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On Wednesday NetSuite made five announcements designed to catapult it into a leadership position in the on-demand, or software as a service (SaaS), market ...

Many companies in industries such as technology need to work hard to gain and retain customers. People already have cell phones, iPods and computers, but because the fantasy sports phenomenon is still somewhat new, we are still in an early market situation. It is a sellers' market to be sure, according to Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal of the Beagle Research Group, a CRM market research firm and consultancy...

I don't do endorsements -- that's for ball players. For me to endorse a product would be the end of my credibility. All I look for is what works and, if it does, I'll point it out. If something doesn't live up to the hype, I follow my mother's advice and say nothing. That's why I was surprised when someone brought to my attention a borderline situation in which a vendor did its best to imply my endorsement against its rival, Salesforce.com...

I was doing research for a white paper not long ago and it gave me reason to speak with people who operate call centers. The call center operators I spoke with had one thing in common; they used on-demand call center services. If you are not familiar with on-demand call center services, it's much like on-demand anything else -- like sales force automation -- but it seems the impact is greater. Let me explain...

At first I did not know how to react to the news that AOL and Yahoo were going to be charging companies to guarantee delivery of e-mail. Was I supposed to feel good as a CRM person that a new avenue of message delivery was opening up, or was I supposed to man the barricades as a consumer to protest this invasion of my space? ...

I take between three and seven briefings each week from software companies. Some of these companies are known quantities that I like to keep up with, while others are new to me or possibly new to the world. Most times, companies are looking for an objective opinion on a plan, a message or an idea -- and they figure there's always a chance I might mention them here. That's certainly happened, though I am afraid my track record seems to run in the other direction. I am frequently critical, so be careful what you wish for...

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 will buy it? Isn't the market already saturated with applications and application technology?...

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 shades-of-grey personalities than McDonald's has ways of stacking burgers, buns and lettuce...

"I can understand building an open-source operating system," Beagle Research principal analyst Denis Pombriant told CRM Buyer. The difference between that and an open-source application, he explained, is that it is far more difficult to recoup overhead costs incurred in the subsequent implementation and integration of the system...

Salesnet is not the only company trying to grab market share from Salesforce.com. It will not be easy to dislodge the market leader from its perch, but it is doable with the right strategy, said Denis Pombriant, principal of Beagle Research "There are a lot of vendors out the...

I have been wracking my brain for an adequate metaphor to describe the situation that has developed in the CRM world and in enterprise software in general ...

It was no surprise thatIBM andSAP joined ranks to promote SAP'son demand CRM product a day after Oracle's acquisition ofSiebel concluded ...

Google has been in the news a lot lately and not for the kinds of things that the financiers on Wall Street like to see. Last week it was revealed that Google, alone among majorsearch engine companies, is resisting a government request to provide a representative sample of searches to help Washington better understand if its anti-pornography laws are working. It was also revealed that the company is editing its search results for the Chinese market -- helping to keep embarrassing or controversial information from Chinese searchers...

Have you noticed the "dial 'O' for a human" movement gathering steam? One related manifestation is the clever set of ads put out by Citibank for its credit cards. You may have seen the ads showing a man calling for service and navigating through the tragedy that is the automated call response system so many companies use ...

In fact, it is the main reason he established the award, explained Denis Pombriant, principal of Beagle Research and a regular contributor to CRM Buyer "It's important to continuously explore what are the involving areas of the front office," he told CRM Buyer. "As new busines...

I was the guy standing on the sidewalk the other day outside the hotel in San Francisco where Salesforce.com was announcing the birth of AppExchange. You couldn't miss me -- I was the analyst with an empty Starbucks cup panhandling for new ideas ...

It's that time of year again when we announce who the WizKids are. Confused? It's our annual award to emerging companies and companies with emerging innovations. When you get right down to it, we track new and cool stuff and report on it ...

At a Siebel user group meeting held in Boston last October, "everyone was upbeat, with people saying they wanted to go out a winner," recalled Denis Pombriant, principal of Beagle Research "At that point, many people didn't know if they were going to stay or take a package and...

A few weeks ago, I started writing about what I see as the post-CRM world. I think it is becoming clear that front-office automation is moving past the definition of CRM that we have become accustomed to. As I look around the industry, there is a perceptible difference between what software is and what it does, which goes beyond CRM ...

I was doing research for a book a few weeks ago when a friend recommended that I re-read Geoffrey Moore's Inside the Tornado and I am glad she did. Tornado has to be about 10 years old now which puts it in a very interesting historical perspective. It's old enough to have looked back on the amazing growth of companies like HP and its printer business, Oracle, Intel, and even DEC. But by the same token, enough time has gone by to show how useful many of Moore's concepts were in forecasting the emergence of the CRM market...