Biographical Information

Sarah Sluis

Articles for Sarah Sluis

Could Mobile CRM Solve Field Sales' Biggest Problems?

Understanding the options could help your organization determine which solution is best.

Yahoo Sees Crystal-Clear Sales Forecasts with C9 Analytics

Sales operations shift focus from number-crunching to pipeline analysis.

Consumers Fear Data Insecurity

87 percent of survey respondents state their information is not adequately protected.

Retailers Plan Investments in Real-Time CRM

Mobile marketing, in-store customer ID, and analytics are on the real-time road map.

Are Consumers Willing to Share Private Data?

Privacy seekers share demographic and behavior traits, according to IDC.

IBM Smarter Commerce Summit: IBM Attends to the Customer Experience

Smarter Commerce Summit shows companies that moments matter.

OptifiNow Builds a Foundation for Sales for Mountain West Financial

Sales and marketing automation company offers tailored solution for the mortgage banker.

4 Ways to Master Omnichannel Selling

Salespeople must track the customer journey across multiple channels and be more collaborative than ever.

SAP Adds Four User Experience Rapid-Deployment Solutions

Users will be able to take advantage of SAP's Fiori platform.

Salesforce1 for Retail Launched to Address Industry-Specific Challenges

Mobile clienteling and communities solution will help retailers connect with customers.

CMOs See Analytics, Real-Time Campaigns, and Mobile Investments Ahead

Seventy-nine percent don't see their companies as ready to make the digital shift.

LiveOps Integrates with Microsoft Dynamics' New Unified Service Desk

Integration will begin with voice and chat channels.

Selling in an Uncertain Age

Sales Thought Leadership Conference provides study-backed tips on creating a more effective sales force.

IBM Watson to Answer Queries on Genesys Platform

First integrated call center operation of Watson could go live this year

Sapphire Now: Combining Technology and Strategy to Achieve Simplicity

Speed of SAP HANA is one route to better customer and employee experiences.

At Sapphire Now: SAP Intends to Shed Complexity

Enterprise software needs consumer-level simplicity, says SAP CEO Bill McDermott

Beauty Marketers Must Put Their Best Face Forward

Five tips from industry experts to help make over your customer engagement efforts.

Sensor Data Expands Possibilities for BI

We're entering the age of "personal analytics."

Airline Loyalty Programs in Flux

Consumers and airlines rethink their commitments to each other.

Varsity Sales Squad Racks Up Points with LevelEleven App

Contest app helps increase sales and encourage best practices for cheerleading apparel company.

Lattice Engines Applies Predictive Technology to Upsells and Retention

Users can deploy predictive technology across the customer life cycle.

Looker Improves Visualizations, In-Browser App Development

BI product update will help move Looker upmarket.

IBM Smarter Commerce: How to Create Moments That Matter

Market-leading companies are focusing on CXM, not CRM.

IBM Unifies Offerings with ExperienceOne

Tie together products for better end-to-end customer engagement.

Demandbase Launches B2B Marketing Cloud

Performance can be analyzed by individual accounts from advertising to sale.

ExactTarget's Social Studio Combines Features of Radian6 and Buddy Media

New social interface is part of Salesforce.com's Exact Target Marketing Cloud.

Push Notifications Help Keep Customers Close

Consumers like receiving notices, but companies need to use them cautiously.

Mobile Sales to Represent Half of E-Commerce by 2018

Retailers need to focus on mobile user experience and responsive design to capitalize on growth.

Retailers Bring the Digital Experience In-Store

Using smartphones, tablets, and creative displays, retailers can give consumers the best of both worlds.

Postwire Seals the Sales Process for StandUpPouches.net

Sales enablement technology helps answer questions for custom orders.

SugarCon Day 2: CRM for the Customer and the Employee

How to align CRM so it meets the needs of both.

SugarCon: SugarCRM Product Road Map Focused on Customer Insights

SugarCRM's intelligence panel enables closer views of customer integrations, graphs.

Infusionsoft's ICON14: How to Thrive in the Connection Economy

Small businesses can leverage CRM faster and better in a digital world.

Infusionsoft's ICON14: Treating People Better to Better Your Business

Speakers stress the value of transparency with the public.

BlueKai and Optimizely Team Up in Personalized Marketing Effort

Brands can customize their Web sites for individual users.

CorvisaCloud Releases Flexible Product-Plus-Platform Solution

Cloud contact center software users can customize the product in the same environment.

IBM Acquires Marketing Automation Player Silverpop

The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions in the marketing automation space.

3CLogic Brings Enhanced Analytics to the Contact Center

Product release also includes self-service scripting capabilities.

Gartner BI Summit: Data Discovery and the Cloud Reaching a Tipping Point

Intent and adoption of these BI features are high.

Gartner BI Summit Focuses on Uniting Technology Evangelist and Skeptic

Pragmatic approach can unlock strategic and monetary value of information.

How Reliable Is That Online Review?

Twenty-one percent of consumers write about products they've never used.

SalesClic Is Just the the Ticket for Better Sales Forecasts

ShowClix shortens sales cycles and improves forecasting with SalesClic.

The 4 Pillars of Responsible Customer Engagement

Relevance, respect, credibility, and value are key to great experiences.

Solving Technology's People Problem

SAS Executive Conference shows how to lead an organization's embrace of technological change.

SAS Unveils Visual and In-Memory Stats for Hadoop

Visualization and big data-geared updates announced at SAS Global Forum.

Brand Marketers Have More Mobile Engagement Choices with New Scanlife Platform

Mobile site builder and rule-based experiences create more personalization.

Logi Info 11.2 Release Takes on Big Data

Update focuses on big data shaping and visualization.

Brainshark Integrates with Salesforce's Work.com

Brainshark's sales performance tool available on Salesforce1 AppExchange.

Teradata Adds Features to Integrated Marketing Cloud

Marketing Studio 9 includes updates to technology, collaboration.

Sales Needs to Develop a Go-to-Customer Approach

Forrester Sales Enablement Forum focuses on customer-centered selling systems.

LevelEleven Makes User-Targeted Changes to Compete App

Contest creation is now easier and more robust.

On the Scene: NRF's Big Show

Harnessing technology to improve the retail experience.

More Brands Invest in Video Marketing

High-consideration purchases and touch points a strong fit for online videos.

Looker Adds Capabilities to Its Datafold Engine

BI tool now supports persistent derived tables.

Azuqua Creates Connections, Value Among Multiple SaaS Applications

Start-up offers cloud-based business process optimization.

Sprinklr Adds Product Features with Acquisition of Dachis Group

Social relationship platform now serves 50 percent of Fortune 500.

Microsoft Dynamics Release Adds Social Listening, Bolsters Marketing and Customer Care

Q2 release builds on feature sets from Parature, NetBreeze, and MarketingPilot acquisitions.

Capgemini Creates Service Line Focused on Digital Customer Experiences

Vertically oriented services will combine experts across disciplines.

JasperSoft Expands Data Connections for Embedded Analytics

Users can speed up analysis by accessing their data directly or with data virtualization.

SugarCRM CEO Larry Augustin: 'CRM Space Has Underinvested in the Needs of the Individual'

SugarCRM will devote its engineering budget to user-friendly changes in 2014.

Zilliant Rolls Out SalesMax OnDemand

Standalone interface is designed to improve user experience.

Victoria's Secret Uncovers Gender Buying Differences

Pricing and sales differ when men buy gift for women.

E-commerce Parachutes into Stores with Pop-up Shops

Online retailers gain new customers and drive sales with limited-time offerings.

Sales Management Tools and Trends to Watch

How to transform selling through coaching, collaboration technology, and sales analytics.

Lattice Engines Helps Mindjet Identify Top Prospects

Software collaboration sales team focuses on highest quality leads with Lattice's Predictive Lead Scoring.

Salesfusion Boosts Midmarket Presence with LoopFuse Acquisition

The Salesfusion platform gains social media and predictive capabilities with the LoopFuse acquisition.

Vendavo Launches SaaS-Based Profit Advisor

Automated price-optimization solution targets midmarket companies seeking profit advantages.

HootSuite Acquires Social Analytics Vendor uberVU

The uberVU acquisition bolsters HootSuite's enterprise offering.

Brainshark Releases Analytics Dashboard, Sales and Marketing Clouds

The visual interface for Brainshark's new analytics dashboard features more robust analytics in a central location.

NRF's Big Show: Creating Authentic Relationships Through Social Responsibility

Models such as one-for-one giving engage customers and build brands.

At NRF’s Big Show, IBM CEO Frames Big Data as a Natural Resource

The convergence of mobile, social, and the "Internet of Things" is creating more data to refine than ever.

Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff Details Vision for Salesforce1

Kicks off Salesforce1 world tour with demos, context for new platform.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Strengthens Offerings With Parature Acquisition

Agreement will add cloud-based customer service offering to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Information Technology Purchases to Grow 6 Percent in 2014

Forrester report predicts hottest categories will be SaaS and analytics.

MaintenanceNet Automates Warranty Sales for Schneider Electric

Emailed quotes take the burden off resellers to renew service contracts.

Risk-Proof Your CRM System

Focus on the people and the process, not the technology.

Social Media Leads Content Marketing

Quickly digested forms of content distribution win out over in-depth methods.

DMA13: Marketers Must Carefully Consider Big Data Strategies

Speakers suggest using unstructured data to keep customers' trust and to listen to their needs.

Converge Enterprise Adds Multichannel Marketing Capabilities

Marketers at small and midsized businesses can now reach customers in new channels.

Bigger Sales Pipelines Signal Revenue Growth for 2014

C9 Revenue Index shows 19 percent increase in sales pipelines.

Roambi Moves Flow into the Cloud

The data visualization publishing product is expanded to make sharing even easier.

More Companies Embrace Inside Sales Strategies

Study reveals the reasons behind increasing deployments of inside sales teams.

HeyWire Business Offers Ability to 'Text to Sale'

Cloud-based service enables business users to text from landlines.

Adobe Connect 9.2 Makes It Easier to Create and Join Meetings

Hosts can set up meetings in fewer steps, and attendees have social log-in option.

LiveHive Announces Analytics-Driven Sales Engagement Platform

Sales activities by channel partners will be easier to track

ONDiGO Offers Mobile CRM Solution for Small Businesses

App offers contact management, notes, and search capabilities.

Apple's iBeacon Expands Retail Opportunities for Location-Based Services

The iOS7 feature can facilitate marketing and mobile payment processing.

At Shop.org, Retailers Prepare for a Mobile Future

The mobile and tablet experience is augmenting e-commerce and in-store sales.

Cisco Systems Turns to Radian6 to Unify Its Social Presence

Social listening tool lets the technology product and service provider focus on actionable data.

Cirrus Insight Launches Mobile App to Bring Salesforce.com into Inbox

Users can perform Salesforce.com functions while checking email on the go.

B2B Selling Is Taking Cues from B2C Interactions

Mobile and social technologies are making business buyers act like consumers.

Corporate Visions Acquires Sales Training Company Executive Conversation

A second acquisition this year rounds out Corporate Visions' sales training offerings.

Zoho Expands CRM Solution to Serve Enterprise Customers

Territory management among upgrades geared for large businesses

Mobile CRM Start-Up Selligy Closes $2.8 Million in Funding

Salesforce.com, Draper Fisher Jurvetson among the investors

SugarCRM Introduces Sugar UX Solution

Redesign aims for user-friendly changes.

Zilliant Builds SalesMax Connect on the Salesforce.com Platform

SalesMax is now integrated with Salesforce.com's Sales Cloud.

Velocify Releases Lead Manager on Salesforce.com's AppExchange

Activity prioritization feature is designed for high-velocity sales teams.

Salesforce Announces Private AppExchange

Companies can customize app offerings for employees with the new Salesforce Private AppExchange cloud platform.

Salesformics Launches Public Beta of Sales and Marketing Automation Solution

Salesformics is designed for small businesses that have limited budgets and training time.

Presentation Sales Tool PointDrive Aims to End Attachments

Clean Web interface replaces emailed decks.

Lattice Engines Announces Predictive Lead Scoring

The tool uses Lattice Data Cloud and CRM data to grade leads for marketers.

DMA 2013: Integrating Marketing and Technology

Marketers voice value of big data, challenges of incorporating a 360-degree view.

Data-Driven Marketing Accounts for $156 Billion of the U.S. Economy

Big data-related marketing jobs number 675,000.

DMA2013: Marketers Share How They Embrace Change, Data

Taking action on big data findings requires collaboration, top-down support.

Euclid Report Finds Shoppers Spent Less Time in Stores in September

The number of shoppers who entered a store dropped 2 percent from the previous month, but repeat customers increased.

Yellowfin Updates iPad App, Integrates Storyboard with Mobile BI

iOS7-optimized Yellowfin app enters growing market for mobile business intelligence.

Shop.org Summit Highlights Social Networks Focused on Purchasing

Companies use relationships to bring trust, fun into e-commerce.

Keynote Speakers at Shop.Org Annual Summit Concur: Use Technology Strategically

Omnichannel retailing is about giving consumers what they want, in-store and online.

Zoho Introduces App for Small Business Contact Management

ContactManager consolidates all relevant customer information.

Simplify360 Announces Integration with Salesforce.com

Update will let companies create leads or cases from social media conversations.