In this Best Practices Guide to Marketing Automation, both SAP and SalesFUSION offer compelling cases for embracing marketing automation as a way to generate leads and convert those leads into customers.

Inside you will find:

• SAP Customers Gain the Competitive Edge Through Integrating Customer Analytics Within Multi-Channel Marketing Programs by SAP

• The Top Five Ways Integrating Marketing Automation to Your CRM Can Save a Troubled Deployment and Increase CRM Usage by SalesFUSION

Engaging with customers on mobile devices is extremely competitive and challenging. In the following pages, Urban Airship concisely outlines the opportunities presented by the rapidly expanding mobile market and issues businesses face trying to engage customers in this most personal digital environment. “The Price of Free” is a must-read primer for any executive involved in the mobile channel.

LiveLOOK’s mobile co-browsing solution takes the idea of “value exchange” discussed by Urban Airship and makes a concrete case for co-browsing with live agent support right on the mobile device.

Inside you will find:

• THE PRICE OF FREE Understanding the new metrics in the mobile value exchange by Urban Airship

• THE IMPORTANCE OF ADDING A VISUAL COMPONENT TO A MOBILE SALES & SERVICE STRATEGY by LiveLOOK

The ability of customers to express themselves has far outpaced the ability of organizations to get a clear understanding of what it is that they are trying to communicate.

This Best Practices special report explores strategies and solutions companies can implement now to help them understand what their customers are intending to communicate, so they can better fulfill their needs.

Inside you will find:

• DID YOU HEAR THAT? by Oracle

• TODAY’S CUSTOMER: MORE VOICE AND CHOICE THAN EVER BEFORE by inContact

• MOBILE, SOCIAL, AND VOCAL: MANY CHANNELS, ONE CUSTOMER by Verint

• TURNING INTELLIGENCE INTO ACTION by ForeSee

• FOR THE MODERN MARKETER, HEARING (MARKET) VOICES IS A GOOD THING by SAP

• CAPTURE AND ACT UPON CRITICAL VOC DATA WITH A SOCIALLY-INTEGRATED MULTI-CHANNEL CONTACT CENTER by LiveOps

• VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER (VOC): THE DIGITAL ADVANTAGE by IntelliResponse

The experiences of a customer with an organization throughout the life cycle of their relationship have a major influence on retaining the customer and ensuring his/her loyalty and advocacy. So, what are the best practices that large global organizations need to consider to optimize the customer experience, to make it easy for customers to do business with them across the different channels?

Download this white paper to learn the benefits achieved by a KANA customer within its contact center operation:

• 15% increase in customer satisfaction
• 30% increase in call resolution
• 80% decrease in cost per customer interaction
• 50% decrease in new employee training costs
• 60% reduction in their contact center operating costs

Can social CRM deliver engaging marketing messages and drive sales? Absolutely! But using social networks requires a soft sell, a permission-based approach, and should be used sparingly. By making the focus of social CRM efforts a service to the customer, marketing and sales offers will naturally follow without being intrusive.

In this section you will find three Social CRM white papers on:

• "CRM and Social Media" by Infor

• "5 Best Practices for Social Customer Service" by Telligent

• "Social Customer Service: The Pivotal Driver of the Social Enterprise" by LiveOps

In the following pages of this special section to CRM magazine, you'll find recommendations for improving internal processes to remove unnecessary roadblocks, using incentive compensation to drive behavior, using analytics to close sales quicker and with more certainty, and other ways to drive revenue and make fundamental improvements to your sales department.

Inside you will learn...

• 6 STRATEGIES FOR BETTER SALES BPM capabilities can guide salespeople to more profitable activities by BPMonline

• SALES ANALYTICS: The Path to Improving Sales Effectiveness by IBM

• INCREASE SALES REVENUE NOW - Effectively Manage Existing Accounts and Measure the Voice of Your Customer by The Chapman Group

• USING INCENTIVE COMPENSATION TO OPTIMIZE SALES PERFORMANCE AND INCREASE ACCOUNTABILITY by Oracle

• SALES INTELLIGENCE INSIDE YOUR CRM FOR MORE DEALS AND BETTER AVERAGE ORDER SIZE by InsideView

Creating an intelligent contact center is relative and a never-ending process. This year's iteration should be better than last year's, and next year's contact center should be more efficient and capable than what we currently offer. Add to this perpetual quest for operational improvement our customers' own everincreasing expectations, and it's easy to see that as good as we think we are today, we will always have to be improving our technology, processes, and strategies to gain any real competitive advantage.

In the following pages of this special supplement to CRM magazine, you'll hear from 15 of the most successful customer service solution providers, who offer their insights into how to infuse real intelligence into your contact center:

• HOW INTELLIGENT CONTACT CENTERS DO BETTER IN CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT by eGain

• THE INTELLIGENT CONTACT CENTER: What Big Data Means to the Customer Experience by Aspect

• DELIVERING CONTACT CENTER INTELLIGENCE FROM THE CLOUD Top Ten Characteristics Required for Success by VoltDelta

• LEVERAGING INTELLIGENT CONTACT DATA AS A BEST PRACTICE FOR INCREASING SATISFACTION,CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS AND CALL CENTER PERFORMANCE by WhitePages PRO

• FULL CONTACT DATA QUALITY FOR CONTACT CENTER SUCCESS by Melissa Data

• THE CONTACT CENTER'S MISSING LINK: Information at the Desktop by SAP

• GETTING THE RIGHT BLEND IN YOUR CONTACT CENTER by Five9

• 5 SMART STRATEGIES TO BOOST YOUR CONTACT CENTER IQ by Voxeo

• THE INTELLIGENT CONTACT CENTER by Interactive Intelligence

• TRANSFORMING DATA INTO ACTIONABLE CUSTOMER INSIGHTS: RESEARCH PAPER:Harness the tremendous wealth of data and emerge as a new leader, or ignore the opportunity at your own peril by Coveo

• UNDERSTANDING YOUR CUSTOMERS' DNA: the Key to Intelligent Connections by iQor

• BUSINESS REFLEXES POWER INTELLIGENT CONTACT CENTER PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFORMANCE by Intradiem

• EFFICIENCY ≠ PRODUCTIVITY by Avanade

• MOVING AT THE SPEED OF BUSINESS The Agility of Cloud-Based Customer Service by inContact

• "SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE: THE PIVOTAL DRIVER OF THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE" by LiveOps

This Best Practices topic complements the Analytics & BI Guide running in this issue, but is often overlooked by organizations implementing data-driven solutions. The old adage garbage in/garbage out has never been more true in this era of Big Data. Learn how to maintain data quality in a rapidly changing world, and improve your data quality by downloading this FREE Best Practices Guide!

• MASTERS OF THE DATA: CIOs Tune in to the Importance of Data Quality, Data Governance, and Master Data Management (MDM) by Oracle

• HOW DO YOU SCORE ON THE 5 "Cs" OF DATA QUALITY? by Melissa Data

• THE SECRET FOR FUTURE SALES AND MARKETING SUCCESS by Dun & Bradstreet

What's going on with your business right now, who is buying from you, and why are they buying (or not buying)?

Download this FREE Best Practices Guide and learn how to achieve the benefits of customer analytics and business intelligence for better decision-making.

In this one complete download you will hear from:

• WEB-MAPS FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE - YOU HAVE THE TECHNOLOGY by MapBusinessOnline.com

• ENSURING DATA QUALITY FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Creating strategies around data for reliable analytics by Experian QAS

• INTEGRATED DATA MINING- THE CORE TO CUSTOMER ANALYTICS SUCCESS by Infor

• TURN VOICE TRANSACTIONS INTO DATA by Calabrio

Leveraging technology to reduce costs, speed service, and improve customer satisfaction has never been more important than it is today, when customer service is the only real differentiator in so many industries. In the following pages of this section, you'll find solid recommendations from five industry leaders on how to improve your organization's self-service channels: 

 "Help Your Customers Help Themselves"
by Oracle

 "Resolve to Improve the Customer Experience in 2013"
  by Voxeo

 "Now is the Time for Hosted Voice Self-Service"
by VoltDelta

 "The "Intelligent Support Center" Includes Self-Service Options"
by Desk.com

 "The Future of Web Self-Service"
by KANA

In this installment of CRM magazine's monthly Best Practices Guide, we examine how companies are making the social channel more than buzz. Clearly, this is a hot topic, and here seven solution providers offer their recommendations for seamlessly integrating this new channel into your customer contact solutions.

Inside you will find:

• A REALISTIC LOOK AT SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CONTACT CENTER by Interactive Intelligence

• WORD OF MOUTH GETS A MEGAPHONE: The Critical Importance of #SocialMedia and the Customer Experience by Voxeo

• MORE THAN JUST BUZZ MONITORING: UNCOVER THE TOPICS, MEANING, TRENDS AND SENTIMENT OF CUSTOMER CONVERSATIONS WITH EXPERIENCE ANALYTICS by KANA

• SOCIAL CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT: GO FROM BUZZ TO BUSINESS by eGain

• HOW TO SOCIALLY-ENABLE YOUR CONTACT CENTER by Oracle

• SOCIAL CUSTOMER SERVICE: THE PIVOTAL DRIVER OF THE SOCIAL ENTERPRISE by LiveOps

• THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF CUSTOMER CAREby Lithium
• MAKING CUSTOMER SERVICE SOCIAL MEANS MORE THAN SOCIAL MEDIA by Coveo

Readers of CRM magazine won't be surprised to learn that delivering great customer experiences is a top initiative among recently polled C-level executives. In the following Best Practices Guide to Customer Experience Management, you'll here from 16 solution provider experts, who share their insights on how your company can improve its ability to delight your customers.

You'll notice these major themes mentioned in several of the recommendations presented in this section:

• Customers are in charge of which channel they will use, and companies need to present consistent experiences across all channels.

• Personalization is the difference between delivering adequate customer service and great customer experiences.

• The mobile channel is exploding and companies need to plan accordingly.

• Analytics is key to understanding your customers and how well they feel they are being served.

• Plan to be flexible. New channels will undoubtedly spring up just like the social and mobile channels have.

DOWNLOAD this month's installment from CRM magazine's Best Practices Guide to ECommerce and CRM and you will receive four unique perspectives on how to achieve greater sales and happier customers online.

In this Best Practices Guide, you'll hear advice from four online shopping leaders on topics ranging from shipping, to minimizing shopping cart and web form abandonment rates, to iPhone Apps that help drive revenue, to improving customer experiences.

In this single Best Practices Guide:

WHAT MAKES AN ONLINE SHOPPER HAPPY? Four Revealing Trends That Could Shape Your Sales Performance Sponsored by UPS

REMOVE WEB SALES OBSTACLES BY BECOMING YOUR CUSTOMER'S "DIGITAL BEST FRIEND" Sponsored by eGain

THE VALUE OF TRUST Swiss market chain Coop registers big gains with an iPhone app linked to its back office systems Sponsored by SAP

EIGHT BEST PRACTICES TO DELIVER GREAT COMMERCE EXPERIENCES Transform the Buying Process With Oracle's Commerce Solution Sponsored by Oracle

If your company is selling online and has reached a sales plateau, download this FREE guide and get advice from four unique perspectives.

A recent Bloomberg Businessweek survey of midsized to large companies revealed that "delivering a great customer experience" has become the new corporate imperative, with 80 percent of respondents rating customer experience as a top strategic objective. Yet most organizations lack the strategies, processes, and technologies to achieve their self-stated objective.

In the following pages, you will find advice from six expert solution providers who have successfully blended knowledge management technologies and processes into customer-facing platforms to improve customer experiences at multiple touch points:

• 10 SIGNS YOUR SEARCH ENGINE'S STALLING Are your agents compensating for search engine incompetence? The time has come to take a hard look at your knowledge management strategy by KANA

• KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR GREAT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES by Clicktools

• KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: 5 STEPS TO GETTING IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME Transform Customer Service with Oracle's Comprehensive Solutions by Oracle

• BECOMING A ‘ONE ORGANIZATION': THE KEY TO DELIVERING CONSISTENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE by SAP

• MARKETERS IMPROVE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND DATA COLLECTION WITH REAL-TIME DATA SERVICES by Relevate

• RESEARCH REVEALS RESULTS: Building a Next Generation Contact Center Leads to Better Outcomes  by Aspect