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A small group of us were standing on the Dreamforce trade show floor surveying the more than 200 booths and vendors assembled there. We were trying to put a finger on what, exactly, the show had become. Was it a user group meeting, a conventional trade show, a partner meeting, or some hybrid? By p...

Five years ago, Mark Goldstein and three partners recognized that loyalty programs were becoming a cottage industry. Coming up with the right way to manage those programs, he believed, would be a neat trick. So would finding an effective way to lure in customers. "The toughest part of the business i...

Avaya is targeting unmet pockets of user demand in the telecom industry with the release of three new offerings this week. Kevin Kennedy, who will be taking over as CEO in January, is appearing at VoiceCon on Monday to unveil the new products: a contact center product focused on outbound messaging a...

Enterprise organizations often think of customer service as an unavoidable fact of business, a necessary expense. Rethink customer service, however, and it can become a strategic weapon that fosters growth and competitive advantage. Some common steps can turn customer service into a strategic weapon...

As the economy continues to decline, retailers are fighting a fierce battle for a share of the consumer's wallet. Every customer counts, but the loyal customers are particularly valuable, especially when your competitor is just a click away. The Web gives consumers access to far more options than we...

I have been operating in tired mode continuously since the conventions, and by the time you read this, I may have gotten some serious sleep, though I doubt it because this is Dreamforce week after all. There have been too many things competing for my attention after dinner each evening, and none of...

You can't say you were not warned or that you had no idea of what was happening. The socialization of CRM took a big step forward on Monday when Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff told the keynote audience at Dreamforce 2008 in San Francisco that his company has developed technology that will integrat...

The competitive environment that characterizes today's broadband and value-added services landscape benefits the growth of many digital lifestyle products and services. Consumers are also primary beneficiaries of increased competition among carriers. Case studies reveal that when at least two servic...

Salesforce.com continues to push its cloud computing functionality into the enterprise, with the introduction of a new tool that allows users to harness the applications available on Force.com and apply them to corporate Web sites. Force.com Sites allows customers to run their Web sites in Salesforc...

Anyone who has reviewed their 401(k) statements lately has received a very personal and immediate measure of just how the last four weeks of financial turmoil have affected them. Take that urgency you may have felt about wanting to catch up as quickly as possible, multiply it by the number of compan...

The U.S. government is getting better at designing Web sites that are user-friendly and provide value, according to the latest American Customer Satisfaction Index, released by the University of Michigan and ForeSee Results. Satisfaction with federal Web sites improved 1.4 percent to 73.9 on ACSI's ...

As the proliferation of online social media forums has forever changed the way customers gain information and feedback concerning a particular company's products or services, sales representatives are challenged to sell to a prospect base that potentially knows as much, if not more, about the compet...

Last week NetSuite held a user group meeting in Boston for OpenAir, a company that they had bought earlier this year. OpenAir, if you don't know, provides an application for managing professional services engagements. When integrated with NetSuite's front and back office applications, the combinati...

As companies evaluate their carbon footprints, supply chains are one area of business that have come under increased scrutiny. Making the complex network of manufacturers, packagers, shippers, wholesalers and retailers greener protects the environment, saves energy, and ultimately reduces costs. Eme...

Sure, Web-based chat applications on your site represent a leap in customer service and sales technology. But let's not forget that the brick-and-mortar standards still apply. If an end user is comfortable and finds your online rep trustworthy and predictive of his or her needs, the opportunities in...