Archive

I don't know how much Oracle spends on research and development each year. I know the biggest piece is being spent on CRM these days, something that warms my heart. The R&D number is in the billions of dollars, and though I cannot confirm it easily, the number seven seems about it. Judging by...

Oracle will issue the first release of its next-generation Fusion applications in the first quarter of 2011, company CEO Larry Ellison has announced. It took the database giant five years to integrate the "best features" of PeopleSoft, Siebel and its own E-business suite. Oracle purchased PeopleSoft...

Exhibiting at traditional trade shows is one of the most common marketing tactics used by companies targeting the industrial and manufacturing marketplace. The opportunity for direct engagement with prospects, customers and other vendors who could be potential partners or customers is invaluable. An...

RhoLogic, a division of Logic Appeal, an integrator of SugarCRM software, last month released RhoLogic Mobile for SugarCRM. The app is now generally available for download at the iTunes App Store and Android Market. The company is working on a BlackBerry version, as well as versions for Windows Phon...

Social media's explosion over the last few years has had some obvious implications for CRM. At first, as in every new thing in CRM, the implications for sales were appreciated first, although they have yet to be fully realized. However, this time around, there are other forces at work -- namely, eco...

SAP has stepped up its analytics offerings with the launch of a family of industry-specific BusinessObjects applications, many of which were co-designed with users. SAP Co-CEO Bill McDermott introduced the analytic offerings at DEMO Fall 2010 on Tuesday, joined by a slew of early adopter customers w...

In a Ted Talk from 2004 that I watched a the other day, Malcolm Gladwell spoke about Howard Moskowitz. You might recall the New Yorker writer made a name for himself with the publication of The Tipping Point and several other works that focus on the unpredictable things that people do in the course...

FACT: 80 percent of leads generated by marketing are never contacted by a sales person. What a frightening statistic, and what an enormous waste of time, money and resources. "The problem is not that marketing departments are delivering such high numbers of leads that follow-up is impossible. And ...

Sage SalesLogix's OnTheGo is the first iteration of a new CRM application it developed with business partner Net@Work using a new cloud-based mobile platform. It is a new mobile paradigm for the company, said Dave Wallace, Sage SalesLogix director of product management. "The point is that the data i...

It had to happen sooner or later; the only question in my mind is why it has taken so long. It appears that the backlash against social media is beginning. All I can say is, yippee! With trends like social media -- or almost any trend -- we tend to over-imbue the idea or offering with our own expe...

If you're in the CRM industry, you may have a slightly skewed view of the world when it comes to CRM penetration. Many of my peers, when they hear about a company that still uses a home-brew system to manage sales, marketing and service, are aghast. With hundreds of applications out there and thousa...

Salesforce.com has announced it is making its social tool Chatter available for mobile devices within the next several months. Chatter is a real-time social collaboration application and platform for the enterprise, allowing employees to create profiles, and send feeds and status updates about proje...

Back in August I wrote about some research I had gotten into mostly for fun. You might recall it. I searched on a company name and the word "sucks" and reported what I found. The point of the research was not to be salacious or to offend anyone. In political circles, it's known as discovering on...

Consider the left hand of sales methodology and the right hand of digital strategy. It's 2010 and the two hands still do not know what the other is up to. Even with the most advanced of our clients, the digital strategy is focused on lead generation, awareness and a bevy of other activities aimed at...

Business software has long been described as "front office" and "back office," which essentially mirrors the arrangement of real-world processes within most businesses. That arrangement made sense in the past -- what went on within the business was usually shielded from the customer. That dichotomy ...