This report gives an overview of current considerations for organizations seeking to purchase a CRM solution. Based on aggregate data collected from more than 1789 CRM software comparisons performed using Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC’s) TEC Advisor software selection application, the report details what TEC data reveals about your peers' requirements for CRM solutions, including functionalities, customization and integration, server and database platforms, and budgeting.
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CRM solutions provide organizations with important customer information and tools, and are particularly useful in
enforcing levels of quality and specific procedures in a uniform manner. This white paper gives an overview of important things to consider when selecting a CRM solution, including summaries of on-premise and hosted solutions, a comparison of CRM types and solutions by company size, and different CRM solution features.
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Given that the Internet has made basic product information so readily available, the role of the salesperson of the 21st century has to be defined in terms of his or her ability to add value to the customer. When dealing with human beings, there are no such things as absolutes, but there are patterns that can be used to provide a baseline understanding. Read this white paper to learn about the tectonic forces that are driving salesforce transformation.
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Infor and salesforce.com have joined "forces" to offer several brand new collaborative applications. The first joint product offered by Infor and salesforce.com, Inforce, connects Infor ERP with Salesforce CRM and adds new functionality to Salesforce that enables the sharing of information and business processes between Infor ERP and Salesforce CRM. TEC principal analyst P.J. Jakovljevic reviews the SMB CRM solution and outlines what the product has to offer and how it compares to other related Infor solutions.
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While most industries are rapidly adopting social media to engage with customers, the life sciences companies remain typically balk at extending social presence in a highly regulated environment. In view of recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines on the responsibilities of life sciences companies monitoring social media, this paper intends to assist life sciences companies in determining the scope and potential impact of creating a social media engagement program.
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Banks are facing high levels of scrutiny from their customers and find themselves under great pressure to create value, win back lost customers, and maintain existing relationships as well as lower customer attrition levels. Three seemingly disparate trends—need for savings, growth in mobile usage and advent of coupon aggregators—together offer banks a way to create a sticky service. This paper discusses the idea of banks partnering with retailers to leverage their superior customer understanding to provide mobile coupons to their customers.
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Organizations seeking the services of a value-added reseller (VAR), channel partner, implementer, vendor, or consultant require an evaluation of what this service provider has to offer. This report assists organizations looking to determine the best-fit service provider for their needs. Based on information provided to TEC by Absalon International and its clients, this report focuses on real-life implementation projects delivered by the service provider to three of its existing clients.
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New research from TEC shows that interest in customer relationship management (CRM) solutions is surging among small businesses. This report is based on aggregate data collected from more than 4,000 completed comparisons of CRM software performed using TEC Advisor. To find out about what companies are looking for in CRM solutions, download the full report.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) has matured, and offers more choices than ever before. This buyer’s guide reviews the latest innovations in this software space, focusing on cloud, mobile, and social options, and includes a section on the range of customer-centric and process-oriented add-ons and applications available. The guide also includes valuable CRM resources and a directory of CRM vendors.
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Most customer relationship management (CRM) software users take for granted that they can track customers, send mailings, or assign requests to customer service representatives. Users today enjoy CRM systems that are highly accessible, both from a cost and technological point of view. But this was not always the case. TEC analyst Raluca Druta surveys the history and evolution of CRM with a view to defining the CRM of the future.
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Battery Venture's investment in Consona Corporation was one of the last decade's best returns on investment (ROIs) by any private equity firm investing in enterprise software. And there has been a vehement denial of any presumed trade-off between Consona’s research and development (R&D) investment and making money. TEC principal analyst P.J. Jakovljevic takes a look at how this deal might’ve been a winning proposition for all parties.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) strategies, principles, and technologies play a pivotal role in helping organizations grow from small, entrepreneurial companies with ad-hoc processes, into several hundred million dollar powerhouses. This document covers the basics, providing some helpful guidelines, and providing a rough, general framework for you to begin your initiative.
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Understanding your customers’ needs and ensuring your products and services meet their satisfaction is paramount to the success of your company. So, for most businesses, it’s fair to say that the customer is king. And getting closer to the customer is the number one priority to many business leaders for success in today’s economy. View this demo from IBM and learn how analytics can help you give your customers the royal treatment.
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A new generation of sales warrior needs a new generation of tools. Watch, listen, read, and learn from the experts of social selling.
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The path to a complete view of the customer lies not in eliminating data sources but in integrating them and providing access that is easy to navigate and always available. This report explores how top-performing companies are capturing, integrating, managing, measuring, and acting on valuable customer data throughout the entire customer lifecycle, to maximize customer loyalty and achieve best-in-class bottom-line results.
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Simon Ellis, practice director of supply chain strategies at IDC Manufacturing Insights, responds to questions regarding the business processes of wholesale distributors and customer relationship management (CRM) tools, and discusses how new technology trends—cloud, mobility, social business, and big data—are affecting wholesale distributors.
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Midsize companies are increasingly recognizing the benefits of cloud computing--it's cost-effective and flexible. This paper identifies four key business requirements for successful implementation of customer relationship management (CRM) cloud applications and examines how one CRM cloud solution in particular meets these requirements and enables midsize companies to realize their growth aspirations.
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Maximizer CRM 12 is now TEC Certified for online evaluation of salesforce automation (SFA) solutions in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Evaluation Center. The certification seal is a valuable indicator for organizations relying on the integrity of TEC research for assistance with their software selection projects. Download this report for product highlights, competitive analysis, product analysis, and in-depth analyst commentary.
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Lean is not an overnight quick-fix; it is an unending commitment. As lean thinking has evolved and the concepts broadened, lean advocates have come to recognize that enterprise resource planning (ERP) and lean work together very well. In this paper, read about how five lean principles are supported and enhanced by comprehensive information control and the management tools that one end-to-end enterprise software suite delivers.
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Social media is providing organizations with a plethora of data about their customers. This paper explains how to leverage business intelligence software and advanced analytics to change the way business is conducted. The end goal should be to personalize marketing messages in a way that allows organizations to narrowly target specific customers based on the knowledge of the customer they already have.
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If you're a manufacturer or distributor considering an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with an integrated customer relationship management (CRM) application, you need to find out how far the "CRM concept" really extends to other elements of the ERP system, such as order frequency, buyer habits, specific customer invoicing requirements, etc. How vendors answer the eight crucial questions in this report will tell you what you need to know.
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Cloud services will be a leading driver of productivity for manufacturers over the next decade. Businesses focused on reducing costs and improving the quality of manufacturing solutions will increasingly turn to the cloud for SaaS solutions. Read this white paper by president and CEO of inKumo, Inc., and find out how this new era of technology will dramatically improve productivity and cost savings in the industry.
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Maximizer CRM 12 is now TEC Certified for online evaluation of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions in the CRM Evaluation Center. The certification seal is a valuable indicator for organizations relying on the integrity of TEC research for assistance with their software selection projects. Download this report for product highlights, competitive analysis, product analysis, and in-depth analyst commentary.
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Recent trends in the distribution industry are forcing companies to continually re-evaluate their processes and value propositions and strategically chart new courses. This report contains support from a number of thought leaders for three resolutions that wholesale distributors can't afford to ignore.
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Social networks offer many opportunities for businesses to gain a closer engagement with their customers. This appears to be an unstoppable bandwagon that all organizations must leap on before they are left behind, but is it that simple? The social network landscape is packed with choices and pitfalls for the unwary, so a careful and appropriately nuanced response is required. Read more on how to best use social media.
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Semiconductor manufacturers can work more closely with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and expand into new markets by using Web 2.0 technologies. Infosys' experts reveal "white spaces" in semiconductor marketing strategies that can be addressed by digital and mobile capabilities. They demonstrate how best practices in information and customer experience embedded in Infosys' Semiconductor Digital Engagement Maturity Model can deliver a competitive advantage.
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Traditional CRM systems have evolved to be used by the entire company (sales, marketing, customer service, accounting, and management), but in doing so they have lost their focus on the primary user--sales. As such, salespeople get stuck with a CRM system that does not increase sales activity, but instead, bogs them down and decreases activity, which subsequently decreases sales. Download this report to learn the criteria that should dominate the decision as to which CRM should be used. This report is for sales people, sales managers, VPs, IT, customer service and general management (CEO, CTO, CFO). It should be required reading for anyone that is part of the CRM selection team.
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S-Drive has been built on Salesforce.com as a managed application and is delivered exclusively via the AppExchange marketplace. It is a native AppExchange application, meaning that it is built to run in the cloud with multi-tenancy and scalability in mind. S-Drive uses Amazon Simple Storage
Service as its file storage platform, whereas the Salesforce.com is used as the application platform as well as the file information database. Besides Salesforce.com and Amazon Web Services, SDrive does not use any other servers or infrastructure that may introduce security vulnerabilities.
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A strategic planning process is critical for distribution companies. Not unlike personal financial planning, distribution executives have to select the best investments needed now to create profitable growth in the future. If you fail to make the right commitments at the right time, you will miss opportunities and increase your risk. This paper outlines a set of core analytics customized for wholesaler distributors.
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While change is never easy, continuing with an outdated process does not help companies to stay competitive. Learn how transforming your S&OP process from a supply-demand balancing exercise to a strategic approach that integrates your entire business can increase supply chain visibility, improve customer service, and ensure a better balance between demand, capacity, and profitability. And know the Top 10 myths in S&OP.
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As a company in the financial sector, you place extremely high demands on your call center. The complicated and sensitive nature of the calls requires an agent who is highly trained and experienced. This leads to a high cost per call. At the same time, sacrificing caller satisfaction is not an option. This creates a tough challenge: How do you decrease the cost per call, while improving the customer experience? Download this white paper to find out.
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The Sunshine Act has prompted life science companies to look at alternatives to their expense reporting processes. The output to HHS is required to be electronic, searchable, and easily downloaded. A solution that supports these requirements from the initial input step of the process provides proactive control and management of the data—and of the direct marketing process as a whole.
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that address the needs of service industries such as advertising agencies represent a growing market. Although there are exceptions, business software vendors still approach the industry with a generalized set of functionality. This report aims to establish the areas of product functionality that this industry requires and identify a strategy vendors might take to improve the fit of their solutions to this market.
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Of the 30 billion invoices sent and received in Europe every year, more than 90% are in paper format. This is not only labour intensive and error prone, but comes at both a financial and environmental cost. Such manual operations slow invoice reconciliation, leading to poor relationships with suppliers and buyers and, potentially, poor cash flow management. This paper discusses the challenges posed by inefficient manual invoice processes, the need for e-invoicing, and how an organization can focus on its core business by handing over invoice processing to a managed service provider.
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A man leaves his farm in search of the richest diamond mine in the world only to die penniless when, all along, unknown to him, his own land was rich with the jewels he longed to find. That’s the fable at the heart of AXA Equitable’s ongoing successful marketing program called Mining Diamonds. And the customer intelligence behind the program? SAS. Read the full story now.
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“SAS business analytics help us put a laser focus on knowing our customers, reducing operating expenses and innovating for the future,” says Chris McCann, president of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. “As our business has grown from one flower shop to an online gift retailer serving more than 30 million customers, we need SAS’ abilities to really know our customers and turn that knowledge into action." Read the full story now.
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Welcome to TEC's Vendor Spotlight series. This installment focuses on KANA Software, a company founded in 1996 that has evolved from e-mail management into service experience management. See how KANA's software and service offerings help more than 600 customers manage the entire customer service lifecycle, from initial customer contact through to satisfaction survey responses or peer-to-peer sharing of the customer experience.
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Customer experience is now a competitive differentiator. As customers become more informed and more demanding, companies need to step outside of their comfort zone and explore non-traditional customer relationship management (CRM) areas. This paper explores a sampling of CRM improvements that allow companies to deliver a consistent customer experience to gain a competitive advantage.
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Organizations today are looking for low-risk solutions that provide immediate value. This paper introduces a set of solutions that offers a range of processes to address major phases of the customer life cycle. These rapid deployment customer relationship management (CRM) solutions give companies a live, preconfigured CRM environment that leverages CRM best practices. They also include a unique implementation methodology.
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In this paper it’s argued that over the next three to five years, the winners in sales will be the ones who figure out how to smoothly and productively manage a mobile sales team. Selling will be a mobile discipline. It’s imperative to craft a plan for making mobility standard and keeping information secure.
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It’s clear that no single software vendor can fully support the range of requirements encompassing a complete mobile business strategy. This white paper addressed how business software vendors can best support their customers by leveraging a robust mobile ecosystem built on solutions from a variety of vendors.
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Profitable customer experience (CE) strategies are holistic, sustainable, and focused on creating competitive differentiation. If you can deliver highly valuable experiences to your customers, in a sustainable way, the reward will be loyal, engaged advocates who help you grow your business. Read more to better understand how companies can provide a superlative customer experience and still make a profit.
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Customer churn is very costly—it’s many times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one—so retaining customers by offering a superior experience is a top priority. Also, delivering unique experiences to different customer segments is a valuable strategy. Read about how to increase brand equity and retain customers by offering a better experience.
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Learn how communication-enabled business processes (CEBPs)—processes enabled by communication systems that are tightly integrated with business applications—can help resolve customer relationship management (CRM) issues by reducing latency, providing recording of and visibility into interactions, and better enabling end-to-end processes involving employees, customers, suppliers, and partners.
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This paper evaluates various service software solutions for customer service and business process professionals to create differentiated customer experiences and build stronger buyer loyalty. Customers are increasingly online, want self-service options, and demand real-time responses. Also, social media has grown to be an important new channel for interacting with customers and engaging in innovative ways.
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Promoting band image, improving overall business performance, and keeping customers happy is a main concern of many businesses. This paper demonstrates how the Extended Enterprise platform can help specific verticals to promote and sell their products to external audiences. Know the value of the Extended Enterprise solution in financial services, insurance, government, retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and associations.
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Managing customer relationships is a challenging but vital part of running a business. Organizations have to acquire new customers to grow revenue and satisfactorily service existing customers to ensure loyalty and future business. A good business management solution has customer relationship management (CRM) functionality integrates with the entire range of your processes and provides a full view of customer data.
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As your company grows and faces new challenges, you must continually evaluate whether your work processes and information technology (IT) solutions can address these issues and help grow your business. Read here on how to perform a preliminary gap analysis to determine whether you need to upgrade your IT solutions and business processes to meet your current business requirements as well as adapt to future requirements.
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CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is an essential tool in any modern business no matter its size. The primary purpose of CRM software is to manage all aspects of the relationship with existing and prospective customers. Get a quick start on your CRM purchase by researching the important issues and factors for your organization. This guide can help you find the right provider for your unique needs.
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Fabricated metals companies need to create a competitive advantage around their core competencies, demonstrated by their ability to respond quickly to change, efficiently manage relationships with suppliers, and deliver quality products on time. Read about a solution that provides these companies with transparency and control over their entire business, empowering them to respond immediately to issues and opportunities.
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IT is feeling the pressure to allow users to access sensitive corporate data via their personal mobile phones. Employees want the flexibility to use applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), e-mail and instant messaging not only from within the workplace, but at any time from any device. Yet, with network security and customer privacy at stake, IT has been slow to bow.
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Effective management of customer data is a critical success factor for insurers. To provide products and service that stand out from the crowd, insurers need a 360-degree view of each customer that covers his or her entire experience with the company. Read this white paper on how information technology that supports tightly integrated, end-to-end business processes can increase insurer responsiveness and customer loyalty.
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With $1 billion in assets under management, Hillview Capital Advisors, LLC had to pull data from a dozen different sources to gain a complete client view. The firm had been relying on a mix of applications that now seemed inadequate for its growing needs. Learn how a new customer relationship management (CRM) system helped the firm increase productivity and get instant access to know-your-client information.
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North American wealth management clients, recovering from the market downturn of 2008 and current market conditions have new expectations of their wealth management firms. Market changes present a tremendous business opportunity for wealth management firms that can adapt to the changing needs of investors. Learn about customer relationship management (CRM) solutions that address the demands of today’s market.
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Today’s leading-edge companies are making extensive use of workforce data to drive human capital management (HCM) decisions the way most companies use financial and marketing data to make strategic business decisions. Learn how these companies are making fact-based workforce planning decisions that will help them survive the current recession and position them to quickly ramp up workforce additions when the downturn ends.
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By upgrading to the latest release of the SAP customer relationship management (CRM) application as part of its CRM Clear Vision Program, SAP AG transformed the way marketing and sales teams collaborate. Find out how increased visibility and improved interaction has helped SAP realize greater value from a more effective sales process, making it easier to hit sales targets and maximize sales revenue.
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To achieve global transparency of all customer relationships, SAP AG upgraded to the latest release of the SAP customer relationship management (CRM) application. This upgrade is part of its CRM Clear Vision Program. Learn how the upgrade to a single global solution helped SAP AG achieve effective collaboration, better visibility, improved productivity, and stronger customer relationships.
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Wilson Tool recognized the need to develop its online presence. The company’s customers increasingly expected to be able to access information about products, execute order transactions, and view order status at any time—even after business hours—to support its own operations. Learn how the company’s new customer relationship management (CRM) solution helped Wilson ensure its customers’ success.
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In Q2 2010, Forrester evaluated 18 customer relationship management (CRM) solutions—CDC Software, Chordiant Software, FrontRange Solutions, Maximizer Software, Microsoft, NetSuite, Oracle, Pegasystems, RightNow Technologies, SageCRM, Sage SalesLogix, salesforce.com, SAP CRM, SugarCRM, and Sword Ciboodle—against 516 criteria reflecting the requirements of large organizations. Learn what they discovered.
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In recent Aberdeen studies focused on sales effectiveness, the importance of providing sales and corporate leaders with real-time intelligence about its business has proven to be a best-in-class attribute. Combining technology with strong analytical capabilities helps top performers achieve better business results. This Aberdeen Analyst Insight addresses the trends among SAPs customers in adopting these practices.
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Effective sales organizations do more than just meet revenue goals. They find new ways to achieve their goals while ensuring their sales professionals maintain focus on activities that foster profitable customer relationships. Learn how a customer relationship management (CRM) solution can help your sales force acquire and cultivate profitable customer relationships, use their time efficiently, and achieve top performance.
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In a productive sales force, salespeople concentrate on acquiring, growing, and retaining profitable relationships within their account bases. To achieve this level of sales efficiency, you need a sales force automation (SFA) system that manages pipeline performance and territory alignment, and analyzes customer relationship management (CRM) data. Learn how a SFA solution can help you sales force excel.
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Channel partners have the power to make or break your business. But multi-tiered sales, service, and marketing channels have complex demand chains. This makes it even more important for you to build and maintain strong partnerships with dealers, distributors, agents, resellers, and systems integrators. Learn how a partner relationship management solution can help you build a more profitable and loyal indirect channel.
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While companies are investing heavily in e-commerce and e-service deployments, the customer is in the driver’s seat. Customers are influenced by the quality of the Web sites they visit, and their perceptions are increasingly shaped by their experiences with social networking sites. Learn how companies are working with software vendors to incorporate advanced technologies into its e-commerce and e-service platforms.
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Marketing organizations are often the first to face spending and resource cuts—even as they face increased pressure to contribute to revenue goals. These organizations need to drive demand more effectively and support sales efforts. They must also prove their value to the organization. Learn about customer relationship management (CRM) applications that can help align your organization to increase marketing success.
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FMC Technologies Inc. of Houston is a leader in oil and gas equipment service. By replacing its legacy system with a new customer relationship management (CRM) application, the company integrated and centralized its forecasting data, enabling managers to make better decisions about supply chain capacity. Learn how this upgrade improved forecasting, increased user adoption, and lowered the total cost of ownership (TCO).
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The world is changing for public-sector organizations. To succeed, governments must go beyond basic cost savings and service effectiveness to shape constituent perceptions about the programs that serve them. Discover how using software solutions to enhance customer relationship management (CRM) processes enables governments to deliver levels of performance constituents are accustomed to receiving from the private sector.
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In response to the harsh economic climate, communications service providers (CSPs) are concentrating on improving offers of voice, content, and data services. But these offers work best when they are attractive to the customer, and made in real time and through the right channel. Discover solutions that enable functionality for real-time offer management optimized within the context of enterprise processes.
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Rapid convergence of communications, media and entertainment (CME) is driving telecom, cable, and content executives to seek more creative means to garner long-term customer relationships. But how does one go from lofty goal to measurable results? Customer value enhancement (CVE) is a predictive approach to linking front- and back-office functions through advanced business intelligence (BI) and analytics. Find out more.
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The master/subordinate customer relationship management (CRM) tenant approach facilitates a common set of workflow, record awareness, and data synchronization options across a variety of large-scale CRM instances. Based on years of research and development expertise, this approach lends itself not only to regulatory compliance and reporting solutions but also to ease of use, maintainability, and security. Find out how.
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Increasingly, midsize companies are looking to customer relationship management (CRM) to energize their sales organizations and make the entire sales ecosystem more efficient. But while many solutions for midsize companies can be rapidly deployed to quickly energize a sales organization, what happens after that first jolt? Discover five tips for making sure your CRM choice continues to deliver return on investment (ROI).
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Business intelligence (BI) efforts can only result in a truly intelligent, agile business if they are driven by business goals—comprehensively deployed and adopted; and managed in ways that produce meaningful, measurable and credible results. Discover five BI trends to watch out for in 2010, and learn how to develop an approach to BI that’s effective, and tailored to your organization’s unique needs and goals.
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When the term “enterprise resource planning” (ERP) was introduced, it applied primarily to the planning and management of resources needed to manufacture goods. Today, however, most business decision makers realize that their enterprises rely upon resources, and that planning is essential to optimize how those resources are acquired, allocated, and used. Learn how the definition of ERP has evolved, and what it means today.
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Although the industrial equipment market has been growing, based on strong customer demand, companies cannot rest on their laurels. Manufacturers and distributors must keep adding value to maintain existing contracts and win new business. They must be efficient enough to meet new demands while maintaining margins. Discover solutions that can help total industrial solution suppliers stay profitable during this expansion.
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Maintaining strong business performance and retaining loyal customers requires continual vigilance and assessment. Establishing metrics that focus on value-added and customer- centric performance allows manufacturers to stay close to the pulse of market changes and dynamics. Learn how performance tools such as dashboards and reporting can help your company monitor performance and enable better and faster decision making.
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Traditionally, customer relationship management (CRM) solutions have been seen as tools for commercial enterprises, aiming to increase sales and ultimately profit. Although the functionality in CRM packages undoubtedly supports the commercial activities of business, it is worth exploring how the same features can be used to equally good effect in a not-for-profit (NFP) or charity environment. Find out more.
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To succeed, wholesale distributors must respond quickly to customers’ expectations of high-quality, differentiated services. Good supplier relationships are crucial, too. Operational excellence and information transparency are key to keeping these important relationships running smoothly. Find out about solutions that can help you improve transparency and coordination, and also streamline inventory management.
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Companies are fighting a constant battle to integrate business data and content while managing data quality. Data quality serves as the foundation for business intelligence (BI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) projects. Learn more about software that unifies leading data quality and integration solutions—helping your organization to move, transform, and improve its data.
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Levi Strauss SA needed a marketing application that would support its customer relationship management (CRM) programs. In addition to insight into customer behavior, Levi’s wanted to know about customers’ preferred communication channels and their response to brand campaigns. Learn about the solution that helps Levi’s achieve this, as part of Levi’s Loop program, by expanding the company’s communication channels.
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In today’s fast-paced marketplace, communications must support the buying process to improve top- and bottom-line performance. Sales and marketing should work together. But to make your marketing streamlined, automated campaigns need to be deployed. Discover 10 hands-on tactics you can start using today to begin improving your revenue and return on investment (ROI)—so you don’t have to struggle to achieve sales goals.
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Building customer relationships requires six key elements to be in place and working together to maximize your customer relationship management (CRM) investment. Because these strategies are synergistic, one missing piece can have an impact on the effectiveness of the other parts. Find out about the six components that can lead you to having—and using—a profitable CRM system that includes a marketing automation solution.
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Mitsubishi Electric Europe thought its enterprise resource planning (ERP) would address all of its reporting requirements. But long-term, this proved difficult to sustain, due to the company’s ever-changing procedures. So Mitsubishi decided to invest in a tool that would integrate data from disparate systems, speed up the delivery of information, and provide dashboard, analysis, and reporting capabilities. Find out more.
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As you begin a customer relationship management (CRM) initiative, software selection is only one facet of a successful project. You may consider implementing your new CRM system with internal resources. But even in providing a simple CRM solution in your company, a number of steps need to take place, including requirements gathering, configuration, and more. Discover the benefits of selecting a CRM implementation partner.
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WebTrends, a leader in Web analytics, needed a way to offer customers reporting and analytical access to the information generated by its Visitor Intelligence product, which combines off- and online data to provide insight into customers. WebTrends sought a scalable best-of-breed business intelligence (BI) solution that would integrate with its own product. Find out about the reporting and analytics solution it chose.
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Providing accurate and timely analytical information to health care professionals is critical to the success of PH Tech, provider of health care benefits administration services. PH Tech opted to integrate a business intelligence (BI) solution that allows its clients to make better-informed decisions leading to improved performance, lower costs, and enhanced patient and provider goodwill. Learn more about its BI software.
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Interdyn, a solution integrator specializing in the Microsoft Dynamics line, showed an insurance brokerage how to access the data locked in its customer relationship management (CRM) system. After being shown a business intelligence (BI) solution made just for Dynamics CRM, the client immediately saw the value of having its CRM data presented in visual reports using dashboards showing multiple metrics. Learn more.
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High Concrete encountered several challenges in trying to understand its customer relationship management (CRM) data. Its CRM reporting involved lengthy and error-prone processes. After seeing a demonstration of a business intelligence (BI) application specifically designed for its Dynamics CRM system, the company knew integrating the two systems would be easy—and provide flexible reports, quickly and accurately.
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Most companies want to use customer relationship management (CRM) applications to “supercharge” their sales forces. They want to gain some advantage with customer retention and acquisition, to manage the sales pipeline, and to have better market insight. But few companies realize these goals, often because of the way CRM is implemented. Find out where a CRM implementation can get off track—and how to ensure CRM success.
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Digital marketing involves using your Web site and associated marketing tools to promote your business online. You can learn some basic skills in both search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing. But for optimal results, you’re advised to consult a professional, who can provide you with insight into what SEO services should entail, allowing you to make an informed decision when selecting a supplier.
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LPEC, a large Polish energy distributor, found its financial and bookkeeping system was obsolete. New systems didn’t offer the data integration the company needed, and so it implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) software to address bookkeeping, fixed assets, and materials management, as well as logistics, purchase contracts, and fleet management. Find out how the ERP system allowed full integration of all data.
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Can your company and brand rise to the challenge and cash in on mobile marketing opportunities? Companies are often bullish about mobile marketing benefits, but lack the skill set to execute campaigns. And, though the interest in targeting consumers is high, the concern that opt-in databases won’t deliver is also high. Learn more about the dos and don’ts of mobile marketing, so you can ensure more effective campaigns.
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The school of business at one of Canada’s largest universities realized its old system for online registration, customer relationship management (CRM), and e-mail lacked needed functionality. The school wanted better reporting capabilities, automated waitlist maintenance, the ability to locate and change multiple profiles, and more. The learning management system (LMS) finally chosen allows easy modifications. Learn more.
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No matter how effective your sales staff is, there’s always room to boost efficiency and increase sales. But how you go about doing so may be a point of contention. Sales force automation (SFA) solutions come in many flavors, but they don’t all offer the comprehensive SFA functionality you need. Find out how to avoid the pitfalls of choosing SFA software, and get help matching your needs with the right solution for you.
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Oracle’s Accelerate is a program in which Certified and Certified Advantage partners build industry-specific solutions combining Oracle enterprise applications and rapid-implementation tools with the partners’ own expertise or software. The program aims to reduce the time, complexity, and cost of deploying Oracle solutions, to make them suitable for mid-market companies and governmental organizations. Learn more.
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IT departments rarely have the luxury of spare capacity or sufficient knowledge of all the products and technologies that the rest of the organization expects. However, IT is an integral part of most companies, and supporting diverse or specialized technologies and understanding their impact on the business is necessary. Organizations not only need third parties—they need them to be focused and cost-effective. Learn more.
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Customer service means being aware of needs, problems, and fears. Studies have shown that the cost of acquiring a customer is seven to ten times that of retaining a current customer. And according to The Harvard School of Business, even a 5 percent improvement in customer retention can boost profits up to 85 percent. How do companies retain a loyal and consistent customer base? They listen, learn, and adapt—find out more.
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During a recession, don’t follow the cost-cutting crowd. Of course, be frugal, but in areas that don’t touch the customer. Forget what everyone else is doing. Now isn’t the time to follow the masses—now is the time to make difficult decisions that will poise your company for unprecedented growth coming out of the downturn. Find out how to think and act for the long term—and emerge from the current economic stall a winner.
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Almost everyone has had a bad call center experience—due to long queues, ineffective interactive voice response (IVR) systems, or an agent who doesn’t communicate well. After, the story is told over and over to friends, warning them about doing business with "that company." Are your customers saying this about your local contact center? If so, do you know why? Learn why you should update your customer feedback systems.
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Enterprise feedback management (EFM) is the process of systematically collecting, analyzing, consolidating, and using all sources of feedback to improve your company and your overall profitability. EFM includes not only aggregating feedback from multiple stakeholders, across multiple channels, but also getting real-time, actionable information to where it’s relevant in the company. Learn more about implementing EFM.
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Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and blogs are just a few Internet services that make up the new growing digital world called social media. Many companies have seen the influence these new sites can have on their organizations for both good and bad. All companies should ask themselves, "How can we tap into the power of this new method of communication to improve our business and the experiences we provide our customers?"
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Pronto Software—Australian vendor of software meeting the needs of a range of vertical industries such as retail and food and beverage—wants to ensure it sustains profitable growth. To find partnerships with value-added resellers (VARs) in North America and in other markets, Pronto relies on Technology Evaluation Centers’ (TEC’s) software industry programs. Learn about the other ways Pronto benefits from using TEC.
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It’s a simple idea: get a better understanding of your customers’ wants and needs, deliver on their expectations, and your revenue will increase. But more than 40 percent of companies surveyed do not have a formal customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in place. And those that have one still struggle with CRM at nearly every stage. Learn more about areas where you can improve your own CRM system strategy.
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In a tough economy, retaining customers and reducing costs become paramount, and sales force productivity takes center stage. You should also be thinking about territory alignment: territory management directly affects customer relationships and the ability to tailor your approach to various market segments. Learn how to optimize territory alignment with the right set of tools, and overcome sales process obstacles.
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Interaction center managers must deliver greater value on smaller budgets. But you can’t simply cut costs and services, or your customers won’t remain satisfied. To better weather the economic storm, release the untapped potential of your interaction center with software that maximizes your workforce management capabilities. Learn how to go beyond traditional channel data for bigger contact center return on investment.
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The consequences of fleeting customer attention—as companies with complex sales cycles know only too well—include lengthening sales cycles, stalled opportunities, and quarters that bring unpleasant surprises. The easy answer is to spend more time with your customers. But a better answer is having more comprehensive visibility into the sales pipeline and a complete understanding of the end-to-end sales process. Learn more.
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Showing value has always been key to greater sales and higher prices. However, the bar has been raised. It’s often no longer enough to claim value—now the customer has to see, believe, and care about the value. Sales organizations must get their eyes back on the value ball, with five value-selling maturity levels that tie in to sales effectiveness. Learn how to improve your revenues while reducing sales effort and costs.
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Following several acquisitions, Colombia-based ceramics manufacturer Corona found itself with multiple enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to manage. To find a single ERP solution that was suitable for all of its facilities, and would integrate with its existing business software, Corona turned to Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC). Learn how TEC’s selection methodology helped Corona choose the right ERP software.
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Falcon Technologies, Inc. (FTI) is a leading distributor of data and telecommunications products. After several years, FTI realized its legacy accounting system could no longer manage the growing business, and that it needed an industry-specific solution. The new system, with a few customizations, has allowed FTI to improve its efficiencies and productivity, resulting in a growth rate of over 50 percent. Find out more.
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Survey data shows that companies want to improve their strategic business partnerships. Reflecting on lessons learned from past business relationships, 60 percent of respondents say that in future they’ll place more emphasis on developing personal relationships and setting expectations with business partners. Find out how these companies are creating collaborative networks that include business partners and consumers.
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Business networks have come to the fore in the past decade, as the power of customers and consumers has increased relative to the manufacturers and retailers that serve them. These networks enable these companies to deliver faster innovation to customers at lower costs by sharing investment, assets, and ideas. Find out how information technology and communication (ITC) systems can help you unlock new market opportunities.
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Any corporate executive can tell you that a strong brand can help achieve price premiums, promote customer retention, and more. Yet in times of economic instability, you may be tempted trim costs around efforts such as brand building. Downturns, however, can actually present opportunities to grow brand strength. Find out how you can maximize your brand value and take advantage of changing customer buying habits.
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Many small to medium businesses (SMBs) do not have experience with software as a service (SaaS), but are looking to adopt SaaS solutions soon. According to studies, 2009 will be the tipping point, with a majority of companies aiming to adopt SaaS this year. But these companies must be cautious, as the old rules for on-premise software analysis and purchase don’t apply. Discover the new rigorous criteria you should use.
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An unsettled economy needs a different approach to managing revenues. Companies must identify their most profitable customers and the most effective marketing and sales vehicle for reaching them—with a shrinking budget. And shifts in customer spending demand a fresh look at the value proposition of your current products and services. Find out how you can stay close to your customers as their needs change.
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Workers spend on average close to 80 percent of their workday with some combination of enterprise applications and desktop tools. Best-in-class companies have already found ways to improve productivity. Learn more about the convergence of enterprise applications with desktop tools, and the role it plays in providing visibility to enterprise data, improving communication, and facilitating real-time decision making.
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The current global economic instability means firms have to quickly adapt to business conditions. This uncertainty may increase companies’ reliance on business alliances to provide as-needed skills, services, and products. To optimize these alliances, finance should enter the discussion as early as possible. Find out where finance’s true value lies when realigning strategic objectives to include business collaboration.
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To move your sales team to the next level, you need to find answers to several questions. For example: How do you determine which customers provide the best opportunity for a successful sale? Can you develop and present a comprehensive view of your value position to a prospect? What is the role of IT in driving a best-run sales organization? Find out how leading companies have answered these questions—and how they excel.
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The success of direct marketing, measured in terms of qualified leads that generate sales, depends on accurately identifying prospects. Ensuring data accuracy and data quality can be a big challenge if you have up to 10 million prospect records in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. How can you ensure you select the right prospects? Find out how an enterprise information management (EIM) system can help.
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Do you know what evaluation criteria you should consider when making a customer relationship management (CRM) purchase? Before embarking on the process of making this critical business decision, learn more about the 10 fundamental functional areas to consider, including acquiring new sales, improving customer satisfaction, getting a consistent view of the customer, and improving renewal, up-sell, and cross-sell.
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For many retailers, the transition to global sourcing and demand-driven inventory models creates both opportunities and challenges. Supply chains are becoming longer, with a smaller buffer for mistakes or delays. To continually improve, you need to gain visibility across your partner community. Find out how a partner performance management solution can help buyers and sellers work together to improve business processes.
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As EXEX Jewelry began to grow, the company’s founder realized her existing system of tracking transactions couldn’t keep pace. And increasingly, large retailers demanded that all transactions be completed via electronic data interchange (EDI) and that product information be uploaded to a centralized, third-party repository. Find out how EXEX has improved efficiency and increased product data accuracy with an EDI solution.
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The economic downturn means that businesses must capitalize on every opportunity to gain revenue. With the right customer relationship management (CRM) solution, you can protect current revenue streams and unearth new customer revenue opportunities—despite the most challenging market conditions. CRM helps ensure you deliver exceptional service to your current customers, building their long-term loyalty. Find out how.
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Most of your customers and prospects expect you to be involved in social media—and they’ll be more likely to do business with you if you are. So how do you expand your customer relationship management (CRM) strategy to engage social customers, and gain their trust? Discover how to integrate Web 2.0 social media tools and strategies into your traditional CRM efforts for better, more meaningful customer relationships.
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A new set of business practices is creeping into the way companies sell to customers. Some call this new trend “Sales 2.0,” because many of the tools and methods fueling it are rooted in the Web 2.0 movement. Many companies are trying to harness the forces of Web 2.0 to apply them to their sales and marketing efforts. Discover how using collaborative technologies can help you sell your products and services more easily.
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Selling roles have changed. For many companies, selling is more about relationship-building and less about transactional order activities. In spite of the promised benefits of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, the cost of sales for many companies is rising while sales effectiveness is decreasing. Learn why—and how you can leverage “social CRM” to help overcome the challenges facing your sales force today.
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