Archive

Several foreign CRM companies recently initiated operations in the United States -- a sure sign that CRM has reached another maturity milestone. When outsiders begin to penetrate the North American market, it is an indication that the rest of the world "gets it" and has something to offer to the big...

In a David-swallows-Goliath merger on a mid-market scale, Cincinnati, Ohio-based Conexio, which has 10 employees, has acquired Dallas, Texas-based Enterprise Computer Solutions (ECS), which has 25 employees. The merger creates the largest value-added reseller of FrontRange Solutions' products in the...

In a terse, one-sentence press release, Siebel Systems today confirmed it has closed 175 new transactions for its hosted product, CRM OnDemand, since the start of Q2 2004 and that the number includes 62 new OnDemand customers. Siebel and IBM first announced the hosted CRM cooperative product, which ...

For the fourth time, Pleasanton, California-based PeopleSoft has responded to Oracle's latest takeover offer of $21 per share with a resounding "no." Previously, the company's board had rejected three other escalating offers of $16, $19.50 and $26 per share. PeopleSoft spokesperson Steve Swasey told...

Your broadband connection is down, and you can't get online to download the patches to fix it. Frustrated, you turn to the telephone. Once you find someone who can help, you have to relate the litany about your computer and all of the software you are running. Then, maybe, if you are lucky, you can ...

One unifying attribute of this year's CRM user group meetings has been the emphasis many vendors are placing on the so-called mid-market. In announcements that coincide with these meetings, Siebel, SAP and PeopleSoft have made efforts to announce products for this segment, and more announcements are...

A drive to improve citizen services is part of a long-term push by the U.S. government to be more responsive to taxpayer needs and to diminish its unresponsive, bureaucratic image. Most recently, the U.S. Census Bureau revealed it has turned to a hosted-CRM solution from RightNow Technologies to inc...

Salesforce.com is riding a bumpy road toward its eventual IPO. Last week, the SEC put a timeout on the company's public debut, which had been slated for this week. Apparently, CEO Marc Benioff violated the requisite IPO "quiet period" when he chatted about competition to a reporter writing a New Yor...

It's an age-old slogan for companies: "We value your business." Thanks to customer relationship management (CRM) systems, many enterprises now can place a highly specific value on the worth of each customer's business. Like it or not, CRM systems allow companies to identify customer segments, or "ti...

Just a month after announcing it would introduce 23 vertical industry solutions, Siebel Systems shipped the first two this week. Overall, the company's vertical CRM product line is designed to improve functionality, business processes, integration and analytics while reducing corporate customers' to...

CRM software revenues are expected to reach $30 billion in the next several years, according to research firm Cahners In-Stat. Even so, CRM implementation projects are often cited for high failure rates. To avoid losing customers, these projects need to succeed in more dimensions than just company m...

The dynamic duo of IBM and PeopleSoft has launched an initiative that the two companies say will expand their existing alliance, allowing them to focus more sharply on small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) worldwide. The alliance calls for joint hardware and software development of vertical applicati...

It seems almost quaint, looking back on it, that a few years ago one of the big questions on nearly everyone's mind was how to commercialize cyberspace. Today, however, commercialization is not the issue. At long last, it's the customer companies are most interested in -- and not a moment too soon. ...

SPSS has introduced a new product, PredictiveCallCenter, that it says can transform inbound call hubs from cost centers to profit centers. The application integrates with call-center CRM and call management systems to determine on-the-fly the best way to market to inbound callers, noting whether the...

PeopleSoft today announced the release of Enterprise CRM 8.9, which the company calls the most significant release in its history. The release includes usability enhancements, analytics and new products in the areas of customer portfolio management and partner relationship management. "It's one of t...