We Blog CRM

“UK fund managers are failing to meet investor demands for customer service” read the headline at FinExtra.com, therefore neatly summarizing a bit of a damning report from Talisma Corporation. According to the CRM software vendor, Brit firms flunk in delivering proper customer service “across a range of channels such as e-mail, web self-service, online chat and telephone.”

Specifically speaking, the numbers say that at the top 100 fund management companies in the United Kingdom, a full-on 49 percent of all email enquiries went unanswered for at least 48 hours. Over 60 percent of fund managers were found to have “no knowledge base or detailed questions and answers to help prospective investors make an informed investment decision.” Seventy-seven percent of fund managers were found inadequate in terms of possessing a unified view of customer history, and 100 percent had no online chat.

Talisma did have one positive conclusion, though, stating the 95 percent of phone calls to the fund managers were answered within thirty seconds. Overall, service level for the U.K.’s fund managers limped in at a 53 percent average.

To sound a death knell (or at least fire a flare-gun wake-up call), Jon McNerney, Talisma international operations vice president concluded that “those companies that cannot integrate their data to provide a complete service will struggle to compete.”

Imagine saving over US $100 billion.

According to results of a study recently released by Microeconomic Consulting and Research Associates, American consumers and small businesses across the country could save that much money on their phone bills over the next five years as a result of competition in VoIP service.

Breaking down those figures means that residential cable telephony consumers in the U.S. stand to save an average of US $135 annually, while small business could pocket an extra US $500 per year; this latter figure represents a 70 percent shave from the typical small-business phone bill. MiCRA analysts also figured that 24 million Americans will have purchased phone service from cable companies by 2011.

Some other findings of the study included:

• Residential users of cable telephone services are estimated to grow from 10.0 million in 2007 to 23.7 million by 2011.

• Residential customers of incumbent telephone companies could save US $70 billion over five years “if incumbent telephone companies are forced to respond to the competitive challenge by facilities-based VoIP providers.”

• Small businesses could save over US $2 billion annually on existing bills due to the new competition offered by facilities-based VoIP providers.

Declared Dr. Michael Pelcovits, principal at MiCRA and lead author of the study: "We are on the cusp of the kind of intermodal competition that Congress envisioned over a decade ago. … the American consumer – and the American economy – will see a windfall as a result of this technological revolution."

The study was commissioned by the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and was conducted independently by MiCRA. The entire study is available online at MiCRA.

MiCRA is a Washington, D.C.-based economic consulting firm specializing in applied microeconomic theory, industrial organization, and econometrics. MiCRA provides economic analysis, expert testimony, litigation support, and economic research to law firms, corporations, government agencies, and trade associations.

Mobiboo, the UK’s first commercial VoIP WiFi network operator, today announced (no joke – on a Sunday, they did) the official launch of its mobile VoIP service.

Mobiboo is launching its service with two devices: UTStarcom’s F3000 is a clamshell-design WiFi phone, and Mobiboo Dashboard allows users to send instant messages and files to other Mobiboo Dashboard users. The service enables users to make calls via UTStarcom’s F3000 whenever they are in range of an open WiFi hotspot or wireless router.

Mobiboo has also partnered with European hotspot provider The Cloud to cover the UK.

MINO Wireless mobile services company, has announced that it has reached a milestone of 100,000 users. The record was topped just about seven months after launch. Jing Liu, MINO’s founder and CEO, is still excited about the possibilities today: “Consumers associated VoIP with internet phones for a period of time, but wireless VoIP is becoming mainstream very quickly.”

In marking the occasion, MINO took stock of their appearance in that elusive mainstream media. MINO has been covered on CNN, CNET, Red Herring and scores of blogs. In a recent article, CNET wrote about MINO as the first company to launch mobile VoIP in the US, and said, “all a caller needs for mobile VoIP is a cell phone with internet access and the ability to store and run a VoIP program.” CNN’s article on MINO announced, “VoIP is headed to your cell phone.”

MINO Wireless was founded in 2004 and specializes in developing the technology to connect mobile phones to the VoIP infrastructure; the firms claims status as the first company to launch VoIP on mobile devices. MINO is a software service compatible with most mobile devices that allows mobile phone users worldwide to make international calls at low rates. MINO Wireless is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and is funded by private investors in the United States and Asia.

Deacom, Inc., producer of the DEACOM integrated accounting and enterprise resource planning software system for building component manufacturers, have announced freebies! Well, they’re only demonstrations of the DEACOM ERP System to attendees of the Annual Building Component Manufacturers Conference (BCMC) from October 4-6 in Houston, Texas … but they’re still free!

With links to any engineering design software, the DEACOM ERP System seeks to seamlessly integrates all areas of a manufacturer, including inventory, sales order entry, labor tracking, production, and purchasing, delivering a comprehensive view of the entire operation.

Printing vendor Brother Gulf has announced it is entering the final stages of implementing a new enterprise resource planning system from Swedish business software developer IFS.

Brother Gulf may have an axe or two to grind, because IT managers there did point out specifically that the IFS system will be replacing an Orion ERP system from 3i Infotech and that the felt the latest version of Orion “had too many disadvantages.” With the change, Brother Gulf also decided against SAP software, due to time concerns.

Hilariously enough, Brother Gulf customer support manager Nizar Wehby actually complained about the upgraded Orion and 3i Infotech to IT Weekly. “They [3i Infotech] changed the interface only [with the upgraded version] but the core was the same. The old one was like two or three modules, hardly related or integrated together, and it does not have many things that we required.” In response, 3i representatives took their case to the media, with one spokesman stating to itp.net that “Brother Gulf had not evaluated the latest version and therefore he did not know how the vendor could make a comparison between its version of Orion and the latest upgrade.”

In any event, what’s done is done, and what’s done is Brother’s purchasing of six modules from IFS including finance, distribution, accounting, service management, and customer relationship management at a cost of approximately US $700,000.

Ranjit Gurkar, Brother Gulf general manager, has described the implementation as a “total overhaul.” Thus far, the implementation has taken 18 months, but online services were up and running in January. The next step for Brother is implementation of a CRM system and a web portal that would allow partners to log into the vendor’s system and check their account status and place orders. This advance is expected sometime in 2007.

A report recently released by Aberdeen Group and commissioned by ERP software suppliers Infor, Lawson Software, Plexus Systems, QAD, and SoftBrands has been making the rounds among the industry’s media.

The key number you’ll be seeing / have seen in the headlines is 27.6, as in most manufacturers employing ERP software use approximately 27.6 percent of their system’s potential functionality. More than 1,000 manufacturers were queried in the study, entitled “The ERP in Manufacturing Benchmark.”

Other findings in the survey showed that Lawson customers use the highest percentage of their ERP system’s functionality; SAP customers implement more modules than Oracle’s; seven of eight small companies have a single ERP system; and 84 percent of large manufacturers and 67 percent of mid-sized enterprises surveyed said they planned to consolidate their ERP systems.

“The ERP in Manufacturing Benchmark” is available from Aberdeen.

Hong Kong-based die-casting manufacturer Ka Shui Holdings has selected Epicor Vantage ERP. Ka Shui is currently undergoing a pretty serious expansion right now, adding two manufacturing facilities in China totaling approximately 500,000 square feet and employing 3,500 staff.

Ka Shui hopes to exploit Vantage ERP particularly in areas of reducing production and servicing costs, shortening delivery lead time and making timely data analysis.

Epicor CRS provides retail management software, hardware, and services to a retail clientele spanning more than 50,000 in-store systems in 32 countries and 10 languages. Epicor clients include Aeropostale, American Eagle Outfitters, Ann Taylor, Barnes & Noble, bebe, Cache, Chico’s, Coach, Dress Barn, Eileen Fisher, Factory Connection, Finish Line, Foot Locker, GNC, J.Crew, Mikasa, Skechers, Stage Stores, Transworld Entertainment, Tuesday Morning, Inc., Yankee Candle Company and Zumiez. Epicor CRS employs more than 360 in Newburgh, N.Y., Seattle, Wash., and Salt Lake City, Utah.

Founded in 1984, Irvine, Calif.-based Epicor Software serves over 20,000 customers in more than 140 countries in thirty-one languages. Epicor delivers end-to-end, industry-specific solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail, hospitality and services.

RPG group firm Saregama India has announced its implementation of SAP software’s enterprise resource planning application software by SAP at Rs 4 crore (approximately US $870,000). The SAP will be implemented by Siemens and is expected to be completed within the current fiscal year.

Subroto Chattopadhyay, MD of Saregama, commented in a seeming aside that “Moreover, we are also focusing on the wireless format of music delivery. We are hosting an online marketplace for digital music and films.” This portal will be for online sale of music tracks by December.

And branching out even further from the ERP implementation realm, Saregama vice-chairman S Goenka said that the company has finalised a decision to produce three films at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore (approximately US $4.35 million). The English-language film “Karma Confessions and Holi” will be released internationally in 2007, “keeping in mind the taste of the international market.”

Coimbatore-based Suguna Poultry Farm has announced completing the implementation of Oracle e-business suite. Suguna representatives were therefore able to lay claim to the distinction of becoming the first Indian poultry farming company to “use a world-class enterprise applications suite from a global software vendor for ERP and management of other key business processes.”

Talking turkey on the occasion, Suguna managing director B Soundararajan said, “We have always stressed on leveraging information technology to the core to reap its benefits.”

The Oracle Applications implementation was completed in eight months and extends across Suguna’s corporate office, nine regional offices, 100 branch offices, six grandparent poultry farms, 120 breeder farms, 30 hatcheries, 10,000 broiler farms, around 25 feed mills, and five transportation offices. Suguna’s supply chain represents more than 10,000 farmers from 270 business locations across India. And that ain’t chicken feed.

The Oracle Applications modules implemented at Suguna include enterprise resource planning, advanced pricing, enterprise asset management, self-service work request, incentive compensation, advanced supply chain planning and brand optimisation. Old McDonald would be proud, e-i-e-i-o.