Thomas Wieberneit
How SugarCRM is setting out to become a Titan
On November 2, 2021, SugarCRM held an analyst summit to share what is going on at the company and to get some candid feedback of the participants. As usual for this type of event, there is quite some information that is still under NDA, so…
Business Apps Reloaded: Implications for Executives, Vendors, and Implementation Partners
The times of business applications as we know them are over. Up until now most applications are more or less monolithic in their logic layer. There are different tiers but essentially all services and business objects that are part of the application are tied together...
Zoho One – The Operating System for Business
Zoho is a privately-owned technology company that was founded in 1996 as Adventnet, Inc. and has quietly evolved into an ambitious global player that serves the SMB and enterprise markets with cloud applications. The company offers a suite of more...
With Oracle Fusion Marketing into the Future of CRM?
On September 20, 2021 Oracle announced during an Oracle Live event named “The future of CRM” Oracle Fusion Marketing, which is not the same as Oracle Marketing. According to Rob Tarkoff, EVP and GM Oracle Advertising and Customer...
Conversational Commerce: Stand Out from the Competition by Improving the Customer Journey
We are seeing an increasing willingness of consumers, but also B2B buyers, to interact with companies using chats or even voice interfaces. This can be attributed to the simple fact that words, written or spoken, are the method of communication that is most natural...
How to orchestrate customer journeys in real time at scale
Customer journeys are as individual as customers. Every customer has different needs, preferences, knowledge, information and another way to resolve their issues. In brief, every customer has a context of their own. As a consequence, customer journe...
Together, Zoom and Five9 shape a new market
On July 18, 2021, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. announced the acquisition of Five9, Inc. in an all-shares transaction. The transaction values Five9 at around $14.7 billion. According to the press release “the acquisition is expected to help enhanc...
Low Code / No Code: How to Get the Value, Avoid the Pitfalls
Apart from a lot of other CX-related topics like e.g. customer data platforms, customer journey orchestration, configure, price, quote, artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotic process automation, and many more, there is another topic that currently gets quite some attention. Low code and no code platforms.…
Ecosystems, how to play for small players
Lately, we have talked a lot about ecosystems, in particular business ecosystems. Normally, business ecosystems follow a hub and spoke model rather than a network approach; one major player sets it up, and then adds customers and partners like independ...
How to Do Customer Journey Orchestration Right
A while ago I wrote a piece in which I asked to not manage the customers’ journeys for them but to instead embrace the notion that customers do manage their own journey. A short while after, I also co-hosted a CRMKonvo with long time thought...
How to avoid the looming CRM crisis
A short while ago the CRMKonvos team had the opportunity to invite Frank Tjaben of SugarCRM into our living rooms or home offices for a lively discussion about whether businesses are facing a crisis of customer relationship management and if so, why. ...
Ecosystem Play – One Game at a Time
It is not that uncommon that a software company creates new software based upon customer requirements. Actually, this is the way things should be done; not exclusively, but to quite an extent. Now, there are few software vendors who are truly indepe...
How to not manage your customers’ journeys
It is time to talk about customer journeys and customer journey orchestration. Again. The theme of two of my recent articles has been about customer data. First, in my article Why you don’t want a 360-degree on the customer I rubbed the coveted 3...
Work from anywhere done right
Work from Anywhere needs the right culture and the right tools The pandemic has taught us through the past year that it becomes urgent for businesses to adequately deal with the need for new working models that help employees to become as productive...
You Need Engagement, Not Necessarily a Customer Data Platform (CDP)
In my recent article about why you do not want a 360-degree view on your customer I laid out what you really want. This is apart from a 360-degree view on the customer being physically impossible – imagine being able to look at all...
Outlaw Spirit – Lessons from The Zoho Analyst Day 2021
The 2021 Zoho analyst day certainly was different. Different not only because it was not an offline but an online event but in the way it was prepared and conducted. Apparently, the team around Sandra Lo has taken up quite some lessons that other ev...
We all want to be recognized
Abraham Lincoln reportedly said “Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.” I am wondering how this applies to the companies we interact with. I would worry if I was not recognizing my customers, and I work to be…
Why you don’t want a 360-degree on the customer
Everyone tells you that you need a 360-degree view on your customer, right? You in all likelihood do not have it, you do not need it, and here’s the kicker: You do not want it.
How to choose the right solution – a Salesforce example
In my recent article on how to improve collaboration with Fastcall CTI I summarized a number of requirements that need to be fulfilled by a solution. A good vendor needs to fulfil at least this set of requirements. · First and foremost: The so...
The Dirty Dozen of 2021 Trends
It’s that time of year again. And although I’m not really into trend articles, I think it’s time this year to start thinking about what’s going on in the worlds of customer experience and customer relationship management – and how it’s affecting busine...