Archive

I spoke with a group of investors last week about the importance of the emerging field of platform technology. They were interested in investing in a company that was looking for additional late round funding and they wanted to know a few things. What is the market for this new technology? Who wi...

Salesforce.com has introduced a new application to give users status updates about system performance. Upon logging in, they can access current information about incident reports, maintenance schedules and other performance-related topics. The service is free. It is little secret that Salesforce.com...

Enterprise is far from the days when it was enough simply to have a Web presence. More and more sophisticated consumers are shopping for services based not only on what a company offers, but what it offers online and how easy it is to negotiate. A recent study by Keynote Systems, which offers e-bus...

A number of CRM vendors have released mobile applications in recent weeks -- anecdotal evidence suggesting that the category is on an upswing. Although this technology has been relatively stagnant since its inception, there have been recent indications of a resurgence. At the end of last year, for i...

The fact that instant messaging, e-mail and chat are rising much faster as a combined approach to communicating supports the scenario of communication hubs redefining customer relationships in the next three to five years. Yahoo claims that 10 percent of all instant messaging sessions end with a te...

Continuing its lengthy acquisition spree, Oracle said it would buy Sweden-based HotSip, a provider of communications applications that work on Internet-protocol networks. HotSip makes applications that work with the dominant Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) standard and enable IP telephony, presenc...

What can firms do to ensure that they are appropriately compensated for lost time when their hosted CRM system goes down? Uptime guarantees and service level agreements are standard with most traditional hosting providers, but some software-as-a-service specialists -- like CRM SaaS leader Salesforc...

FrontRange Solutions is expected to introduce GoldMine IP Voice in the United States within the next few weeks. The application, which combines contact management and VoIP telephony in one package, is integrated in the GoldMine Corporate Edition CRM suite. Linking the telephony layer to the CRM appl...

In its short life, Salesforce.com has garnered more than its fair share of publicity, thanks in no small measure to the activities of its founder, CEO and chairman, Marc Benioff. Benioff may be the 21st century high technology answer to P.T. Barnum, a colorful figure in an industry that has more sh...

Microsoft and SugarCRM will team up to enhance interoperability between Microsoft Windows Server and SugarCRM products so users can take better advantage of the simplified administration available on the Windows platform. The companies made the announcement Tuesday at the Open Source Business Confer...

Retailers are finding that a blog that is supportive can translate into measurable new sales, but they are exercising caution, despite the word-of-mouth advantages blogging can bring. Blogging is a dual-edged sword: A well-trafficked blog that is critical can deliver a blow. Eva Yusa is not crazy a...

While sitting through technically complex webinars and presentations this week, I felt like raising my hand and saying, "May I be excused? My brain is full." Seriously, the level of technology and adroitness of world-class demo jockeys is both impressive and intimidating. Compound this with bondin...

Oracle reportedly is set to announce that it will cut more than 1,000 jobs now that its acquisition of Siebel has closed. Its US$5.85 billion purchase of the customer relationship management software company was finalized on Jan. 31, several months after the firms jointly announced the deal. It was ...

The business intelligence software market is poised for steady global expansion, according to Gartner, which projects a compound annual growth rate of 7.3 percent from 2004 to 2009. Growth will vary region by region, the research firm noted, with the more mature markets of North America and Europe e...

SalesGene, a provider of a relatively new CRM subsector technology dubbed "marketing-sales effectiveness," has introduced Landslide, a portal-styled application that provides guidance on how to navigate certain sales situations, as well as live administrative assistance for one-on-one advice to indi...