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The relation between CRM and social media is a valuable one, and this week it continues to grow as Zoho integrates the ability to login with Facebook Connect.

Zoho’s online productivity suite is constantly innovating, and already allows users to use their Google, Google Apps, and Yahoo accounts to log into Zoho Apps—in fact, Zoho says that most of their users login from other applications to use their products. Facebook Connect likewise allows Zoho users to login using Facebook identification, link the two accounts, and even share documents with Facebook users that don’t have Zoho accounts. This sharing of information across application is a great start to CRM transcending the traditional platform with the help of social media, and something we’ll likely see more of with the proliferation of Social CRM.

Interestingly, Zoho has been aware of social media’s influence for a while. They’ve had their own Facebook application since 2007, which allows users to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations from within Facebook, and integrates with Zoho Writer, Sheet and Show for collaborative purposes. Zoho has always had a mind for the social and could find Facebook drives traffic their way—and indeed, with 400 million users, Facebook could be the crux of good Social CRM.

We’re always interested in Social CRM news here at blog CRM, and we’d like to mention here that the editors of Business-Software.com have released a new vendor report: Top 10 Social CRM Vendors. For anyone interested in the segment, or looking for a good Social CRM solution, it’s a must read!

Since the purchase of Mobile 365 in 2006, Sybase has been providing effective mobile messaging solutions for B2C marketing and outreach. And only last week they announced they’ll be extending Sybase 36—their mobile messaging platform that includes mobile CRM support.

Sybase has a good mobile CRM portfolio, and customers even include the company everyone hopes will get hip, quick—SAP, which works with Sybase on a co-innovator basis. Sybase also recently added modules for giving customers SMS coupons, loyalty programs, and interactive campaigns.

Sybase’s director of product management, Scott Miller, stated that Sybase 365’s mobile CRM goal is to examine everything they do on the enterprise side and assign it a mobile application—allowing large enterprises to integrate the smaller pieces on a mobile platform. Sybase has reportedly spent the last year building a framework for the new server that links the hosted modules, and these modules include a toolkit and data reporting.

The ultimate objective for 2010 is to make headway on becoming more than a point solution and tie mobile CRM into mobile payments and mobile commerce. This would give Sybase a very complete mobile CRM product in comparison to some on the market, but it is also a very lofty aim.

As we mentioned earlier, SAP CRM would certainly benefit from such an extensive product. They have several Sybase mobile products in beta right now—Sybase Mobile Sales for SAP CRM, and Sybase Mobile Workflow for SAP Business Suite—that have added a purchase incentive for those that might have been questioning the advantage of an SAP investment. Those products are supposed to be generally available soon—reports say during Q1—and we’re curious to hear reviews. It would be interesting to see what Sybase’s mobile CRM expansion—when executed—means for SAP CRM, but until then we should keep our expectations realistic.

Social CRM has been a contentious topic for almost three years now, with one side claiming that integrating social media into enterprise practices is not a means of success, and the other side arguing that companies neglecting social network outreach are doomed. In its fledgling stage, Social CRM’s benefits are not always simply discerned, and while many more are starting to agree about its value, Social CRM still has some kinks that need resolving.

Yesterday, Michael Krigsman, the CEO of Asuret, Inc., took to his ZDNet blog to discuss some of the information he learned at Paul Greenberg’s Social CRM seminar (a two-day event that occurred the week prior). In the post, Krigsman’s take-home point is that anti-Social CRM advocates are wrong to deny that current technologies are useful in the enterprise. Krigsman, in turn, is correct in saying this, however, his reasoning on the matter—that Social CRM dissenters are chest-thumpers taking an extreme, contrary position as a means of getting personal attention—is incorrect, and Krigsman would do better to dismantle his opponents’ actual arguments.

Krigsman does bring up a good point, however, in noting one of the reasons Social CRM is often under fire: because the technology is still in the early stages, the results (and benefits) are not patently obvious and Social CRM is therefore very easy to attack as having little merit. Furthermore, it can be tricky to implement Social CRM effectively—an influx of unsorted data is often a bad thing, and difficult and time-consuming to organize.

The best way to implement Social CRM is to have a plan. This advice may seem obvious, but there are some important things to consider. For one, companies leveraging Social CRM should have a solid method or application for structuring both the sorted and unsorted data. It’s important to have a means of tracking the incoming data from social media without wasting time with the noise, and arranging the data in such a way that it is actionable.

A recent CRM Magazine article mentioned another helpful tip: social algorithms. Each company will likely have their own goals, and Accenture is working to develop a basic algorithm to help enterprises move forward socially. Accenture’s objective is to systematize when and how companies respond to certain data. The magazine also recommends seeking consultants for social media organization, but this is sort of a no-brainer.

The advantages Social CRM offers are many—this is an irrevocable fact, even considering the existing troubles with organizing all the data in a meaningful, actionable way.

It may not be the biggest surprise to hear iPhone-related announcements while the Macworld conference is taking place, but we at BlogCRM are always interested in seeing that phone’s trajectory in becoming an enterprise staple, and the iPhone CRM functions that arise. Today’s news: IBM will demonstrate new enterprise-facing collaboration software (from the Lotus Software family) for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and all Mac computers.

IBM’s general manager of Lotus Software, Alistair Rennie, told Information Week in an interview that mobility has always been integral to a complete collaboration software package, and that the iPhone in particular has largely been a driver of that. He also made a point of telling the magazine that the introduction of Lotus to Mac wasn’t driven by the iPhone’s success, but that IBM has been focused on bringing enterprise to Apple products for quite a while. The fusion of IBM Lotus Software and the iPhone isn’t entirely iPhone CRM-related, but as collaboration software is becoming more and more integral to CRM processes, the implications of this combination could be significant.

Another possible point of interest for the future of iPhone CRM: based on the literature regarding the release, the Apple connection was at least partly forged due to the iPhone’s success as a social networking tool. Of late, both sales and marketing teams have realized there are serious benefits to be gleaned from folding social media into outreach strategies, and the iPhone’s status as a “social media phone” will certainly boost its chances of iPhone CRM becoming the preferred mobile method.

Even though Gartner’s research has shown the iPhone isn’t taking hold of enterprise the way some would like, its status in enterprise will undoubtedly change within the next couple of years. RIM’s BlackBerry reportedly has 63% of the enterprise market share, and in comparison iPhone usage pales. But IBM is not the only company investing in the iPhone and putting other smartphones on the backburner—earlier this month, CMS vendor CrownPeak announced it was offering content management capabilities for smartphones. Customers using iPhone and Android phones (including the latest Droid) will have access. Noticeably absent from CrownPeak’s list? The BlackBerry.

Things to look out for: moving forward, I’m curious to see if the iPhone usurps the BlackBerry in enterprise, or even if the iPhone and Android fight for the top spot. Also, while “Enterprise 2.0” is only slowly taking on, Social CRM is becoming a fairly sought-after segment, and I’m interested to see if the iPhone’s “It” status—often considered the iPhone’s biggest hurdle in enterprise accessibility—ultimately cements its place in enterprise.

Since last November’s Dreamforce convention, talk regarding Salesforce.com has been largely about Salesforce Chatter, their enterprise social network and collaboration platform. But since the beginning of the New Year they’ve announced their Spring ’10 update, and more recently, the Force.com Visual Process Manager—these updates are naturally less flashy without the weight of a company conference, but they are no less significant for the CRM market.

Visual Process Manager's flow-chart like, drag-and drop interface

Salesforce’s acquisition of Informavores—a call scripting startup in the UK—is the origin of the Visual Process Manager technology. Force.com house the Visual Process Manager, which will help those using Salesforce’s Enterprise and Unlimited editions to create business applications with established set forms, questions, and decision trees. Visual Process Manager leverages a drag-and-drop interface to help users design their business processes. There are four components, one of which is a “wizard builder,” which creates step-by-step guides for end users. The other elements are a process designer, a simulation tool for testing, and a process execution engine.

This is a smart move on several fronts. For starters, it’s going to mean more developers on the Force.com platform. Not that Force.com’s user bass was dwindling, but the Visual Process Manager will certainly be an auspicious addition. There has also been a recent rise in the use and development SaaS Business Process Management (BPM) tools, and Salesforce’s clout in the cloud space implies the Visual Process Manager will be successful.

On another note, we’re curious to see what other acquisition-borne tools Salesforce.com puts forth this year—that is, how they’ll be spending the $500 million they recently raised.

At the end of last month, Amdocs announced a new version of their Customer Experience Systems (CES) product, as well as some impressive fiscal 1st quarter earnings.

The overall good reviews of Amdoc’s CES 8 make their quarterly earnings less of a surprise, as one of Analysys Mason’s senior analyst noted it was a marked effort by Amdocs to offer complete packages to service providers. Amdocs has productized CES’s capabilities, and therefore very easily offers a package that may have once required custom implementations. CES 8 touts customer satisfaction, communication scalability, and lean technology operations, and is the result of a recent user survey titled “Amdocs’ Connected World Survey 2010.”

Along with consultancy Frost & Sullivan, Amdocs conducted a customer survey, and noticed that the trend toward device connectivity meant service providers had to offer more flexible, better-integrated solutions. The report identified four mean drivers for device connectivity—consumer desire for it, improvements in edge devices, improved network capabilities, and new business models and partnerships—as well several hindrances. Among the obstructions in the way of device connectivity: device- and component-certification processes, buildouts for 3G and 4G networks that are still in progress, and the need for additional network openness and industry standards.

To add to CES 8’s litheness, Amdocs took several approaches. They integrated the capabilities of a Java-based convergent service platform, which will synchronize network services across legacy and IP-based network elements, and create a standard development environment for communication applications. CCES 8 also enables service providers to offer one e-commerce experience for all goods and services with Universal Storefront, which hides the complexity of service providers’ different offerings and configurations. And Amdocs ChangingWorlds’s mobile internet portal allows personalization for quick and easy access to relevant content based on users’ specific interest. Lastly, Amdocs is helping users run leaner with small machine architecture.

Amdocs’ commitment to revolutionizing their product is undoubtedly a large factor in the 19% rise in fiscal quarter earnings. Their revenue fell 4% to $724.8 million, but analysts are forecasting a profit of 54 centers per share on sales of $725.4 million. Amdocs is a CRM heavyweight for sure, but this fact is sometimes muddled, as they make the news less often than some of their competitors. Still, we’re excited to see how the competition responds to their movement toward becoming a one-stop shop.

Earlier this month, Salesforce.com announced the 31st generation release that will bring new features to Sales Cloud 2, Service Cloud 2, and Force.com: Spring ’10. Salesforce offers three releases a year, but this latest one will bring an entirely new user interface. There weren’t a large number of details given outside of the press release—we’ll have to wait till Spring ‘10’s February release to see more, but there is a screenshot of what the new UI will look like (below).

For Sales Cloud 2, the new changes aim to keep sales teams efficient and generate more leads. Notably, there will be real-time quotes given—sales users will be able to generate quotes using relevant data—which is generate automatically for quoting purposes. In addition, to accommodate salespersons offering multiple quotes throughout the sales cycle, Spring ’10 has “quote sync” capabilities to sync the final quote with the opportunity in one click.

Service Cloud 2—Salesforce’s platform for merging contact center technologies with cloud computing platforms—will be endowed with Salesforce Answers, and entitlements and service contracts functionality as part of the Spring ‘10 release. Salesforce Answers will help companies leverage cloud data for customer service, and more importantly, allow users to initiate conversations through unique customer communities. The other aforementioned improvement comes in the form of call center operators having access to some of that cloud data as well—they’ll be able to track service entitlements and contracts.

And users of Force.com, Salesforce’s ever-popular development platform, will finally see Adobe Flash Builder for Force (which Salesforce announced back in October), and will also have the ability to run authenticated sites. Adobe Flash Player on Force was jointly developed, and is an integration that’ll enable building cloud-based apps that can be easily deployed to end users through the browser using Adobe Flash Player. Spring ‘10’s authenticated sites feauter will allow companies to run public and private authenticated web sites from Force.com, and customers will easily be able to add security functionalities and create web sites for myriad purporses.

Again, we’ll have to wait and see how Spring ‘10 really performs, but things sound promising thus far. Salesforce.com can hardly make an update without their competitors matching it (or trying to), so we’re excited to see what else emerges this season.

Perhaps SAP is so tired of hearing criticism for their ERP product that they’ve decided to beef up their CRM platform for a while. That’s right, this week SAP announced that SAP CRM 7.0 would live in the future, and features a Twitter integration.

Twitter is where many enterprise software companies have begun their foray into social network integrations—despite producing lots of noise, it is a very simple way to gain insight into customers’ conversations and tastes. And SAP is being smart about the integration—the Business Objects Text Analyzer will provide sentiment analysis of user’s Twitter streams. The goal, as usual, is to create targeted connections with customers using social media.

But as there were difficulties before, some obstacle still remain, and not just for SAP, but for any company trying to effectively leverage social tools typically used for leisure. And SAP CRM VP of Marketing, Vinay Iyer, expressed security concerns to SearchCRM’s Barney Beal (though what those specific apprehensions are were not detailed in Beal’s article), as agreed that easily drawing significant data from Twitter will take some time.

Iyer did make an interesting note, however: he said he’s observed many customers that are simply happy to looking at aggregated data, find relevant tweets, do sentiment analysis, and create a response based on that. This is a good thing, because we might be waiting a while before CRM platforms can analyze and respond to individual tweets, which would be ideal for an all-encompassing “social CRM” platform, which is doutbless what many vendors have been working toward since the explosion of social networking.

Earlier this month, CRM Magazine drew attention to the retail industry as one in need of more CRM; another such industry with room for CRM improvement is perhaps a less obvious one: hotels.

There are 4.4 million hotel rooms in the United States, according to the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), and that number implies not only a wealth of places to stay, but the difficulty some hoteliers might face in keeping customers loyal to their establishments. The case of hotels and their guests is much the same as the relationship between airlines and their customers—they both rely heavily on customer rewards programs. But by and large, the hotel industry is not as far along on the rewards program spectrum. Larger hotels—especially casinos—have CRM implementations, but establishments of all sizes in that industry need more CRM.

The largest hotel chains make the most use of their CRM platforms, focusing mostly on loyalty programs that primarily benefit frequent travelers. These rewards programs usually take the form of discounts for extended stays, and deals on rooms based on points accumulated from frequent visits. As stated previously, it is much the same as an airline’s loyalty program, but examples from airline initiatives prove there is more to be done.

For example, many airlines and online travel agents will email customers with upgrade opportunities with the confirmation of their ticket purchase. There are some hotels with a similar practice, but most hotels do not do this—even though for some it could generate millions in revenue.

Examples of large hotels using CRM efficiently often come from casinos. Harrah’s Casinos have developed a means of not only tracking customer behavior, but doing it during their stay. Guests are given a “Harrah’s card” when they check in to be used as a credit card during their stay, and tracking these purchases in real-time allows the hotels to offer rewards while guests are there—it’s been a hit for ensuring repeat business. Some hotels also have a breakout of guests by room, keeping track of which customers are traveling as families, for business, etc.

Those hotels most in need of CRM are the second-tier establishments, of which the AHLA estimates there are more than 49,000, with a minimum of 15 rooms apiece. It’s unclear why exactly CRM implementations are underused in the hospitality industry. It could be confusion about what such programs are; it could also be confusion about deployment costs. Still, there are plenty of CRM vendors offering platforms for hotels, and web-based CRM is certainly affordable—for a single guest property, SaaS CRM systems can be deployed for $75,000 to $120,000 per year.

Real-time data has catalyzed a lot of races of late, and it is becoming more and more important for hotels to capture guest information and cater to their needs in very specific ways.