business Server is an entry-level producta collaborative ERP package for the medium-size, stand-alone business needing core ERP functionality without a need for high scalability and advanced security, and as a first step towards automating business processes across applications and with customers' or suppliers' systems. iScala Enterprise Server, on the other hand, is designed as a more complete collaborative ERP package for medium-size multinational companies or for the subsidiaries and divisions of larger enterprises. It has all the functionality of the iScala Business Server but adds scalability, business centralization capabilities and support for working across and supporting multiple sites and subsidiaries.

Thus, Scala prefers not to be simply perceived as a mid-market vendor per se, rather it targets two somewhat distinct mid-market segments: 1) mid-size units of large corporations, and 2) independent mid-sized enterprises. There are slight variations in the needs of the two mid-market types, since the corporate divisions typically have urgent connectivity needs such as processing multinational invoices, using integrated warehouse systems, or triggering automatic purchase or sales orders. Since its release, more than 200 customers have reportedly migrated to iScala 2.1. The next iScala 2.2 release is hailed as the biggest release of new functionality for more than ten years, and will have several modular or individual enhancements of interest to manufacturers, including asset management, contract management including support for leasing and rental, advanced service management, iScala Query Designer, several packaged connectivity solutions, graphical resource planning, iScala Business Intelligence Server, to name only some.

Further, Scala has long featured possibly the unique multi-language capabilities of its collaborative ERP software. Scala maintains a single set of application code for all its languagesmore than thirtycompared to other vendors who commonly support different software versions for different languages. Scala's product architecture, which enables a single version of the software to support multiple languages, means global companies can keep their maintenance costs down by, for example, running a single service center to support several countries. It also gives them flexibility to manage their global business more easily in a multilingual and multicultural environment, since Scala also provides telephone support in over fifteen different languages to support users worldwide.

To ensure that every new product is multilingual from the start of its lifecycle, translation into different languages is done in the software development process on a phrase-by-phrase basis to give accurate meaning in multiple languages. The multilingual capabilities are enhanced by the new Unicode technology that is used in iScala 2.1, allowing the combination of languages with different characters in a single installation. True multi-language technology like Unicode also allows a wide range of languages such as Chinese, Russian, or Arabic to be stored, displayed, and printed on the same page or even in the same field. The technology also gives Scala a significant technical advantage in that new developments and maintenance updates to Scala software only have to be developed in a single version, whereas Scala's competitors typically have to maintain multiple versions, one for each language.

Consequently, having long focused on the upper-end of the ERP mid-market, Scala has apparently demonstrated an understanding of this market's dynamics and its pragmatic requirements of robust multinational corporate functionality and intra-enterprise visibility within an inexpensive product, fast and simple implementations, and reliable service and support. The company has struck the value proposition of balancing business process standardization with the flexibility and autonomy of remote subsidiaries. Global companies should appreciate iScala's features such as simultaneous support for multiple accounting standards, enhanced security and usability features, and remote administration tools to manage distributed or local installation, which can often match or exceed the Tier 1 vendors' capabilities. Many of Scala's peer vendors require their customers to operate in a single language at each location because their applications are based on the technology unable hold more than one language in the same system.

Vertical Specialization

Scala's endeavor at some vertical specialization, operating with a wide range of specialist channel partners around the world, many of whom target specific application areas, such as the pharmaceuticals business (over 500 sites) and the hospitality industry (over 300 customers), is also commendable, although these are perceived and marketed as stand-alone solutions, separate from iScala. Thus, these solutions will have to inevitably migrate to the new iScala platform in the foreseeable future. A number of Scala customers work in discrete engineer-to-order (ETO) and make-to-order (MTO) manufacturing, and require full project-based accounting capabilities. Because one of the main businesses of these global companies is to manufacture and to manufacture in lower cost geographic locations, the vendor has made attempts to ensure that the iScala capabilities at least match the demands of the medium-to-small manufacturing subsidiary, whether it be for a "to stock" or "to order" manufacturing environment.

Therefore, iScala 2.1 presents an opportunity for third party specialists to create add-on modules providing functionality geared to a targeted market and meet the specific needs of a group of users. Look for Scala to develop ever-deeper and more vertically-oriented functionality via its partner network and based on the latest Microsoft .NET technology framework. Scala should indeed try to more aggressively animate its value added resellers (VARs) to deliver specific functionality to other verticals in the service and manufacturing domains.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/scala-and-microsoft-become-not-so-strange-crm-bedfellows-part-two-market-impact-continued-17047/

Cincom Asserts Expertise In CRM For Complex Manufacturers

2010-10-01T03:34:00.001-07:00

Cincom Systems, Inc. (www.cincom.com), a privately-held, Cincinnati, OH based provider of software solutions and services primarily to complex manufacturers, continues with perfecting its knowledge systems for sales, and customer relationship management (CRM). In September, the company announced the availability of its new CRM Solution for Complex Manufacturers. With some of its customers reportedly already asserting proposal times cut from five days to 15 minutes, product time-to-market reductions of as much as 70%, and 15% increases in business win rates, Cincom believes the new offering is arriving just in time for this market segment.

Cincom Manufacturing Business Solutions has spanned nearly four decades as a provider of solutions for manufacturers, and has always strived to provide its customers an evolutionary path through major technological changes, enabling them to keep pace without major disruption of their business. In recent years, Cincom has especially carved out expertise to satisfy the specific requirements of the complex manufacturing industry. Its knowledge of complex manufacturing has often ensured delivery of functional products bundled with rapid implementation resulting in one of the fastest Return-on-Investment (ROI) and one of the best customer service & support in the industry segment.

Complex manufacturers produce products that are of high variation, have complex features and options, and vary in end-user configuration. They consequently invest significant dollars in product design and have lengthy sales and manufacturing business processes, often requiring collaboration between the customer, sales representatives, and critical back-office experts. To that end, Cincom's CRM for Complex Manufacturers facilitates the real-time transfer of information and complex product knowledge for collaboration across the extended enterprise, and should especially be suited to organizations that seek to maintain complex selling relationships, such as businesses whose sales functions rely on channel partnerships or a distributed sales force. The solution is comprised of three components: Cincom's Knowledge Builder, Cincom's Sales Configurator, and Cincom's e-Channel. Purchased individually or as a total solution, the new Cincom CRM components were devised to provide the initial step for complex manufacturers who want to move their product life cycles closer to a mass customization model, in the quest for the ultimate combination of "custom made" and "mass production."

Cincom's Knowledge Builder was devised to simplify the most complex selling, while accelerating the sales cycle, broadening sales channels, and lowering the cost to sell. To that end, a manual process that took anywhere from a day to several days can now reportedly be accomplished in about one minute with the appropriate use of Knowledge Builder. Cincom's Knowledge Management (KM) technology provides the "intelligence" required to support the mass customization of products and services at the point of sale (POS). By providing intuitive rule creation and maintenance in an enterprise environment, companies should quickly and cost-effectively capture critical sales, engineering, and manufacturing knowledge for deployment across sales channels.

When products or services present customers with a complex set of choices, or where product components and pricing elements are subject to rapid change, requiring sales teams to have access to up-to-date configuration and pricing information, the Cincom CRM Solution for Complex Manufacturers comes into the picture to enable sales people and partners to establish smart sales processes worldwide. The e-Channel product enables companies with complex products and services to capture and distribute critical sale and product configuration knowledge across all sales channels. It supports direct and indirect sales channels, and it is a comprehensive interactive selling system for both networked and mobile users. The e-Channel Desktop module permits each sales agent to organize customer, product, pricing, and external information so that it is immediately accessible by anyone involved in the sales opportunity.

One of the most recent endorsements of the offering came in October, when TAFA, Inc., a Praxair Surface Technologies Company, announced it has completed the development phase of a new systems estimator based on Cincom Systems' Knowledge Builder application. The web-based program allows the user to create test configurations of automated thermal spray processing systems, and produce budgetary cost estimates to produce it, whereby the turnaround time to produce estimates has been slashed dramatically. Other notable recent customers of a similar profile have been Pellerin Milnor Corporation, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., American Power Conversion (APC), Greenheck Fan Corporation and Thyssen Aufzge Group.

This is Part One of a two-part analysis of recent Cincom news.

Part Two will detail the Challenges Cincom faces and make User Recommendations.

Market Impact

Despite current seemingly never-ending difficult economic times, the growth of complex contract-based manufacturing has still continued. This expansion has been fueled by a number of factors, among them the advent and a wide adoption of the Internet and consequent rise of e-commerce, as well as the trend in manufacturing toward mass customization, all resulting with pleasing the customer and significantly reducing all elements of the lead time, but without serious sacrifices of the manufacturer. Further, while the commercial complex manufacturing industry may also suffer nowadays owing to the painful recession, it is quite the opposite case in the defense and other government-related industries, partly in light of possible confrontation with rogue countries abroad. Many enterprise applications vendors have spotted the opportunity and have lately been scrambling to address the exacting requirements of the project-based complex industries.

As already indicated, complex manufacturers, such as, e.g., aerospace & defense (A&D), high-tech or electronic manufacturers, must handle complex production processes and large, complex supplier networks. Sophisticated customer interactions (e.g., order/contract definition and management applications) are required, while customer service needs are also oriented toward hands-on contract management and cost reporting. Frequent changes force contract supplier engineers and OEM engineers to be in a constant collaborative communication throughout the design and production cycle of the unit. One of the most manual functions in a supplier organization have traditionally been the sell-side Request for Quote (RFQ) management, which usually revolves around a few key expert individuals that have direct knowledge of the product or who can manually pull together the diverse information sources into a unified document, as contract proposals include quotations, pricing, detailed product information, data sheets, and CAD drawings.

On the other hand, in almost all industrial manufacturing segments, the pressure to reduce lead times has become a constant and ever-expanding concern. Depending on product complexity, some parts/sub-assemblies might be quoted immediately, while others have to be highly specified. Developing a contract proposal requires many levels of checking and re-checking customer process requirements and facilities capabilities, as well as preliminary design work and sourcing of specific components or materials. The process typically goes through much iteration every time the customer uncovers a new requirement or constraint. The labor-intensive nature of this process has often resulted in lengthy estimating cycles, which have in turn often translated to lost business opportunities. By harnessing an enabling technology to make everybody work smarter rather than harder, complex manufacturers could e.g., reduce the time it takes to create contract estimates so that the same number of people could generate more proposals faster and thereby handle more sales opportunities without expanding staff. The combination of outsourced manufacturing with increasingly common configure-to-order (CTO) or build-to-order (BTO) production environments is further making unit-level data management an increasingly high priority for contract manufacturers and the companies that retain them.

Cincom seems to have responded to many nitty-gritty's of the above industries, since it has long developed sharp vertical engineer-to-order (ETO) complex manufacturing functionality, long before most of its peers had grasped the concept of vertical focus. By delivering cutting-edge functionality pertinent to complex discrete manufacturing and maintenance, repair & overhaul (MRO) enterprises, Cincom has made its name especially within the A&D segment. Additionally, with its iC Solutions (formerly called Acquire) product suite for sales force automation (SFA) and bid management functionality that is well-attuned to the CRM needs of complex manufacturers (and some non-manufacturing industries as well), Cincom struck a differentiating value proposition a long time ago.

Fundamentally, its current strategy seems to be sound in that it will continue to exploit complex discrete manufacturing functionality and service & support as its primary strengths and marketing means. While competitive costs (low and flexible software license pricing and implementation costs) and outstanding global service (proven fast implementations and customer loyalty) will remain important requirements for success, particularly in the lower end of the market, vertical focus will remain the key factor for survival. Winning enterprise applications will demonstrate deep industry functionality and tight integration with best-of-bread bolt-on' products in a particular vertical.

Software that combines industry-specific functionality with the flexibility to accommodate each company's unique processes goes a long way toward improving the functional fit and the speed of implementation, with accompanying quick ROI. This also means adding sector-specific, fine-grained front-office capabilities such as billing for utility companies or, as in Cincom's case, the provision of customer communication solutions and services, centered on the lifecycle of customer interaction, including pre-sales, ordering, fulfillment, servicing, and up-selling situations, outside of the conventional realm of an ERP system.

Responding to Market Pressure

With the newly released CRM offering, Cincom has been responding to the recent entry of former pure enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors to the CRM market space. While the pure CRM suite vendors have lately been re-architecting their offerings as to easily link to disparate back-office systems, several of the major ERP players have lately increased their CRM market presence mainly through the acquisition of former CRM application vendors, including Baan's acquisition of Aurum, PeopleSoft's acquisition of Vantive and J.D. Edwards' acquisition of YOUCentric (see PeopleSoft Buys CRM specialist Vantive for $433 Million and J.D. Edwards Fires Siebel, Hires YOU). In addition, Oracle, SAP and Intentia have painstakingly gradually introduced their own CRM application suites, which have been increasingly attaining the full-fledged CRM product statuses. The focus of these ERP vendors has, however, so far primarily been on providing contact and opportunity management and after-sale customer service/call center applications along with their traditional ERP offering.

Applications for customer interaction to satisfy to order' requirements have also been increasingly pursued lately, though, as very recently, mid-October, illustrated in J.D. Edwards' release of Advanced Order Configurator (AOC), the newest addition to the company's CRM product line, intended to accelerate the made-to-order (MTO) product purchase process. AOC reportedly offers automated catalog translation, compatibility with AutoCAD products, and a point-and-click Rules Manager, to provide sales representatives and customers the ability to visualize different variations of a product in real time. Additionally, AOC should enable users to review and verify product configurations from remote desktops and laptops, or via the Internet or direct enterprise network connections. The product will supposedly operate either as an independent application, or, more logically, integrated with its ERP siblings, J.D. Edwards ERP 8.0 or OneWorld Xe.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/cincom-asserts-expertise-in-crm-for-complex-manufacturers-16811/

Difficult Conversations: Discussing CRM with Your CEO Part Two: Elements of the Discussion

2010-10-01T03:33:00.004-07:00

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems can boost a company's competitive performance by providing customers with much needed consistency and unity. Because the chief executive officer (CEO) plays a key role in the successful deployment of any implementation, the nature of CRM must be accurately communicated to the CEO.

Part Two of the series Difficult Conversations: Positioning Your CEO in a CRM Implementation.

As discussed in Part One of this series, because of the general political process involved in initiative generation and the assumptions the c-level may hold, explaining the purpose and function of a CRM to a CEO may not be an easy task. Part Two of this series provides a general outline for this discussion with the CEO. This approach will offer a logical sequence of topics that will form the basis for a script. It should be noted that this discussion is likely to involve several interactions and may involve different audiences as the topics are explored. Most importantly, this section concludes with a description of what actions the CEO must take as a result of this dialogue.

In Search of a Definition

The CRM industry is largely driven by the voice of technology. As the industry has matured, vendor influence has become more pervasive. Virtually every CRM topic web site and white paper is derived from a vendor perspective. As such, the definition or spin given to CRM reflects what the vendor would have the end user organization believe are the "must have" attributes of the system.

Over the eight years or so that CRM terminology has existed, there has never been a universally accepted definition. If the industry cannot agree on a definition, then what does the end user organization infer when management uses this term to launch an initiative? Most likely, each person is using his or her own perception of what the term and the initiative mean to his or her area of responsibility and to the organization at a whole. Thus, management is using the buzzwords of CRM, thinking they are communicating the same message when in fact they are not on the same page—much less the same chapter of the book. In many companies, the misuse of the CRM term has led to it being ostracized from the organizational vocabulary. Adherents to the concept are thereby forced to use new terminology to avoid association with the now discarded idea of CRM. This is a sad state of affairs for CRM advocates, and is an indictment of the industry for poisoning the pond.

For example, what does being customer-centric really mean? How do you define loyalty? Which metrics would measure whether the organization possesses these attributes or at what level?

For the purposes of this paper, CRM will be defined as follows:

* CRM is an operational strategy that commits the organization to a focus on customer profitability and life cycle value as a means for achieving long-term profitable growth and shareholder value.
* As a technology component of this strategy, CRM provides a complementary set of tools that facilitate processes that touch the customer, such that the total customer experience is maximized in a manner that leverages profitability and lifetime value.
* CRM technology provides a database which includes everything the organization knows about the customer relative to interactions, profiles, profit, and behavior. Access (analytical tools) to this database allows the organization to identify how to profitably serve the customer and anticipate future needs.

This definition clearly positions technology as an enabler of an operational strategy. However, industry hype would have the end user falsely believe that the technology is the driver of operational advantage. If CRM is not an operational strategy, then the technology must have magical qualities that create benefits due to its power and capabilities. One should not dismiss the potential for benefits of scale and pure automation; however, are these commensurate with the price, and is this really the objective of the technology? A pure technology deployment may garner a return on investment (ROI), but then one is simply "paving cow paths" and it becomes analogous to using a tank to kill a mosquito.

The Dilemma

From an organizational perspective, CRM is a disruptive concept, and it is expensive to deploy and support. Senior management tends to recoil at the cost, yet cutting short the strategy phase and budgeting has a consistent track record of failure. The underlying issue here is that without a clear sense of outcomes, it is difficult to generate the commitment to do the right things for the right reasons.

When the initiative is funded, the CEO, the chief operating officer (COO), and the board probably have different ideas about what they authorized, and believe that they have empowered someone to pursue CRM as a means to slay the dragons that threaten the organization. Having completed this step, they may not be receptive to the idea that their homework is incomplete and that they hold the keys of success or failure. This situation is all too common, and the fact that it is a CIO or another individual that is charged with implementation makes little difference. The owner of the initiative is confronted with the dilemma of proceeding and hoping for the best or suggesting the need for a strategy with the person who is positioned as the keeper of organizational strategy—all ingredients for a difficult discussion!

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/difficult-conversations-discussing-crm-with-your-ceo-part-two-elements-of-the-discussion-18822/

Lawson Software’s CRM and ASP Moves – Wise, Bold, Injudicious, Enforced, or Something Else?

2010-10-01T03:33:00.003-07:00

On April 10, Siebel Systems, Inc., the world's leading supplier of CRM software, and Lawson Software, the supplier of Internet-enabled enterprise applications, announced a global distribution agreement in which Lawson will integrate and sell its new line of enterprise applications with Siebel's comprehensive suite of eBusiness applications for sales, marketing, and customer service.

Lawson's worldwide sales force will sell this complete family of eBusiness solutions and eServices along with industry-specific technical training, consulting and support to both mid-sized firms and large enterprises. The combined product suite, marketed as a component of 'lawson.insight' product suite, will be available in the second quarter of 2000. Both Siebel and Lawson are committed to ensure the success of every customer implementation.

Siebel eBusiness Applications integrated with lawson.insight's Self-Evident Applications and transaction engines will become a primary Lawson product line comprising sales, marketing, and customer service, as well as enterprise functions. This combined solution will let Lawson customers move from a process-centric to customer-centric focus and gain insight into every aspect of their business across all channels - a compelling advantage in the highly competitive "new economy."

USinternetworking Inc., a leading application service provider (ASP) that currently provides an integrated Siebel and Lawson application solution via the Internet, believes users will welcome the combined solution. "USinternetworking manages both lawson.insight and Siebel eBusiness Applications, and the demand we see for both companies' software applications indicates that this integrated solution will have strong appeal to a significant group of clients worldwide," said Christopher R. McCleary, chairman and CEO, USinternetworking.

By partnering with Lawson, Siebel Systems gains full integration with a leading provider of enterprise applications comprising financial services, human resources, procurement, distribution, and analytics. The companies' combined resources will let Lawson quickly deliver a comprehensive solution that satisfies the needs of more than 3,000 Lawson customers worldwide, in fast growing industry sectors such as healthcare, retail, and professional services. Ongoing development efforts will be conducted by the partners to support customers of the lawson.insight joint solution.

Earlier in March, at its user group conference in San Diego, Lawson Software unveiled plans to re-brand its products and make them available from third-party Application Service Providers (ASPs). Lawson will re-brand its traditional suites as e-business engines, Self-Evident Applications (SEAs), and extensions under the name 'lawson.insight'.

Lawson will roll out a web-based interface for its enterprise software called eConsul, and its ERP packages will be hosted by ASPs including USinternetworking Inc., Annapolis, Md. The move will give Lawson's channel partners new opportunities in a variety of vertical industries that will need customized solutions. The company has already started training channel partners to take advantage of new software models.

Market Impact

The first part of the news is not a shocking surprise. We already expressed our concerns regarding Lawson's original decision to deliver an internally developed CRM solution (See TEC's note from February 18 "Lawson Software: Self-Evidently Thriving on Innovations"), as the task has proven to be a tall order even for its bigger and stronger competitors.

Somewhat intriguing is, however, the fact that only now has Lawson's management conceded the initial error in judgment and drifted from its original CRM strategy. It announced last fall that it was developing a sales force automation tool as the first component of a planned CRM product line. The sales application was scheduled for beta-testing this spring and shipment in the summer. The solution was even demonstrated at IEC Exposition in New York at the beginning of March. Unfortunately, the company belatedly realized it would take too long to build the CRM suite internally. The sales automation package apparently addressed only one-fifth of the functionality needed to match an existing suite such as Siebel's. Therefore this sudden change of plan in style of "if you cannot beat them, join them".

To err is human. The time and resources have indeed been wasted, but the damage is a far cry from bring irreparable. Lawson is not the only business applications vendor that has signed a reseller deal with Siebel. Siebel holds a reputation of a 'partnership-friendly' vendor given the fact that it partners with a myriad of other vendors. J.D. Edwards & Co. has resold Siebel's sales automation software since last spring and in February said it would also start marketing the rest of Siebel's CRM packages. Great Plains has even claimed the completion of the first phase of integrating Siebel within its eEnterprise product.

The partnership between Siebel and Lawson could be very interesting, as both have exciting products and technologies. Siebel will gain access to Lawson's large customer base within specific industries that have not yet been made aware of Siebel's capabilities and products. Lawson, on the other hand, is betting on the notion that one cannot go wrong in selling Siebel's products. The existence of common ASP partners like Usinternetworking is also beneficial.

Yet, one should never expect a flawless and quick integration effort. One issue will be the user interface mix of a future product suite - the 'same look-and-feel', that Lawson has been able to proudly exhibit in the past will be impaired to a degree. Siebel's interface, while indisputably intuitive and compelling, is by no means so 'self-evident' like Lawson's that extensive training is not needed. Another thing to bear in mind is the lack of Siebel's vertical focus within some of the industries that are Lawson's stronghold, e.g., healthcare and professional services.

As for Lawson's decision to somewhat downplay its traditional client/server business model, we believe there are a number of reasons to support it.

The first is the growing market awareness of the cost ramifications of implementing and maintaining the traditional client/server architecture of the past.

The second reason is the Internet enablement and compelling user interface of Lawson's applications. Lawson has never been a staunch proponent of fat-client technology. On the contrary, it has long been promoting its Self-Evident Applications (SEA) initiative, with the idea to tremendously simplify the learning curve required by users. The need for this becomes more obvious with the increase of number of internal and external users that use the product on a self-service basis.

The third reason is Lawson's initial success in its ASP quest. It claims to have seven hosting partners, with a several dozens customers worldwide.

While we believe that Lawson is making a brave move, we also think it is one of the few ERP companies that can afford to make such a differentiating move. Lawson's main customer base is within the healthcare, financial, and professional services space, and sells mainly to smaller firms that are generally more attracted to the notion of turning over their applications to someone else to run, while they focus solely on their core competencies. Moreover, Lawson's software consists mainly of financial, procurement, and human resource transaction systems, the ERP components that customers are generally more eager to outsource.

Lawson, however, may feel a pinch in the immediate future should it decide to deliver its product only in the ASP mode. While CIOs make outsourcing software a serious consideration for any future IT plans, few are willing to jump on the bandwagon just yet. Also, customers like to be given a choice, and some may not appreciate having only one option, particularly while the market is in its nascent stage. Therefore we have got Lawson's assurances that it will continue to deliver its products in the traditional mode too for the foreseeable future.

As a relevant example, while Infinium Software, a vendor with similar product offerings and customer base to Lawson, has been forking out an enormous amount of resources in its own ASP operation, it is not giving up on its conventional service execution model as yet.

We believe that the idea of buying software services "across the wire" instead of in-house implementations will not become the most common model for at least 36 months. Notwithstanding, Lawson's early entry strategy may play well into this adoption phase on the condition it can weather the interim period.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/lawson-software-s-crm-and-asp-moves-wise-bold-injudicious-enforced-or-something-else-15769/

CRM, Success, and Best Practices: A Wake Up Call Part Two: Modeling Success with Senior Management and CRM Culture

2010-10-01T03:33:00.001-07:00

In the previous article of this series (see Searching And Establishing The Business Parameters Of CRM) it was established that customer relationship management (CRM) is an industry where the technology has outpaced the sophistication of the user community to properly utilize the tools; particularly in the sense of enterprise deployment. Specifically, several statistically-based studies consistently identified a relationship regarding the existence of a coherent CRM strategy with success. Currently, the industry is operating with a sense of best practices that focus attention on deployment methodologies that are necessary, but not correlated with success. Thus, a new framework is needed to address these findings. This final article in the two-part series on CRM and best practices will introduce a best practices model. It will address strategy and organizational aspects of CRM. It will highlight deployment practices and will integrate these into a self-assessment format. The interactive assessment will be presented at the end of this article.

This is part two of a two-part note.

Part one discussed how to approach CRM as a business strategy.

Part two will describe a points-based assessment approach as well as an interactive assessment to achieve this goal.

The Model

The statistical studies indicated the need for senior management leadership in terms of

* A commitment to embracing CRM as a strategic and operational philosophy.

* The creation of a compelling message to the organization that addresses the necessity for change and the consequences of not acting on these issues.

* The establishment of a change process for moving from internally focused performance metrics to customer behavior based metrics.

* The dedication of staffing and funding commensurate with initiative needs and its importance to the organization.

Although CRM success is certainly dependent on these senior management actions, for CRM to be effective as an operational strategy, it requires a receptive culture that subscribes to key operating principles such as

1. Results Orientation
Excellence is dependent on balancing and satisfying the needs of all relevant constituencies, shareholders, employees, customers, and partners.

2. Customer Focus
The customer is the final arbiter of the quality and value of the product and service. Performance is best optimized by acquiring, developing, and retaining profitable customers.

3. Leadership
The behavior of a company's leaders creates a clarity and unity of purpose within the organization and a culture in which people excel.

4. Management by Processes and Facts
Effectiveness is leveraged when companies understand and manage inter-related activities and operational decisions are made using reliable information.

5. People Development and Involvement
The full potential of the employees of a company are best released through shared values, a culture of trust, and investment in the development of employees.

6. Continuous Improvement
Long-term performance is best achieved through a sharing of knowledge and improvement through closed loop processes.

7. Partner Development
The creation of mutual benefits is the framework for long-term productive relationships.

Components of the Best Practice and Assessment Model

The Best Practice and Assessment Model is organized into nine sections. Each section addresses culture- and initiative-oriented issues because for CRM to be effective, it must not only be implemented correctly but it also must be integrated into the fabric of the organization so that it has a chance to be understood and grow. The top six sections are primarily oriented toward the culture, while the bottom three sections address implementation issues. Figure 1 provides a graphical version of the model. It is then followed by the description and rationale for each section.

Figure 1: Best Practice and Assessment Model

Policy and Strategy

These elements reflect how the organization intends to implement its mission and vision. It is supported by relevant policies, plans, objectives, and processes. These materials provide the framework for initiatives and impact both top and bottom line results. Starting a CRM initiative in an environment where policies skew behavior toward low risk and cost containment is analogous to launching a carrier-based plane without an engine; it will clear the deck but will quickly sink into the sea of bureaucracy.

Employees

How a company hires, manages, develops, and trusts its employees impacts the degree to which the full potential of the organization will be achieved. Many organizational studies have demonstrated a significant correlation between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The heart of CRM is the entirety of the customer experience. In most cases, this includes either the productivity or interface with employees.

Customers

The heart of CRM of course is the customer. However, saying that the organization is customer centric versus its behavior can be two radically different perspectives. This section emphasizes the elements that would broadly be interpreted as being consistent with the best practices of CRM as an operational strategy.

Partners

A fundamental tenant of CRM is to provide a consistent, seamless, and transparent interface with customers across channels. Partners must be considered an extension of the organization, which means that they need to be an integral part of the best practices model.

Processes

How a company designs, manages, and improves its processes in support of its customer value generation strategy will ultimately define the return generated for shareholders. However, mere process redesign or automation will not guarantee success. Success relates to how the processes align with each other and the overall motivation and spirit of the organization.

Results

Ultimately, the focus of any CRM initiative must be results. CRM represents an enormous investment in systems, processes, and people: there must be a return. The question is, did the company define success up-front and did it achieve what it set out to do.

Implementation Perspective

The last three sections of the model are framed by a double line to emphasize that these three elements must work in unison to create the necessary combination of decisions and actions to generate a successful CRM initiative. The double arrows denote an ongoing interaction with various elements and aspects of the enterprise to achieve this purpose. The three elements are leadership, program management, and change management; each discipline provides a necessary but not sufficient component of success. This helps to explain the relatively low success rates within the industry. When CRM is approached from the perspective of technology only or project only, it is destined to fail. There are few truly customer centric organizations and CRM is not a natural extension for any organization that is structured along functional lines. It is an organizational change issue and senior management must be engaged in the process not merely supportive of it.

Leadership

Senior management must be committed to making CRM the operational strategy for the company and be ready to place their reputation on it. Anything less is unlikely to endure the personal investment required to rally the organization around this vision and make it successful. Senior management must provide the directional vision for the initiative and provide ongoing guidance and resources to see it through.

Program Management

The use of the term program management is deliberate. Program management typically is used on multiphase projects and implies a more complex environment and the accountability for achieving results. Any CRM project that resembles an enterprise initiative requires the skill and sophistication of program management.

Change Management

As outlined above, CRM is a change management issue for any organization attempting to embrace it. CRM is a business philosophy first and then a deployment of technology. Change management must be disciplined and follow best practices similar to any other project based activity. The change management aspect is often better served by treating it as a parallel set of activities that must tie together at the program management level. This is another reason why a program manager is highly desirable for these initiatives.

Success then (based on achieving tangible and measurable results) is achieved through institutionalizing the CRM philosophy and operational reality through a carefully articulated implementation process that requires the three elements of senior management leadership, program management and change management. It is the intention of the model not to be prescriptive as to a specific methodology to get there but rather to better understand the destination and the tools that need to be in place to get to some desired level of achievement. Remember, CRM is a journey, not a destination. However, on the road one needs signs to make sure that you are on course; likewise, successful implementations require a distinct and unique definition of results for each phase—without these, an organization is likely to lose focus.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/crm-success-and-best-practices-a-wake-up-call-part-two-modeling-success-with-senior-management-and-crm-culture-17573/

Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Proc, and SCM Unite! A Series Study: Baan and Parent Company, Invensys

2010-10-01T03:30:00.000-07:00

In the early 90's, ERP came of age. Everyone had to have the functionality ERP packages promised. Since then, as Web and Internet technologies have matured, CRM on the front end, and e-Procurement and Supply Chain Management on the back end, these packages have come into their own.

Now in 2001, the catchphrase is "Collaborative Commerce," where we unite all of the above elements into one coherent system within and between organizations. This is the Big Kahuna, the zero latency, fully transparent, 360 degree exposure that is the stuff systems integrators dream of. Is it here? Are the technologies mature enough? Simple enough? In this part of the series, we take a look at the effort Baan and its new parent company, Invensys, are making in the push.

This, the third of a series of articles on Collaborative Commerce (C-Commerce) takes a look at the effort Baan and its new parent company, Invensys, are making in the push.

The first examined what it is and can be.

The second looked at J.D. Edwards.

A Look at Baan and Invensys

During much of 2000, in a series of TEC articles written by P. J. Jakovljevic, we all got the sense that Baan was in serious trouble. Mr. Jakovljevic noted that Europe's number two ERP vendor had been encountering sagging revenues and experienced seven quarterly losses in a row, all stemming from a seeming inability to properly digest and synthesize the corporate acquisitions it had made in the previous several years. These acquisitions were: Berclain, a Supply Chain Management (SCM) vendor, 1996; Beologic, a product configurator vendor, 1997, Aurum Software, a Sales Force Automation (SFA) vendor, 1997, and Caps Logistics, a transportation and distribution planning and management vendor, 1998. For more info see Baan - What Will The Future In Invensys' Stable Bring? Part 1: About Baan.

Mr. Jakovljevic particularly noted Baan's acquisition of Aurum, and suggested that if it wanted to survive as an independent ERP and e-Business force, or if it were to position itself for a takeover, it would be best to, among other things, divest itself of Aurum and its holdings (only at that stage when they did not have an imminent buyer!). With both the CEO and CFO of Baan gone in abrupt resignations, it seemed that Baan had some critical strategic thinking and moving to do to turn the ship around.

Note: You can access these articles by doing a search on "Baan".

Invensys Sweeps in and Clears out the Cobwebs

Invensys plc, long focused on automation and controls for manufacturing and industrial companies, made a surprising cash offer for Baan in June 2000. With what they were calling a 'Sensor to Boardroom' move, Invensys envisioned being the provisioner of automation and productivity tools from "web site to factory floor." They established a new division called ISS (Invensys Software and Systems), swept Baan under their arm, and started running at full tilt to show the world how they could bring the Baan and Invensys universes together.

Strategic Decisions and Acquisitions

Both Baan and Invensys moved quickly. Baan made a couple of moves around the same time as the takeover bid was happening: they negotiated a strategic alliance with Seagate Software (now known as Crystal Decisions) to make that company's Seagate Info their enterprise reporting solution, and they established a reseller and development alliance agreement with Top Tier, a maker of Enterprise Integration Portal (EIP) software.

In August 2000, Robert Karulf was named to lead a new CRM division, to be based in Golden, Colorado. Bruce Henderson, division chief executive of ISS, noted: "Mr. Karulf's appointment demonstrates Invensys' commitment to growing the customer relationship management (CRM) segment of Baan's e-enterprise business." Baan's president, Laurens van der Tang, said, "This appointment creates a dedicated CRM business unit that sharpens our focus on this important e-business market segment. We continue to be committed to delivering integrated enterprise solutions from front office to back office."

Additional moves in the ensuing months solidified the notion that Baan was in the C-Commerce game. In November 2000, Baan announced the establishment of a strategic partnership with Business Objects for E-Business Intelligence (management reporting and decision support tools).

In January 2001, Baan unveiled a suite of products, called iBaan, which is fully web-based across the entire integrated Baan. They released iBaan OpenWorld 2.0, including a new XML-based framework as "the embedded integration technology for its new generation iBaan suite of Internet-enabled value web collaboration solutions." The suite includes multiple components, with the aim of delivering Business Object Interfaces (BOI's) to integrate Baan solutions with 3rd-party solutions via graphical data mapping.

They established iBaan Portal, designed to provide employees with customized views of Enterprise-specific, web-based information. They also announced a new suite called iBaan Collaboration, a set of Internet-enabled tools designed to support "rapid configuration of open, flexible components to support emerging collaborative commerce business models." Pre-designed "collaboration templates" focus on collaboration efforts in the Supply Chain and Logistics spaces.

In February 2001, Baan added iBaan E-Service Remote, a web-based solution that enables a company's field force with the ability to document field actions and results on a laptop, PDA, or desktop computer for later synching with the main database.

The Vision

Baan is now iBaan, fully focused on the Internet via Portals and web technologies, across CRM, ERP, and SCM spaces. Every product has been renamed with a leading 'i'. The list includes:

* iBaan Sales - Including ERP, Product Configurator and Pricing Modeler, Sales, and Marketing pieces

* iBaan Procurement - Including ERP and E-Procurement modules

* iBaan Planning - Including ERP and SCM pieces iBaan Distribution

* iBaan Finance

* iBaan Service - including multi-channel contact center, a knowledge base, the ability to accept, track, and intelligently route service requests, and iBaan E-Service Remote, as mentioned above.

In addition:

* iBaan Portal - Enterprise portal for corporate information for employees

* iBaan Business Intelligence - Including "Enterprise Reporting" from Crystal Decisions and "Tactical" Reporting from Business Objects.

Not to be left out of the mix are the pieces that support the outside world; to help the universe of third-parties work in tandem with Baan (or should I say, iBaan):

* iBaan B2B Server - XML and Document Repository. Can either be used EDI-style (like a mailbox where messages are stored between partners), or in "push" or "pull" mode for information sharing;

* iBaan Collaboration - Streamlined application links along the Demand and Supply Chain

* iBaan OpenWorld - Business process and application integration levels of inter-communication.

How Complete The Vision?

What seems to have happened is that Baan, more than anything, has been organized and motivated by Invensys to "go for it," to go for the half-vision they were trying to promulgate in the press and the industry through the half-hearted and not-so-warmly received product rollout of Baan FrontOffice. It's quite possible that the top guard were, themselves, unsure of stepping beyond the safety net of Baan's stronghold in ERP. But Tender Feet were shown the door, and Men Who Walk Over Hot Coals came in with the Invensys wind. Refocused, re-energized, and going for the 'Net. (see, Baan Achieves A Speedy Recovery Despite The Tough Times).

Now, that's all well and good. But the add-on products are not fundamentally changed from what they were a year ago. Baan still has Aurum at the core of their Sales Force Automation pieces, Apropos Technologies at the core of their customer service and support offerings, a fairly weak, non-real-time field force solution, Berclain at the heart of their SCM tools, and not one but two Business Intelligence tools from two different vendors, Crystal Decisions and Business Objects. TEC doesn't sense that all systems are assimilated into Baan R&D hands and are being given equal treatment. And, still no native HR/payroll solution, a surprising and lasting gap in their product line that prevents them from stamping the "One Stop Shop" logo on their iBaan suite.

We applaud, however, their aggressive move to allow third-parties to come to the iBaan show through iBaan B2B Server, Collaboration, and OpenWorld. These pieces are welcome and necessary in the C-Commerce world of interconnectivity. See, It Is Possible - SAP And Baan Strange Bedfellows.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/collaborative-commerce-erp-crm-e-proc-and-scm-unite-a-series-study-baan-and-parent-company-invensys-16474/

CRM 2.0

2010-08-24T21:26:00.001-07:00

The cornerstone of their CRM offering is a lower cost of ownership specially for existing J.D.Edwards back office application customers. They claim to achieve such advantage through a thorough integration based on the company's XPI (eXtended Process Integration) technology the company's integration platform that has been enabled to support the evolving Web Services interoperability standards, and with XBPs (eXtended Business Processes), a set of pre-defined business processes designed to expedite the connection with disparate systems and reduce costs, and its Data Model Inheritance capabilities.

The company has made an attempt to alleviate the inherent integration intricacy by embedding Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) into its J.D. Edwards 5 (since June 2002) product through its XPI integration layer though. The idea — to spare customers from investing in third-party EAI products to link disparate best-of-breed systems together — is attractive, but mostly to more agile and risk-taking companies, which number has recently been rapidly dwindling.

In a full J.D. Edwards scenario, companies can connect J.D. Edwards CRM 2.0 to their J.D.Edwards Supply Chain and ERP applications and benefit from a fully integrated front/back office system.

J.D Edwards' aim is to facilitate internal and external collaboration especially within the mid-market companies.

CRM 2.0 Enhancements

J.D Edwards has specially focused on the enhancement of its Service Management module as they predict a rising demand on this sector. The delivered portal solution would allow suppliers to access client's inventory and order size data. CRM 2.0 captures sales information and feeds it into Demand Consensus, creating a more precise forecast.

Among other features, CRM 2.0 provides Mobile sales capabilities with synchronization abilities through a technological partnership with industry leader in mobilizing enterprise data: "Synchrologic". J.D. Edwards utilizes Synchrologic Data Sync, a component of Synchrologic Mobile Suite. Both Internet connection and CD Rom medium can be used to keep mobile salespeople up-to-date with their office CRM database.

On another view, CRM 2.0 integrates the Marketing Automation capabilities of Aprimo to further enhance its marketing functionalities. Aprimo Marketing includes a suite of products for marketing operations including Strategic Planner, Marcom Manager, Financial Manager, and Event Manager, and a suite of products for customer communications including Direct Marketer, Lead Manager, and Web Response Manager.

Aprimo's flagship product is Aprimo Marketing, a web-based platform that lets marketers manage direct and e-mail marketing campaigns, sales leads, events, finances, web responses, and marketing communications and planning.

Market and Sales Prospects

The acquisition of YOUcentric (CRM) about 1 year ago by J.D. Edwards's set the stage for this announcement (see J.D. Edwards Fires Siebel, Hires YOU). Joel Reed, Director of Product Marketing and Karl Johnson, Vice President of CRM Strategy, announced that they have secured more than one hundred deals worldwide. More than half of J.D. Edwards deals where made from installed ERP customer base. J.D. Edwards is considering vendors like SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Siebel as its main competitors. Nevertheless, J.D. Edwards's offering is more catered for the mid-market and as such it is more a player in the range of Intentia, IFS, Remedy, Saratoga, and Onyx. However, J.D. Edwards' functional scope is now undeniably large, as it offers almost about everything from traditional ERP to full web-based collaborative modules for CRM, SCM, and optimization at both strategic and tactical level.

The real challenge for J.D. Edwards as a relative newcomer to the CRM arena is to demonstrate its 200 enhancements and features as real improvements and that it is moving their CRM offering to a more mature stage.

J.D. Edwards' principals are strongly emphasizing on the integration ability of their CRM application with other existing customer's back-office applications rather than demonstrating the ability of their CRM application to cover all the functionalities that customers require for their front-office workflow. The question is can it compete with a best of breed CRM application like Siebel?

Market Impact

Last year, J.D Edwards announced its plan to start coding integration for demand-forecasting and order-promising features available in the company's supply chain suite. An order promise feature determines exactly when, and at what cost, a customer's order can be filled. J.D. Edwards' collaborative commerce product set brings together Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), and Supplier Relationship Management SRM, with traditional CRM functions. YOUcentric has provided J.D Edwards with the missing CRM functions. By combining its enterprise resource planning (ERP), advanced planning and scheduling, and supplier relationship management applications, J.D. Edwards is tapping in what most analysts predict as the future growth area: the Enterprise suite offerings.

In a previous teleconference, Ed McVaney, the Chairman, CEO, President, and Co-Founder of J.D. Edwards claimed that customers want a broader, deeper version and vision of CRM than that which is propagated today (and which he called "CRM Lite.") Stating that Sales Force Automation, and Marketing Campaign Management, and Contact Center and Customer Self-Service functionality, and Product Configuration, and Business Intelligence and those sorts of things satisfied only "part of the need for manufacturing and distribution customers," he's looking forward to providing customers exposure into the complete supply chain with such functionality as order Status, Self-Quoting, ATP (Available To Promise), shipping and delivery status, Joint Planning, graphical configuration of products, customer "dossiers," and even a customer view into Accounts Receivable. He called it "Total CRM Relationships," which, he says is much broader than the traditional view of CRM. Ed McVaney retired from J.D. Edwards in January 2002, and was replaced with Bob Dutkowsky.

No need to say that J.D. Edwards like many other ERP vendors has foreseen the importance of the CRM market and its integration to back-office systems. Most analysts are forecasting that through 2006, ERP revenue growth rates would be somewhere around 10% compounded annually. However, of this, the majority of revenue will come from SCM and CRM (customer relationship management) modules.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/is-j-d-edwards-s-crm-2-0-with-more-than-200-enhancements-good-news-16918/

Interface Software Expands Its CRM Functionality

2010-08-24T21:25:00.003-07:00

Early this year, TEC reviewed InterAction CRM software from Interface Software for its data quality features, which play an important role in customer retention. While our previous review indicated a lack of new CRM features, Interface Software is now striking back with additional modules to meet specific professional service automation (PSA) vertical needs.

InterAction 5 was developed to provide additional functionality to further enhance collaborative project engagement that links project stake holders to the work being performed. Other collaborative and case management issues that law firms use to leverage contacts and expertise around the case and the customer, and opportunities for management to predict future revenues are also notable enhancements. InterAction 5 encompasses the market requirements for broader customer resource management (CRM) and social networking functionality. As such the software fits well with the overall culture and workflow practices of PSA and law firms. Professionals can keep their favorite Outlook Interface Software running while taking advantage of extra CRM functionality of InterAction 5.

InterAction CRM helps professionals not only to centralize their data into a single data repository to create better relationship building, but it also helps to improve the revenue generation capabilities of professionals. Interface Software's new add-on modules were released early in the second quarter of 2004 and are sold separately.

Product Definition and Market Impact

The biggest obstacle using CRM in a professional services work environment, like that of law firms, is to expect dramatic process change in a professional, hectic workflow. The majority of law firms, however, need to consolidate their client's data and to establish a better control over future incomes. This is exactly where InterAction CRM has been focusing for more than a decade. InterAction 5 provides professionals a 360-degree view of their client's contacts, states of relationship, related matters, and engagements.

InterAction Engagements is designed to help professionals from financial and consulting management services to build a consensus around an engagement where people, expertise, companies, and relationships are collected and matched to their requirements. Past experiences can also be accessible for future reference through a searchable knowledgebase. Users can either perform engagement type searches or access an advanced search template with more search granularity. The Engagements module follows the same path as Interface Software's existing CRM application emphasizing relationship intelligence. As such, the module helps manage an engagement project by capturing all the contacts associated with the engagement and their roles.

InterAction Matters has been specially designed for law firms. Its basic functionality is very similar to the one for InterAction Engagements which relates people, expertise, and companies. The principal difference lays in the terminologies used around matters, witnesses, judges, and opposing counsel.

Both modules have included an e-mail distribution list manager that streamlines the project communications task and reduces the risk of errors and miscommunications.

InterAction Opportunities provides an expected feature from any CRM specifically a sales force automation tool. Opportunities main objective is to help professionals track and manage prospects, manage referrals, investment analysts, acquisition candidates and competition, as well as to predict future revenues. The incumbent professional or his associates may have access to individual opportunity details and add necessary actions. Like other opportunity managers, InterAction 5 offers a graphical representation of the engagement funnel combined to a multistage sales approach.

Interface Software combines CRM and social networking under the same application. The end user may navigate between its traditional Outlook screen and InterAction web-screen with ease. Integration is a success since all contact information is synchronized between both systems.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/interface-software-expands-its-crm-functionality-17470/

CRM ROI: Creating a Business Case

2010-08-24T21:25:00.001-07:00

Getting a read on the return on investment (ROI) of customer relationship management (CRM) from analysts is near impossible today. Several 2003 reports claimed the ROI from CRM implementations was dismal, with 8 out of 10 projects failing to deliver on ROI promises, and 50-70 percent typical project failure rates.(1) Some of this year's reports are more optimistic, with about 52 percent of companies responding that their CRM initiatives generated an ROI between 51 percent and 500 percent, and 30 percent of respondents saying the return was greater than 501 percent.(2)

Why the big difference in the results? Some have blamed the analyst researchers for the lack of clarity.(3) But the biggest issue is that only about 20 percent of the companies surveyed are able to demonstrate ROI on their CRM investments, since most companies indicate that non-financial metrics (often called intangible benefits) outweigh financial metrics as gauges of technology investment value.(4) In addition, those that use either financial or non-financial metrics are not quantifying key performance indicators, which would provide clear guidance and proof of success.

Companies need to implement serious yardstick work when seeking to evaluate CRM-software investments. Metrics are essential, with a formal business-case in place before the project begins, and an evaluation that quantifies the expected costs, tangible financial benefits, intangible strategic benefits and risks.

According to a February 2004 survey by IDC, 58 percent of companies that have measured ROI-based CRM initiatives had a payback on their CRM projects within a year. Another 35 percent received payback in one to three years. In the survey, the median initial investment in a CRM application was about $426,000 (USD); this covers all costs incurred before the CRM implementation began. The median total cost over the first five years is estimated at $1.2 million (USD).

The business case for CRM should include

1) Tangible Net Benefits—a clear and precise cost-benefit analysis which tallies all of the planned project costs, quantifies each of the tangible benefits and calculates key financial performance metrics such as ROI, NPV, IRR, and payback period. Costs should be less than 50 percent of the benefits (because of inevitable cost overruns and typical benefit adoption schedules) and the payback period shouldn't exceed twelve months.

2) Intangible Benefits—a total of the expected intangible benefits including key performance indicators (KPI) that will be used to measure success or shortfalls.

3) Risk Assessment—a listing of the people, process, and technology risks in order to proactively mitigate their probability and manage its impact on project success. Getting a read on the return on investment (ROI) of customer relationship management (CRM) from analysts is near impossible today. Several 2003 reports claimed the ROI from CRM implementations was dismal, with 8 out of 10 projects failing to deliver on ROI promises, and 50-70 percent typical project failure rates. Some of this year's reports are more optimistic, with about 52 percent of companies responding that their CRM initiatives generated an ROI between 51 percent and 500 percent, and 30 percent of respondents saying the return was greater than 501 percent.

(1) Popping Bubbles - Maximizing CRM ROI, CRM Today

(2) IDC: The Financial Impact of CRM, February 2004

(3) The Blueprint for CRM Success, CRMGuru.com, December 2002

(4) CRM Quiz: Where's the ROI?, CFO Research Services and Saugatuck Technology May 2003

Creating a Cost-Benefit Analysis

Assessing three categories—implementation costs, benefits, and risk—helps establish a business case for pre-project planning, and post-project success measurement. Implementation Costs Implementation costs are often split between IT costs and business unit costs, where the business unit costs are typically equal to the IT costs.

Implementation costs include

IT Costs

* CRM software licensing and maintenance or support contracts

* EDI, database, operating system and other software licensing and maintenance or support contracts

* Hardware purchases and maintenance or support contracts including servers, storage and network upgrades (as required)

* Software integration and customization, including design, development, test and ongoing maintenance

* Implementation labor

* Ongoing administration and support labor

Business Unit Costs

* Planning and requirements meetings

* User training and learning time

* Process change management

Tangible and Intangible Benefits

Benefits typically include increases in staff productivity, cost avoidance, increased revenue and margin, and reduced inventory through the elimination of errors.

These are a handful of areas of improvement that should be considered:
Key Benefit Area

Key Improvement
Reduce cost of sales Enable self-service sales channels, changing the mix of direct sales, tele-sales, channel or agent sales, and self-service the most effective or least costly channel in order to reduce costs and improve satisfaction
Reduce sales administrative overhead Reduce the time spent on sales administrative overhead tasks such as commission calculations, forecasting and reporting enabling increased selling time
Improve leads to sales closure rates Increase the percentage of leads which are converted to sales
Increase customer retention Reduce customer churn rate and eliminate replacement expenses
Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty Improve customer lifetime value

Risks

Biting-off-more-thanyou-can-chew: Instead, start with smaller, more focused CRM solutions, targeting a specific sales or services business function or group of users.

Over Budget and behind schedule According to CIO magazine, 49 percent of CRM projects are now targeted for completion in less than 12 months, and 70 percent within 18 months. Companies are significantly reducing project scope and implementing projects with tighter schedules and more reasonable budgets.(5)

Poor user adoption Ease of use and training are essential for users to understand and adopt the solution.

Too-High Maintenance and Support Maintaining CRM applications can be 40 percent of the original implementation's labor and services. Weak or incomplete training almost always raises support costs.

Isolation Failure to use CRM data across multiple groups can severely hamper the achievement of key benefits.

Garbage In/Garbage Out Because CRM systems require so much data entry, users often put in placeholders, misguided estimates, or inaccurate information leading to poor analytical results and decision-making errors.

Who needs tangible results? Lack of measurement is one of the clear ROI-killers for CRM. Measurement of pre-project estimates and post-project standings is essential for success.

(5)May 2002 CIO magazine

The Bottom Line

1. CRM solutions should focus on solving a specific sales issue, such as improving response rates, implementing self-service, or automating forecasting and accuracy.

2. Projected benefits should be twice the expected cost, to assure success.

3. Solutions should take less than six months to deploy. If more time is needed, phased roll-outs will drive a steady-state of success.

4. Solutions should provide a positive payback on the investment in less than twelve months from deployment.

5. Pre-project and post-project ROI analysis including net tangible benefits, intangible benefits and risk measurement is essential to assure success.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/crm-roi-creating-a-business-case-17406/

CRM Analytics Brings More Profitability

2010-08-24T21:24:00.002-07:00

Targeting your best customers and personalizing your relationship with them, implies an in-depth understanding of their behavior.

Today, analytical tools combined with existing CRM technologies open the door to improved customer knowledge and help designing the right target marketing activities. This may be missing puzzle piece that would help you reach the expected ROI on those major CRM investments.

Five years ago in Europe, CRM began as Sales Force Automation tools designed to improve customer relationship processes through the sales force channel. Two years later, with the development of Call Centers, sales forces benefited from a new sales channel favoring low cost interaction with customers.

While phone and e-mail interactions have surely decreased operating costs, they have created higher costs for implementing CRM technology and software licenses acquisition.

The perfect example is with "Societe Generale" a leading French bank, carrying one of the biggest CRM projects in Europe (a 260 M Euros project), intending to consolidate their customer and prospect databases in order to serve their 21, 000 users through out 2000 various sites with a unique multi-channel CRM tool.

In Europe, the ROI for CRM projects are still hazy. CRM euphoria is now behind us. Up to 75% of implemented CRM solutions have provided a fairly poor improvement and almost no return on investment. The missing part is in providing companies with instant analysis and knowledge on customer behavior and trends.

CRM analytics can help companies better and faster target their customers and create "one to one" relationships. Prior to CRM analytics, companies were relying on complex and sophisticated analytical tools. Access to data analysis were delayed and outdated.

Datamarts Play an Essential Role

Datamarts represent the first evolution that simplifies access to statistics and predictive modeling.

Together with datawarehouses, datamarts are specialized and structured to render a specific service using OLAP engines (On Line Analytical Processing).

Designed to be smaller than datawarehouses but faster in response time, datamarts are deployed as needed, thus helping companies reach their full analytical capabilities at their own pace.

Through a predefined data model and broad analytical capabilities, CRM analytics are turn-key applications providing companies with user friendly tools that fulfill their customer's knowledge needs.

Datamarts Rely on Two Different OLAP Tools

Reporting Tools
Aiming at responding to questions such as "who are my customers that spent the most in 2001?" Offered by, Business Objects and Cognos two major players, but also by new comers such as Brio, Crystal Decisions, Hyperion, MicroStrategy, IBM, Oracle, and SAS.

Datamining Tools
This second category of OLAP tools is designed to automate the detection of relevant patterns in a database. For example, a pattern might indicate that married males with children are twice as likely to drive a particular sports car than married males with no children. In this category major key players are Data Distilleries, Kxen, Isoft, but also IBM and Oracle.

Get the Customer Data

Datamining or reporting, datamart or datawarehouse all come with empty database tables and it is up to companies to load their customer data. The real difficulty is when the data is all spread around. Therefore, the unification of customer data represents the first step to a CRM analytics project.

This step is achieved through ETL tools (Extraction, Transformation, Load) by extracting data from accounting software, ERP, Call Centers, prospect databases, etc., and loading it in a datawarehouse or datamart.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/crm-analytics-brings-more-profitability-16836/

Cognos Unveils CRM Solution

2010-08-24T21:24:00.001-07:00

Cognos (NASDAQ: COGN; TSE:CSN), one of the world's largest business intelligence (BI) companies, today unveiled a comprehensive BI solution (including interactive reporting, data analysis, and scorecarding) for the customer relationship management (CRM) marketplace. The announcement was part of an aggressive CRM market initiative showcased at Cognos's Enterprise 2000 conference to an audience of corporate executives and industry experts. Cognos showcased its Cognos business intelligence for CRM solution as providing the extensive interactive reporting, analysis and scorecarding functionality critical to organizations looking to better attract and retain customers.

CRM is generally understood to refer to an integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and post sales activities in an organization. Although the dividing lines are not well-defined, CRM has generally not been understood to include the marketing function. The theory behind CRM initiatives is to improve a company's understanding of their customer's needs and preferences. Theoretically, this will create greater customer retention and easier customer acquisition.

Joanne K. Masingill, Cognos's Senior Vice president of marketing stated that "an effective CRM system is no longer a 'nice-to-have' but a must-have requirement for competing and winning in the Internet economy. Cognos allows organizations to consolidate data, across inventory to sales and customer information, to deliver the operational efficiencies and high-touch customer relationships demanded by today's customers."

Market Impact

Cognos is a very strong competitor in the business intelligence space. It is logical for them to enter the extremely hot CRM market. Their extensive experience with tools that use multi-dimensional databases (i.e., Cognos PowerPlay) should enable them to hit the ground running, giving companies the ability to drill down and across product lines, and customers the power to discover developing trends. They also have the advantage of being able to sell into their huge installed base. Companies already using Cognos's CRM solution include Send.com and United Guaranty.

In order to further accelerate their entry into the CRM market, Cognos has joined the Siebel (NASDAQ: SEBL) alliance program as a premier partner, along with 92 other vendors (at current count), many of which are also in the business intelligence space, who provide competencies not core to Siebel's business. Siebel is currently the largest CRM vendor on the operational side, but is partnering to provide some of the analytics. "The basis for successful loyalty relationships is providing a full-service approach. Siebel Systems enjoys a leading position in the customer-facing eBusiness market and Cognos is excited to be a partner," said Patrick O'Leary, Cognos vice president of strategic alliances. "CRM is a natural complement for our enterprise business intelligence solutions. Cognos and Siebel bridge the gap between business processes to ensure that customers, partners and suppliers are making consistent, coordinated decisions to grow the business and strengthen e-business relationships."

The key to this alliance is for Siebel to provide the operational CRM (such as sales force automation), and then work with other vendors to effectively analyze the data. Some of Siebel's competitors, such as E.piphany, have already made strides in this direction.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/cognos-unveils-crm-solution-16201/

Customer Relationship Management Showdown: Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs. Oncontact CRM vs. SageCRM

2010-08-24T21:23:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Given that sales and customer retention are the lifeblood of any organization, we thought we’d take a closer look at three of the leading mid-market CRM solutions. Two of them, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SageCRM, come from large, integrated vendors, while the third, Oncontact CRM, comes from a smaller, best-of-breed vendor that offers CRM solutions only. Sage's CRM solution comes in both hosted (SageCRM.com) and non-hosted configurations.

For this Showdown, we looked at all three of the main CRM modules: sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service and support. To eliminate any chance of bias and to ensure a level playing field, all the criteria that make up these three modules in our CRM Evaluation Center were given equal weight and priority. In other words, no area of functionality was treated as being more important than any other. All results were based on the most recent request for information (RFI) data supplied to us by the three vendors.

The chart below shows the overall rankings.

Results

As you can see in the chart above, straight out of the box, Microsoft Dynamics CRM ranked first overall, with Oncontact CRM coming in second, and SageCRM/SageCRM.com placing third. Overall scores were based on the average level of support the vendors offer across all three main CRM modules.

However, as with most aspects of enterprise software, it's not that simple or clear-cut. As the chart below shows, each of the three vendors had a first-place finish in one of the main modules.

What, then, do the overall rankings suggest? In the broadest sense, if your organization is largely sales force–driven, Microsoft, the overall winner, may indeed be the best solution to look at. But if marketing initiatives and programs are the key drivers to your organization’s success, then Sage, finishing second in the overall rankings, may be the better choice. If your organization requires a solution that is strongest in customer service and support, Oncontact, taking third place overall, may be the best of the three for your needs.

It must be pointed out, though, that rankings, whether overall or by module, do not tell you everything you need to know. What they do provide is a basic, high-level view of the general strengths and weaknesses of vendors' solutions right out of the box. However, the fact is that few businesses, if any, can use a CRM solution right out of the box. Every business has special requirements and priorities that need to be supported by any CRM solution it uses.

Even within individual modules, the top-ranked vendor may not necessarily be the right one for your organization's needs. For example, Microsoft was the overall winner in Sales Force Automation, but as you can see in the chart below, each of the other two vendors placed first in one of two Sales Force Automation submodules. Specifically, Oncontact finished first in Opportunity Management, and Sage ranked first in Sales Forecasting Management.
Conclusion

Given that “out of the box” rankings rarely, if ever, reflect the real-world needs of an organization, and that the rankings can shift depending on what area(s) of functionality you look at, how then do you determine which CRM solution is best suited for your business?

The fastest, simplest way is to do what we did to produce the results you see here: use TEC's CRM Evaluation Center. We got our results in 20 minutes, versus weeks—or even months—of struggling with huge spreadsheets.

TEC's CRM evaluation center allows you to set priorities that reflect your organization's business model and special needs at every level of functionality. At the modular and submodular levels—even down to the individual criteria—you can tell the system which business processes are critical, important, or not important to your organization. The system then compares your priorities against the vendor responses to produce a shortlist of solutions. You get a custom comparison—one that ranks vendor solutions not on out-of-the-box functionality, but rather on how well that functionality matches the business requirements of your organization.

It's the best way we know of to evaluate CRM solutions, and we invite you to give it a run-through. Simply click on the link below to visit our CRM Evaluation Center to conduct your fast, free custom CRM comparison. After all, there's no other organization quite like yours.

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/customer-relationship-management-showdown-microsoft-dynamics-crm-vs-oncontact-crm-vs-sagecrm-19397/

Welcome to the CRM Showdown: Microsoft Dynamics CRM vs. NetSuite CRM+

2010-08-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

Introduction

With CRM so closely bound up with revenue generation, companies are always looking for ways to strengthen their CRM programs and initiatives. So we thought it would be a good time to take a close-up look at two popular mid-market CRM solutions from two well-known CRM vendors.

Microsoft needs no introduction. As the world's largest software vendor, the Microsoft name is familiar to just about anyone who uses a computer. NetSuite, co-founded by Oracle's Larry Ellison, is a pioneer in web-based, on-demand business software that includes CRM, ERP, and accounting.

So who came out on top when we put Microsoft Dynamics CRM and NetSuite CRM+ head-to-head in a contest based on pure CRM functionality? You can find the results below.

Results

For this showdown, we looked at five standard CRM modules. To eliminate any chance of bias and to ensure a level playing field, all 1,363 criteria that make up the modules and submodules in our CRM Evaluation Center were given equal weight and priority. In other words, no area of functionality was treated as being more important than any other

As you can see in the chart below, straight, out-of-the-box Microsoft edged out NetSuite in overall performance by a score of 78.72 to 72.95.

However, as with most aspects of enterprise software, it's not that simple or clear-cut.

Rankings, either overall or by module, do not tell you everything you need to know. What they do provide is a basic, high-level view of vendors' general strengths and weaknesses right out-of-the-box. But businesses have special needs and priorities that need to be supported by any CRM solution they use.

For example, if your business requires robust e-commerce capability, NetSuite may be a better choice than Microsoft, even though Microsoft was the overall winner. The chart below shows why.

Sales Force Automation Rankings
NetSuite is considerably stronger than Microsoft in Internet sales. This isn't surprising since NetSuite has always been a pure on-demand vendor with strong online capability. That also largely explains why NetSuite, with its experience in creating self-service portals, outperforms Microsoft in the Customer Service and Support module as well. Also, with a history of providing solutions to professional services organizations, NetSuite is correspondingly strong in project management.

Conclusion

Given that out-of-the-box rankings rarely, if ever, reflect the real world needs of an organization, and that rankings can shift, depending on what area(s) of functionality you look at, how do you determine which CRM solution is best suited for your business?

The fastest, simplest way is to do what we did to produce the results you see here: use TEC's CRM Evaluation Center. (We got our results in 20 minutes, versus weeks or even months of struggling with huge Excel spreadsheets.)

SOURCE:
http://www.technologyevaluation.com/research/articles/welcome-to-the-crm-showdown-microsoft-dynamics-crm-vs-netsuite-crm-19512/

How to Select CRM Solution

2010-06-01T07:13:00.002-07:00

The first factor: Processing Solution

The process of building CRM system can be divided into 2 periods: solution selection and implementation. A CRM solution selection is usually considered in many aspects and the most important one is: Does the solution fit with business strategy and current management system of the enterprise? Because the core of CRM is database and processing tools, thus CRM solution based on IT background prevails over other solutions. Therefore, some people think that selecting CRM solution is selecting database and CRM software.

At the beginning step of building CRM in enterprise, the first thing a manager thinks about is which database and CRM software should be used or how to build the CRM system to fit with selected CRM software. The following question is which technology platform the CRM software is based on. But, is technology the crucial factor to select a solution for CRM system in enterprise? The answer is NO.

CRM system implementation is to provide information and boost business process of the enterprise. That's why technology should be considered secondary concern and the first priority should be focused on support capability. In other words, it is method, settling process implemented by CRM system through algorithms used in information processing that be the crucial factor of the quality. In order make method and information processing work, they have to base on common factors (which are in accordance with rules) and specific factors (which are in accordance with operating mechanism in business and management activities of the enterprise).

A CRM system which cannot bring managers better information and improve enterprise business, it has no reason to exist. Nevertheless, the role of Information Technology in CRM is very important, it has great influence on project's feasibility and solution's utility such as: cost of CRM building and deployment; level and capability of addressing requirements of enterprise's managers.

Criteria to select CRM software

Providers often say that their products are powerful, suitable to any enterprise. In fact, is it true that features show capacity of the CRM software? The following are some oriented criteria that should be considered before selecting CRM software:

- Is the CRM software really suitable to the area which enterprise is working on? Each area has unique and typical features, this leads to different requirements in client strategy. The suitable software, apart from having functionalities that meet the demands, must give out guidance to implement business or similar modules, measures for users to select.

- How are contents of CRM expressed in the software? How much do the key tools of CRM in such areas as: marketing campaign management, sales management, customer care management appear in the software? Is there any forecast function in these systems? If any, what is the forecast method and how scalable are other forecast methods can be applied? In other words, does software provider have insight of CRM to create a product that can meet enterprise's demands?

- Resource requirements of enterprise in CRM software deployment and operation maintaining. Enterprise has to provide necessary resources such as: finance, IT infrastructure, man power etc. to not only CRM software deployment but also operation maintaining.

- Compatibility of the software to other existing applications in the enterprise. Based on list of programs, data management system... provided by manufacturers, system administrator must review the compatibility to CRM software in order to ensure that IT changes are acceptable.

- Capability of supporting interactivity and data collecting methods. For example, if enterprise wants to use the CRM anywhere, anytime it has to look for web-based CRM software.

- Customizability of CRM software. Customizability is not only the ability to change configuration, to change search and statistics processing algorithm but also ability to change database structure. Normally, database structure is nearly fixed when it is built to ensure its integrity, thus customizability can hardly exists. However, changing structure at some level can meet settle some issues rising in deployment without having to upgrade which is complicated and costly.

Microsoft CRM Integration & Customization: SharePoint Document Gateway

2010-06-01T07:13:00.001-07:00

MS CRM is very close to document workflow automation, including Microsoft Office documents: Words, Excel, etc. The document workflow was perfectly automated about 10 years ago in Lotus Notes Domino. In this small article we describe the solution based on MS CRM integration with MS SharePoint.

Microsoft CRM is new player on CRM applications market and it is gaining its market share. Having different paradigm in its design (it stakes on Microsoft OS and technologies and completely disregards alternative platform, such as UNIX, Linux, Oracle, etc. based). Microsoft CRM market is very diversified: from small (5 users) to large (several hundred MS CRM User licenses) and it serves variety of industries: Transportation, Logistics, Lawyers, Pension Funds, High-Tech, and many others. Deploying technologies, like Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains and Navision in close future - makes CRM a beloved system for Microsoft oriented IT departments.

Let's go right to the topic.

Major issue with storing documents in MS CRM in the form of attachments to Activity is inability to work on these attached files in cooperation with other colleagues, who do not have to use CRM. When several service people serve requests from the same client this is required. Currently you can use alternative way when you store office documents in the folders of your file system and when modifying document, you save it and reattach to CRM. This is inconvenient, because first it requires all your editing users to have CRM licenses, which delays CRM implementation.

We seem increasing popularity of document storage systems, like Microsoft SharePoint, Oracle Files, etc. Such systems, being implemented gives you time savings, related to documents revisions and versioning, approval cycles and workflows, web access through web-portals systems and the like.

The target of our product is Microsoft SharePoint integration with MS CRM for document storage. Let's take a look at the high level technical realization details:

oMain modification from the MS CRM side is standard system behavior change when you open attachment in Activity. Standard unmodified CRM suggests you to store documents in the file system. Modified version sores document in SharePoint Document Library (the required library is subject for setup by MS CRM system administrator) or keep it in MS CRM as is (for documents of minor importance). From the moment of saving the document in SharePoint Document Library it is not stored in MS CRM - CRM will now store only the link/reference to the document. Also you are given the ability to open and modify the document at the place of opening, which speeds up MS CRM user performance substantially.

How CRM Software Works -- Creating Customer Satisfaction with a Click

2010-06-01T07:11:00.000-07:00

When people ask, "What is CRM?" the literal answer is, "Customer Relationship Management," but that doesn't really convey much in terms of what all CRM does for a business. This CRM definition is too narrow to really explain everything the system does if it is working to its fullest potential and is user-friendly enough to expand and grow as a customer-client relationship changes and grows.

CRM in the broader sense encompasses not only customer relationship management itself but how customer relationship management is handled and the most important elements of a CRM program that are essential to its being successful. The range of CRM software options vary from those that provide simple customer tracking and live chat capabilities to the more complex CRM solutions that can integrate all of the customer relationship data an enterprise has on each client past, present and future in a dynamic information data network.

What should I look for in a CRM software package?

If there's an ideal CRM software package that works for every company and every situation, it hasn't been discovered yet, simply because every company has slightly different needs for their customer relationship management needs as well as software implementation.

In general, however, when you are looking for a strong CRM software package there are a few things to keep in mind. If you are shopping for a CRM package, try to forget about the initial price tag at first (as difficult as this may be) and focus on the adaptability, usability and integrity of each system you evaluate as it relates to your particular needs. A few things to consider:

o What are the most important facets of customer relations are we looking to address, and does this CRM software support tracking and updating all aspects of this? For example, if your company wants to customer service to have ready access to changes in customer spending habits and an opportunity to offer new product options based on these records, make sure this capability is built into the software. Customization down the line will be time-consuming and expensive -- if you have a primary goal, make sure it is standard in your CRM software package.

o Will the CRM software package integrate smoothly with all platforms currently in use at your company? If you will have to re-enter all databases such as client names, addresses and phone numbers, this will significantly increase the amount of money you'll spend in the long run. Make sure that you can either integrate smoothly or import all information needed flawlessly.

o Is the product more than you need? An enterprise solution that offers fifteen functions you don't need and never will isn't a bargain if you will never expand into that market niche. Just because it's available doesn't mean you have to have it. Selling custom-sewn hats? You won't need a CRM software package for tracking million-dollar overseas accounts.

o Has this CRM software package been used for a company of your size before? If it has been used for companies up to 10,000 and you have 150,000, the system may simply not be able to sustain the volume of data and crash or develop glitches. Look for something more powerful with a support system capable of understanding the size of your company.

3 DSS Myths Exploded

2010-05-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Making a decision related to your own business or the company you work for is not simple: modern business models have too much information to be analyzed by one person without the right tools. Examples of frequent but complex decisions include developing new business models, broadening investments on technology, expanding the number of stores, or even deciding whether it’s the right time to downsize the company.

To make an informed decision, it’s necessary to collect the right data, manage it properly, and present it to the right person in a clear fashion.

Some organizations still make decisions based on experience, intuition, or information gathered using tools that were originally not intended to be used for supporting decision making. They will make investment decisions using data stored in dispersed spreadsheets documents, or select enterprise software by considering only the vendor product demos.

This is dangerous, and the consequences—particularly for enterprise software selection—can range from inconvenience to disaster.

What Is a DSS?

A decision support system (DSS) is software created to help you make the best possible decision given complex constraints and alternatives.

A robust DSS should be composed of the following elements:

1. An information repository (knowledge base) where source data is stored. For example, TEC’s software selection DSS contains knowledge bases of all the major software types, including ERP, BI/BPM, CRM, PLM, POS, etc.

2. A model or methodology that describes the criteria and paths to consider when carrying out an evaluation. TEC’s best-practice selection methodology, for instance, was developed specifically for complex software selection projects.

3. A tool or communication medium between the system and the end user (the interface) that performs the calculations related to a decision problem. For instance, TEC’s ebestmatch-powered interface.

4. Information workers who have the business knowledge and experience to carry out a software evaluation and selection project.

Top 3 DSS Myths
Here are 3 misconceptions related to DSS use, along with 3 corresponding truths:

Myth #1: I will lose control of the decision-making process if I use a DSS.
Truth: The important thing to remember is that a DSS will not make a decision “for you.” It will simply provide you with the information and structure required for you to make a decision.

Myth #2: A DSS might be able to help make a “logical” decision, but just because a decision is logical doesn’t mean it’s the right one for us humans!
Truth: People sometimes have a hard time accepting that a DSS can help when it comes to subjective criteria (such as “ease of use,” for example). However, a robust decision methodology will allow you to measure such criteria in a way that allows you to rank them.

CRM and BPM: “We Goes Together Like Peas and Carrots”

2010-04-30T23:59:00.000-07:00

In 2009, I attended two Gartner Summit events: the Gartner Business Process Management (BPM) Summit in March in San Diego; and Gartner Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Summit in September in Scottsdale. I not only saw a number of same vendors at both events, but both events also had many similar themes, such as customer service, workflow automation, business processes, collaboration, customer retention, social media, key performance indicators (KPIs)/performance metrics, and so on and so forth.

It might be indicative that BPM and CRM are quite converging disciplines in that Gartner found enough synergy to host its CRM and BPM summits back-to-back in Washington, D.C. in late 2008 (events I did not attend). While BPM vendors are beginning to offer more CRM capabilities, CRM vendors are “returning the favor” with BPM features (e.g., workflow and business rules engines).

This process (no pun intended) may have begun several years ago. Namely, in 2005, the former Onyx Corporation (acquired by Consona Coporation in 2006 and meanwhile renamed into Consona Customer Management), began shifting its focus from highly contested and commoditized CRM applications toward more adaptive BPM-enabled applications via the former Onyx Process Manager in 2005. Consona’s CRM division does not sell its BPM module outside its CRM offering, but is proud to talk about its product’s adaptability due to native BPM features.

Both software categories also grew (CRM about 5 percent and BPM about 10 percent) in 2009, in contrast to a decline in most other enterprise applications. When money is tight, shrewd businesses look for ways to do more with less, and BPM seems to hold the promise of improving the customer’s experience. As companies cite business processes affected by CRM as their top challenge, CRM vendors have moved from focusing on pure technology to enabling processes, and BPM capabilities have taken a greater role in CRM suites. This convergence leads me to quote Forrest Gump: “We goes together like peas and carrots.”

In fact, many paragraphs in the 2009 white paper entitled “Customer Relationship Management: The Winning Strategy in a Challenging Economy” and authored by Microsoft Dynamics CRM talk (perhaps not unwittingly) about BPM-related features. Past CRM initiatives that focused on sales, customer service, or marketing activities have left many companies with siloed, disjointed processes that do not represent a holistic process flow to the customer.

The white paper asserts that the current recession is an opportunity to re-examine and streamline those disorganized business flows, and one of the fastest ways to improve efficiency is by streamlining key business processes and improving individual productivity. Needless to say, both initiatives are business process-oriented, or related to BPM.

Streamline Business Processes

Every business has a plethora of processes that must be repeated time and again on a daily basis. Time spent (if not wasted) on repetitive manual tasks, delays associated with cumbersome cross-group approval practices, and the lack of consistently enforced standards can bog down a business.

Thus, many CRM products today include powerful yet intuitive workflow capabilities that allow organizations to streamline and simplify everyday tasks as well as organization-wide business processes for improved operational efficiency. In the case of Microsoft Dynamics, these capabilities come from the embedded Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) technology.

Workflow management capabilities enable organizations to streamline time-consuming customer-related processes such as sales budget approvals, campaign execution, lead qualification, lead routing, request for proposal (RFP) submissions, sales follow-up, reference management, and case routing, to name but a few. The more these processes can be automated, the more employees can focus on their core competencies. Ultimately, streamlining and automating business processes allows organizations to enforce so-called best practices and free up employees to concentrate on higher-value activities.

Workflow enablement can also take the guesswork out of more complex processes via the setting up of business rules. For example, leads can be automatically distributed based on sales territory or informational mailings can be sent out based on pre-defined triggers.

Another way to leverage workflow capabilities is by automating end-to-end business processes. For example, a workflow can be used to take a holistic approach to sales by enforcing best practices from lead to final close, defining a common sales methodology and streamlining execution. Organizations can model each stage in the sales process, define an ideal flow, and ensure that all criteria are met and data captured before a deal advances to the next stage.

Organizations should also be able to take established sales methodologies such as Miller Heiman or Sales Performance International (SPI) and institutionalize those sales methodologies within the CRM solution itself. The CRM vendor elevator pitch will thus likely be based on enabling a specific CRM process such as order-to-cash or lead-to-opportunity, instead of on traditionally selling CRM modules such as sales force automation (SFA) or enterprise marketing management (EMM).

Microsoft Dynamics CRM: Much More Than Meets the Eye – Part 3

2010-04-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

Part 1 of this series discussed the current upbeat state of affairs of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, as one of the three best-performing products within the entire Microsoft Corporation of late. In a nutshell, during 2009, the product grew notably and surpassed one million licensed users. Microsoft’s customer relationship management (CRM) offering has become attractive to companies of all sizes, in part due to its multiple deployment options (with bidirectional migration options due to the same code base).

Certainly, much more has to happen before there is truly a common feature set, a common look and feel, and a feasible option to move any company from one mode of deployment to another. The market will thus be keenly looking for referenceable customers from Microsoft who have done this migration even in one direction, let alone as a “round trip.”

The underlying technology developments mentioned in Part 1 have enabled rapid innovation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM in many ways. Part 2 analyzed the following embodiments of rapid innovation: the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offering, CRM Product Accelerators, and the so-called xRM (extended relationship management) framework. The xRM approach takes CRM one step further by targeting the management of all imaginable relationships, not just those with customers.

CRM Platform Wars

As analyzed in TEC’s article “War Looms in the On-demand CRM Market (and Beyond)—But Will You Profit from It?” and in my recent blog post on NetSuite, Salesforce.com and NetSuite have been attempting similar xRM feats with their respective AppExchange and SuiteApp application directories, Apex and SuiteScript languages, and Force.com and SuiteCloud platforms. Similar to Microsoft Dynamics CRM or xRM, many Salesforce.com partners have built applications that go beyond the traditional CRM realm, whereby these custom applications built on Force.com manage orders, contracts, proposals, assets, and whatnot.

I must acknowledge here that Force.com applications were being built for order a year before Microsoft shipped its Dynamics CRM 4.0 release. Microsoft was neither first to attempt nor leader in fulfillment of the xRM platform vision.

Some notable innovations on Salesforce.com’s Force.com platform include the FinancialForce.com accounting offering in the cloud (co-owned by UNIT4 and Salesforce.com), then an application that tracks investment funds from StraightThrough.com, and the one that generates “business intensity maps” in the US from ACF Solutions. At the Dreamforce 2009 conference, I saw a demo of a neat Force.com-based application for golf course tee-time reservation via Facebook and the Chester French indie rock band that has its Facebook VIP fan page (with e-commerce capabilities to sell upcoming concert tickets and band merchandize), also built on Force.com.

CRM RFP Template

2010-03-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

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Choosing Your CRM: RFP Template 101

Using an RFP template allows you to save up to 85% of time and money you'd spend gathering information in order to specify your needs.It's true that life involves taking a few risks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as the old adage goes. And as it is in life, so too in business: for success to happen, sometimes a risk or two must be taken.

Even during the process of choosing your customer relationship management (CRM) software, it might be necessary to take a risk or two. Maybe you'll have to risk going slightly beyond your CRM software budget. Or maybe you'll end up taking just a little more time than you expected, and risk delaying CRM implementation.

But choosing a CRM solution shouldn't be a complete gamble. You shouldn't have to lay everything you've got on the line, just to get a CRM solution that meets your organization's top CRM requirements. And the process shouldn't be left to guesswork, or to chance. Just as you would do appropriate research before buying a new home or a new car, you should investigate all CRM companies and CRM vendors as part of doing your CRM evaluation. Anything less, and your risks could end up outweighing the benefits. And your CRM requirements might get lost in the shuffle.

Ready now to play your ace with a CRM RFP template? Start here with a free CRM RFP sample.

Or, if you're looking for an ERP solution, have a look at one of many helpful free ERP RFP templates.

So in other words, using the right tools—like a CRM RFP—as part of your CRM solution research, your CRM software selection process won't be a matter of building a house of cards. Instead, you'll come out the winner and reap the benefits in spades.

Use a CRM RFP (Request for Proposals)—it's your own personalized wild card. With a CRM RFP template, you'll be playing the CRM software selection game with a full deck. Whether you're looking for CRM for manufacturing, CRM for banking, CRM for business, CRM for enterprise resource planning (CRM for ERP), or CRM for sales or management, a sample RFP template is your wildcard in the CRM software selection game.

Still playing with your CRM cards close to your chest? Want to know more about how a CRM RFP help you get the CRM solution you need, and the best CRM solution for your business?

Read on to find out:

* how a CRM RFP template can save you time and money, and
* how to write your own RFP for CRM technology.

What is a CRM RFP template?

A CRM RFP template is a comprehensive list of features and functions, or criteria, which you can use as a guide as you decide what you will need from your CRM solution.

A CRM RFP template is a specially designed spreadsheet (with MS Excel or other compatible application). CRM RFP development is done with the help of CRM software analysts and the world's leading CRM vendors.

Thousands of criteria can be listed on an RFP template, covering the features and functions of various customer relationship management modules, including:

* sales force automation (SFA),
* enterprise marketing management (EMM),
* customer service and support,
* partner management,
* contract management and creation,
* project and team management, and
* technical functionality.

A CRM RFP template is organized in an easy-to-use, color-coded, and hierarchical structure. Each criterion provides a column where you can assign a priority to that criterion, as well as a column for vendors to indicate their specific level of support for that criterion (one of the later stages of using the CRM RFP template). The criteria are often accompanied by annotated explanations that make the CRM RFP templates even clearer and easier to use.

How can you possibly lose?

Use a CRM RFP template and make sure that when all your cards are laid on the table, you come up trumps instead of tapping out.

How can a CRM RFP template save you time and money?

You'll still have to ante up, of course. You're not going to find a CRM solution for free, even with a free CRM RFP.

You don't need to start from scratch when you use an RFP template for your CRM software selection. But if you use a CRM RFP with a list of up to thousands of criteria, much of the work has already been done for you. With a CRM RFP template, you don't have to start from scratch and analyze your CRM needs one by one. You won't have to wait for all the departments in your organization to make the time to create lists of their requirements. And you won't have to wade through all their results, cross-checking and compiling, in a process that could add weeks onto your CRM solution search. Instead, every feature and function provided by every CRM solution on the market has already been assembled for you in a detailed and accurate list.

So, it's not really necessary to write an RFP. All you have to do is go through the ready-made list and check off the criteria from the CRM modules that apply to your needs (and send out copies of the CRM RFP to all your departments, and have them do the same). Having a pre-designed list of criteria also means that nothing gets lost in the shuffle: it's all there, an ace up your sleeve, waiting for you to play to your advantage.

You can, of course, use a pre-designed CRM RFP template as a guideline, and add new criteria or new sections if you choose to. But even adding a few more criteria to an already extensive list will save you time, compared with the time involved in making up your own CRM RFP criteria list.

You could also start with a CRM RFI. A request for information (RFI) is a less-detailed spreadsheet that you can first send to all departments in order to collect their definitions of CRM requirements. And then, you can send those definitions of required CRM functions on to CRM vendors, to find out how their CRM solutions match your needs. But these are extra steps that your time budget might not permit in your CRM consulting process.

'Collaborative Commerce':The Big Kahuna

2009-11-09T06:14:00.001-08:00

Kate visits www.skateboardingismyworld.com. She prowls the web site for her favorite skateboard, which she busted up pretty good in a bad fall at a recent X-Games event. She's been to this site many times to purchase much skateboarding paraphernalia, and the site greets her by name. She finds the skateboard that she needs, but realizes that it's the new version of her old standard, and she's worried about the new, larger-size wheels they have as the standard configuration for it. She clicks on the Talk To Me Now button, and via Voice over IP, she connects immediately with a knowledgeable customer service rep. She explains that she'd like the skateboard with the original size wheels. The customer service rep, through collaborative web browsing, shows Kate how she can custom order the skateboard with her preferred wheel size on the web.

Kate hangs up with the rep, and adds the customized skateboard to her online shopping cart, and proceeds directly to checkout. Since she's a regular, the site automatically discounts her purchase 20%, and presents a full screen with her Billing and Shipping address and credit card information pre-filled in. She selects same-day shipping, since she can't skip a beat practicing for the next competition. She confirms the order and the price on the next screen, her credit card transaction is processed, and she's off to school in time for homeroom.

A local vendor of skateboarding equipment gets an electronic order for Kate's skateboard, and the request for same-day delivery. They put on the original wheels, and deliver it to Kate's door by 2 pm, just when Kate returns from school and is ready to once again hit the local boarding course.

Meanwhile, skateboardingismyworld's logistics package is notified that they just dipped beneath the pre-set threshold for stock on that skateboard. An order is automatically sent to all component manufacturers of the board for re-stock.

ERP and CRM: Their trademark functionality

2009-11-09T06:13:00.001-08:00

Let's review the very high level attributes of both ERP and CRM systems, in order to set us up for evaluating the state of various vendor C-Commerce solutions.

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning, which came into its own in the early 90's, is typically comprised of the following key high-level components:

Manufacturing and Logistics
Finances and Accounting
Human Resources and Payroll

For a complete definition of the scope of ERP, please refer to the article: Essential ERP: It's Functional Scope.

ERP has extended backward, outside the organization through e-Procurement (electronic Purchasing) and Supply Chain Management (Distribution and Inventory Management).

CRM

Customer Relationship Management, which has followed on the heels of ERP and is just now coming into its own, can be thought of to comprise the following key high-level components:

Sales Force Management (SFA)
Enterprise Marketing Automation (EMA)
Customer Interaction Center (CIC) - formerly called Customer Service; now with a broadened scope.
e-CRM
Field Force Automation (FFA)
Professional Services Automation (PSA)
Partner Relationship Management (PRM)
Analytics

'Collaborative Commerce': ERP, CRM, e-Procurement, and SCM Unite! A Series Study

2009-11-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

A Data Strategy

2009-11-09T06:10:00.001-08:00

Shifting from acquisition to retention transfers the goals to a focus on establishing loyalty, advancing the relationship and building a sense of community, participation and affinity. The retention data strategy, as with prospecting, also must be built on determining which customers meet that "ideal" criteria.

Even minimal improvements in retention rates can lead to big improvements in profitability and overall ROI. With this in mind, look for factors that will feed back into the acquisition cycle to trim marketing costs and/or increase success rates. Analyze the trends in the length of customer relationships to help determine if something can be done to avert customer losses at critical points along the way.

All organizations that regularly update customer data should review and analyze it to pinpoint opportunities to up-sell, cross-sell and service sales. For example, sales data can reveal which customers are due for product/service upgrades or warranty extensions.

To guide development of a retention data strategy, answer the following:

* What are the characteristics of the best customers?

* What keeps them loyal?

* What's the potential for developing similarly loyal customers?

* What are the information and service needs of established customers compared to those of prospects?

* What prospect information, if any, needs to be saved once a relationship is established?

* Are there changes the organization should make as the relationship evolves?

* Why were products returned?

* How many service calls did customers place and why?

* How were service calls resolved and how long did it take?

* Why does one set of customers respond to opportunities when another doesn't?

Supporting Acquisition

2009-11-09T06:09:00.001-08:00

The first goal in the acquisition phase must be deciding which prospects most closely match the profile of an "ideal" prospect. Cherry pick prospects and resist chasing those that don't meet acquisition criteria. Keeping marketing efforts sharply focused will cut costs and increase your CRM return on investment (ROI).

Ongoing assessments of marketing campaigns must be made to determine which are most effective in bringing in new customers. An effective CRM system will assign each contact to a specific marketing campaign, "tagging" the data for continual analysis of marketing ROI and effectiveness in identifying likely prospects. By tracking expenses tied to leads generated, customers acquired, and potential and realized revenue, campaigns can be shaped to individual customers and prospects based on specific responses or effectiveness rates.

The needs and interests of individuals, of course, can be best understood by examining data from individual prospects. But aggregate data can better forecast which groupings or classes of would-be customers respond best to marketing appeals. This broader view can efficiently guide development of products or services to satisfy specific target groups.

A CRM System Needs A Data Strategy

2009-11-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

An underutilized customer relationship management (CRM) system - or one that cannot match its owner's expectations - will reflect poorly on both the vendor who sold it and the IT manager who authorized the purchase and installed it. Both, however, can help successfully manage such expectations (and add value to their respective roles) by wisely counseling about the strategic context into which a CRM system must function.

Simply put, the market includes plenty of CRM products - embracing a variety of technical approaches - for gathering data from each contact with a customer or prospect. While each can support customer acquisition and retention efforts, data collection cannot be an end unto itself. In fact, a data strategy is needed to target and keep the right types of customers.

For vendors and IT managers to help enterprise users, this is an overview of how they can develop and implement a data strategy to guide both the acquisition and retention phases of a marketing campaign - within which a CRM system can be optimally flexed.

The IT Rights of Digistan

2009-10-27T06:30:00.001-07:00

proposes that all governments adhere to free and open standards for IT activities. Something that strikes me about Digistan’s declaration is its basis in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and not a technical document. The three things The Hague Declaration calls on all governments to do, are as follows.

1. Procure only information technology that implements free and open standards;
2. Deliver e-government services based exclusively on free and open standards;
3. Use only free and open digital standards in their own activities.

Digistan’s approach is sensible because the freedoms made explicit in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights increasingly take place through the Internet and much of their content is conveyed via digital media. When, for example, you consider the right for equal access to public service in one’s country, it’s reasonable to consider how to enable that equal access.

In case anyone thinks Digistan’s call means governments would force software vendors to release products as free and open source software (FOSS), it doesn’t (or at least I don’t think it implies that). Free and open standards aren’t the same as FOSS. Their adoption may promote some common tendencies (interoperability, lack of vendor lock-in, increased potential for innovation, new forms of competition, etc.). I’ve argued in the past that some software companies try to sound “open” while remaining proprietary by using a verbal bait-and-switch to change conversations from the topic of open source, to that of open standards. They’re two very different issues.

I think FOSS helps enable free and open standards because the freedom to study, modify, distribute, etc. is inherent but nothing prevents a proprietary software product from supporting free and open standards–the standards are independent of the software development model. So how can software vendors operate in a way that enables such equal access? Part of Digistan’s definition of a free and open standard is

“The standard has been published and the standard specification document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy, distribute, and use it freely.”

This supports public access to the standard as opposed to allowing it to be locked behind one vendor’s proprietary barrier (even if it is a proprietary vendor).

SAP Backpedals Its SaaS Forays — By Design or Under Duress

2009-10-27T06:29:00.001-07:00

Let me start this blog post with a huge disclaimer: I have no intentions of wilfully beating up on SAP whatsoever!

Sure, the enterprise applications titan has lately been embroiled in an intellectual property lawsuit with archrival Oracle over improper use of support data through its TomorrowNow third-party support (recently discontinued) subsidiary.

As if this wasn’t enough, SAP is being sued again, and this time over an allegedly failed software implementation. Namely, in late March, Waste Management Inc. filed suit against SAP with claims of fraud (or gross over-promise, if one wants to sound a bit gentler here).

The plaintiff company claims to have spent a whopping US$100 million fortune implementing SAP’s software to run its business out-of-the-box (i.e., without any costly and pesky customizations). Since the software was allegedly a “complete failure”, the company is seeking expenses plus additional damages.

And it is all coming down in the midst of internal changes and reshuffling in SAP’s leadership and some high-profile staff departures. There are also indications about a not so smooth integration and assimilation of recently acquired Business Objects.

And yet, we’re a long way off from reading SAP’s obituary any time soon. SAP is the market leader for a reason, and I have a great deal of respect for its team and its ability to weather such storms.

It is not my intention either to crow over SAP’s apparent hiccups and acknowledged delaying (with decelerated investments) its much publicized software as a service (SaaS) offering called SAP Business ByDesign [evaluate this product].

SAP Business ByDesign is SAP’s first major foray into on-demand software delivery, whereby the company hoped to open a new market for its applications. Prospective customers would be companies that cannot afford its high-end applications, SAP Business Suite [evaluate this product], but which require more sophisticated software than its small business offerings, SAP Business One [evaluate this product].

The enterprise resource planning (ERP) giant had quite ambitiously hoped to attract 10,000 users and US$1 billion in revenue with SAP Business ByDesign by 2010. In addition to its commitment to SaaS, the on-demand product represents SAP’s indisputable commitment to the mid-market. In 2007, SAP set the lofty goal of 100,000 total customers, also by 2010. Growing from its current base of 35,000 will naturally require that a sizable number of small and midsized businesses join the fold.

But SAP’s outgoing chief executive officer (CEO) Henning Kagermann recently told investors that the company was now unlikely to hit that target. One would think that such a renowned (and regimented) company would have first conducted a little more research into what customers and partners really wanted, before chancing its neck and so publicly “betting the company” during the on-demand product launch and fanfares in the last fall.

And apparently the much-discussed ambitiously comprehensive on-demand feature list now looks somewhat incomplete, making some observers to be unsure whether it’s all more about vaporware or vapor-demand. The official SAP party line, according to the related official information extracted from the Q1 2008 earnings press release, can be seen below and you can draw your own conclusions:

“SAP’s small and midsize enterprise (SME) business continued to perform well in the first quarter of 2008 as the Company added more than 1,570 new SME customers (excluding customers from Business Objects) in the quarter, representing a 28% increase compared to the first quarter of 2007. A principal component of the SME strategy is SAP’s breakthrough innovative new solution, SAP Business ByDesign.

Since last September’s announcement of SAP Business ByDesign, the Company has been working closely with early customers and partners to validate and fine-tune the solution. As a result of this process, SAP has elected to modify the rollout strategy for SAP Business ByDesign to ensure a more focused and controlled ramp-up process. The new rollout strategy includes the following:

* For 2008, go-to-market efforts for SAP Business ByDesign will focus on six countries, where all the current productive early customers are based and which represent a large amount of the worldwide volume market opportunity. Additional country rollouts will be executed in 2009.
* It is expected to take around 12 months to 18 months longer than the original 2010 target to reach the SAP Business ByDesign $1 billion revenue and 10,000 customer potential.
* However, the Company will use SAP Business ByDesign innovations and technologies for the existing solutions and this will contribute significantly to the overall revenues of SAP in 2010.
* Also, the Company will engage with significantly less than 1,000 customers in 2008.

In light of the modified rollout strategy, SAP will reduce its accelerated investments around SAP Business ByDesign in 2008 by approximately €100 million, which is expected to result in additional operating margin expansion in 2008 as noted in the “Business Outlook” section of this release. Furthermore, beginning in 2009 there will be no further accelerated investments. The expected expenses related to SAP Business ByDesign will be funded out of SAP’s normal operational business.

SAP maintains its full confidence in the product, the market opportunity and the associated business model of SAP Business ByDesign, as the Company continues to move toward volume readiness in 2008.”

If SAP is just being conservative with the product and wants to ensure everything is correct before the general availability for expected (and hoped) high volume sales, then this might work out great for the vendor.

Again, I have a lot of respect for the SAP team, so I would give it the benefit of the doubt. After all, Germans’ zeal for engineering perfection is well recognized and admired. But also again, the question here is about creating inevitable bad market buzz for this important product.

It is only logical to expect analysts and market observers to be skeptical, and the reasons for the delay will thus remain shrouded in mystery. On one hand, some SAP executives seem to be publicly admitting that there is more work and figuring out to do.

On the other hand, some (of course incognito) company insiders reportedly assert the product has technical problems. Amid almost everyone having something to say in this regard, I would hereby point out to ZDNet’s bloggers Larry Dignan and Josh Greenbaum, who have produced decent blog posts on the topic.

Straight Up on Leads Management

2009-10-27T06:27:00.001-07:00

Lead generation is a process that uses information to create interest in an enterprise’s products or services. It’s end objective is to generate sales.

Several steps are involved in this marketing process. Before a company begins, it needs to define the market that its product or service caters too, segment that market, and then identify its most profitable areas. Once this is done, the leads generation process begins. The leads generation process involves prospecting, preapproach, approach, and close. As a prospect moves through the leads cycle, information is being created and filtered. Sensibly, a business should use this information to follow up with its customers to see if they were satisfied with the service or product, and then generate leads metrics which will be used to further refine the leads generation and sales process.

The leads generation process gathers a lot of information and involves a lot of tracking, and it should generate dialogue not only between the company and customers, but within the company between sales and marketing in particular. A leads management solution uses different methodologies and practices to govern this information and distribute it to the appropriate people within an organization.

There are a couple of factors that are spurring the need for effective leads management tools. The biggest factor is that consumers are becoming more savvy, and are not easily compelled by traditional marketing. Companies are seeking to effectively target their core market by catering to their target’s specific needs.

The following white paper by BLUEROADS (original caps), outlines a some of rules that vendors should adhere to when managing leads distribution. Some recommendations include

* Using clear terminology for each stage of the lead pipeline
* Using partners that are relevant and experienced in a particular area.
* Having realistic expectations.
* Using lead pull methodology.

Given this, enterprises need to find software that is appropriate to their needs. In his excellent blog, Brian Carroll points readers to a Forrester Marketing blog by Laura Ramos which highlights four key buckets of leads generation technology, aimed at improving the efficacy of leads generation. I’ll repeat them here (but I do encourage you to visit both sites)

1) web analytics
2) database services
3) marketing automation
4) pure play leads management

Needless to say this involves a lot of technology and integration with existing CRM and SFA systems. On its own, a leads management system will not be a panacea for a business’s slumping sales. On this, Carroll reflects

“Software will not spontaneously generate collaboration between sales and marketing…I regularly encounter organizations that invest in expensive software before they fully understand the fundamental operational processes that it will be supporting.”

In other words, enterprises do not appreciate the type of information they need and who will be using it within the company. (He also writes how his company spent over a million dollars and nearly a decade to almost perfect their current leads management system. Brian, if you’re reading this, I invite you to try TEC’s tool…) A good leads management system is one that is used. There must be management buy-in, and the sales and marketing teams must be diligent in imputing and extracting information. For stakeholders to use the system, it must offer tools that they need. Failing this, money and resources are wasted housing dirty data—data which has no form or function outside of confounding business.

Enterprises should use a decision support system to help them map out their needs and measure their priorities. The decision process itself can be long and arduous if it is not managed correctly (It’s detailed here as a part of TEC’s software evaluation and selection methodology)

Project Management Strategies for a Challenged Economy

2009-10-27T06:12:00.000-07:00

As recent media reports suggest, the dreaded “R” word—recession—is looming large across the horizon of most western and global economies. Many organizations have had to scale back their spending and reduce costs. Due to the cyclical nature of our economy, certain industries will fare better than others.

As a result of the savings generated by the cost reduction efforts, decisions on where to invest may determine which organizations emerge unscathed from a recession, and which organizations fall victim to it and implode. In a recent Business Week article, Bruce Nusbaum, assistant managing editor in charge of the magazine’s innovation and design coverage says, “Winners always emerge out of recessions, and they almost always beat their competition on the basis of something new.” Nusbaum cited Apple as a powerful example. During the last recession, Apple worked on its iTunes and iPod. When the recession was over, retail stores immediately did gangbuster business with these products, and the company’s stock soared. Apple’s competition is still singing the blues.

The Pro-active Project Manager

The need for a project manager (PM) to be” business savvy”, especially during a recession, is critical. The PM will have to become a crusader, a salesperson, and an influencer to fight for projects that enhance productivity and quality, or that shorten cycle times, or that have a shorter project life cycle to generate return on investment (ROI). When the economic cycle turns upward again—as it inevitably does—having invested in the improvement of quality and cycle time, within both manufacturing and product distribution, may result in a higher market share for a product. Once management has examined business processes as a way to bring about improvements, other areas of an organization’s infrastructure can be open for examination as well. The methodology that supports project management can be used in areas such as product design, by examining all aspects of a product’s features and benefits. This may result in improvements to product features unlike any of the competition’s product offerings, thus generating higher revenues for the organization.

Lean Strategies to Weather the Storm
1. Innovate to promote knowledge exchange by encouraging team-building and collaborative efforts through relationships with coworkers and vendors.
2. Generate competition among internal teams working toward to continous improvements.
3. Don’t cut back on meetings. Meetings for brainstorming and to fire up team members’ creativity are more important than ever when companies downsize.
4. Build new teams. Business pullbacks are excellent times to pursue new ideas and projects and to get them on the drawing board.?
5. Don’t insulate team members by cutting travel. Get them out in the world and exposed to new thinking. Send teams to trade shows and webinars, and encourage networking through associations, all to review costs with an eye toward eliminating unnecessary expenditures.

Aspiraciones del software mundial

2009-10-04T00:31:00.000-07:00

Para dirigir las necesidades multinacionales de las empresas y para crear "una imagen para cada cliente", Exact Software, una división de Delft, con sede en Holanda Exact Holding N.V. (Ámsterdam: EXACT.AS, www.exactsoftware.com), les ha ofrecido Exact Globe, la última generación del software de planificación de los recursos de la empresa (ERP) de la oficina de gestión a los clientes de Norteamérica. Este esfuerzo, que empezó en el 2005, debe permitirle a los clientes beneficiarse de una extensa gama de soluciones ERP.

Segunda parte de Exact Software continúa con su participación en el mercado de adquisiciones prudentes.

Los primeros adoptadores de Exact Globe han sido divisiones de compañías que han utilizado el producto por mucho tiempo. Sin embargo, el vendedor planea a principios del 2006 lanzar su producto Exact Globe Enterprise a lo largo de Norteamérica. Exact Globe Enterprise es una serie de software de ERP multinacional que les ofrece a los fabricantes capacidades multilingües y de múltiples monedas que no tienen las ofertas locales. A lo largo del 2005, Globe ha tenido un lanzamiento controlado en Norteamérica y ha habido alrededor de quince sitios de prueba para el producto. La meta es alcanzar los veinte sitios en el 2006. También en el 2006 se espera la disponibilidad general (GA) del producto.

Para información de trasfondo de Exact continúe Exact Software continúa con su participación en el mercado de adquisiciones prudentes.
Esta iniciativa muestra el comienzo de una migración a largo plazo para una sola plataforma ERP, pero por el momento, por ningún motivo los usuarios de los sistemas de Exact ERP que no sean locales serán forzados a llevar a cabo conversión alguna. Por algún tiempo, Exact ha enfocado sus esfuerzos de investigación y desarrollo (R&D) en una estrategia de un solo producto, fortaleciendo su marco de trabajo de arquitectura llamado One-X (que significa un Exact). One-X significa que hay una sola base de datos (por ejemplo Microsoft SQL Server) y una tabla de transacción entre los productos de oficina de gestión respectivos de Exact Globe o de Macola ES, cada uno con el producto e-Synergy de ventanilla o de gestión de los procesos del negocio (BPM).

En un inicio, ambas combinaciones de productos eran para proporcionarles a los clientes la completa integración de soluciones de ventanilla y de la oficina de gestión, aunque con diferentes enfoques, fuerzas y mercados. Por ejemplo, la combinación de Exact Globe y e-Synergy tiene como objetivo los mercados que no son fabricantes fuera de Norteamérica; la combinación de Macola ES y e-Synergy se enfoca a los fabricantes. La idea es converger eventualmente estas tres líneas de productos a un producto unificado mundial en un futuro.

Mientras tanto, las nuevas versiones de todas las líneas de productos adquiridas se han desarrollado en la misma arquitectura, que deberá asegurar las economías de escala a largo plazo. Debe asegurar la integración del producto de las marcas adquiridas, y la continuidad del producto para los clientes. Para ello, Exact esta utilizando un repositorio de objetos común para simplificar el desarrollo a través de sus productos, para que Exact Globe y Macola ES puedan prestarse módulos, como los componentes de almacén, del intercambio electrónico de datos (EDI) o del control de planta de Macola ES. Para mayor información, consulte Exact SoftwareWorking Diligently Towards the One Exact Synergy.

Sin embargo, debido a que Exact Globe tiene una funcionalidad superior de gestión de procesos multinacional (incluyendo los que se basan en subvención), también se le dará el derecho de paso para convertirse un producto estratégico de Exact para su base mundial. Es un producto especialmente prometedor ya que es el primer producto con capacidades multinacionales que se ofrece en el mercado de Norteamérica. Como tal, debe ayudar a atraer nuevos clientes. En especial, mientras que todos los cuatro paquetes de Norteamérica tienen la habilidad de hacer interfaz con e-Synergy, ninguno tiente capacidades sólidas multilingües o de monedas múltiples. En Globe, esta funcionalidad fue construida desde un principio, lo cual es crítico al dirigir las necesidades de los fabricantes multinacionales con sede en Norteamérica.
Exact Globe tiene una funcionalidad extensiva, que incluye finanzas, distribución, fabricación ligera, planificación de los recursos de fabricación (MRP), un configurador de producto y gestión de proyectos. Exact ha tenido como objetivo negocios pequeños y medianos que tienen ingresos desde $10 millones hasta $50 millones de dólares, así como compañías de fabricación y distribución y divisiones de multinacionales. Este es un mercado muy potencial ya que las compañías padres por lo general utilizan un producto de nivel uno de SAP u Oracle (incluyendo PeopleSoft), pero estos sistemas por lo general tienen una funcionalidad innecesaria para las distintas divisiones.

Globe, que tiene una funcionalidad sólida pero no excesiva, se construyó para integrar con otros sistemas utilizando el lenguaje extendido de marcas (XML), que se ha convertido en un estándar de integración. El producto también tiene un precio adecuado. La configuración incluye e-Synergy, libro mayor (GL), cuentas por cobrar (AR), cuentas por pagar (AP), distribución, procesamiento de órdenes, control de inventario y compras y costos de alrededor de $20,000 dólares más $1,200 dólares por nombre de usuario (cualquier empleado que ingrese al sistema). Por lo general el servicio anual continuo y el costo del soporte dan un promedio adicional de $20,000 dólares. Los usuarios también pueden comprar e-Synergy como un sistema independiente por $10,000 dólares, más $1,000 dólares por nombre de usuario.

Por lo tanto, como parte del empuje multinacional, Exact Norteamérica también ha creado lo que llama de forma interna el grupo de tutelaje internacional, un equipo de ventas dedicado para las necesidades de las compañías que operan en múltiples países, ya que estas empresas necesitan venderse, servicio y soporte de manera distinta. Aunque estas compañías quieran operar sus oficinas principales en Norteamérica desde la misma base de datos, todavía operan en distintos países y tienen distintos problemas de distribución, nómina, impuestos y leyes. Actualmente, Exact tiene aproximadamente 30 personas de ventas en el grupo de tutelaje internacional, que da servicio a alrededor de 1,000 clientes multinacionales. Los revendedores de valor agregado (VAR) se pueden beneficiar de estos servicios. Este grupo también cuidará todas las logísticas, las comunicaciones, la escritura de las propuestas, y la implementación. Al mismo tiempo, protegerá el margen de ganancia de los socios y todo esto se hará en un proceso que es parecido para el prospecto o para el cliente.

Irónicamente, los prospectos Norteamericanos pueden considerar Globe como un producto completamente nuevo; sin embargo, Exact lo construyó hace veinte años para las compañías en Holanda que necesitaban un paquete de contabilidad que podía manejar distintos tipos de moneda. Se enfoca en automatizar procesos ERP para la oficina de gestión que contienen información estructurada (transacciones), como procesos de fabricación, financieros, de recursos humanos (HR), ventas, mercadotecnia y logística. Además, está completamente localizado, para que se cubran todas las obligaciones legislativas, fiscales y judiciales.

Por lo general, el producto se utiliza para seleccionar un número de usuarios que son responsables de las acciones transaccionales como el movimiento de artículos, la venta, el presupuesto, etc. Ya que el número de usuarios puuede ser pequeño, tienen que estar perfectamente entrenados en la aplicación y requieren un ambiente poderoso con toda la funcionalidad que puede ofrecer Microsoft Windows en términos de facilidad de uso. Por lo tanto, Exact Globe se desarrolla en Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, con un marco de trabajo técnico básico en Microsoft Visual C++ 6.0 para asegurar la eficiencia y la consistencia de programación. Todos los datos se almacenan en la base de datos del Microsoft SQL Server 2000, mientras que las plataformas del cliente soportadas son Microsoft Windows 2000 y Windows XP. Las fuerzas funcionales clave de Exact Globe incluyen:

Los sutiles (o no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación de Microsoft .NET

2009-10-04T00:29:00.000-07:00

Microsoft .NET es un ambiente completo para desarrollo de software que se lanzó en el 2000 como la siguiente generación en ambiente de programación de Microsoft. Se pronuncia punto net y se conoce como Microsoft .NET Framework. Se diseñó para competir con la plataforma Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE). .NET Framework es la estrategia de servicios Web de Microsoft que permite conectar la información, la gente, los sistemas y los dispositivos mediante software, con la promesa de un acceso a la información en cualquier momento, en cualquier lugar y con cualquier dispositivo. La tecnología que utiliza .NET Framework se integra en toda la plataforma Microsoft y permite crear, implementar, manejar y usar soluciones conectadas y de mayor seguridad con servicios Web de forma más rápida.

Primera parte de la serie Los sutiles (o no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación de Microsoft .NET.

El ambiente Microsoft .NET contiene aquéllo que un negocio necesita para desarrollar e implementar una arquitectura de tecnología de la información (TI) conectada a los servicios Web: clientes inteligentes, servidores que alojen los servicios Web, herramientas de desarrollo para crearlos, aplicaciones para usarlos y una red mundial de más de 35,000 empresas que son Socios Certificados de Microsoft y que pueden dar a los usuarios la ayuda que necesiten.

El Microsoft .NET Framework es un componente integral de Microsoft Windows que permite crear y operar la siguiente generación de aplicaciones y servicios Web basados en lenguaje extensible de marcas (XML). La tecnología basada en .NET Framework tiene muchas ventajas potenciales, como la capacidad para proporcionar un ambiente productivo, basado en las normas, fuerte en la industria, listo para las empresas y multilingüe que simplifique el desarrollo de aplicaciones. Con esto, los desarrolladores deben ser capaces de utilizar sus habilidades, proporcionar una integración con el software existente y suavizar los retos que representa la implementación y el uso de aplicaciones en escala de Internet. El .NET Framework es la infraestructura de la plataforma .NET, que contiene la biblioteca de clases .NET Framework y la ejecución en lenguaje común (CLR). La CLR proporciona el ambiente adecuado para que funcionen las aplicaciones basadas en .NET Framework, mientras que la biblioteca de clases da los servicios de base, como Página de servidor activo (ASP), Objetos de datos ActiveX (ADO) .NET, WinForms (para crear interfaces gráficas de usuario [GUI]) y bibliotecas de clases de base para acceder a los servicios de modelo de objetos comunes (COM).

Los programadores pueden seleccionar uno de varios lenguajes de programación, como Microsoft C# (C Sharp), Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), J# (J Sharp), Managed C++, JScript.NET, etc. La Asociación europea de fabricantes de computadoras (European Computer Manufacturing Association o ECMA) normalizó .NET como infraestructura de lenguaje común (CLI), además de que se han recreado muchos otros lenguajes para que sean lenguajes CLI. ECMA también normalizó el lenguaje de prrogramación C# que Microsoft diseñó para ser el producto principal del lenguaje basado en .NET Framework.
La información que producen los compiladores de .NET y CLI puede o no ser idéntica, dependiendo de las bibliotecas de clases que se usen, ya que los compiladores de .NET generan un código de bytes en Lenguaje intermedio Microsoft (MSIL) y los compiladores de CLI generan un código de bytes en Lenguaje intermedio común (CIL). MSIL es ejecutado por la CLR, mientras que el código de bytes CLI es ejecutado por el Sistema de ejecución virtual (VES). Tanto la CLR como el VES son motores de ejecución como la Máquina virtual Java (JVM), ya que proporcionan un conjunto fundamental de servicios que usan todos los programas. La diferencia es que el código de bytes de Java se puede interpretar y compilar, mientras que la JVM sólo soporta Java, no varios lenguajes de programación.

Como se mencionó antes, el núcleo tanto de .NET como de CLI es un sistema de lenguajes que se usa entre plataformas. Aunque se parece a Java en que usa un lenguaje de código de bytes intermedio que se puede ejecutar en cualquier plataforma de hardware que cuente con un motor de ejecución, también es diferente porque proporciona soporte para varios lenguajes de programación.

El Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (antes conocido como WinFX), que se encuentra actualmente en versión beta, contiene un conjunto nuevo de interfaces de programas de aplicación (API) de código administrado que forma parte de los sistemas operativos Windows Vista y Windows Server Longhorn que se lanzarán próximamente. También estará disponible para Windows XP SP2 y Windows Server 2003. El Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 contiene la versión 2.0 de la CLR y consta de cuatro componentes:

1. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (cuyo nombre código era Avalon), un subsistema nuevo de interfaz de usuario (IU) que tiene base API en XML y gráficos por vectores (usará hardware tridimensional de gráficos por computadora y tecnología Direct3D).
2. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) (su nombre código era Indigo), un sistema de mensajería orientado a los servicios que permite que los programas operen entre sí de forma local o remota, como los servicios Web.
3. Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF) que permite crear transacciones integradas y de automatización de tareas usando flujos de trabajo.
4. Windows CardSpace (WCS) (cuyo nombre código era InfoCard), un componente de software que almacena de forma segura las identidades digitales de una persona y que proporciona una interfaz uniforme para seleccionar la identidad que se usará en una transacción en particular, como puede ser el registro a un sitio web.

Habilitación en Microsoft .NET: análisis y precauciones

2009-10-04T00:28:00.001-07:00

Como se ha venido explicando en esta serie, es necesario contar con ciertos elementos para desarrollar e implementar una arquitectura de tecnología de la información (TI) que esté conectada con servicios Web. Dichos elementos son smart clients, servidores para alojar los servicios Web, herramientas para crearlos y aplicaciones para usarlos. Además de estos elementos, Microsoft .NET Framework cuenta con una red mundial de más de 35,000 empresas certificadas como Microsoft Certified Partner que pueden proporcionar a los usuarios la ayuda necesaria. Si desea consultar una definición de cómo el ambiente Microsoft .NET trata la situación, refiérase a Los sutiles (o no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación de Microsoft .NET.

Tercera parte de la serie Los sutiles (y no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación de Microsoft .NET.

El artículo Evolución de la arquitectura: desde la arquitectura de los marcos principales hasta la arquitectura orientada a los servicios contiene información sobre la evolución de la arquitectura de sistemas.

Sólo algunos vendedores innovadores o valientes (o ambos) que se centran en Microsoft han decidido aventurarse en el angustiante (pero potencialmente gratificante) esfuerzo para ofrecer un software completamente nuevo, escrito en código administrado basado en .NET Framework, en donde gran parte de las tareas básicas del sistema se retiran del código para ser administradas por .NET Framework. Se puede usar y acceder a esta funcionalidad, que ha sido totalmente reescrita o que se ha creado usando sólo .NET Framework, mediante servicios Web, como lo demuestran los ejemplos del software habilitado en .NET

Ejemplos de habilitación en Microsoft .NET

2009-10-04T00:27:00.000-07:00

El ambiente Microsoft .NET tiene lo que un negocio podría necesitar para desarrollar e implementar una arquitectura de tecnología de la información (TI) conectada a servicios Web: aplicaciones smart client, servidores para alojar servicios Web, herramientas de desarrollo para crearlos, aplicaciones para usarlos y una red mundial de más de 35,000 empresas certificadas como Microsoft Certified Partner que puedan ayudar a los usuarios.

Segunda parte de la serie Los sutiles (o no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación de Microsoft .NET.

Como es natural, la mayoría de los vendedores han optado por trabajar en la evolución del esquema de trabajo de sus aplicaciones con el propósito de cubrir las necesidades que se explicaron en Los sutiles (o no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación de Microsoft .NET. Si desea obtener información general sobre la evolución de la arquitectura del sistema, consulte Evolución de la arquitectura: desde la arquitectura de los marcos principales hasta la arquitectura orientada a los servicios.

Cuando aparece una tecnología nueva importante, es muy común en esta industria que el proveedor de aplicaciones empresariales envuelva su antiguo software de contabilidad o de planificación de los recursos de la empresa (ERP) en esta tecnología nueva. El propósito detrás de todo esto es ofuscar la tecnología antigua, vistiéndola con la apariencia gráfica más reciente, o proporcionando un medio para acceder a la lógica y los datos principales del negocio que resulte más simple que otros sistemas y dispositivos más modernos o la Internet. Actualmente existen muchos sistemas de apoyo de contabilidad y ERP en el mercado que se escribieron originalmente -y todavía contienen- núcleos tecnológicos poco comunes o hasta anticuados. Algunas de las estrategias que se usan para envolver los productos más antiguos son colocarles interfaces gráficas de usuario (GUI) contemporáneas de Windows (conocidas como programas capturadores de pantalla, o screen scrapers) o interfaces de usuario (IU) basadas en navegadores web. Últimamente se usan otras estrategias como proporcionar capas nuevas de servicios Web para rejuvenecer los productos antiguos mediante un acceso a las bases de datos y los componentes antiguos de la lógica del negocio.

La evolución implica un proceso más lento en el que se efectúan cambios graduales a la arquitectura existente para que eventualmente cumpla con las demandas. Existen varios ejemplos de sistemas legados habilitados en .NET a los que se han agregado aplicaciones wrapper para permitir que las funciones legadas se usen y expandan mediante servicios Web en el .NET Framework. En otras palabras, cuando se habla de este nivel superior de preparación de .NET, se agrega una aplicación wrapper, que es un componente de comunicación creado por una capa adicional de código en el producto. Esta aplicación wrapper se escribe en uno de los lenguajes del .NET Framework, y al agregarla permite usar las funciones del sistema legado mediante servicios Web. Otra de las grandes ventajas de este enfoque es que dichos sistemas funcionan en la definición de .NET Framework aceptada actualmente en el mercado, además de que permiten habilitar con bastante rapidez la funcionalidad legada.

Una de las aplicaciones que entra en esta categoría es la serie de productos client/server Epicor Enterprise, cuya lógica del negocio se expone usando servicios Web .NET. La mayoría de los productos de Epicor generan servicios Web a partir de la lógica del negocio o tienen una lógica del negocio que simplemente es servicios Web (ya que el vendedor cuenta con algunos productos de manufactura heredados que permanecerán en modo client/server tradicional). También hay que notar hasta ahora muchos de los productos ERP de Microsoft Dynamics no tienen servicios Web, principalmente porque en algunos productos no hay nada codificado (o que deba estar codificado) en .NET, al menos no en el producto de base (consulte Microsoft Keeps on Rounding up Its Business Solutions). Por supuesto, los desarrolladores cuentan con una interfaz del programa de aplicación (API) para extender sus productos o codificar .NET alrededor de ellos, pero el producto de base sigue dependiendo en su mayoría del modelo de objetos comunes (COM). Puede ser que hasta Epicor Enterprise esté en mejor forma, ya que Epicor proporciona habilitación en .NET mediante aplicaciones wrapper de código de servicios Web en .NET por lenguaje extensible de marcas (XML).

El proveedor de la aplicación empresarial puede profundizar el impacto en el mercado

2009-10-04T00:26:00.002-07:00

Los últimos años han sido duros para SoftBrands, un proveedor de soluciones empresariales, con sede en Miniápolis, Minnesota (EUA), para las industrias de hospitalidad y de fabricación (consulte La recuperación de SoftBrands aminora el golpe de la bancarrota de AremisSoft y Fourth Shift's evolution within SoftBrands' DemandStream). Sin embargo, SoftBrands ya pasó por lo peor, y existen señales de esperanza por un mejor futuro.

Para una discusión acerca de los productos Classic Fourth Shift y FourthShift para SAP Business One consulte, Cambia la solución clásica de planificación de los recursos de la empresa. Para más información acerca de los productos evolution y DemandStream consulte, El vendedor de la planificación de los recursos empresariales extendida muestra su lado esbelto. Para información acerca de SoftBrands Hospitality, consulte El vendedor le da la bienvenida a la industria hospitalaria.

Esta es la quinta de cinco partes de la serie La recuperación de SoftBrands aminora el golpe de la bancarrota de AremisSoft.

Los clientes de fabricación de SoftBrands se concentran en las industrias de ciencias vivas, de maquinaria, químicas y de plásticos, automotriz, de productos de consumo e industrias electrónicas. Creemos que los sectores de las ciencias vidas y de los productos de consumo representan el crecimiento potencial de los mercados para SoftBrands en Norteamérica. En los mercados de Europa, Medio Oriente, África (EMEA), existe un crecimiento potencial en Europa Oriental, principalmente en la República Checa, Polonia y Rusia.

Cundo se trata del mercado de Asia Pacífica, el sector de fabricación en China está creciendo rápidamente, y el vendedor debe estar bien posicionado para capitalizar en este crecimiento. En especial, SoftBrands debe tener una ventaja a partir del hecho de que el antes Fourth Shift fue el primer vendedor de planificación de los recursos de la empresa (ERP) para que las autoridades Chinas certificaron, y que por mucho tiempo el mercado Chino no tenía la competencia tan grande encontrada en otro lado. SoftBrands también puede tener un potencial para obtener participación en el mercado con las empresas Chinas privadas como resultado de la oferta Fourth Shift Edition para SAP Business One. Sin embargo, el vendedor podrá necesitar producir versiones en lenguaje local antes de que puedan general ventas sustanciales de Fourth Shift Edition para SAP Business One en el mercado de Asia Pacífica. Además, la localización de la proposición de valor, los servicios de implementación y la funcionalidad necesitarán adaptar el producto a las diferencias culturales encontradas en las compañías Chinas.

En cuanto aal sector de hospitalidad, SoftBrands tiene una base de clientes de aproximadamente 2,500 alrededor del mundo. El crecimiento orgánico en la hospitalidad puede venir de reemplazar los legados de sistemas con nuevos productos como Medallion y ganar nuevas cuentas.

La habilitación en código administrado Microsoft .NET: ejemplos y retos

2009-10-04T00:26:00.001-07:00

Desarrollar e implementar una arquitectura de tecnología de la información (TI) conectada a servicios Web no es una tarea fácil. Para ello, Microsoft .NET Framework ofrece justo lo que un negocio necesita: smart clients, servidores para alojar los servicios Web, las herramientas de desarrollo y las aplicaciones para crearlos y usarlos y una red global de más de 35,000 empresas certificadas como Microsoft Certified Partner que proporcionan ayuda a los usuarios.

Cuarta parte de la serie Los sutiles (y no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación en Microsoft .NET.

Si desea consultar una explicación general de la evolución de la arquitectura de sistemas, refiérase a Evolución de la arquitectura: desde la arquitectura de los marcos principales hasta la arquitectura orientada a los servicios o de cómo el ambiente Microsoft .NET trata esta situación, refiérase a Los sutiles (o no tan sutiles) matices de la habilitación de Microsoft .NET.

Primer ejemplo: Intuitive Manufacturing Systems

El primer ejemplo de un producto administrado con .NET es Intuitive Manufacturing Systems, una empresa de Kirkland, Washington que ofrece soluciones completas de planificación de los recursos de la empresa (ERP) para pequeñas y medianas empresas que trabajan en el campo de la fabricación discreta (Intuitive Manufacturing Systems Shows Maturity in Adolescent Age). Hace poco fue adquirida por Made2Manage Systems, el hambriento (como lo ha demostrado últimamente) proveedor del mid-market (consulte Made2Manage Systems un año más tarde, reactivado y creciendo). La destreza tecnológica en .NET que caracteriza a Intuitive ha sido considerada uno de los principales atractivos debido a que la mayoría de las líneas de productos ERP de Made2Manage estaban (en el mejor de los casos) en ese momento entre la compatibilidad y la habilitación en .NET.

Intuitive anunció recientemente el tan importante lanzamiento de Intuitive ERP 8.0, que representa el fin de una reescritura importante de la funcionalidad de Intuitive ERP usando código administrado .NET que se inició hace algunos años. En esta versión, todos los procesos principales de manufactura se han convertido a la nueva arquitectura, además de que varias áreas de la funcionalidad nueva se ofrecen ahora en Intuitive ERP 8.0, como los nuevos procesos de orden de cambio de ingeniería (ECO) que soportan la introducción de productos nuevos (NPI) y las solicitudes de cambio de ingeniería (ECN) que permiten agilizar la introducción de los productos en el mercado.

También tiene herramientas aprobadas para los proveedores que se diseñaron específicamente para la industria de manufactura por contrato -qque está en crecimiento- y que reemplazan las hojas de cálculo que son tan comunes pero ineficaces y propensas a los errores. Finalmente y con el propósito de soportar la cadena de suministro controlada por la demanda, planear los requerimientos de material y capacidad toma ahora sólo unos minutos, lo que permite realizar una planificación por demanda. La versión 8.0 se puso a disponibilidad de los clientes nuevos en mayo de 2006, y los clientes existentes podrán obtener la Versión 8.1 (programada para finales de 2006), una vez que las herramientas de migración estén disponibles.

La recuperación de SoftBrands aminora el golpe de la bancarrota de AremisSoft

2009-10-04T00:25:00.000-07:00

El mercado dinámico de las aplicaciones empresariales nunca cesa de sorprender a los observadores a largo plazo. Mientras varios representantes se han sumergido en el olvido, algunos han regresado con nuevos nombres, con proposiciones valiosas conocidas (aunque refinadas). Un caso así es SoftBrands, Inc. (AMEX: SBN; www.softbrands.com), un proveedor de soluciones empresariales, con sede en Miniápolis, Minnesota (EUA), para negocios pequeños y medianos (SMB) en las industrias de fabricación y hospitalidad alrededor del mundo. El vendedor tiene más de 550 empleados en las oficinas principales de EUA y en las oficinas en Europa, India, Asia, Australia y África. Con más de 4,000 clientes en más de 60 países que utilizan sus productos, ha establecido una infraestructura mundial decente para la distribución, desarrollo y soporte de software empresarial.

Para poder entender el significado de la recuperación de SoftBrand, se debe considerar su reciente historia. Mientras que el nombre de SoftBrands puede no ser conocido, varios recordarán a Fourth Shift Corporation, un proveedor importante, público, de planificación de los recursos de la empresa (ERP) para el mercado medio de fabricación. Fourth Shift Corporation fue una de las anteriores encarnaciones de SoftBrands (y todavía es su pilar más importante; para mayor información consulte Fourth Shift Corporation: Working Overtime to Provide Complete Customer Care). Otros recordarán a AremisSoft, otro de los nombres anteriores de SoftBrand, como una compañía plagada de escándalos cuyos ejecutivos de mayor rango todavía se están escondiendo detrás de su Chipre de origen, en donde todavía no existe un tratado de extradición con Estados Unidos (aunque existe el rumor de que recientemente capturaron a uno de los culpables en Estados Unidos).

Aunque SoftBrands se incorporó en octubre del 2001, primero se formó como un subsidiario de AremisSoft, principalmente para servir como una compañía tenedora de acciones para Fourth Shift Corporation ciertos activos de software hospitalario. Fourth Shift, establecido en 1984, se convirtió en el principal subsidiario de operación de SoftBrand. Sin embargo, Fourth Shift con sede en Miniápolis, Minnesota (EUA), que había sido una corporación pública hasta que fue adquirida por AremisSoft en abril 2001 (consulte The Mid-Market Is Consolidating, Lo And Behold), nuca se integró realmente dentro de la poco exitosa organización AremisSoft.

AremisSoft pretendió ser un desarrollador internacional y comercializador de software para varios mercados verticales. Tenía sus oficinas principales en el Reino Unido y en Chipre. A diferencia de Fourth Shift y varios otros representantes en el mercado cambiante en ese momento, AremisSoft alegó un incremento sustancial en los ingresos del 2000, en parte debido a varias supuestas adquisiciones y grandes ventas hechas por su antiguo Emerging Markets Group, que le daba servicio a Europa Oriental, al Medio Oriente y a India. A finales del 2000 y principios del 2001, AremisSoft también adquirió dos compañías Estadounidenses en el negocio del software hospitalario y completó una fusión de efectivo a través de la cual adquirió todas las acciones sobresalientes de Fourth Shift en abril del 2001. Pero a principios de mayo del 2001, comenzaron un gran número de demandas e investigaciones de la Comisión de seguridad e intercambio (SEC) de Estados Unidos contra AremisSoft. Esto conllevó a que todos los ejecutivos de AremisSoft renunciaran para el otoño del 2001, y al poco tiempo a una acción de aplicación por parte de SEC contra AremisSoft y a quejas criminales contra ciertos de sus antiguos ejecutivos.

La nueva administración de AremisSoft, que es la administración actual de Softbrands, estaba destinada a investigar estos problemas y a operar el negocio que había adquirido AremisSoft. Después de un arduo trabajo forense, la nueva administraación no fue capaz de comprobar las operaciones de AremisSoft reportadas en el 2000. Por consiguiente, las demandas y los procedimientos de aplicación llevaron a AremisSoft a declararse en quiebra bajo el Capítulo 11 del código de bancarrota de EUA en marzo del 2002. Con la participación total del demandante, se aprobó un plan para la reorganización de AremisSoft en julio del 2002, y se hizo efectivo en agosto del 2002; bajo este plan, SoftBrands se creó como una entidad separada. Los activos de AremisSoft que no eran de SoftBrands se vendieron o se desecharon inmediatamente antes de, o como parte de, los procedimientos de bancarrota. Debido a que virtualmente todas las operaciones continuas de AremisSoft ya estaban dentro de SoftBrands, desde un punto de vista de contabilidad y financiero la creación de Softbrands se trató como una creación en reversa, esto es, como si Softbrands hubiera creado AremisSoft.

Cambia la solución clásica de planificación de los recursos de la empresa

2009-10-04T00:24:00.000-07:00

SoftBrands, Inc. (AMEX: SBN; www.softbrands.com), un proveedor de soluciones empresariales, con sede en Miniápolis, Minnesota (EUA), para negocios pequeños y medianos (SMB) en las industrias de fabricación y hospitalidad alrededor del mundo. Hoy en día, los ingresos de Softbrands vienen en su mayoría (alrededor de dos tercios o más) de la división de fabricación de SoftBrands. Para mayor información acerca de la historia reciente de SoftBrands, consulte La recuperación de SoftBrands aminora el golpe de la bancarrota de AremisSoft.

Esta es la segunda de cinco partes de la serie La recuperación de SoftBrands aminora el golpe de la bancarrota de AremisSoft

Fourth Shift Clásico

El Fourth Shift clásico es el producto central de fabricación de SoftBrand dirigido a la fabricación de los SMBs. Fourth Shift software, que está construido en la plataforma de Microsoft, se introdujo en 1985 como uno de los primeros sistemas de planificación de los recursos empresariales (ERP) basados en las computadoras personales (PC). La serie completa de ERP extendido facilita las funciones comerciales críticas, incluyendo la fabricación, ingeniería, operaciones (entrada de órdenes, compras y envíos), financieras y contables, el flujo de trabajo, el comercio electrónico, la gestión de recursos humanos (HR) (incluyendo la contratación, la administración de beneficios, la nómina, el cumplimiento y el entrenamiento de los empleados), la gestión de las relaciones con los clientes (CRM), la programación y planificación avanzada (APS), y la gestión de las relaciones con los proveedores (SRM).

Al producir aproximadamente el 65 por ciento de los ingresos, el producto de Fourth Shift sigue siendo el sostén más importante para la división de fabricación de SoftBrands. Es un producto habilitador de la Web para diferentes mercados medios de fabricación que está disponible en diecisiete idiomas. Se han vendido más de 4,000 sistemas a más de 1,500 clientes en 60 países diferentes. Los usuarios de Fourth Shift clásico incluyen algunos de los fabricantes con un rápido crecimiento y empresas mundiales que aparecen en la revista Global 2500, como Eastman Kodak, Unilever, Bosch, TTK Prestige, y Electrolux.

El producto cubre varias bases con alrededor de cincuenta módulos de aplicación integrados que manejan la entrada de órdenes, la contabilidad y las finanzas, el control de inventario, la fabricación, el soporte de las decisiones ejecutivas y la inteligencia comercial (BI), la ingeniería, las compras y los envíos. También tiene módulos adaptables de visibilidad de la cadena de suministro basados en la Web que se comunican a través de la tecnología del portal. Para mayor información acerca de las características de la solución consulte Fourth Shift's evolution within SoftBrands' DemandStream.

Estas capacidades conllevaron a que el Fourth Shift clásico fuera promovido como uno de los primeros productos ERP para el mercado medio cuya habilidad para abarcar las actividades de los proveedores y de los clientes estaba unida a los sistemas centrales de transacción de ventanilla. Para soportar estas afirmaciones, Fourth Shift ha ofrecido por mucho tiempo una habilidad de comercio electrónico muy competitivo dentro de su nicho de mercado, que incluye, pero no está limitado por, catálogos en línea, puntos de venta en Internet, verificación de crédito en línea, validación de tarjetas de crédito, un configurador de producto paramétrico basado en reglas, adquisición en línea y el cumplimiento de órdenes. A todos los grupos de usuarios más importantes se les ha proporcionado aplicaciones de comercio electrónico, mientras que My Fourth Shift Workplace cuida a los empleados, la aplicación Customer Center les permite a los clientes o a los socios de canal navegar en el catálogo en línea de las empresas usuarias, configurar productos, colocar órdenes, ver su propia asignación de precios, revisar la disponibilidad de producto e ingresar al estatus de su(s) orden(es) al rastrear el envío y ver la información de su cuenta y pago.

El producto también ha sido muy sólido en cuanto a entradas de transacción y reporteo, visibilidad del estatus de producción a nivel táctico, rastreo de lotes, control de costos y gestión de trabajo en progreso (WIP), que lo hacen adecuado para operaciones de orden-envío-facturación dentro de los ambientes de fabricación de fabricación a inventario (MTS) y de configuración a pedido (CTO).

El precio de venta general por una instalación de Fourth Shift, incluyendo la licencia, el entrenamiento y otros servicios es aproximadamente de $200,000 dólares.

El vendedor de la planificación de los recursos empresariales extendida muestra su lado esbelto

2009-10-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

Además de las soluciones Foutth Shift clásico y Fourth Shift Edition para SAP Business One (consulte Cambia la solución clásica de planificación de los recursos de la empresa),los productos centrales de fabricación SoftBrands incluyen otros productos de planificación de los recursos empresariales (ERP) extendidos llamados evolution (antes Aremis Enterprise), así como DemandStream, un sistema de software de automatización empresarial esbelta.

Para mayor información acerca de la historia reciente de SoftBrands, consulte La recuperación de SoftBrands aminora el golpe de la bancarrota de AremisSoft.

Esta es la tercera de cinco partes de la serie La recuperación de SoftBrands aminora el golpe de la bancarrota de AremisSoft.

evolution

Introducido en 1986, evolution actualmente se utiliza en aproximadamente 1,000 locaciones. Evolution es una solución de comercio electrónico interempresarial (B2B) de ERP adaptable, que está construido en varias plataformas de bases de datos (Oracle, IBM Informix, y Microsoft SQL2000) y plataformas de servidor (HP-UX, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, y Microsoft 2000 Windows Server), y, por lo tanto, puede ser más adecuado para fabricantes medianos más grandes. De hecho, la aplicación evolution se le conoce como una aplicación de plataforma neutral, debido a que está disponible en las plataformas empresariales más comunes, y su interfase de usuario (UI) opera en un modo cliente cero, para que cualquier dispositivo habilitador de navegador pueda ingresar y trabajar en las aplicaciones de evolution.

El campo de acción funcional de evolution abarca las aplicaciones para Internet, publicación de información, conectividad y operaciones de sitios múltiples. Las aplicaciones centrales del producto son la producción, planificación, ventas, inventario, compras y finanzas, que se presentan como aproximadamente 6,000 componentes adaptables unidos de forma sencilla.

El producto estaba diseñado para darle servicio al nicho de los mercados de fabricación, y es especialmente adecuado para ambientes de fabricación dimensionales y convertidores (consulte Fourth Shift's evolution within SoftBrands' DemandStream). De hecho, ha habido una reducción de mejoras funcionales recientes para los negocios convertidores. Estas mejoras incluyen la locación dinámica de cilindros, donde el consumo de material fuente se maneja a través de una función completa de gestión de órdenes de material, que les proporciona a los planificadores la habilidad de diseñar cilindros fuente u otro material, especificar las reservas o locaciones de material utilizando cualquier número de atributos, como número de lote, peso, largo y ancho del cilindro. También nuevas características de reporteo de producción tienen que ver con operaciones de cilindros de laminación, recubrimiento, laminado y el corte en bobinas. Para mayor información, consulte Las necesidades exactas de los centros de servicio para la industria del metal.

Al igual que Fourth Shift, evolution ha integrado las aplicaciones de gestión de las relaciones con los clientes (CRM) y de recursos humanos (HR), el soporte de intercambio electrónico de datos (EDI), y la recolección de datos de planta, y la serie habilita la Web con una interfase basada en un navegador que cubre toda la funcionalidad. En contraste a Fourth Shift, que es un sistema completo de software vendido de forma estandarizada, la evolución está diseñada para permitirles a los clientes personalizar el sistema para sus operaciones únicas.

En especial, con una amplia gama de funcionalidad, y herramientas sólidas de gran escalabilidad que pueden adaptar la aplicación, evolution le proporciona a los negocios una fuerte plataforma para la mejora y el crecimiento de los procesos comerciales. Por ejemplo, el juego de herramientas de procesos comerciales ensure tiene una librería sólida 1,000 de procesos comerciales y facilidades de modificación de arrastre basadas en lenguaje de marca de hipertexto (HTLM) para ayudar con la implementación. Además, al construirse con base en una arquitectura orientada al servicio (SOA), y al utilizar herramientas de gestión de los procesos comerciales (BPM) para modelar, diseñar, configurar e implementar los requisitos funcionales únicos de las empresas usuarias, evolution les permite a los clientes adaptar la aplicación sin modificar el código fuente subyacente. (consulte, Understanding SOA, Web Services, BPM, BPEL, and More).