Category: CRM News

Salesforce.com just finished their annual CRM user conference in San Francisco and it was amazing to say the least. I’ve attended almost every year and they continually get better each time. Attendance was close to 10,000 which made it seem more like a large company gathering (which I guess Salesforce.com now is) which was a negative for me.

The Monday night gala was excellent though featuring Foo Fighters live and an open bar. The buffet and assortment of desserts was also delightful especially if you like chocolate. If you weren’t aware, Journey was supposed to play Dreamforce instead of Foo Fighters but for some reason ended up canceling. Lots of people were bummed out but Foo put on a great show regardless!

Something else that I noticed was the plastic badge holders you got once registering. Very nice and professional-looking. In fact, the whole registration process is automated (you check in via their laptops) it makes things quite easy and painless. Times have sure changed and for the better. The only thing I didn’t like was the size and placement of your last name and company. The font was too small so I had trouble reading other people’s company names when speaking with them. Such a minor thing but important when trying to network and read names. Continue reading “Dreamforce 2008 CRM Wrap”

Small business expert Gene Marks puts on a help desk webinar every other month. Here are the details for this months webinar:

If you’re in the market for new software for your help/service desk and want to take a look at the top applications available today, then you’ll be interested in attending:

The Penny Pincher’s Guide to Help/Service Desk Software

FREE 60-75 minute Webinar
January 30, 2008
10:00 AM EST

During our presentation we’ll be reviewing the pros, cons, good and bad of applications like HEAT, Remedy, Magic, Microsoft CRM, FootPrints, Track-IT, Altiris and others.  We’ll compare key features, ITIL compliance, pricing and more.

To register, please visit  http://www.marksgroup.net/education/webinars/info.html

As part of its sustained campaign to dominate the emerging world of on-demand applications, salesforce.com has announced a version of the Skype Internet-based telephone software to work with its Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) package.

The special version of Skype, developed by the German voice-over-IP specialist PamConsult will enable salesforce.com users to incorporate phone communications in their CRM applications. The package is available free through salesforce.com’s on-demand software directory AppExchange. Continue reading “Salesforce.com embeds Skype into CRM”

Bozeman, Montana-based RightNow Technologies has announced the availability of RightNow Retail, which combines its next-generation customer relationship management (CRM) solution with its experience working with numerous retailers including Cabela’s, Drugstore.com, Hallmark.com, Sharper Image, Snapfish, The Right Start and Ulta.

The new offering is based on RightNow 8, the company’s on-demand solution for service, sales and marketing. It is available under RightNow’s software-as-a-service delivery model, which allows organizations to implement quickly, without having to make extensive investments in infrastructure. Continue reading “RightNow Delivers New CRM Tool”

Trying to stay ahead of the CRM curve is difficult when you run with companies like SAP, Oracle, and Salesforce.com. Brent Estes who blogs under the name “CRM Guy” talks about how CRM has evolved over the years and the coming trends of CRM. He starts out this post with a quote from Yogi Berra which is pretty appropriate for any industry. His post starts off as follows:

Some significant trends in the small- and medium-sized business CRM market include on-demand CRM, browser-based on-premise CRM, CRM as a portal to other applications, mobility applications, and big players moving into the SMB space.

The on-demand CRM market is currently owned by salesforce.com but he claims Microsoft will be launching their version of on-demand CRM this fall codenamed “Titan”. Check out the rest of his post here.

Looking for some highly targeted exposure to your business? CRMBlogger is pleased to announce two new CRM advertising packages that could boost your CRM lead flow.

Our two latest ad sponsorship packages are:

1) One premium skyscraper banner ad space – $500/month with unlimited exposure across the site. There is no CPL (cost per lead) or CPM (cost per impression) structure so your potential lead flow is unlimited.

2) Post level sponsorship – $25/post/month. We’re especially excited to launch our CRM “post level” sponsorship which allows you to sponsor individual posts for extra targeted exposure. Don’t let your competitor advertise on a post about you!

These spots will go fast so contact us directly (info [at] crmblogger [dot] com) to secure an ad sponsorship or for more information, visit our CRM ad sponsorship page.

CRM is a great technology when used properly. When it’s not, it can cause more trouble than good which is usually not the case. Regardless, millions of dollars is spent on implementing and/or maintaining CRM systems every year with the goal to help your sales force better manage their leads and contacts.

Geoffrey James who blogs for bnet, posted the top 5 reasons CRM stinks. Here is a summary of his points: Continue reading “5 Reasons CRM Stinks – BNET”

I recently returned from the Web 2.0 conference held in San Francisco at Moscone West and have some interesting news to report. While I was wandering the expo hall, I came across a booth by a company named Etelos.

They have an interesting product (which they just announced today) called CRM for Google. This product is an attempt to integrate the functionality of a full scale CRM system with the user interfaces of both cool apps and Google personalized home pages. Continue reading “Is Google Going After CRM?”