Enterprise Apps

Do you know what your people are working on? Do you know why your project is late? Do you know if you are getting the ROI you need? You may not realize it, but what you don't know can hurt you and your organization. You might be planning projects that your resources cannot accommodate, or spending t...

Although Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu doesn't describe his company as the Wal-Mart of the software world, he would likely find the comparison apt. Some vendors stand out from their peers because they were the first to commercialize a particular application; some because they were the most successful in ev...

Knowledge is power, but without context and imagination, it's just bytes of data, every bit as dark and useless as ignorance itself. "One bank CIO recently told me, 'We had the data, but we did not have the information,'" Boris Evelson, analyst at Forrester, told CRM Buyer in describing the banking ...

Journyx, a company that provides Web-based time-tracking and project management applications, also offers its customers a back door into customer service. That is, its application lets users track what a customer cost. That is a number that is often surprisingly miscalculated or not calculated at a...

We all know that simply allowing customers to purchase products and services through your company's Web site isn't enough anymore. Now accustomed to second-generation Web technology, most customers no longer will choose to spend time at self-service sites that can't provide the customized, specific ...

This year promises to be one of the most challenging in recent memory for online retail. The strategies and tactics that online retailers have relied upon in the past will not work in this harsher, new consumer climate. This year will clearly separate winners from losers. Winners will have the wisdo...

Recession. Nine letters you never want to see together in one word; at least not in that order. Sales and marketing departments across the globe are reeling from one of the worst financial crisis in recent business. The stock market is down, unemployment is climbing, and businesses are bracing fo...

When Christopher Cabrera, president and CEO of Xactly, says his Software as a Service sales performance management company began 2009 with a big bang, he didn't -- as one might assume in this economy -- mean it in a bad way. In January, the company acquired Centive, its primary competitor. In Februa...

A computer company's research team puts their latest video up on Facebook rather than presenting it during a technical conference. A video game developer turns to Twitter to first break the news of a new release to the masses. A salesperson stays in touch with all professional relationships -- colle...

Software as a Service has become the business and software delivery model of choice among new vendors -- not to mention companies seeking to invest in IT. Surprisingly, considering the model's growing market share, few companies have sprung up to offer SaaS applications for the providers themselves....

Sales are down. You don't even need to add a qualifier to that sentence -- such as industry or name of company. Across the board, corporate and consumer sales are down. Enter firms like Demandbase, which promises the latest in lead generation functionality. The company debuted last year with Deman...

Society's expectations for more personalized products and services have risen. As a result, vendors need to better understand their customers and prospects in order to remain competitive in the marketplace. One of the best ways for a company to do this is to spend time examining the interactions bet...

Genesys has always been a distinct entity within the Alcatel-Lucent line of divisions, products and services. On Jan. 1, though, it was folded into a larger group called the "Applications Software Group." Genesys' mission of offering contact center products and services geared toward enterprises and...

For the last few years, Amdocs has been introducing modules, or "packs," to customers. These are packaged applications that are equipped with features that address a specific task or functional area and are designed for fast implementation. This strategy was on display last week when Amdocs rolled o...

The home-agent contact center model has undergone a metamorphosis in the last few years. A few short years ago, it was the refuge of small companies that couldn't afford to outsource operations to typical brick-and-mortar contact centers, said Alpine CEO Christopher Carrington. However, larger compa...