We Blog CRM

LogicBright, the latest player in the CRM market for SMBs, has stated that in its very first quarter of existence it has notched up more than 200 users. The company feels that its success is due to the software which helps SMBs execute tasks in a simple manner and faster. LogicBright CRM fills in where contact managers such as ACT! fall short. The company president Steve Schmidt swears by the mantra of keeping it simple and believes that SMB employees are loath to grapple with complex CRM systems. An easy to use CRM with an intuitive web interface is what they are looking at. LogicBright also offers a fast implementation that does not require a highly trained IT staff. Importing data is also a breeze with LogicBright CRM.

This is an aspect of CRM that is indeed worth a thought by industry worthies – how to align CRM and manufacturing. CRM focuses on the customers and aims to make the entire process customer-centric whereas most manufacturers belong to the school of thought that extols lean manufacturing where emphasis is placed on productivity and performance. CRM projects succeed only when the CRM philosophy is embraced across the organization and measurable customer-centric process are in place across the value chain.

The difficulty is in balancing lean manufacturing where the emphasis is on cutting costs with a customer-centric approach. CRM companies are finding it difficult to sell the concept of CRM to manufacturing companies. One of the issues that CRM vendors find discouraging is the trend of treating CRM as a desktop application with no strategic backing or accompanying changes in the thought processes of the company. Commence which provides on-premise as well as hosted CRM, has come up with a detailed list of forty best practices for industrial marketers that will help them to sell more effectively and obtain ROI more quickly.

The NetSuite IPO struck a big blow on behalf of the SaaS market. It heralds a new beginning for SaaS which has till now largely focused on SMBs. The smashing success of the IPO, which saw the NetSuite stock price go up twice in two days, has not only pleased the investors but also large companies notwithstanding issues regarding integration, customization, and an environment where mixed applications may have to exist.

Moving to SaaS from licensed software involves integration on an enterprise scale and raises several issues for the IT department. NetSuite and other SaaS vendors can however make inroads in the enterprise markets where they will have to slug it out on a product-by-product basis. This means that SaaS vendors offering suites will have to do a rethink and position their products differently.

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Software-as-a-service is set to explode as a means of delivering software to businesses in Asia. This is as per a report by Springboard Research. The SaaS CRM market is estimated to be worth a very impressive $69 million and expected to touch $460 million by the year 2010, this is a CGR of 61%. The countries that will feature predominantly in this include Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, India, and China.

This can only be good news for SaaS vendors all over the world including SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft. The region’s interest in SaaS CRM will boost its legitimacy as a vehicle for delivering software for large enterprises. Companies such as Salesforce.com have already started wooing the big companies with their on-demand CRM products.

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NetSuite, the on-demand ERP vendor, has announced that its IPO has garnered it $185.4 million in sale of 6.2 million shares. Each share cost $26 and is a good $13 more than the $13-$16 that NetSuite officials thought the share would sell for. The IPO was launched on December 10. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and his family owned almost three-fourths of NetSuite prior to the IPO. Their share is expected to fall to sixty six percent after the IPO. NetSuite plans to use the cash to make some acquisitions and repay $8 million balance on a secured line of credit to Tako Ventures, which is controlled by Larry Ellison.

NetSuite’s expected and awaited entry into the public market has an interesting history. NetSuite goes back a long way with SAP. In fact, the company started life as NetLedger – a small business arm of SAP. As NetLedger came into its own, it changed its name to NetSuite and acquired an independent identity. Around this time SaaS was really taking off and Salesforce.com was stealing a march on the rest. Oracle decided to eliminate some competition for NetSuite and purchased Siebel Systems which was one of the main competitors of NetSuite. One of the major factors in NetSuite going public was its rise in revenue that rose 63% to $76.8 million. Although, interestingly the company still reported a loss of $20.6 million.

Maximizer, which bills itself as the leading provider of simple and accessible CRM solutions, launched CRM Express Services. The services suite is a response from the company to what it terms “overwhelming market demand”. The CRM Express Services Suite aims to help SMBs achieve better ROI on their investments and benefit from enhancements in business processes.

The service purports to address the important issue of user adoption that enables SMBs to benefit from knowledge transfer. The service suite can be implemented in a manner that takes into consideration a company’s growth plans and offers the required scope for scalability.

CRM Express Services consist of three categories. These are planning, activation, and optimization.

Infusion software has announced that its product Infusion CRM has been named “Best SaaS Small Business CRM Solution” by SellMoreNow.com. The Company also received the “Jim Cecil Award for Excellence in Drip Marketing.” Getting a commendation in the already crowded SaaS CRM market is a no mean feat.

Infusion CRM won the jury over with its capabilities that wed contact management to Web 2.0 internet marketing capabilities. Infusion CRM also offers powerful drip marketing whereby you can initiate relationship building activities with thousands of prospects.
Critical CRM modules included in CRM include e-commerce, lead capture, email marketing, click tracking, billing and collections and other functions of sales, marketing and customer service that are not found in other CRM software programs.

Another entrant into the CRM space. Agresso has been around for more than twenty years peddling its ERP wares to the mid-market services sector and it has decided that the time is ripe now for adding CRM capabilities to its product portfolio.

As befits its name Agresso has launched the product aggressively at a global level as a standard, on-site license or a SaaS offering.  The product is available as a standalone offering or as a part of the Agresso Business World enterprise resource planning suite. Agresso CRM is totally web-based and can be run on multiple databases, operating systems and mobile devices as well.

The new CRM released by Agresso is in line with the company objective to grow to a $700 million company by 2010. More products are to follow Agresso CRM as a part of the company’s BLINC offensive. BLINC stands for Business Living IN Change plug ins.

Big numbers first, then: Infor was most pleased to announce IBM’s benchmarking the performance of Infor CRM Epiphany at beyond 10,000 concurrent users in a real world test.

IBM’s scalability metrics benchmark tested Infor CRM Epiphany Sales and Service on their WebSphere application server and exceeded 10,000 concurrent users without any failures in a six-hour test run. IBM tested the solution based on information provided by an unnamed international banking organization to establish business scenarios in three defined test scripts.

The scripts were based on the level of detail and response required for a customer service representative to complete a customer interaction. Company PR states scripts “were comprised of 50 percent simple, 30 percent medium and 20 percent complex customer interactions.”

Infor also announced enhancements to the Infor CRM Epiphany product line which allow integration of CRM functionality with the latest releases of Avaya, Lotus Domino, and Crystal Reports. Infor CRM Sales 7.0.2 and Infor CRM Service 7.0.2 are now certified to support said platforms.

The latest version of CRM Sales 7.0.2 includes the addition of Infor CRM’s Configuration Module, which seeks to enable companies in standardizing the sales and specification process.

In terms of all-new releases, Infor put out the Infor EAM Enterprise Edition, the latest version of the company’s flagship enterprise asset management solution. Particularly touted in this release is functionality specifically for the fleet management, manufacturing, facilities and life sciences industries. Functionality for additional industries is promised in subsequent releases.

This week saw Infor report a success story, too, with the announcement on Tuesday that Muang Thong Mahachai Co. Ltd, a manufacturer and distributor of footwear in Thailand, has gone live with Infor ERP System 21. Infor ERP System 21 comprises financial, distribution and manufacturing modules.

Through a web-based user interface, System 21 allows automation of key manufacturing and financial processes. Muang Thong Group brands were established in 1983. MTG products are sold under brand names (you may have seen one or two) such as Gold City, Planet, Nature, Fight, Sunshine and Sunwood.

Finally, the best for last: namely, a few more numbers, because you know CRM Chump loves the numbers. Infor announced that over 150 net new manufacturing SMEs have signed up for Infor’s ERP Visual in the last twelve months.

Significant adopters announced include Cygnus, DFW Test, Frontier Electronics System, John-Richard, Pennant Moldings, RotorWay International and D3. I

nfor can now claim an installed base of more than 4,000 manufacturers around the world.

NetSuite, Inc., that large on-demand vendor of integrated business management application suites for small- and medium-sized businesses, went revamping this week with the launch of NetSuite 2007.0.

The new NetSuite is touted for “a myriad of new features that make automating complex operations and processes simpler for growing and mid-sized businesses.” The foci, say the NetSuitees, are on three functional areas:

? ERP, or as NetSuite insists, “Easy ERP.” The new NetSuite includes virtual assistants for multi-dimensional product configuration and transactional form layout in the hopes that ERP will become deployable by “mere mortals.”

? Global CRM and “partner relationship management” (or – you guessed it – PRM). Orders, forecasts, quotas and commissions can now be managed on a per-country basis in local currency.

? Suite analytics. NetSuite 2007.0 adds new business intelligence capabilities including detailed scorecards, and incorporation of “Excel-like custom formulas.”

NetSuite 2007.0 is available in the standard NetSuite service, with no additional charge and will be rolled out to customers from June to August. NetSuite starts at $499 per month and $99 for each user per month.