Archive

A CIO or IT manager who is trying to decide which CRM path his or her company should take faces an extremely tough decision. In the first installment of this two-part article, analysts and CRM vendors weighed in on whether a company should purchase an in-house CRM system or outsource the project by ...

As businesses have focused more on efficiency and cost savings -- and less on big-budget purchases -- as cornerstones of IT strategy, they have begun considering on-demand CRM services far more seriously than ever before. Amid this shift, another trend is surfacing. While many companies seem all too...

Salesforce.com's sforce 2.0 platform "could do for application development and the software business in general what salesforce.com's CRM product has done for CRM. If that is so, it will be sforce rather than hosted CRM that is the true disruptive innovation," Denis Pombriant, vice president and res...

Who's No. 1? Most U.S. companies jump to answer this question by saying their customers take top priority. However, some firms have begun citing a new crown jewel: customer-service employees. On the surface, this trend might seem counterintuitive -- many companies in recent years have chosen to outs...

Every corporate IT department faces its share of security threats from the outside world. But contact centers face double the danger, since potential data thieves likely lurk in their own ranks as well. After all, when you combine low pay and an employment revolving door with easy access to sensitiv...

When industry experts gazed into their crystal balls in late 2002, they predicted 2003 would be the year of the CRM mid-market. With more than half the year gone, those optimistic forecasts have not materialized. Instead, rapid consolidation and court fights among industry giants, coupled with Micro...

More and more businesses are jumping on the self-service bandwagon. The hardest thing for businesses tempted by this seeming golden opportunity is to remember that self-service is not a cure-all. As they consider investing thousands or even millions of dollars, companies must answer a key question: ...

In the CRM marketplace, speculation is swirling about hostile takeovers and mega mergers. Consolidation seems destined to place almost all of the market's power into the hands of a few well-known players. Consensus about the future of smaller CRM vendors is harder to come by: Will they survive in th...

Staying ahead of the CRM pack requires good strategy, good timing -- and usually good luck. In the second installment of this two-part article, CRM Buyer explores how recent industry upheaval has affected the race for the top spot, shifting the balance of power among heavyweights SAP, Siebel, Oracle...

At first glance, ERP leader SAP appears to be handily beating competitors Siebel, Oracle and the newly merged PeopleSoft-J.D. Edwards in the CRM applications space. In fact, Forrester Research analyst Erin Kinikin told CRM Buyer that SAP earned more licensing revenue last year than those other three...

Just as sophisticated navigation tools help aviators choose the right route through the skies, marketing-automation technology is a crucial component of CRM that enables users to analyze data and map out cost-efficient business strategies. In fact, analysts expect marketing automation to emerge as t...

Supply chain management (SCM) is not just another acronym in the alphabet soup of the IT space. It is vital to the corporate bottom line and has myriad practical applications. However, this is not the type of software a company can install and then neglect, particularly if it intends to grow its bus...

Although live chat has captured only a tiny share of contact-center interactions, some verticals have done well with this channel, according to a report from the Yankee Group. On the other hand, Yankee Group senior analyst Art Schoeller told CRM Buyer, chat is unlikely to gain much momentum in the n...

SAP is not complaining about its No. 1 rank in the overall enterprise software space. However, SAP spokesperson Laurie Doyle Kelly told CRM Buyer that although the company is pleased with its standing, it never takes its eyes off the competition. Kelly said one of the key differences between SAP and...