destinationCRM Dashboard

CRM Magazine Announces the 2006 Market Award The best and the brightest in the CRM industry were celebrated recently as CRM magazine announced this year's CRM Market Awards recipients. The awards recognize people and companies that have performed at the highest level, shaping the industry and pushing it forward. The magazine lauded these companies and individuals at a dinner at the destinationCRM 2006 Conference.

Big Companies Get a Little Disrespectful Major companies know more about consumers than ever before. A new study from The Customer Respect Group (CRG) found that the 100 largest firms in the United States are gathering more personal information about customers. Although this data mining can lead to improved customer service and more relevant communication, it brings to task the importance of information security and company-customer trust, according to CRG. In a positive step toward corporate responsibility, these larger firms are sharing less customer data outside of their organizations and are becoming more transparent at communicating their marketing opt-in or opt-out policies to their customers. However, "The Online Customer Respect Report" finds that an increase in unsolicited contacting points to a lower level of customer control.

Sage Hopes Seven Will Be Lucky for SalesLogix Sage Software has released version 7 of SalesLogix, beefing up its suite solution for the midmarket with functionality enhancements aimed at improving end user adoption. Version 7 includes interactive sales dashboards, an integrated service and support client, new marketing capabilities, and new mobile support and productivity enhancements via the retooled SalesLogix Mobile Platform, which the company relaunched recently as well. All of the enhancements to the SalesLogix CRM suite are designed to boost end user adoption, a steady theme of most Sage Software products.

Are Customer Surveys Hogwash? According to a new study by customer experience research and consulting firm Strativity Group, companies are falsely touting customer surveys as proof that the firms are listening to their customers. The truth is that they are not properly using the information once they have it. The study's respondents were dozens of executives from around the world, spanning industries including banking, retail, entertainment, and manufacturing.

Salesforce Mashes Analytics in the Snow Salesforce.com is paying particular attention to the analytics customization capabilities it plans to offer in the next version of its hosted CRM solution, Salesforce Winter '07. The company announced additional customization features for its analytics dashboards and integration with Crystal Xcelsius, Business Objects' on-demand BI solution. The announcement is part of a gradual run-up to the release of Winter '07, which marks Salesforce.com's 21st generation of its CRM software. Winter '07 is due to become available in the fourth quarter of this year.

The Last Word on SaaS TCO? Many arguments about the relative business value of hosted and installed applications come down to the question of which costs more in the long run. Forrester Research's latest report provides hard data for medium and enterprise businesses, based on its Total Economic Impact (TEI) model. The findings, presented for businesses with 50, 100, 250, and 500 users, indicate compelling benefits over time for smaller businesses using SaaS, but larger enterprises are likely to do better with installed code. (For the full stories and more news, visit destinationCRM.com)

Free

for qualified subscribers

Subscribe Now Current Issue Past Issues