CRM Weblog

CRM Is Still Alive

With the recent announcement that Oracle is taking over Siebel, many are wondering if this is the end of CRM.

However, there are many levels of CRM such as call center systems, sales force automation, and help desk applications. Siebel has been well known for these “front office” components, and pioneered the way along with Amdocs. However, next emerged the companies like SAP and Oracle dedicated to the “back office” components such as supply chain management, e-business, and finance.

With the acquisition of Siebel’s “front office” components, and Oracle’s “back office” components, then the total CRM product has been created. “It is quite attractive to have one database and a common set of end-user tools...”.  Having these two components will  work in the companies' favor on large scale deployments.

Van Lanschot Adopts Siebel CRM Software

Van Lanschot announced that it will use Siebel’s CRM technology to its 700 staff members. The Dutch bank is expected to integrate Siebel’s Finance platform with their back-office system in summer 2006.

Van Lanschot usually targets “high net-worth individuals, midsize businesses, and institutional investors”. With this new software implementation, Van Lanschot is expecting that Siebel will provide them with a sales support system that can help them increase cross-selling.

Siebel was chosen to provide the CRM services that the bank needs due to its ability to “integrate financial services into a specific analytic functionality”.

WPP’s Wunderman Acquires Bridge Worldwide

The well-known relationship marketing agency, Bridge Worldwide has signed a deal to be taken over by the WPP Group Wunderman. Bridge Worldwide is well known for the marketing services it has provided numerous Fortune 100 companies.

Bridge Worldwide has been responsible for marketing strategies of popular companies such as Procter & Gamble. Now this recent acquisition by Wunderman will provide Bridge Worldwide customers with an even larger network.

Currently Bridge Worldwide is stationed in Cincinnati, Ohio and employs over 120 people. CEO Jay Woffington, was quite pleased with the new merger, “We are very excited to join WPP and be affiliated with a world-class organization such as Wunderman”.

Data Reduction Systems Corp Releases CRMonline

Over the weekend, Data Reduction Systems Corp, announced the release of their new product entitled CRMonline software. The company is one of the leaders in providing management products, and is quite excited about their new software release for the science industry.

Data Reduction Systems Corp’s CRMonline is quite a unique product. It is a combination of their on-demand CRM and the collection tool DRS PharmaSync. DRS PharmaSync allows a pharmaceutical representative to carry out electronic sampling activity, using a Microsoft Mobile OS device, and eradicates the need for regular paper documents.

CRMonline with PharmaSync gives CRM users in the science industry the ability to compile reports of the inventory and sample disbursement for each customer. The use of CRMonline for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry is quite beneficial as it gives companies the ability to share information in a cost effective manner.

SAP Prefers Slow Entrance Into On-Demand Market

When Siebel announced in 2003 that it would dominate the on-demand market within a year, the company was “counting their chickens before their eggs had hatched.” However in the long run, Siebel was not able to live up to its predictions and instead trailed behind Salesforce.

With SAP set to enter the on-demand CRM market next year, it has learned from Siebel and will not make the same mistake. The company is currently testing projects and using customer feedback to “fine tune” the product that will be offered. Shai Aggasi, head of products and technology at SAP, felt that it was best for his company to not make the same rash predictions that Siebel made.

With Salesforce dominating the market, Oracle and SAP are anxious to add more customers to their on-demand CRM market. Oracle is expected to take over Siebel’s CRM OnDemand service that includes 44, 000 subscribers, as compared to Salesforce’s 350,000 subscribers.

Daffodil CRM v1.5

Daffodil Software released its new open source CRM solution entitled Daffodil CRM v1.5 today. The software will be loaded with the ability to have database independence as a feature.

The new Daffodil CRM version 1.5 has the ability to use any of the major database scripts. It has database scripts such as Firebird, Daffodil DB, MySQL, and SQL loaded onto it.

Daffodil CRM version 1.5 is expected to be quite popular with mainstream users because it gives people the ability to make a choice and use their favorite database script, as opposed to using only one.

The CRM Industry In Review

The CRM industry will celebrate its 25th birthday this year, and it is interesting to look back and see where it has started from and progressed to. When it was first started, many people emphasized SFA of CRM, which was pushed by companies such as ACT! and Telemagic. The product that was being sold then was basic and emphasized customer contact management.

With the newer software vendors came the ability for users to carry out tracking and reporting for call centers. Companies such as Scopus and Clarify were most notable for this.

The 1990s saw the start of well known companies such as Siebel and Brock release software packages that combined SFA and customer service management. The term “Integrated vendor” was born as a result of this, as opposed to the point solution vendors that previously reigned.

The marketing automation vendors made their appearance sometime after this. They offered not only integrated software, but with marketing automation as well, and by the end of the 1990’s business analysis and e-customer functionality was included in many of the CRM software.

Lately, the big focus in the CRM industry has been find ways to “integrate CRM into a company’s legal system and related technical infrastructure”. This is where it is expected that the CRM industry will head, especially when SAP develops solid footing in the on-demand market.

Customer Retention Should Not Be Dependent On Computers

In an interesting article appearing on crmbuyer.com, writer Fred Morath outlines how companies should not depend solely on computers to retain customers.

It seems that more companies see CRM as “customer response management…but it means a lot more as customer relations management”.  The best direct marketing to win customers and increase sales  should come by realizing that the customers are real people and not a bank machine filled with cash.

Instead customer relationship management using direct marketing should include honesty about the expectations of the product, shipping the product on time, and other good businesses practices such as these that allow the customer to feel valued and respected.

The CRM Industry In 2005

The CRM Industry has seen quite a remarkable amount of growth as more small to medium sized companies have started using CRM.

Besides this, many companies has started using CRM for different reasons. Some of them realized how CRM would improve their business and the way customers are dealt with. However, other companies have started with CRM thinking it will be the “magic cure-all” to help their declining business, without truly trying to find out what the problem was.

2005 has also been a year of many of the software vendors realizing that most companies wanted software that integrated CRM with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

However, one of the most talked about events that occurred within the CRM industry is the announcement that Oracle had bought Siebel Systems for $5.85 billion dollars. The acquisition of Siebel has added 4,000 new customers and 3.4 million users to Oracle.

Western Trust Discovers FootPrints CRM Software

The British Columbia based company, Western Trust which offers mutual funds and mortgages to financial advisors, announced that it had installed “Footprints” from UniPress Software to handle their call center functionality.

Western Trust was able to setup their call center functionality by using a MSDE version of the SQL server that is used on the client side with Internet Explorer. By doing so, the company now has a way to track telephone calls to their toll-free number. As well their use of “Footprints” which can support the MSDE version of SQL makes the process less complicated and cheaper to operate.

Even though there are only ten people in Western Trust that use the software, the management team now has the ability to log phone calls using Footprints and refer them to the next department, if needed. The use of CRM at the call center has made it possible for Western Trust to be able to quickly handle 80% of the calls to their toll-free number.