CRM News: Business Intelligence

Sapphire Now: It's a Mobile, Social, Cloudy, Collaborative World
May 15, 2012

The Sapphire Now conference kicked off Monday in Orlando, Fla., with 60,000 customers, partners and employees of SAP participating, either at the conference facility or watching it online. The first day of the event offered the usual lineup of celebrity speakers -- corporate and otherwise -- with Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong featured in the morning and SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott in the afternoon.

Match the Big Data Job to the Big Data Solution
April 27, 2012

In the rush to play in the Big Data game, it's easy to forget the fundamentals. The fear of being left behind can cause enterprise IT teams to move directly into pilot projects with a choice of products and technologies that may not be best designed to solve the identified business problem.

Harnessing Big Data Through Customer Intelligence
April 24, 2012

Driving revenue performance and applying data in order to influence/generate buying behavior throughout the customer life cycle is not new -- it's an ongoing goal. Real-time marketing, which relies on capturing data in real time, improves revenue performance and is the optimal way to drive 1:1 customer interaction throughout the customer life cycle.

Look Who's Going to the Big Data Party
April 13, 2012

The exponential growth of data from a widening array of sources is making the term "Big Data" a hot topic among corporate executives from businesses of all sizes across nearly every industry. The Big Data phenomenon is being fueled by new social networks, mobile devices and increasingly powerful applications that can apture every keystroke and convert it into valuable information.

Oracle Trumpets Analytics Bona Fides
April 06, 2012

Oracle President Mark Hurd delivered a speech before Oracle OpenWorld Tokyo that emphasized the rapid buildup in analytical functionality the company has made in recent months. He touched upon previous developments, such as the Big Data Appliance announced at the start of the year, as well recent news, such as its update of Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management.

Why CRM Works
April 04, 2012

I have great admiration for the work of Daniel Kahneman. He's an Israeli psychologist whose work with the late Amos Tversky won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, even though neither was obviously an economist. The pair built the foundation for behavioral economics and did early work on framing, or how we perceive issues based on what other information surrounds them.

Customer Relationship Metrics Takes On the Unstructured Data Challenge
April 02, 2012

Customer Relationship Metrics has launched Text BI, its latest offering in its suite of managed analytics solutions. Text BI enables companies to take unstructured text-based data from surveys, emails, social media, CRM systems and other applications, and organize it into a format that makes it easier to analyze.

Customers, Big Data, and the Internet of Things
March 22, 2012

The top 10 trends in CRM was the topic of the lead-off talk by analysts Gene Alvarez and Ed Thompson at Gartner's Customer 360 Summit last week. Most of the items were evergreens that are fixtures when such trend lists are drawn up, but there were two that caught my eye, if only because of their juxtaposition on the list. First was the issue of "big data."

Partnership to Align Phone System Data With CRM
March 19, 2012

M5 Networks has partnered with InsightSquared to create a solution that will allow customers to manage data generated from M5, along with data from other systems, in InsightSquared's business intelligence product. The solution will help customers manage data from their business phone system and other applications in one interface, and to visualize trends in voice and data to understand the "why" of spikes and valleys in activity.

It's Raining Real-Time Customer Intelligence
March 05, 2012

FirstRain, an analytics software company that provides personalized, real-time customer intelligence to sales and marketing professionals, has announced the launch of the first Enterprise Customer Intelligence System. The system delivers targeted customer, prospect and industry intelligence directly into enterprise-deployed iPads, CRM systems, collaboration portals, mobile devices and other platforms.

Microsoft Dynamics Puts Analytics on Steroids
February 24, 2012

When Microsoft's next service update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM is released in Q2 2012, users who rely on its business intelligence functionality will be in for a pleasant surprise. Microsoft has ratcheted up the BI functionality significantly, providing more options on how to view, present and interact with the data, said Craig Dewar, director of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Microsoft Dynamics Update Promises 'CRM Anywhere'
February 06, 2012

Microsoft has taken the wraps off of its forthcoming service update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which will be released in Q2 2012. The service update will build on Microsoft's rollouts last year in such areas as social CRM and mobile. "We are on the path to deliver a significant new set of capabilities," said Craig Dewar, director of Microsoft Dynamics CRM's product management group.

No Rest for the E-tailer
January 28, 2012

Your online store did record sales this past holiday and you are a happy person at the start of the year. After a few days of rejoicing, it is time to get back to the grind and look at how you can move forward and take your online store to even greater heights. There are a few fallouts of the holiday season that you will need to manage, and then there are some initiatives that you should plan.

It's Showtime for CRM
January 23, 2012

CSC and Infovisionix announced a new agreement at Retail's BIG Show 2012 in New York City. Under the agreement, Infovisionix's suite of retail reporting and analysis tools will be incorporated in CSC's Retail Enterprise Intelligence offering. The new capabilities will help retailers understand and improve key operational and customer performance metrics.

IBM Aims to Whittle Big Data Down to Size
October 27, 2011

IBM debuted industry-specific data analytics tools for the healthcare and communication sectors at its Information on Demand conference. These packages are part of IBM's drive to help companies manage their information processes and data storage needs as efficiently as possible. For the communications analytics appliance, IBM is leveraging the technology it acquired through Netezza.

Microsoft Adds Firepower to Dynamics CRM
October 25, 2011

Microsoft is rolling out a service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online for both the partner-hosted and on-premises deployments. The update includes its promised "Activity Feeds," as well as administrative enhancements and stepped-up disaster recovery practices. Microsoft has put Dynamics CRM on a rapid release schedule, said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Predictive Analytics Digs Deeper Into CRM
October 24, 2011

Predixion Software has introduced Predixion Insight 2.0, the latest version of its collaborative predictive analytics solution. The new release includes enterprise collaboration features, interactive visualizations and automated workflow capabilities, as well as an on-premises version of its predictive analytics solution.

CRM's Place in IT Spending Plans
October 10, 2011

Half of U.S. companies plan to invest more on IT resources in 2012 than in 2011. In fact, 10 percent of the companies recently surveyed were planning an increase of 10 percent or greater; only one out of 10 planned to decrease spending next year. "Our survey shows that companies view technology investments as a means to drive efficiencies and make existing employees more productive," said Nucleus Research VP Rebecca Wettemann.