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Recent data out of McKinsey & Co. reveals that offshore outsourcing providers have only captured 10 percent of a potential US$300 billion business. One opportunity for new growth is IT services. Business processes outsourcing will continue along the curve it has established, but McKinsey predict...

RightNow Technologies has introduced two new voice applications that provide contact center agents with enough identifying information about the customer to eliminate the need to repeat information when a call is transferred to a new agent. The new functionality addresses a long-standing customer c...

Too often, a company chooses a customer relationship management/sales force automation solution that just does not fit. Each company has unique sales and marketing needs, so a "One-Size-Fits-All" CRM solution is not the best approach. An expensive Armani suit is worthless if it is not tailored to fi...

Microsoft and partner company Panorama Software will develop more than two dozen industry-specific business intelligence applications based on Microsoft's product platform, including future releases such as the recently announced Microsoft Office PerformancePoint 2007. There has been a significant i...

In many companies, marketing is experiencing a resurgence and new relevance, a rejuvenation if you will towards aligning closer to customers than ever before. What's most encouraging about this is the fact that strategies based on dated cause-and-effect relationships with clients are, through the u...

Last week I mentioned a white paper I wrote a couple of years ago that addresses some of the changes we can expect to come from the on demand development and deployment paradigm and I thought it would be interesting to examine some of the main points here. The title of the piece is "The New Garage" ...

Onyx has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by M2M Holdings, a private equity firm jointly owned by Battery Ventures VI and Thoma Cressey Equity Partners, in an all-cash transaction for US$92 million, or $4.80 per share. Closing is anticipated in the third quarter, subject to approval by a...

Apple Computer announced internally on May 29 that it is pulling back from plans to establish a customer support facility in Bangalore, India. The news regarding Apple's Indian subsidiary Apple Services India was released publicly on Saturday. Apple has not announced plans to downscale its outsourc...

Acquisition agreements are the most important legally binding documents in the acquisition process, but their role is frequently misunderstood. They structure the deal and allocate liabilities and responsibilities among buyers and sellers. The commercial terms of an acquisition agreement are usuall...

Companies are still not fully utilizing one of their largest and most familiar IT investments -- their ERP systems -- suggests a new study by performance management firm Ventana Research. At face value, this may seem surprising; companies typically invest tens of millions of dollars in ERP systems t...

At 5.30 p.m. on Friday while you're stuck in traffic heading home, I'm just beginning to get in stride. The timing is ideal. Secretaries are gone, and the executives that I want to reach are still at their desks finishing up e-mails to subordinates or calls to the West coast. They even pick up their...

Even at post-tech bubble prices, adopting a CRM system requires a sizable commitment for any firm. Many of the companies making these investments, though, still are not realizing the maximum value for their money due to common missteps before and after the implementation. Some firms, for instance, a...

Some weeks there's just more to write about than other weeks. It's like the weather -- sometimes there just seems to be more of it than other times. Take last week, for example. Just north of Boston some communities received as much as 19 inches of rain. The last few days in CRM have had the sam...

The impetus for CRM development was business-to-business's need to capture customer and prospect information, note sales, marketing and service contacts, and nurture relationships through better communication internally and externally. These solutions, however, don't lend themselves easily or often ...

Microsoft is teaming up with CDC Software, which recently acquired partner company c360, to make inroads into the China market. The two companies are discussing plans to provide Microsoft Dynamics CRM on a hosted basis in China, Kevin Faulkner, product-marketing director for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, ...