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Salesforce.com has acquired InStranet for $31.5 million, a transaction that includes the assumption of $4.2 million in cash on InStranet's balance sheet. This deal is grander in scale than any of Salesforce.com's previous acquisitions; the company's past purchases have been small one-off technology ...

I am sitting on a train heading to New York from Boston for a CRM conference. Not driving, not flying -- I prefer the train for this trip for a bunch of reasons. Rail brought us traveling troubadours like Woody Guthrie, circuses and baseball, and it helped define a job type: the traveling salesper...

It's rare to see Google command anything less than a large presence in just about any given e-business study these days, and the latest annual American Customer Satisfaction Index from the University of Michigan is no exception: ACSI scores for e-business rose 5.5 percent to 79.3 on ACSI's 100-point...

Do loyal customers translate into steady sales or profits? Intuitively, the answer should be yes -- and indeed, customer loyalty is a significant metric by which companies rate their performance. However, there a few problems with the concept of customer loyalty and a corporate strategy to develop i...

Warning: Your personal data may be at risk. As RFID devices work their way into consumers' everyday lives, the potential for data breaches grows rapidly. RFID technology used to be used primarily to track warehouse operations and perform inventory control through. Now, this same technology is findin...

The emergence of smaller, more powerful handheld devices and the spread of high-speed mobile networks have enterprise software developers scrambling to meet demand for portable versions of their flagship applications. Research In Motion got a jump on the market with the BlackBerry's secure and relia...

CRM is not just about tracking and recording names, addresses and standard constituent information. Today, organizations' online presences and peer-to-peer technologies are making it possible for politicians, businesses and non-profit organizations to get personal with their voters, customers and do...

This week, Sage Software is bringing out version 11 of ACT, its high-flying contact management software. ACT has been around since the mid-1980s and has been through multiple incarnations and owners in that time. ACT was what you used back then if you were tired of keeping notes on paper and wanted ...

Microsoft will be rolling out eight CRM "accelerators" for its Dynamics CRM product line in the second half of 2008. On the Javista blog, Microsoft's Reuben Krippner gives readers a thorough update on what they will offer customers. On the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Team Blog, he shares information for ...

Every interaction an enterprise has with customers, partners or suppliers instigates a new trail of data which over a short period of time can create a deluge effect. Experts predict that within a few years it won't be uncommon to see enterprises with networks and databases storing over 100 terabyte...

IBM has rolled out a mobile software and service offering that builds upon several announcements it made earlier this year at the annual RIM Wireless Enterprise Conference. The offering, called "Mobility@Work," is a package of new software tools that allow developers to run existing desktop applicat...

What is unified communications and why do you need it? UC is not unified messaging, and it isn't a unified desktop. But both of these technology solutions help to support a unified communications architecture. In fact, according to Aberdeen, a Harte-Hanks Company, UC is the convergence of such techn...

The Department of Justice has charged 11 people with the theft of millions of account numbers from a long list of U.S. big box retailers including TJ Maxx, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble, Boston Market, BJ's Wholesale Club, Forever 21, DSW, Dave & Buster's and Sports Authority. Albert "Segvec" Go...

This summer, I have been doing a lot of research into sustainability and have developed some thoughts that relate to CRM, especially CRM 2.0. The whole idea of "sustainability" deserves some contemplation. Too often we see the word applied to just about anything that needs to look a little bit green...

Landslide has a friend in blogger Chris Bucholtz, who writes, "Here's what Landslide provides in the new release: a single-screen interface that walks its users through the standard tasks that CRM fulfills -- gathering data on customers and leads -- and then beyond that into a set of processes that ...