CRM Buyer: CRM News and Information for System Purchasers

BEST OF ECT NEWS
The Cloud's Growing SLA Ecosystem

Friday - July 3, 2009

It's been four months since Google announced it would guarantee 99.9 percent system accessibility for users of its Google Apps Premier Edition -- a cloud-based productivity suite of business-oriented messaging and collaboration apps, including integration capabilities and support. At the time, it sent a welcome message; although cloud computing was in its infancy, there were still minimum standards that must be met. Users were relieved that one of the major providers was establishing service benchmarks. [More...]

BEST OF ECT NEWS
Business Intelligence: Tools of the Trade for Decision Makers

Friday - July 3, 2009

In this age of hype and hysteria, nearly every IT product peddled comes with the dire warning "if you do not buy, you die." On a few occasions, however, that claim proves true in the biggest, most unmistakable ways. "It can easily be argued that our current world economic crisis can be partially blamed on poor business intelligence," Boris Evelson, an analyst at Forrester, told CRM Buyer. [More...]

ANALYSIS
8 Steps to Getting Sales and Marketing to Play Nice

Thursday - July 2, 2009

There are dozens of webinars, seminars, research reports, whitepapers, and blog postings on the topic of sales and marketing alignment. Despite the endless flow of resources and suggestions, sales and marketing alignment continues to elude many organizations. Misalignment is often a byproduct of a lack of process and a natural result of traditional marketing and sales roles. [More...]

INSIGHTS
Evolution, Revolution and Punctuated Equilibrium

Wednesday - July 1, 2009

Kudos to all those who participated in, organized or even attended the Enterprise 2.0 conference in drizzly Boston last week. There is a lot to write about. The big ideas that I took away include disruption and evolution, ROI and a need to sharpen our focus. Here are a few thoughts on a very good show. [More...]

Outsourcing's No Longer In

Tuesday - June 30, 2009

Companies used to turn to outsourcing during tough financial times. The current global recession, however, has curtailed outsourcing as much as it has other parts of the economy. "Oddly enough, the global recession has hurt outsourcing significantly," said Chad Hahn, principal owner of Hahn Consulting. [More...]

VENDOR WATCH
ERP Should Pay for Itself in a Year: Q&A With xTuple CEO Ned Lilly

Monday - June 29, 2009

xTuple is an open source ERP provider, and CEO Ned Lilly says there are few fellow travelers on his company's path. In this tanking economy, the company has been leveraging both its open source bona fides and the fundamental functionality that is inherent in an ERP system to gain market share. [More...]

EXPERT ADVICE
Usability: The Cornerstone of E-Commerce/CRM Convergence

Friday - June 26, 2009

When e-commerce was born some 13 years ago, systems were typically proprietary, requiring a large team of internal developers to constantly upgrade features while diligently working to integrate them into key legacy back-office systems. At times, these were near-impossible tasks that consumed vast amounts of money and time. [More...]

Analysis: Veramark's Performance Advisor for Telecom and IT Expenses

Thursday - June 25, 2009

This article draws on two discrete data sets: BI deployments of over 270 respondents in an Aberdeen Group April 2009 benchmark report; and the telecom lifecycle management solutions of 140 respondents in a March 2009 benchmark report. This data will be used to contextualize the value of integrated business intelligence functionalities and their ability to drive additional cost savings. [More...]

INSIGHTS
Socializing the Revolution

Wednesday - June 24, 2009

Events taking place on the streets of Tehran may have an important effect on how social networking rolls out across the rest of the world, and that includes the CRM world. Last week, the media began carrying stories about a "cyber revolution" that may be happening in the Islamic Republic, but those stories fail to account for the whole story -- the yin and yang of social media. [More...]

TJX Closes Chapter in Data Breach Saga

Wednesday - June 24, 2009

The parent company of retailers T.J. Maxx and Marshall's will pay $9.75 million in a settlement with multiple states related to a massive data theft that exposed tens of millions of payment card numbers. Framingham, Mass.-based TJX said Tuesday it will pay $2.5 million to create a data security fund for states as well as a settlement amount of $5.5 million and $1.75 million to cover expenses. [More...]

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