Trust plays an important role in interpersonal relationships. The same can be said of business relationships. In both cases, trust means a willingness on the part of each partner to assume a certain amount of risk. In an interpersonal relationship, the risk may be that a partner will act unfaithful ...
They pulled out all the stops at Oracle Open World last week to unveil a whole lot of advanced and interesting business technology. It was the 30th anniversary show, but the emphasis was clearly about the future -- not the past. There was lots that was not CRM related -- though from my provincial pe...
OK, I get it. I went to the Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco last week and there was a lot to like about it. In my career, I have seen some major back and forth changes in selling, and I have to say that these changes relate more to what is being offered than who we are selling to. Every salesp...
Just a couple of weeks ago, two terms, on-demand and Software as a Service (SaaS), were used interchangeably -- it was truly a difference without a distinction -- but a lot has changed in a short time. First, Salesforce.com introduced Force.com, and a day later SAP announced a long awaited on-demand...
My last few columns have been focused on new technologies that are making their way into the broader CRM suite. Expanding the CRM suite has never been easier, as platform vendors like Salesforce.com provide all the capabilities necessary for innovative developers to add something to the ensemble. He...
Dave Duffield, most famously the founder of PeopleSoft and now Workday, was giving a keynote presentation at the RightNow user conference in Colorado Springs, Colo., when it hit me. Duffield is about to become a kingmaker in the on-demand market. Please forgive the apparent hyperbole and continue.
I'd like to continue on the idea of modernizing our sales processes. Part of this modernization has been the focus on de-spreadsheeting selling. As we all know it started with sales force automation, or SFA, but the trend is alive and well and, if anything, gaining momentum. It's hard to believe th...
It's just a hunch, but I think that NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson will not have the same problems with the SEC regarding his IPO that Marc Benioff had a couple of years ago when he took Salesforce.com public. You might recall that Benioff was slapped with a large fine for speaking about his impending IPO...
I was having a discussion the other day with a client about changes in the software industry. We got to talking about different trends when the subject turned to the current tendency of discussing business software in terms of the size of the company that uses it. "Enterprise" software has certain...
Google made its presence felt in the front office market in a big way this week when both Salesforce.com and NetSuite announced within hours of each other their embrace of Google AdWords as an integral part of their marketing solutions. To be sure, the AdWords platform by itself will not solve the...
For many companies, there is an uncomfortable truth that even with CRM systems in place, one big gaping hole comes up again and again in customer experience: it's the nagging issue of saving customers time. Does your CRM system really respect your customer's time, rather than your sales person's tim...
I have been wracking my brain for an adequate metaphor to describe the situation that has developed in the CRM world and in enterprise software in general. It started about two years ago when Larry Ellison of Oracle looked at the enterprise software market and decided that SAP could conquer the wor...
Siebel, it is clear, has been on a tear to close out what is likely to be its last quarter as an independent company as strongly as possible. Announcing robust fourth-quarter revenues, CEO George T. Shaheen credited "the market opportunity in customer facing solutions and business analytics, the imp...
Mass merchandisers are redefining what's needed to launch a product through indirect channels, and the fact that bargain-hunting prospects for many products use the high-priced channels to do research and buy online anyway is making Web product introductions a path to greater profits for manufacture...
Often overlooked and considered inferior in the past, so close to greatness yet so robbed of it, called focused to the point of being boring, at times rocked with controversy, and when considered seriously, always in a discounted way due to some statistical controversy, the parallels between SAP's C...
Yes, communities and infrastructure can't keep up
Some projects are moving too fast
No, expansion is needed to meet demand
The pace seems about right
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/ai-voice-agents-crm-workflow-phone.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/enterprises-are-trading-press-one-for-crm-native-ai-agents-177614.html
Enterprises Are Trading ‘Press One’ for CRM-Native AI Agents
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2024/03/frustrated-computer-user-1.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/silent-churn-is-the-biggest-customer-support-risk-177596.html
Silent Churn Is the Biggest Customer Support Risk
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2025/09/AI-inventory-tracking.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/overcoming-genai-roadblocks-taskus-helps-retailers-compete-178381.html
Overcoming GenAI Roadblocks: TaskUs Helps Retailers Compete
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/email-marketing.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/the-end-of-spray-and-pray-email-marketing-178501.html
The End of ‘Spray and Pray’ Email Marketing
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/04/Adobe-GenStudio.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/adobe-positions-itself-as-the-ai-control-layer-for-cx-180293.html
Adobe Positions Itself as the AI Control Layer for CX
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/03/digital-workplace-overload.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/ai-is-forcing-companies-to-rethink-employee-experience-177608.html
AI Is Forcing Companies to Rethink Employee Experience
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/04/ai-sales-analytics.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/how-ai-is-changing-sales-teams-without-replacing-reps-178523.html
How AI Is Changing Sales Teams Without Replacing Reps
https://www.crmbuyer.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2026/01/AI-enabled-crm-dashboard.jpg
https://www.crmbuyer.com/story/workbooks-takes-on-crm-giants-with-plain-english-ai-177589.html
Workbooks Takes On CRM Giants With Plain-English AI
Enter your Username and Password to sign in.