We Blog CRM

Apparently the jury is still out on the merits of SaaS as a vehicle of distributing software. In an excellent piece Galen Grumen considers actual industry examples where SaaS deployments met with varying degree of success with respect to their integration with core company apps.

One aspect that hinders SaaS integration is that SaaS providers do not offer out-of-the-box support for APIs of other enterprise applications. In other words, cross vendor integration is limited and this often leads to a scaling down of software capabilities upon deployment. It can isolate a significant portion of your other software from your CRM.

An interesting point which the article raises is that although SaaS CRM purports to be what its name suggests, in reality its capabilities are limited to functions like contact management and sales force automation. The heavy duty transaction management activities are in most cases executed by in-house software.

It looks like we are fast headed toward another convergence of technologies. According to a recent report from ABI Research traditional map-production technologies are fast becoming obsolete.

The reason is the tremendous increase in the volume of map and navigation details that can be managed only with the help of digital-mapping services. This is leading to an integration between between mapping and location-based services. An example of the significance of mapping in the navigation and location value chain is the recent acquisition of NAVTEQ by Nokia.

The upshot of all this for CRM is that you can access user generated street level maps, travel direction, and local information for geo-targeting.

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GI Insight, an integrated marketing specialist, has found that an impressive 19% of top UK companies have demonstrated their keenness to implementing CRM by appointing a dedicated Head of CRM. Is that really a measure of commitment to a cause, in government undertakings such a move serves effectively to silence detractors and to show things are moving but this is the private sector that we talk about… so I guess the increase in dedicated CRM directors over the past two years only augurs well for CRM vendors.

Another question that pops into my head is that what has prompted the big companies to commit to CRM. Now am not saying that the GI Insight report is biased in any way but getting information on the state of preparedness, the manner in which these companies went about their preparation, their prime objectives for pushing for CRM and other such points would be of considerable interest and could throw light on what different industries perceive to be their strong points and weak points regarding CRM and their expectations from CRM.

Managing Director, Andy Wood explains why the research can be taken as an accurate measure of companies’ commitment to CRM thus “Since one-off CRM technology costs can be written off and ongoing senior people costs cannot, a company that puts CRM into the title of one of its senior managers is making a real statement of commitment to CRM. In many cases, measurable return on investment has to be proved before a company will appoint a Head of CRM into a senior directorial role (regardless of whether this is an internal promotion or external hire).”

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Everton Football Club has added TALENT Sport all-in-one ticketing and CRM system in an effort to update its customer facing and ticketing technology.

The famed Premier League Club got to test its new system, implemented to very tight time scales in October, in a big game when Everton played Liverpool. According to Andy Ward who heads ticketing at the club the system enables them to execute ticket-office processes faster, get more ticket sales online and it offers more opportunities to the marketing and sales department of the club.

Everton has witnessed an increase in online ticket sales and club supporters can now access the best seats at the most sought after games online. Earlier, the diehards had to book tickets via postal applications or at the bx office.

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It’s an interesting thought and I am not aware of very many verticals untouched, except perhaps the semiconductor industry. The trend for sometime has been toward offering industry specific solutions as the thinking over the past 5-6 years has been that the horizontal market has played itself out.

The big ones Oracle and SAP have around 25 verticals covered. These include Automotive, manufacturing, government, insurance, travel, retail banking, energy, healthcare, travel, financial services, high-tech, etc. Within the sectors covered, there will surely be a few industries that are as yet untapped, for example is there a CRM for the retail of books. Its not big business and it has its own unique processes so maybe its too much of a pain to go through pre-customizing a CRM solution for this business.

Surely, an enterprising SaaS player could dig up a few vertical niches that are not huge but capturing a few of them can give a vendor a good foothold to branch off later. Comments invited on CRM verticals as yet untapped.

Here’s something that I have always thought about and it seems am on the same wavelength as Shane over at ITWorldCanada. The issue here is regarding the importance that we need to accord to CRM products and in my opinion also how new a thing is CRM. Sure, the term is not more than a couple of decades old but as a stratagem CRM has existed as long as business and trade has been there.

So, the question to ask is what is it that makes a CRM endeavor a success? How much of it is the software and whether do you really need CRM software at all? To the latter question, lets say we do need the software but how do we then account for the astonishing rate of failure with CRM deployments.

The vendors are never going to agree that its the product. If it is the methodology then perhaps it means that companies are investing too much faith in the software and not bothering to get right the human aspect that involves intuition, lateral thinking, brilliant sales, good follow-ups, obtaining information from data and using it and other such skills.

It is strange that such a crucial aspect of CRM, the human angle, fails one CRM project after another. Its ironical that companies have many aspects of CRM well covered before they go in for a CRM deployment only to see things spiral downward later.

Amidst all the noise that SaaS is the only way to go a new report from Datamonitor, catchily titled ‘Decision Matrix: Selecting a CRM Vendor’ states that the worldwide spending on CRM licenses is set to touch $ 6.6 billion by the year end 2012. Datamonitor has developed a decision matrix to help businesses evaluate vendors on the basis of technology offered, reputation, and their impact of their products on the market.

Datamonitor’s top rankers are Oracle and SAP. The market research firm feels that these two giants provide the best solutions in terms of functionality, integration of CRM with upcoming communication technologies, flexible deployments, and a good mix of on-premise and on-demand solutions.

The chief competitors to the big two are Salesforce.com, Chordiant, and Infor. Waiting below this rung are vendors like RightNow Technologies and Consona. The space will get further crowded if Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 finds takers. So, basically these are interesting times for the CRM space.

Customer Experience Management, or CEM, is becoming a popular way for industries to capture customer loyalty. CEM puts the focus on the customer rather than the goals of the company, leading to better customer service and ultimately a higher number of loyal customers spreading word-of-mouth advertising to potential customers. Companies that use customer experience management practices strive to make the most out of every interaction with the customer; through advertising, sales, delivery, service and communications. This leads to the “customer-centric” approach that CEM stresses. The customer needs to have the experience that the customer desires and expects at every level of interaction.

Effective CEM plans start with data gathering and analysis and ends with a customer service focused start-to-finish strategy to increase customer loyalty in a financially optimal way for the company. The strategy must give your company an advantage over other industries that are currently implementing CEM programs as well. Probably the most important issue to watch is the involvement of top executives in the CEM program. Goals should be set including the involvement of all levels of personnel in the company. When programs are initiated but not followed through on, CEM cannot accomplish the purpose set forth. Staff from every department should be on board with the planning and implementing of the customer experience management program. Read more