I’m just back from the Gartner CRM EMEA show in London and a media tour in Munich, and thought I’d share three quick observations from the trip:
First, the discussion around social networking and social CRM continues to gain momentum. There doesn’t seem to be any industry or region that isn’t fully focused on the impacts of social networking on their business and actively evaluating or implementing technology to adapt. This topic rose to the top of the list in nearly all of my meetings this week.
Second, even though global economies are far from in the clear from the recession, there are some positive signs for technology. For example, the Gartner CRM EMEA event attendance reportedly was up about 40% over 2009, with more than 400 attendees. Delegates appeared to have a renewed commitment to moving their businesses forward, investing in customer experience innovations and leveraging technology to do so.
Last, the Cloud Challenge is making waves with vendors, buyers and analysts. The most common comment I keep hearing is, “isn’t this what SaaS was supposed to deliver in the first place?” They are exactly right. Cloud vendors got off track, particularly in the enterprise, in their engagements and contracts with clients, and buyers are excited to see this issue being addressed openly in the press and to have a model to refer to with the RightNow Cloud Services Agreement.
I also want to give a shout out to one of our long-time clients, Photobox, for receiving the EMEA Gartner & 1to1 Media CRM Excellence Award for best Customer Experience. My hat is off to Stuart Lipinski for driving a true customer centric culture, achieving strong business results, and delivering a great presentation at the event!
