Every week, we recount some of the best buzz around CRM and data integration. We’ll review our favorite articles and share the most pressing findings or key takeaways from each.
Oracle Embracing the Broader Cloud Landscape
By: James Staten (@Staten7)
The entire industry has been turned on its head with the cloud-oriented deal Oracle just inked with competitors Microsoft and Salesforce. James takes us through his reasoning for the partnership on the Microsoft side, which will endorse Oracle on Hyper-V and Windows Azure. The deal will increase the appeal of Microsoft Azure for the developer audience and give Microsoft a leg up against competitors VMware and vSphere, positioning Azure as a stronger competitor to Amazon AWS. For Oracle, this partnership ensures the company won’t be left behind with the growing momentum of Azure and Amazon AWS. All told, Oracle just made a dramatic move to embrace the cloud and remain relevant – it’s no longer business as usual.
7 Big Questions Out of the Oracle-Salesforce Lovefest
By: Barb Darrow (@gigabarb)
On the Salesforce side of the new Oracle partnerships, Barb takes us through seven important questions to wrap our heads around. The questions include: can Oracle actually embody their new messaging of being fast, cheap and agile, will the companies replace competing software with Oracle/Salesforce solutions, would Salesforce be willing to engage in on-premise CRM solutions, will the companies work on selling together, is this an old-age/new-age convergence, will Force.com PaaS open to Java, and lastly, will Larry and Marc stop trading blows? Of greatest interest on our end is that Salesforce has an on-premise CRM system for the government but won’t extend that solution to other sectors due to a lack of interest, highlighting the continued momentum of the cloud.
For Public Agencies, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Integration Success Starts With Smart Strategy
By: Linda Rosencrance
At CRMUG, Scribe’s own Libby Bishop took attendees through the importance of customer data access for making the most of CRM systems. To grant access, companies must understand three different types of integration – data replication, data synchronization and process integration. Process represents the most difficult type of integration, and includes going beyond just sharing data across systems to also engage in analysis or integrations based on business rules, system rules or leveraging workflows. To avoid repeating the integration process, agencies should seek out tools that allow for repeatable integrations.
What’s Hot in CRM 2013: Strong Interest in Mobile for Streamlining Sales and Service
By: Louis Columbus (@LouisColumbus)
Gartner’s latest iteration of “What’s Hot in CRM Applications” shows five strong trends: big data, cloud, social, mobile and the Internet of Things. Louis brings up some important points to consider, including the fact that Gartner clients aren’t looking to create a unified cross-channel customer experience strategy, the domination of mobile sales on smartphones and tablets (with social following close behind), the coming reality of the mobile-empowered autonomous support representative, a shift in marketing strategies with big data and predictive analytics, and the rapid adoption of mobile-based platforms. Technology has entirely changed the customer experience, and the coming years will see an even more rapid evolution of customer strategy to provide a level of service previously unimaginable, thanks in large part to empowerment through mobile and better access to data.
Five More Conferences Condensed: 2013
By: Paul Greenberg (@pgreenbe)
Paul continues his review of industry conferences, covering five from the past few months. His main takeaway from the Clarabridge and Netsuite conferences is that they need to place a greater emphasis on CRM to further expand usage of their product suites. Lithium is gaining market traction, but needs to firmly bring in revenues above $100M, increase the number of people at their conference to 1500+ and complete multiple enterprise deals. SAP pulled off an impressive conference, and it’s clear that they’re repositioning themselves around the cloud and HANA. Lastly, the Pegasystems conference brought in many happy customers who loved the software, but they need to work on shifting perception beyond being an engineering company. All of these conferences showed great things happening, and Paul has suggestions for all of them to take it to the next level.
We hope you had a great week! We’ll see you again soon with a roundup of all the movers and shakers in CRM and data integration news.
