http://www.crmbuyer.com CRM Buyer -- "The Essential Guide for CRM System Purchasers" en-us Copyright 2009 2012-02-12T10:53:49-08:00 ECT News Network ECT News Network CRM Buyer -- "The Essential Guide for CRM System Purchasers" hourly 1 2012-02-12T10:53:49-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/images/rss/cad_100x36.jpg http://www.crmbuyer.com http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74396.html Last week, after dropping off my Prius at the dealership for routine service -- as I've done regularly since I bought the car in 2007 -- I ambled over to the shuttle stop for a ride home. "Where you headed?" barked the driver, never raising his head from his newspaper. When I let him know where I was going, he immediately recognized me and his demeanor changed entirely. Christopher J. Bucholtz 2012-02-10T05:00:00-08:00 Strategy Last week, after dropping off my Prius at the dealership for routine service -- as I've done regularly since I bought the car in 2007 -- I ambled over to the shuttle stop for a ride home. "Where you headed?" barked the driver, never raising his head from his newspaper. I recognized him -- he'd driven me back and forth from the dealership on numerous occasions, and we'd had many interesting conversations about airplanes and about our mutual hometown of Alameda, Calif. When I let him know where I was going, he immediately recognized me and his demeanor changed entirely. ]]> 2012-02-10T05:00:00-08:00 2012-02-09T17:46:57-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74398.html Oracle has announced it is acquiring the cloud-based talent management provider Taleo. It is paying $46 per share, or approximately $1.9 billion, net of Taleo's cash and debt. Taleo's board of directors has unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close mid-year 2012, subject to Taleo stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Erika Morphy 2012-02-10T09:12:04-08:00 Deals Oracle has announced it is acquiring the cloud-based talent management provider Taleo. It is paying $46 per share, or approximately $1.9 billion, net of Taleo's cash and debt. Taleo's board of directors has unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close mid-year 2012, subject to Taleo stockholder approval, certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Cloud-based human resources management functionality is expected to give Oracle a competitive edge as it continues to compete with SAP in the enterprise space. ]]> 2012-02-10T09:12:04-08:00 2012-02-10T09:12:18-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74384.html Let's face it, even though it's 2012 and the recession technically ended in 2009, we're not out of the woods yet. If anything, this recession has made businesses of all sizes think critically about their processes and optimize their current resources to maximize efficiency. HR processes are no exception. Miguel Valdes Faura 2012-02-09T05:00:00-08:00 Business Processes Let's face it, even though it's 2012 and the recession technically ended in 2009, we're not out of the woods yet. If anything, this recession has made businesses of all sizes think critically about their processes and optimize their current resources to maximize efficiency. HR processes are no exception. In fact, HR managers are under more scrutiny than ever before, and their goal in 2012 and beyond will be to ensure processes such as recruiting, on-boarding, payroll, performance reviews, vacation request, etc. are efficiently managed and measured. ]]> 2012-02-09T05:00:00-08:00 2012-02-08T15:59:10-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74369.html There's been a lot of activity on the Web and in our industry in the last week, and I thought it might be fun to try and tie at least some of it together. Much of it in one way or another involves Facebook -- or "FB," as the proposed ticker symbol suggests. It's widely assumed that its IPO will make the very earliest buyers a nice pile of profit, but what about those looking for a longer-term investment? Denis Pombriant 2012-02-08T05:00:00-08:00 Social CRM There's been a lot of activity on the Web and in our industry in the last week, and I thought it might be fun to try and tie at least some of it together. Much of it in one way or another involves Facebook -- or "FB," as the proposed ticker symbol suggests. It's widely assumed that its IPO will make the very earliest buyers a nice pile of profit, but what about those looking for a longer-term investment that grows over years, not just hours? There's much disagreement on where those buyers will stand. ]]> 2012-02-08T05:00:00-08:00 2012-02-07T11:27:21-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74378.html Oracle is clearly not prepared to let go of the TomorrowNow case involving corporate theft it suffered at the hands of the service provider, which was acquired by rival SAP in 2005. In a legal filing this week, Oracle rejected the $272 million in court-ordered damages from SAP. A jury found in favor of Oracle in 2010 and awarded the software maker $1.3 billion in damages. The judge slashed the award last fall. Erika Morphy 2012-02-08T11:24:44-08:00 Tech Law Oracle is clearly not prepared to let go of the TomorrowNow case involving corporate theft it suffered at the hands of the service provider, which was acquired by rival SAP in 2005. In a legal filing this week, Oracle rejected the $272 million in court-ordered damages from SAP. A jury found in favor of Oracle in 2010 and awarded the software maker $1.3 billion in damages. The judge slashed the award last fall, citing it as grossly excessive. Oracle has asked for a new trial. ]]> 2012-02-08T11:24:44-08:00 2012-02-08T11:23:31-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74360.html Identity theft and privacy breaches are reported almost daily. For example, last month two utilities in New York reported that an employee of a software contractor allowed unauthorized access to a database containing social security, date of birth and other information. That same day the DoJ reported the arrest of three women in California for engaging in a scheme to use stolen identities to illegally collect tax refunds. John K. Higgins 2012-02-07T05:00:00-08:00 Government Identity theft and privacy breaches are reported almost daily. For example, last month two utilities in New York reported that an employee of a software contractor allowed unauthorized access to a database containing social security, date of birth and other information. That same day the DoJ reported the arrest of three women in California for engaging in a scheme to use stolen identities to illegally collect tax refunds. And just days earlier, DoJ arrested severn persons in New York for using stolen identities to charge merchandise and gift cards. ]]> 2012-02-07T05:00:00-08:00 2012-02-10T16:00:37-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74355.html 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. Erika Morphy 2012-02-06T10:34:48-08:00 Products 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. The reason for the early overview is that enterprise customers like to see a road map of forthcoming features as soon as possible, he said. "It allows our customers to do their planning." ]]> 2012-02-06T10:34:48-08:00 2012-02-06T10:34:46-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74352.html TeleTech has been placed in the "Leaders" quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant: Customer Management Contact Center BPO, Worldwide, 2011, and Yesmail has announced the release of its "Look Book" in celebration of its recent awards for mobile-scalable email design. Meanwhile, West Interactive and VBrick Systems have released major upgrades. Denise J. Deveau 2012-02-06T05:00:00-08:00 Products TeleTech has been placed in the "Leaders" quadrant of Gartner's Magic Quadrant: Customer Management Contact Center BPO, Worldwide, 2011, and Yesmail has announced the release of its "Look Book" in celebration of its recent awards for mobile-scalable email design. Meanwhile, West Interactive has released a major upgrade to its carrier grade Interactive Voice Response software, and VBrick Systems has unveiled its new Video Conference Streaming Gateway Module for its H.264 Distributed Media Engine. ]]> 2012-02-06T05:00:00-08:00 2012-02-05T13:21:20-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74321.html Salesforce.com unveiled a new customer service help desk tool this week. Desk.com works with customer requests delivered over a social network. It is the byproduct of Salesforce.com's acquisition of Assistly last year. However, it is no mere product integration, said Alex Bard, former Assistly CEO and now vice president and general manager of Desk.com. Erika Morphy 2012-02-03T05:00:00-08:00 Products Salesforce.com unveiled a new customer service help desk tool this week. Desk.com works with customer requests delivered over a social network. It is the byproduct of Salesforce.com's acquisition of Assistly last year. However, it is no mere product integration, said Alex Bard, former Assistly CEO and now vice president and general manager of Desk.com. "Desk.com has been built from the ground up to work with Salesforce.com, although it can also be a standalone product. We've been working on it around the clock since the acquisition." ]]> 2012-02-03T05:00:00-08:00 2012-02-02T18:29:09-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74323.html Every tool has a purpose. That's never more clear than when you see a neophyte do-it-yourselfer trying to use a tool for a purpose other than what it was designed for. For instance, anyone wielding a hammer while trying to fix a car's engine is probably not going to succeed. Christopher J. Bucholtz 2012-02-02T05:00:00-08:00 CRM Every tool has a purpose. That's never more clear than when you see a neophyte do-it-yourselfer trying to use a tool for a purpose other than what it was designed for. For instance, anyone wielding a hammer while trying to fix a car's engine is probably not going to succeed. I've also seen people trying to drive nails with the rubberized handle end of a screwdriver. This was equally unsuccessful. CRM applications are a little like this. ]]> 2012-02-02T05:00:00-08:00 2012-02-01T09:54:16-08:00 http://www.crmbuyer.com/rsstory/74316.html I take briefings from all sorts of vendors every day, from established companies with a new release to emerging companies with what they hope will be The Next Great Idea that the market will seize on. I am always happy to give my opinion and advice, and sometimes it's even taken. But I am usually reticent to write about most of them simply because it's not my job to provide free advertising. Denis Pombriant 2012-02-01T05:00:00-08:00 Customer Service I take briefings from all sorts of vendors every day, from established companies with a new release to emerging companies with what they hope will be The Next Great Idea that the market will seize on. I am always happy to give my opinion and advice, and sometimes it's even taken. But I am usually reticent to write about most of them simply because it's not my job to provide free advertising, I don't want to be a cheerleader, and often the idea the company represents may not be in my wheelhouse. ]]> 2012-02-01T05:00:00-08:00 2012-01-31T15:12:26-08:00