NextPrinciples Makes Integration Paramount

NextPrinciples has launched Insight-To-Action, a social analytics and engagement product that integrates with a handful of CRM applications.

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The company is in talks with other vendors to expand the integration of the platform, Ted Sapountzis, head of marketing and product management for NextPrinciples, told CRM Buyer.

The three CRM applications Insight-To-Action currently supports are Salesforce.com, SugarCRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

At the same time, the company is also working with SAP’s HANA platform on another endeavor.

The integration with these CRM applications is crucial for Insight-To-Action’s market approach.

Unlike some social media apps that focus on listening and responding to conversations on Twitter and Facebook, Insight-To-Action views incorporation of these conversations into the underlying CRM system as a key piece of the process.

“We are in the business of helping companies to listen and monitor conversations on the social Web and then respond or engage with customers,” Sapountzis said — but the usefulness of gathering such information is limited when it isn’t incorporated into the CRM app.

Listening for Sales Prospects

Sapountzis recounts the example of a company that uses kewords in Insight-To-Action to identify dissatisfied customers of its competitors.

As this data comes, the user can either connect with these prospects in real time — as they perhaps complain about the product in question on Twitter — or the user can receive these notices as alerts with the option of responding later.

These alerts, as well as any outreach made to the prospects, are reported in the sales lead pipeline of the CRM app. The integration also makes it easy for users to incorporate marketing materials and other campaigns into their communications with prospects.

Insight-To-Action’s platform has four modules: Campaigns and Events; Contact Management; Community; and Social Performance. The integrations with Salesforce.com, SugarCRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM are out-of-the-box, done with standard APIs.

Other Integrations

NextPrinciples is currently at work for its next stage of integrations. One focus will be on marketing automation, Sapountzis said. “We are in conversations with one firm right now.”

NextPrinciples is also eying the predictive analytics space for a similar initiative, he said — namely with SAP’s HANA.

“Predictive analytics is an area where we plan to significantly step up our capabilities. Right now applications are very good at removing the noise and finding the signal for users,” Sapountzis noted, “but can they go on to predict what will happen?”

That will be the next big phase for this industry, he predicted. “HANA will give us the basic tools to build this so we don’t have to redevelop the wheel.”