Archive for category CRM Software

Social ERP?

Posted by cshaul on Tuesday, 20 July, 2010

Social Networking has become the mainstay of the internet now.  Facebook, Twitter, and the like are all drawing people in and essentially training the next generation of computer users.  These social media sites are like magnets that people have to go to each and every day to keep up with their friends and share their updates.  People are accessing these media sources from all types of devices.  It is all absorbing.

Social Networking for ERP

One of the biggest problems in most business applications is user adoption.  Getting the users to use the system is a key challenge in many applications.  So how does the business applications market combine the social media attraction to a financial or manufacturing system?  Combining a social media approach to a business management system would seem to be a logical conclusion.  But there are obstacles.   You have two different elements playing here.  The cold hard facts of transactional data and the emotional connectedness of the social media.  How can these gel together?

Salesforce.com has begun a trend in combining social media with a business application through their Chatter application.  Essentially, Chatter is a Twitter for Salesforce.com.  It is an embedded part of Salesforce.com.  Users can post status updates and see all of the updates from their chosen connections (friends).  But the power of this application is that you can follow business objects within Salesforce.com such as Accounts, Opportunities, Contracts, etc.  So anytime an update occurs on these objects, you get a status update, not from a friend, but rather from an application.

So how would this likely work in an ERP solution?  First you could enhance any alerts to post to a status page.  Next you could potentially use it to notify you on any changes to any master record, such as customer, supplier, inventory, or BOMs.   The next thing you might consider is to have criteria based alerts be in the form of status updates.  Post an update when a customer exceeds their credit limit, or post an alert when a critical inventory part is below its optimal stocking level.

The next logical extension of this would be to extend the ERP to the social web.  Imagine getting private posts on Facebook when your major customer falls past due or when your shipment that absolutely must go out notifies you that it shipped on time.

The problem with this whole concept is the ability for traditional client server based ERP solutions to move in this direction.  Some of the new systems (or recently re-written) solutions may be able to implement this type of functionality quickly, but some of the older technology solutions may have difficulty bringing a social media function quickly to bear.

As this is a topic with no clear solution yet, what do you our readers think?  Where is this going?  When will we see it?  Please post your comments and thoughts.  Thank you.


What is Your CRM Goal?

Posted by contributor on Saturday, 26 June, 2010



What is Your CRM Goal?
Hendra Lim

Are you thinking to start using a CRM application or software for your company? Before you talk to your CRM vendors, do you know what CRM goals or impacts you want to achieve?

In my own experiences talking to many business managers, oftentimes the real reason why they want to utilize a CRM program is because other companies have used it, or because it is a trend now. For me it’s not a firm enough reason.

CRM application usually requires a lot of money invested, time, and energy. Without knowing where you will go and how, it’s useless and will most likely become a failure.

Here are four main goals of any CRM; whatever results you expect from a CRM application, it will fall onto one of the these four goals. Here they are:

1. Increasing sales effectiveness

2. Increasing customer loyalty

3. Increasing better customer service

4. Having deep customer information

Which one of those goals is your primary reason to implement CRM software? Which one is your priority? Do you need them all?

If you say that you want to maximize the work of your sales force, that means you want the goal of number one. If you say that you want your customer service staffs answer the complaints faster, that means your priority is the goal number three.

It’s very common that CRM software is usually consisted of 3 main modules, which are Sales Force Automation, Marketing Automation, and Help Desk. Knowing what goal you want to reach in your CRM strategy will help you choose which modules are best and suit your needs, thus saves unnecessary cost of purchasing the modules you don’t need. Furthermore, firmly deciding the goal will keep the team on the right track to complete the CRM implementation.
Hendra Lim works for a software-based company that specialized in CRM software and Sales Force Automation application. He lives in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Creating Customers for Life – Relationship Management and Sales Training DVD Video

Advantages of Online CRM solution

Posted by Administrator on Thursday, 17 June, 2010

Author: Antje Wilmer

Customer relationship management or CRM is defined as the process of tracking and organizing contacts with your current and prospective customers. An effective CRM practice revolves around different departments of your business process, enhances its productivity and service to match expectations of your customers. According a recent survey conducted by “Benchmark” CRM applications can increase revenue per sales person by 41% and improve lead conversion over 300%. Other advantages of CRM applications are customer retention, better profit margin and decreased marketing and sales cost. That is the reason Claudio Marcus, research director at Gartner commented “CRM is not part of a business strategy; CRM is the business strategy.”

Advent of internet has caused a paradigm shift to age old dynamics of customer relationship management. Web based CRM or online CRM comprises s et of software applications hosted by an Application Service Provider (ASP). These applications enable you to deliver services through internet. From free of cost Google Calendar to Customized and business specific online CRM solutions are available in the market. Their installation in your business process offer manifold advantages. They lower down the cost of entry and ownership. You can implement changes according to demands of customers in a faster manner. It helps in faster transmission of information among the line of organizational hierarchy and your customers.

Accessibility is another advantage of online CRM applications. Though these application you can access your customers from any part of the globe. Implementation of online CRM solutions is easy as they do not need any costly hardware server infrastructure and deployment of backend operations. If you are going for a customized Online CRM solution, it can adopt to growing demands of your business.

In a nutshell, Online CRM solutions and applications will lead you towards smoother operation, expanded customer base and better profit.

Antje Wilmer is a freelance writer on eCommerce. He has written the articles and blogs on eCommerce Software and online CRM Solution.

Article Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_1124607_11.html


Cloud 2.0 is Here

Posted by Administrator on Monday, 19 April, 2010

Watching a recent Salesforce.com partner presentation, we got to see firsthand where the technology world is going. The age of Cloud 2.0 is here. We are moving from fixed environments to web-based, real-time environments. No longer are computers chained to the desktop, now the mobile worker is free to go anywhere.

More importantly, they are updated in real-time on the status of their coworkers, their projects, their subordinates, their customers, all through the new technology of Chatter, within Salesforce.com. If you haven’t heard of Chatter, think of it as Twitter for the corporation.

Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are creating a generation of people who expect real-time updates on their friends and co-workers. Being aware of what people are working on and how they are solving problems through collaborative technologies are more examples of Cloud 2.0. Facebook has become a giant part of the web. In fact, in the younger generation, Facebook is the web. In general, if not monitored, you are likely to find more people on Facebook than on their business systems at any time. So why not bring the power of Facebook to business systems? That is what Salesforce is attempting to do with Chatter.

With the release of the iPad, there is now a tablet based mobile technology that can bring the web vividly to anyone, anywhere. At first, we thought it was purely and entertainment platform, but the more we understand it, the more we see that Apple is now moving to both a mobile and web based computing platform. It could probably be the next generation of Macintoshes for the cloud generation. People are now able to create, produce, and develop from anywhere there is a cell phone signal (or wifi).

Here is Salesforce’s view of Cloud 2.0. This says a lot!

Cloud 1.0 Cloud 2.0
Amazon.com Facebook
Tabs Feeds
Pull Push
Click Touch
Desktop Smartphone/Tablet
Fixed Mobile
Location Unknown Location aware
Windows/Mac Cocoa/HTML5

No longer are we talking about managing a business from within the four walls of the company. Businesses can now operate virtually. Further, sales will love this new technology as they can prep for their meetings in the parking lot with real-time pushed data, they will be able to connect to their customers and build relationships and then report back immediately via their iPad to their CRM, and they will have real-time insight into everything about that client by way of the mobile web.

As you can see the combination of social media, interactive CRM and ERP, and mobile touch computing such as the iPhone or iPad are changing the landscape of computing and IT. It is an exciting time to be in technology!


Salesforce & VMware Set to Launch VMForce

Posted by Administrator on Wednesday, 14 April, 2010

In an interesting turn of events, Salesforce.com and VMware are set to launch VMForce. Any ideas what this will entail? They will be announcing the details on April 27. If you know something, please comment.

Here is the story:

Salesforce.com and VMware are forging a high-profile partnership, according to a Web site announcing an April 27 event being held by the companies.

The site, VMForce.com, includes few details about exactly what is planned, saying that Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and VMware CEO Paul Maritz will “make an exciting joint announcement on the future of cloud computing.”

“VMForce is coming,” a headline reads. “See it here live on April 27.”

Read the rest of the salesforce.com story here.


Are IT managers worried about cloud computing?

Posted by Administrator on Sunday, 11 April, 2010

There is a new survey out that shows that IT Managers are not sold on the benefits of cloud computing. The primary reason is that these IT Managers view cloud computing as risky. The article portrays these IT leaders as being risk adverse and so they are careful not to expose their company’s data to all the potentials of being on the Internet.

Is it possible though, that they are avoiding the loss of control and the potential of losing their jobs, once executives realize that they can pay a lower monthly cost for a secure outsourced cloud computing solution? Many IT Managers like to be in control. They have the keys to the kingdom and are the gatekeepers to the most valuable asset in a corporation, the data. Giving up this control would require a tremendous change to their thinking.

Further, many may believe that they are best suited to protect this data asset. The ironic thing is that, in the article linked above, it points out that “Beyond the topic of cloud computing, the survey also found that employees often engage in behavior that puts their company at risk. Half of IT professionals said workers don’t adequately protect confidential documents and 32 percent said workers use software and online services that were not authorized.” This just goes to prove that these IT Managers see themselves as the best ones for guarding the kingdom.

Alternatively, major SAAS players such as Salesforce.com implement carrier-level security such as Access control (including biometric scanning for access) and Physical Security, Environmental Controls, Power Management (including redundant generators), Network security (such as redundant networks) and Fire detection and Suppression. Additionally, all transactions are encrypted. These are strongly protected data stores. Only larger corporations maintain these levels of security. Further, many SAAS providers have dedicated security teams that maintain the highest level of security. Can a mid-sized company IT Manager say the same?

As such, it is probably more likely that privately these managers realize this and are actually fearing the loss of their job as more and more of their infrastructure is moved to the cloud. Just as moving from mainframes to PCs, it will be interesting to watch the transition from internal PC networks to cloud computing.

We are interested in knowing what you think on this topic. Please post your comments.


Oracle takes aim at Salesforce with on-demand CRM update

Posted by Administrator on Wednesday, 28 January, 2009

Oracle takes aim at Salesforce with on-demand CRM update

By Chris Kanaracus

January 27, 2009 IDG News Service Oracle on Tuesday stepped up its assault on rival Salesforce with a new version of its on-demand CRM customer relationship management application.

CRM On Demand Release 16s main new attributes include unlimited custom objects, plus a new single-tenant deployment offering and an accompanying disaster recovery option, all of which seem targeted at large enterprises.

via Oracle takes aim at Salesforce with on-demand CRM update.


Salesforce Connects the Social Web to Customer Service – The Connected Web

Posted by Administrator on Tuesday, 20 January, 2009

Salesforce.com is an innovative leader in the CRM space. A while ago, an enterprising employee of Salesforce created Faceforce, Now renamed as Face Connector for Facebook. Salesforce.com has jumped on this linkage and has expanded it to now include a customer service aspect via the social network.

This article below explains this more:

Salesforce.com Connects the Social Web to Customer Service

By Phil Wainewright on January 15, 2009 4:45 PM 0 0 Vote 0 Votes

Salesforce.com today harnessed the social web (or at least, the segment of it that hangs out on FaceBook) to help corporations improve their customer service.

The Service Cloud, announced today and immediately available for use, brings Salesforce.com's Force.com application platform and its links into FaceBook together with the knowledgebase technology it acquired when it bought customer support vendor Instranet last year.

Businesses these day are increasingly becoming aware that their customers often take a self-help approach to customer service, seeking advice and help from third-party community sites or from the social networks, such as FaceBook, where they keep in touch with their friends online. That can mean that customers are exchanging complaints, compiling wishlists or finding solutions to problems without the company even being aware.

via Salesforce.com Connects the Social Web to Customer Service – The Connected Web.