CRM News: Social CRM

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.

CRM Conference to Showcase the Retail Experience
May 14, 2012

CRM Conference is being held May 29 to 31 at the Chicago Hyatt Regency. This annual event offers a unique agenda for retailers, said Devon Wylie, CEO of CRMC. "It's specifically focused on case studies from topnotch multinational retailers. With this approach, attendees can get actionable learnings they can take home with them."

Zoho Boosts Its Social Enterprise Creds
May 11, 2012

Zoho has enhanced its menu of offerings by incorporating social media into its customer support features. It has also added a Facebook social media integration point to its flagship application. The changes went live on Thursday, added automatically to the applications. These two developments are modest compared to the company's massive overhaul to its suite at the end of last year.

Sustainable CRM
May 09, 2012

There was an interesting article about airlines in The New York Times last week, "When Flying 720 Miles Takes 12 Hours," but the subtext was all about CRM, or at least where CRM has to go. If you know me at all, you know I closely attend to macroeconomics and energy issues, and they are all over this article.

3 CRM Traits Shared by Good People and Great Companies
May 03, 2012

I just wrote a note to a friend of mine thanking him for his participation at a conference I recently helped organize. It was a thank you note, and he's a CRM industry influencer; I won't divulge names, because it's not important to my point, nor do I want to seen like too much of a suck-up. In any event, I was grateful for his participation in the show -- not just for his session, but for his behavior at this and every other CRM event he goes to.

Social Dynamx Turns CSRs Into Rock Stars
April 30, 2012

Social Dynamx has just launched a new enterprise-class social customer care platform that will allow customer support and community management teams to identify, prioritize and handle millions of one-on-one customer social media conversations daily. As a subscription-based platform, it is designed to quickly identify relevant conversations and intelligently route them to the appropriate customer service agents.

Penetrating the Vast, Untapped Reaches of the CRM Market
April 26, 2012

CRM is not a small market. Nor is it a niche sequestered away in a corner of the larger CRM market. CRM is a $13.045 billion industry in 2012, and it will grow to $16.694 billion in 2015, according to Gartner. No matter how you look at things, that's a lot of money. With a projected growth of nearly 30 percent in three years, it would be easy to assume that CRM has achieved significant penetration.

Kana Bridges CRM-Social Listening Gap
April 23, 2012

Kana Software has introduced a new service experience platform that combines CRM functionality with BPM, knowledge management, analytics and social listening. The application is in fact the culmination of a few years' of effort by Kana to integrate these closely related feature sets, said Ajay Khanna, senior director of product marketing for Kana.

Social, Mobile and Collaboration: 3 Tips for Getting on the Road
April 19, 2012

"You can't get there from here." That's the classic gag about New Englanders giving road directions -- that somehow, the route that needs to be taken is so convoluted and confusing that there's no way to negotiate between two points on the surface of the Earth. Logically, we know that's not true. You can get anywhere from anywhere these days -- especially if you can rely on transportation that doesn't need to stick to the roads.

CDC Launches Pivotal for iPad
April 16, 2012

CDC Software Corporation, an enterprise software provider of on-premises and cloud technologies, has just released Pivotal CRM for iPad, an application that enables users to access CRM information whenever and wherever they need it. "Today, CRM is going in two distinct directions," said Jason Rushforth, front office president for CDC Software.

A Tale of Two Decision-Making Systems
April 11, 2012

Thanks for the overwhelming response to last week's post, "Why CRM Works." It was surprising and gratifying that so many people read and tweeted about it, given its length -- almost double my usual contribution. Since it was based on Daniel Kahneman's groundbreaking work, I give all the credit to him and his great career in trying to understand how we think.

Automating Social: The Perils of Trying to Fake Sincerity
April 05, 2012

"The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that you've got it made." This quote, often bandied about, is attributed to Jean Giraudoux (1882-1944), who was a French diplomat, dramatist and novelist. And, judging by his best-remembered quote, kind of a jerk. I'm not saying this specifically as an attempt at character assassination of a 68-year-dead raconteur -- no, there's a reason that I bring it up, and it has to do with social CRM.

Social CRM vs. the Unimaginative, the Unmotivated and the Skeptical
March 29, 2012

When I go to CRM conferences -- and I go to many -- one of the things I relish is the opportunity to speak to leaders about thinking surrounding social CRM. That group is not limited to the pundits and authors most closely associated with SCRM; it also includes users at these events who have reached the decision to fully embrace it in their businesses. I leave these events filled with excitement.

Unforgiven: Customers Need to Show Some Common Sense Too
March 15, 2012

In the UK, supermarket chain Tesco is being pounded right now in social media channels because it's refusing to honor an erroneous online advertisement offering new iPads for about $65. The offer went viral, and now the backlash is viral, too. How Tesco responds will tell the tale. I'd recommend a sincere apology, a few well-phrased jokes poking fun at itself -- and an offer to make it up to those who still want to buy an iPad from them.

Selling the Legacy Concept
March 12, 2012

Yammer announced an impressive $85 million financing recently. You might already know that Yammer provides enterprise social networks, the kind of collaborative spaces that enable employees to "swarm" on issues to achieve resolution or deal with a customer issue, for instance.

Avaya Gives Sneak Peak of Upcoming Healthcare Apps
February 21, 2012

Avaya has provided a sneak preview of several healthcare IT-based mobile applications it will be rolling out later this year. These include Avaya Mobile Activity Assistant, Avaya Flare Communicator for iPad, and other collaborative service offerings in telehealth and social media. Healthcare is one of Avaya's chief verticals, said Sanjeev Gupta, general manager of Avaya's Healthcare Solutions group.

New CRM Offerings Up the Social Media Ante
February 20, 2012

Nimble has introduced a new Software as a Service social CRM platform designed to enable social engagement. Nimble 2.0 empowers companies to get closer to their customers through listening and engagement, helping them turn their social communities into customers for life, according to the company.

Growing Into Social CRM
February 16, 2012

The volume of oversized clothing I received as a kid from aunts, grandparents and family friends was astounding. Over time, I did actually grow into those clothes. Social CRM, for a lot of businesses, is like those gifts: It may not be a perfect fit immediately, but given time and the evolution of your business, you're likely to grow into it.