We Blog CRM

On-demand CRM can be likened to a disruptive technology that proves its usefulness over a period of time and finally is there to stay. On-demand solutions offer good value to the customers, which is why companies such as Microsoft and Oracle are now joining the established players such as Salesforce.com.

On-demand CRM provides enterprises with the opportunity to concentrate on their core-competencies and let the hosted provider take care of the maintenance and technical aspects. According to research firm IDC, the on-demand CRM was of $ 4.2 billion in 2004 and will rise to $ 10.7 billion by 2009.

As against on-premise solutions, on-demand solutions are easier and quicker to install. The process of installing and deploying a traditional CRM can be a long-drawn process that may take anywhere between nine to twenty-four months. It begins with the purchasing of the required hardware, enlisting the help of professionals for configuring the hardware, setting up a data center, configuring routers, and making arrangements for backups.

mySAP does not provide functionalities such as quotation management, generation of product forecasts, customization capabilities for adding new fields and menu items. On the positive side, mySAP offers a fairly lenient contract that requires commitment for only 18 to 24 months from the customer. Clients can cancel their contracts and gain a complete refund without any penalty, the on-demand mySAP will have an upgrade cycle of 90 days, which is more frequent as compared to the on-premise version. The on-demand version of mySAP is available at $ 75 per month for a minimum of a 100 users.

Salesforce.com is one of the foremost proponents of on-demand CRM technology. Salesforce.com registered a growth of 83.7 percent in its sales for 2005 as compared to 2004. Salesforce.com has also launched AppExchange, which is an application-sharing directory and service intended to improve on-demand CRM. AppExchange will enable companies to develop CRM suites and business application functionalities without having to install software. AppExchange comes with connectors for SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Oracle.

Salesforce.com does not charge a listing fee from individuals and companies that wish to provide their software through AppExchange. The company has just announced a new service plan called Unlimited Edition that will offer support for programs created by customers or other programmers and used through AppExchange. According to Salesforce, this will enable companies to access all their software on-demand. The basic Salesforce.com CRM package starts at $ 65 per user per month, the Unlimited Edition is available for $ 195 per user per month and it offers access to the complete range of Salesforce.com CRM applications and AppExchange as well.

RightNow Technologies too has grown steadily and revenues in 2005 were 40.9 percent higher than revenues from the previous year. Customers of RightNow Technologies include British Airways and John Deere. RightNow has a client roster that covers industries such as telecom, retail, education, and pharmaceuticals. Services cover the enterprise, mid-market, and small business segment and service elements include sales and marketing. The marketing-automation software provided by the company allows users to initiate campaigns across various channels and manage them easily. It makes real-time data available that enables quantification of the effectiveness of a campaign.

NetSuite CRM positions itself as the only web-based software vendor that combines e-commerce, accounting, and CRM in one offering. It targets SMBs with its product that it claims is on par with what the major vendors offered. Dashboards offered by NetSuite allow companies to access critical business information through more than seventy key performance indicators. The dashboards can be customized according to the roles to be executed by the various employees; trends are visible on the dashboard and meters track actual sales against forecasts. Tools offered by NetSuite include marketing, opportunity tracking, order management, lead conversion, forecasting, and case management. Businesses that are in collaboration can share customer and sales data through the NetSuite CRM+, which is a partner-relationship management application. The NetFlex platform introduced by NetSuite is positioned as an answer to AppExchange developed by Salesforce.com. NetFlex is web-based and it enables the development of applications such as database tables and forms.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, which was released in December 05, has Avaya, Axonom, and Cisco Systems among its partners. Siemens Communications will be integrating Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM software with its contact center systems. The Microsoft CRM offering is a single-tenant model, which means that Microsoft partners can host vertical solutions; however, for an upgrade, the patch has to be made available separately to each customer. Microsoft Dynamics supports a great deal of customization so that the CRM package fits in with the company’s business model. The product which enables ad hoc querying is well-knit with Microsoft Office and Outlook. A marketing-automation module allows companies to develop targeted marketing campaigns, monitor the campaigns, send bulk e-mails, and build lead lists. Various aspects of service-scheduling can be managed by the service-scheduling module. Microsoft Dynamics 3.0 is available in a Professional Edition that costs in the range of $ 622 to $ 880 per user and $ 1244 and $ 1761 per server. The prices vary as per the features that one opts for. For SMBs, the hosted solution is priced at $ 440 to $ 499 per user and the per server price is between $ 528 and $ 599.

According to some experts, Oracle has the best hosted offering in the form of Siebel CRM OnDemand. Last year, Oracle acquired Siebel in a deal worth $ 5.8 billion and in the process also obtained around 3.7 million CRM users. CRM OnDemand offers capabilities such as hosted sales-force automation, customer service capabilities, an integrated call-center that allows for the management of communication in-house and via remote channels. OnDemand Release 9 can be integrated with Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, and IVR systems. The sales-force automation tool enables the development of various accounts within a main account; this facilitates managing interaction with large clients. The call center feature enables VoIP integration and routing of calls to cell phones and other off-premises numbers. OnDemand allows for the apportioning of calls based on the skill sets of the call center agents. Call center managers can track agent performance and guide them accordingly with the help of features such as monitoring-and-recording, offline-coaching, and conference-calls. The Oracle offering consists of CRM OnDemand and Contact OnDemand and costs $ 150 per month for a user.

IT major HCL, announced Thursday 23 March 2006 that HCL America, its subsidiary, has signed an agreement worth a multi-million dollars with MSC Software. The latter is a global provider of simulation solutions. The contract provides for the global rollout of Oracle 11i applications project. The acquisition will include the entire suite of Oracle applications. This naturally includes financials, Customer Relationship management (CRM), distribution, project and human resources platforms.

Partnering with Oracle, HCL is in a position to provide its customers benefits such as MSC Software Corporation with a competitive edge in implementing the new features available from Oracle and Oracle development road map. HCL’s global customer base currently enjoys end-to-end solutions.

MSC officials are impressed with HCL’s extensive experience working with global corporations. This experience, together with HCL’s commitment to this project, were key determining factors in MSC’s decision to partner with them.

CDC Corporation, a Chinese concern, announced last week that CDC Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of CDC, made a proposal to officers and directors of CRM vendor Onyx Software that would result in a merger of the Onyx Software CDC Software.

A response from Onyx is still pending although it is generally understood that Onyx said it is reviewing the proposal. The proposed terms and conditions of the CDC’s offer provide for each Onyx shareholder to exercise an option to receive either cash only or cash and shares for an interest in CDC Corporation.

An executive for CDC Corporation admits that CDC Software is desirous of acquiring Onyx specifically for its Pivotal CRM division.

In January of this year, CDC had submitted a similar proposal to Onyx but the response was not an encouraging one. That said, CDC is making a comeback with the revised proposal.

The previous offer proposed the merging of all assets belonging to both CDC Software and Onyx. Additionally CDC offered to pay Onyx $50 million in cash, for a majority of Onyx’s common stock while keeping Onyx a publicly-listed company. Onyx’s management turned the offer down.

The offer was purportedly refused because: the assets of CDC Software are not performing satisfactorily; CDC’s history of profitable operations is inconsistent and the corporation’s record of delivering shareholder value is poor

Last week, CDC announced that they were forming another board of directors, which would target growth initiatives with the object of making the corporation an independent entity.

Applications are critical for the smooth operation of any business engaged in accounting, ERP or spreadsheets. That explains why many businesses have been reluctant to offload applications to remote hosters. However, in the current business climate the reluctance may be diminishing.

According to solution providers, more customers are beginning to appreciate the merits of allowing outside management of applications. It permits them to redirect IT resources in ways that help them compete, such as building new and better applications. Moreover, it can dispose of the need to field an internal IT team. A remote management partner also brings with it experience and lessons gleaned from similar implementations thereby economically watching, patching and managing applications.

For businesses concerned about the cost of keeping it both competitive and profitable most pricing includes consultation which takes place in advance.
Previous trends demonstrated that smaller companies are more willing to offload applications while mid-sized companies with their own IT teams were more reluctant to do so.

Capita Insurance Services, the insurance division of the UK support services company, Capita Group plc, selected the SAP CRM on-demand product. The SAP product is an extension of existing applications currently available from SAP’s insurance products which already include claims management, financials and human capital management. Agents from Capita Insurance Services have said that they selected SAP because they were impressed with its customer relationship management (CRM) software.

Capita Insurance Services is also implementing SAP Sales on-demand product so as to satisfy the immediate needs of its sales organization. The sales force automation (SFA) product provides broad data relating to Capita’s current customer base as well as providing insight into the prospect of securing new customers. Capita Insurance Services also has plans to implement the SAP(R) Marketing on-demand product in the next phase of its CRM rollout.

The UK is not alone as CRM on-demand is growing across Europe. Last week SAP announced that Germany‘s second largest airport, Munich Airport International, grossed 182 per cent returns over a five year period on its SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence.

Over the past three years, Microsoft Dynamics increased its offerings to such an extent that it includes practically each and every product and service available. Additionally, the website also showcases an information database on every word ever written, including news and reviews, implementation how to, technical resources, knowledge base, community Blogs and newsgroups postings, literature, specifications and much more. The database is currently indexed for Google speed, Google relevant managed search and display. Over 1,000 pages and links of indexed Microsoft CRM resources are available. The website is available at the DynamicsCenter home page and is located at the top right corner of every page accessible at DynamicCenter. The new information database is conveniently called "DynamicsSearch".

In addition to the information and Partner developed (ISV) products and services available, DynamicsCenter also permits any business entity to submit a web page to be included in DynamicsSearch. This will enable the relevant business to be more accessible in the international community. DynamicsCenter.com is MTC’s primary online resource, e-store, and e-consultant website promoting Microsoft products.

Sennari, a leader in CRM-based applications for mobile phones, promises to make a major announcement at Mobile Entertainment, Content, Commerce & Applications Conference (MECCA) 2006 on April 4. The announcement is related to a new product called MobileTunes. MobileTunes will integrate music with Sennari’s mCRM platform.

MECCA, is being held in Las Vegas and is part of CTIA Wireless Expo. Sennari is scheduled to conduct a 15 minute seminar on "Know your Customer" on the first day of the conference at 3 pm. The short tutorial will familiarize participants with the tools to realize new revenue by using CRM applications, such as mobile gaming.

Sennari will also sit on the "Get Your Game On" panel which is also scheduled for April 4, for one hour, commencing at 4 pm. Also sitting on the "Get Your Game ON" panel are experts from Glu Mobile, Sprint, Qualcomm and Floodgate. The purpose of the panel is to provide insight, commentary and experiences with the object of broadening the industry. The panel will examine the future of mobile gaming and future technology.

In safeguarding their respective pecuniary interests, companies and other businesses are cautious about employing methods that make propriety matters easily available.

Call centers which primarily deploy stringent customer relationship management (CRM) systems, are perhaps more inclined to proceed with caution. CRM systems invariably involve the compilation of critical information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers and financial information. However, strict privacy laws provide for stiff penalties against companies failing to adequately protect the integrity of this kind of data.

Even so, the law does not protect against employees who often leave their jobs with sensitive data at their disposal. Many employees receiving low salaries are unlikely to remain loyal to the company that employs them. Call centers engaging in the employment of home-shored or off-shored call center agents, make the virtual private network essential for transmitting customer data to and from the agent’s location and also for providing the relevant agent with access to the network. In the past, procedure and form required that all specific customer information be transmitted outside firewall protection to an automated dealer. This practice involved a large security risk as in the circumstances, these automated dealers were vulnerable to hackers thereby compromising the data.

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) offer technology enabling offices to remain thousands of miles apart and at the same time maintain fast, secure and reliable communications. These kind of networks offer protection of this crucial information. As a result their design and management is significant for the efficient operation of the call center. Call centers can save millions of dollars each year by ensuring that they are privy to the latest security threats, technology and products that allow the network to run more efficiently. An adequately built VPN offers to protect the network.

A properly designed VPN requires proper implementation if it is going to function at its best in improving efficiency and security of the network. Once this is achieved, the network increases communication capabilities as well as protects customer data. While call centers may not always be able to safeguard against potential breaches of disloyal employees, they can limit the information available to these employees.

Vtrenz Inc. is supporting the publication of ‘Defying the Limits: Volume 6, Delivering the Branded Customer Experience’ as a gold sponsor. The project is a thought-leadership book which focuses on using CRM to attract new customers while maintaining old ones. Defying the Limits, also examines the increasing use of on-demand applications in connection with personalizing the customer experience. The project targets companies wishing to improve all customer-related activities by employing the best practices and the most recent technology.

UK’s government corporations and agencies are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that it is essential to improve in-house knowledge of customer relationship management (CRM) if they are going to deliver on promises of joined-up and transformational government. The need to act quickly as well as economically, makes hosted on-demand CRM vendors an appealing option.

Government organizations that are leaning towards e-government, face the challenge of being able to manage all aspects of citizen interaction by using numerous channels. There is much to be gained by following the course of private entities that have indorsed CRM software and services for the purpose of streamlining and reconciling contact center operations.

At a discussion on transformational government, hosted by RightNow Technologies in London, it was generally agreed that technology is vital for producing efficient results. A representative of ICT at Canterbury City Council was of the opinion that the public demands more for less. Technology appears to be the only viable solution for automating contact centers to deal with common inquiries as well as for sharing knowledge and configuring systems that provide relevant real-time information for operators.

However, attendees participating in the discussion were quick to point out that these sort of technological improvements for the sake of efficiency often result in job cuts. This is so, simply because man is effectively replaced by machine. Obviously government entities are far more concerned about that possibility than the financial benefits that charter the course for a profits-driven private sector. Observers have also feared that government organizations were not going to be receptive to making data public. RightNow Technologies however, has an entirely different opinion as all compilations must accord with data protection legislation. However, the general consensus at the London discussion is that government healthcare facilities may require greater security and initiating on-demand CRM solutions in that sector can be futile.

RightNow Technologies which counts the Department for Transport and Transport for London indicated that it saved its 45 public sector customers a combined total of 3 million pounds sterling, over the past year. This was accomplished by implementing hosted services offering.

25 per cent of RightNow‘s business is currently conducted in the public sector. Representatives for on-demand CRM vendor NetSuite claim that a large part of their customers operate in government organizations.