CRM News: Strategy

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. The Tuesday keynotes generated needless confusion by asking a simple question: Is Enterprise 2.0 a revolution or an evolution? Such a question is often resolved in a cowardly compromise to split the difference. [More...]

Cross-Selling's Time Has Come

Tuesday - June 23, 2009

"You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" -- "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" What the initially skeptical characters in Reese's famous candy commercials learned through a somewhat painful cross-sell process -- usually by bumping into each other -- was that these complementary ingredients together made each one better. [More...]

Of 'Jurassic Park' and All Things 2.0

Wednesday - June 17, 2009

What do these things have in common? Maybe nothing other than that the movie has a sequel and the two-dot-oh suffix is a sequel. Also, the start of blockbuster movie sequel season overlaps with trade shows like Sales 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0. Sales 2.0 was held in Boston a couple of weeks ago, Enterprise 2.0 is coming next week, and I can't wait. [More...]

GM's Demise and the Rise of CRM Culture

Wednesday - June 10, 2009

Business schools have been discussing General Motor's loss of market shar for decades already, and the added denouement of the company's bankruptcy filing will no doubt drive many academic papers for decades to come. The roots of GM's fall from grace are numerous, and it would be incorrect to attribute the fall to any single factor. [More...]

Outsource or Keep It Home? Have It Your Way: Q&A With Alpine Access CEO Chris Carrington

Monday - June 8, 2009

Not that long ago, the outsourcing of customer service to home-based agents was a small niche category, viewed as not quite on par with a bricks-and-mortar call center operation. For a number of reasons, that perception is changing -- starting with the lower costs involved and ending with the growing number of quality providers that have highly qualified staffs on hand. [More...]

Shih Wrote the Book on Social Media

Wednesday - June 3, 2009

Clara Shih is a friend I met through Salesforce.com. She recently published "The Facebook Era," which looks at the relationship of social networking to front office computing. She is really busy these days promoting the book, and she recently left Salesforce to pursue new ideas in social networking and to form a company dedicated to the task. [More...]

Sage's Swenson: One Year Down

Wednesday - May 27, 2009

A lot happened at Insights, the Sage partner meeting held in Nashville earlier this month, though not necessarily at the press release level. I was there and got a sense of change happening. It was the first anniversary of new CEO Sue Swenson coming on board and our first opportunity to see the imprint she is making on the company. [More...]

All's Fair in Support and Development

Wednesday - May 13, 2009

I was surprised by the mini-storm that blew up over Salesforce's apparent decision to charge ISVs, SIs and other types of developers for support using their development environment. Two primary arguments have cropped up -- one that support ought to be free, and the other that it's hard to make money if you can't charge 22 percent for service. [More...]

Project Success vs. Fear of Leading

Tuesday - May 12, 2009

Mission-critical IT investments are inherently risky, even with a certified project management professional in place to guide the project. Factors like unrealistic timelines and poor planning can certainly jeopardize project success -- but could these factors be symptoms of a larger issue? Perhaps the root cause for project failure lies in an inability to lead projects. [More...]

Investments Bleed When You Cut Costs: Q&A With Tigerpaw CEO Dave Foxall

Monday - May 11, 2009

Tigerpaw Software is a family-owned software company that, 24 years after it was founded, is about to enter a new phase of growth. The company's enterprise CRM, inventory and project management platform has always had a loyal following, in no small part because of the care and attention Tigerpaw lavishes on its customers, said CEO Dave Foxall. [More...]

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