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.
Roundup of CRM Forecasts and Market Estimates, 2012
By: Louis Columbus (@LouisColumbus)
Louis provides 10 nuggets of wisdom from various CRM forecasts and predictions, including those from Gartner, Forrester and IDC. The entire article is worth a read, but we’ll share one piece of wisdom: “The role of CMOs relative to CIOs are changing with respect to who is responsible for defining the needs of an enterprise in the areas of CRM, pricing and channel management strategies. Gartner did a survey on this earlier in the year and found that 72% of the companies have a Chief Marketing Technologist, growing to 87% by 2014.”
Defining CRM: Thoughts from three experts
By: David Kirkpatrick (@davidkonline)
David goes straight to the experts to find out how they define CRM, asking Brian Vellmure (Principal and founder of Initium LLL/Innovantage International), Paul Greenberg (Managing Principal, The 56 Group, LLC), and Heidi Melin (Chief Marketing Officer, Eloqua). While each definition is interesting and nuanced, most fall into one of three categories. CRM is (1) a software, (2) the technology related to customer relationship management, (3) anything involved in managing the customer lifecycle. Check out the full article for complete definitions.
Why App Integration May Become a Competitive Advantage
By: Loraine Lawson, (@LoraineLawson)
Loraine expands on Gartner research touting the importance of data integration – but reminds us it’s difficult (and often expensive) work to achieve well. Loraine reports that Gartner expects application integration costs to rise 33 percent from 2013 to 2016. Plus, API guru Gartner analyst Benoit Lheureux discussed the disadvantages and shortcomings of APIs in TechTarget.
Four Steps to Getting From CRM Implementation to Increased Revenue
By: Lou Guercia (@LouGuercia)
Lou recounts a discussion with Jim Sheehan, CTO of PowerObjects, and defines steps to drive maximum value from your CRM. Jim and Lou tout the importance of data integration to free data from silos and improve the performance of all customer facing departments.
From CRM to CXM: Walking the Customer Journey
By: Jeff Nolan, VP of Business Development at Get Satisfaction (@JeffNolan)
Jeff Nolan responds to Paul Greenberg’s earlier call to define why they are customer experience experts and how their products reflect that. Get Satisfaction is arguably in a good place to respond, as they did in this Enterprise Irregulars piece. In fact, one of his pillars of defense is that CRM is a building block in Customer Experience Management (CXM).
Have a great weekend, folks. We’ll see you again soon with a roundup of all the movers and shakers in CRM and data integration news.
