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.
13 Tips to Get Business Teams to Use Your CRM System
By: Jennifer Lonoff Schiff (@JenniferLSchiff)
Regardless of a CRM system’s potential to improve your sales and marketing teams’ productivity, the reality can’t be realized unless the teams actually use that CRM system. Jennifer pulled together a list of tips from dozens of CRM experts and selected the top 13. Some of my personal picks include involving those who will use your CRM system the most in the decision and rollout process and keeping forms simple so sales users can easily and quickly enter information. Lastly, from our own CEO Lou Guercia, use your CRM as a one-stop data hub for your sales team so “all stakeholders can find the customer information they need, where and when they need it.”
Event Report: Microsoft Dynamics Convegence 2013 (#conv13)
By: R “Ray” Wang (@rwang0)
Constellation Research’s R “Ray” Wang wrote up a comprehensive overview of Microsoft Convergence, which drew almost 12,000 people this year. He highlights the success of Microsoft’s messaging and sales in moving up from the SMB market, as well as the importance of the Netbreeze and Marketing Pilot acquisitions for marketing automation and management services. The article closes with a question to readers, which I’ll ask of you as well: do you plan to invest more or less in Microsoft Dynamics (or any CRM solution) this year, and what do you like or dislike about your CRM solution?
CEO Marc Benioff Says Chatter Will Become Primary Interface for Salesforce, a Bold yet Risky Move
By: Alex Williams (@alexwilliams)
Following Marc Benioff’s announcement that Chatter will take on the role of primary interface for Salesforce, industry analyst and consultant Michael Krigsman questions the benefits and risks of such a move. On the surface, the information-stream style of Chatter provides an intuitive UI for people who frequently use Facebook, Twitter, and other similar platforms, but enterprise use differs from personal information consumption. Krigsman questions whether “enterprise will find activity streams as a natural way to communicate with enterprise data and systems.” If it does, competitors will follow suit, and the consumerization of IT will continue as Chatter brings intuitive consumption behavior to the enterprise.
CRM Watchlist 2013 Winners: Heading in the Right Direction
By: Paul Greenberg (@pgreenbe)
This week’s CRM Watchlist winners were selected from three sections, which include “CRM Idol 2012 Winners,” “Ready to Leap” companies and “Companies to Watch.” In summation, Artesian Solutions and Crowdtap took the “CRM Idol 2012” category, Allegiance, Demandbase, Tracx and ITC Infotech won in the “Ready to Leap” category, and Next Principles, DRI Global and Nearstream were selected as “Companies to Watch.” Paul considers the “CRM Idol” winners to be closest to remarkable success, while the “Ready to Leap” companies have great potential but for some potential holes, and the “Companies to Watch” winners provide exceptional products but need time to develop their ecosystems and thought leadership.
CxO Talk: Microsoft, Salesforce.com, CRM, and the Science of Hugging
By: Michael Krigsman (@mkrigsman)
On this week’s episode of CxO talk, co-hosts Michael Krigsman and Vala Afshar brought in Paul Greenberg to discuss Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Salesforce.com, CRM and enterprise software, and more. Key takeaways center on the importance of the customer, including Microsoft Convergence’s new focus on the customer story, Salesforce positioning itself as a “customer company” at a Boston event and Paul’s simple summation of the value of CRM: “If a customer likes you they will continue to do business with you, otherwise they won’t.” As a bonus, the episode closed with a funny analogy where Michael applied Paul’s “science of hugging” advice to software vendors, which consists of not being afraid to close, throwing your arms around the other person, and squeezing – lesson learned.
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.
