Top 10 Marketing Processes for Next 5 Years

Dears,
The role of marketing is strategically changing and will become increasingly process-driven. Redefining and automating key processes will ensure that your organization maintains a competitive advantage during the next five years. Not all 10 processes will be important or have the same degree of importance for all organizations. Prioritize the processes you want to define and automate for competitive advantage, and create a road map for process automation .Technology and vendor selection should follow documentation of processes to ensure that solutions adequately support the processes you want to change or automate.

Here, we detail the top 10 marketing processes for companies to automate during the next five Years that will drive effectiveness through increased revenue and those that will manage costs by promoting operational efficiency.

1. Behavior-Based Segmentation: To develop effective CRM strategies, companies will need to redefine how they formally segment customers into groups based on customers' wants and needs. Ad hoc segmentation based on campaign and product often fails to appropriately identify customers' or prospects' needs, increasing campaign costs and diluting revenue generation. Segmentation based on customer value also fails to target offers that are relevant to the customer. Developing a formal strategy of segmenting customers based on needs (life stage) or wants (lifestyle) enables companies to identify products and services that are relevant for customers and prospects in those segments. Then, companies can develop campaigns and offers to select, acquire, retain and cross-sell customers based on those identified products and services. Companies will need to move from focusing on demographic information to collecting psychographic information.

Action Item: Formally segment your customers into eight to 12 groups that have a clearly identifiable and enduring set of wants and needs from your organization. Appoint segment managers who develop strategies for growing customer value in each of these segments and establish objectives. Set measurable goals for selection, acquisition, retention, cross-sell and customer value. Managers should then micro segment or model their segments to target specific offers and campaigns to meet segment objectives. Ensure that the rest of the organization (for example, sales, contact center, e-commerce, partners) is aligned around these customer segments.

2. Campaign Management (Planning to Customer Communication): Companies must identify the process steps for creating, executing and measuring different types of campaigns.

• Steps for outbound campaigns include planning (ensure alignment of customer segments and goals), tactical segmentation to target in the identified segments, prioritization of offers, identification of appropriate channels for communication, business rules for single step vs. multistep campaigns, creation of content of communication, suppression of offers based on customer preferences and/or contact rules, campaign tracking and closed-loop measurement.

• Steps for event-triggered campaigns include identification of appropriate triggers, definition of trigger, analysis of data streams to detect triggers, prioritization of triggers, creation of content, scripts, information for offers, execution of triggers including channels, suppression based on customer preferences or contact rules and measurement.

• Steps for inbound marketing campaigns include identification of relevant data for scoring, type of scoring (batch, real time, dynamic and spontaneous) based on data and channel, creation of content and identification of information for offers, suppression based on customer preferences and contact rules, execution based on channel and measurement.

The Web channel and Web analytics provide a vehicle for reaching millions of customers and analyzing their behavior and buying patterns. Campaign and offer optimization can help prioritize campaigns for individuals or customer segments across the mix of campaign types.

Action Item: Establish a multichannel, campaign management process. Use event-triggered and inbound marketing capabilities to increase customer relevancy and improve timing of offers.Avoid customer fatigue from over marketing by prioritizing across different types of campaigns, and suppressing offers based on customer preferences and contact rules.


3. Dialogue Management: Ongoing customer dialogue, managed appropriately, can improve a customer's satisfaction with a company, leading to increased loyalty and future buying. From a process perspective, it is important to create a dialogue with a customer from acquisition and on boarding throughout various phases of the relationship, establishing rules for frequency and channels used for contact. Customers can provide contact preferences for ongoing communications. Content included in these interactions should be timely and relevant, but interactions do not necessarily always need to contain an offer. There should also be mechanisms for soliciting and capturing customer feedback so that a dialogue can occur; does not just have an ongoing monologue directed at the customer. Based on feedback, the company may send customers additional or different types of communications to continue the dialogue.

Action Item: Define a process for maintaining customer contact from acquisition through the customer's life cycle with your company. Include the customer in the conversation by requesting feedback, and establish rules to respond. Solicit customer input on frequency and channels for such contact. Ensure that the information created in the dialogue does not conflict with company campaigns.


4. Lead Management: Lead management is a process that aligns marketing and sales from lead generation to lead execution. By expanding marketing's role in the process, companies can
improve lead quality and ensure higher conversion rates by sales. Process steps for marketing
include lead generation, collection, qualification, prioritization, augmentation and distribution .

Action Item: Expand the role of marketing in the lead management process to reduce burdens on sales with lead qualification and prioritization. Leverage insights in marketing to better qualify leads. Use marketing data and content to augment leads prior to sending them to sales. Support lead distribution based on channel fit with lead type and size of opportunity and available
resources.

5. Loyalty Management: Many loyalty management programs are based on points and reward systems, and often are "siloed" from other marketing, sales and customer service systems, creating another silo with which the customer interacts. As a result, the efforts of reward systems are often lost on the next poor interaction or bad experience the customer has with the organization. The next generation of loyalty management will identify customer processes that build or destroy customer loyalty, integrating reward systems with other CRM systems to ensure consistent customer experience and building loyalty (rather than eroding it) among customers who bring value to the organization.

Action Item: Rethink customer loyalty programs beyond point and reward systems. Make loyalty at least one goal of your CRM strategy. Ensure that processes are in place for recognizing and appropriately responding to your most loyal customers across the enterprise.

6. Brand Management (Creative Idea to Fulfillment): Brand is an important component of the customer's experience and for building loyalty. Processes for production management ensure that creative ideas are managed to brand guidelines with appropriate reviews and approvals captured in the system. A content or digital asset repository enables companies to store the created assets for reuse, and to store valuable information associated with the use and
effectiveness of the created materials/assets. Marketing fulfillment processes ensure central
control while providing guidelines and templates for localization of content, as well as supporting
access and procurement of the most up-to-date marketing materials by the field (for example,
field marketing, sales and distribution partners). The automation and integration of all three
competency areas support brand management in an end-to-end process from creative idea to
fulfillment.
Action Item: Identify the brand you want to create for your company. Define processes for
production management, knowledge management and fulfillment, establishing a road map for
automation and integration.

7. Budgeting and Financial Management: Most marketing organizations lack visibility and oversight into marketing spending, frustrating the finance organization. Budgets are created from the top down and then managed in individual spreadsheets that are difficult to reconcile and aggregate costs. Analysis can take months to perform, with results typically providing insight into what was spent but no ability to manage and control the budget as it's being spent. Finance pressures are driving more marketing organizations to consider standardizing their budgeting and financial management processes in the marketing function for planning and tracking committed funds vs. actual spending. Companies can create real-time alerts for overspending and better manage costs on an ongoing basis. Companies can more easily reallocate funds on an ongoing basis.
Action Item: Create a standard set of planning, budgeting and financial management processes for the marketing organization. Include processes for monitoring and alerting that enable ongoing financial management and reallocation of funds. Engage with finance for selection and
implementation.

8. Marketing Operations Management: There is substantial waste in most marketing
departments, with approximately 25% of the marketing budget spent on producing and managing marketing programs rather than on the actual promotions/campaigns. Being able to significantly reduce this waste can enable marketing not only to save money but also to reallocate that money to campaigns and promotions that drive revenue. More companies are appointing marketing operations directors who facilitate the process between marketing and IT to leverage technology in ways that improve marketing's operational processes. In the future, this role will create an operations office that measures, monitors and refines marketing processes on an ongoing basis to improve efficiencies and reduce marketing costs. In some organizations, particularly productcentric organizations, these processes may extend into sales and operations planning.

Action Item: Appoint a marketing operations director and create a marketing operations office. Leverage this role and office on an ongoing basis to look for operational process improvements.


9. Strategic Planning and Marketing Performance Management: Most marketing decisions are made from the top down, based more on an innate feeling rather than actual data, and are often based on misguided instincts. Data can provide better insight into past results and expected performance. However, data-driven decisions often miss some of the qualitative aspects of analysis that can significantly affect outcomes. The best strategic planning strategies will incorporate processes that support a top-down (management/corporate goals and objectives) approach and bottom-up (data/results/forecasts) approach.
Creating a framework for marketing performance management across marketing enables
marketing organizations to consistently measure and optimize the marketing mix. Using this
framework as input into the strategic planning process empowers the CMO and marketing
managers, coupled with their knowledge and experience, to formulate a better marketing
strategy. An important component of this framework will be the company's ability to measure and predict marketing ROI (revenue generated minus costs). This framework should also integrate with a company's broader corporate performance management (CPM) framework.

Action Item: Define a strategy for strategic planning that incorporates top-down and bottom-up views. Establish a platform across the entire marketing department for marketing performance management, including database, data model and analytical tools. Implement a solution that supports strategic planning, including alignment with corporate goals, dashboards with key performance indicators and forecasting, and calendaring. Measure and predict ROI. Link it to CPM.

10. Voice of Customer/Community Marketing: Traditionally, marketing's role has been to "push" communications (offers, campaigns and promotions) at customers. An important
component of marketing's strategy will be to represent the voice of the customer. At a basic level, marketing does this by requesting customers to identify their preferences for customer contact (for example, opt-out/opt-in, channels of communication, products of interest) or through online surveys. As this concept expands, marketing will establish customer forums (live or online) and use social networking and blogs to capture customers' points of view. Marketing will need to identify not just processes for soliciting, obtaining and managing customer feedback but also will need to establish processes to ensure that they are consistently and appropriately leveraged for customer communications (marketing, sales and customer service).

Action Item: Identify appropriate channels for obtaining customer feedback. Leverage the power of the Internet, including online communities and blogs. Define processes for using that feedback across the organization, including for marketing campaigns, customer service calls, Web site visits and sales interactions.

Enjoy your Day

Your Loving Partner and Companion

DC*

Innovation is Simple and out of the Box

Dears,

It’s all about our customer experience (Business & IT Heads). They have great knowledge about their businesses–they can cite everything about their strategies, priorities, goals, and key metrics. They study their competitors meticulously, understanding their strategies and positioning. They study their markets, and the best study their customers. They have deep insight about everything in their industry.
But when I talk to them, a critical issue they always bring up is, “How do we innovate?” “How do we start thinking out of the box?”
One of the problems with innovating and thinking out of the box is that we are prisoners of our own experience. Most of us have long experiences in our industry. We’ve been working with our company a long time, we may have worked with one of our competitors, we may have worked with one of our customers. We go to “our trade shows,” we read “our trade magazines,” we have deep knowledge about our companies, industries and markets.
That’s part of what makes us effective as leaders and business professionals, but at the same time, it’s exactly what limits us. Our ideas and innovations are limited by this collection of past experiences. We “know” what works and what doesn’t work, never reconsidering ideas that were “bad” in the past. We look at what our competitors are doing, copying them, perhaps tweaking the idea to one up them. We turn the crank on the tried and true programs of the past, sharpening them, reshaping them..
So how do we escape this? It’s actually pretty easy, we need to look outside our own industries. We need to look in very different industries to see how they approach some of the issues that we face. For example, a few years ago, the executives of one of the leading high technology (B2B) companies met with the execs of an extreme sports company. It was an interesting picture, on one side of the conference room, a row of execs in neatly pressed khaki’s and blue shirts, on the other side, guys in board shorts, torn tee shirts, lots of body ink tatoos. Each eyed the other warily, some started looking “Who are these freaks?”
They started off with a session with a few key questions about their business models, key challenges, problems, and so forth. Gradually, they found they had a lot in common. All were struggling to grow their businesses. All were struggling to get new and innovative ideas. As they started to talk over different approaches, one of the exec’s said to his peers in his company, “They are doing something really interesting and different from what everyone does in our industry, if we co-opted their ideas, if we twisted them a little here and there, they would be really new and novel for our company!”
Soon everyone was discovering something “new.” It wasn’t “new” to the presenter, but to the others it was new and innovative–when adapted to their industry. Each side started seeing ideas presented from a source they never would have thought about before.
Innovation doesn’t have to be brand new and revolutionary. innovation can be artful adaptations of old ideas from very different industries and sources. Try looking outside your industry–not just to adjacent industries, but to widely separated groups. Try looking across generations–forget Gen Y–they are so old–look at kids. Try looking across national borders and cultures. Look at what other people do, how they handle similar issues, look at what you can learn and adapt from them. Share what you are doing, let them learn and adapt from you.
Innovation is simple, you just have to know where to look, how to listen, how to artfully co-opt and adapt .

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

Doing CRM Right : Phased Implementation Approach

Dears,

CRM is the most influential customer strategy of the decade. What started out as a customer retention program today has developed into a full fledged business strategy often involving millions of dollars. How long does an actual CRM implementation take? How long does it take to see some return on investment after employing a CRM strategy?A company can expect a fair share of return on investment equivalent to at least ten times its investment. Companies should comprehend the fact that they are actually starting up a project that could take at least 5 years but will lead to phenomenal increase in market share.

CRM's Time Frame- What you Need to Know

• Sometimes putting money into a 5 yr plan may seem unwise therefore it is better to opt for small investments - quick steps. The return on these little investments can be used to further greater expansion. So one should therefore opt for a 6 months to one year project and then continue from there on.



• Every organization needs to establish its goals clearly. From then on it has to decide at which point it actually is and where it really wants to see itself after its CRM implementation.



• It is imperative that the organization have a long-term commitment to the CRM project and be willing to invest the required amount of effort time and money to obtain necessary results. The organization should not expect a return on investment too soon. Expecting a short return on investment say 6 months will have detrimental affects.



• The average implementation time for organizations that implement most CRM solutions is 16 to 24 weeks while the industry average hovers greater than 10 months. An organization that implements CRM should expect full ROI in 10 months.



• After the implementation of the strategy CRM focus should be on customer interactions and using this to meet customer needs. What's most important is to build and launch, then improve, rather than spend months in preparation before the initial launch.
  So what's the best option? Do organizations opt for a one time plan or a phased implementation strategy? Opting for phased implementation is certainly more beneficial and is the better choice of the two.

Guidelines For Successful Phased Implementation:
Ease Slowly into CRM Implementation
Establish your business needs first. Next companies need to establish a CRM project that has a short delivery period so that the project can be delivered in a short timeframe. It is better to opt for phased implementation, small individual projects than a mammoth one. This will ensure that there is adequate return on investment and that there is considerable cost reduction and efficiency.
CRM Package vs. Business Needs
It is important to ensure that the best balance is obtained between the CRM solution and the actual use of it. At most times businesses find that they are adjusting their business processes and goals to the CRM package and vice versa. An effort should be made to make use of the CRM tools to the best of its ability while at the same time accommodating business processes.
Get Management Involved
CRM executives and top management should be involved. Their participation is critical to the achievement of CRM goals and objectives. The CRM committee appointed or the CRM manager should actively participate in all aspects of the CRM implementation from the inception to the deployment. Responsibility should be given to the appropriate persons and ensured that they carry it through and thereby avail of all the possible CRM benefits.
Training is Essential
Training should be taken seriously. Since the implementation of CRM is a huge task it is important to plan for individual training within the organization for ex. classroom training, expert training etc can be opted for so that they are enabled to possess the necessary skills required for the job. This is an important part of CRM implementation. Employees should be encouraged to provide feedback on how well the CRM training has gone and whether or not they need additional help.
Implementing CRM
Make sure the business is affected to the barest minimum. See what effects the CRM implementation will have on your business and make sure you prepare employees for the possible jolts. It is most important to focus on the process and allow the CRM tool to manage the process. It is also important to include the entire business even if the CRM project includes only one business unit.
Future Focus
Since the CRM implementation will bring with it new changes and new challenges it is imperative that the resources at hand be used to deal adequately with possible change. It is important to focus on the possibility that changes will undoubtedly occur in future. Plans should be made keeping this in mind. Room should be provided for modifications and the possibility of plans going awry as well. The business should be well equipped to deal with these changes.
Get Feedback from Users
Obtaining user feedback is essential as this can contribute to the success of the CRM project. It yields valuable information about CRM implementation's requirements user acceptance, etc. While considering implementing the CRM strategy the adherence to the above factors will go a long way in ensuring success. Getting CRM right will ensure that customer retention is secured, sales leads are followed and marketing is boosted.After the execution of CRM the results need to be measured often, based on the methodology developed. It is important to ensure that current metrics are established. Both qualitative and quantitative measures should be adopted, after which the results need to be analyzed and finally based on this a methodology should be implemented.

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

Vibrant MiddleEast: My Memorable Middleeast Experience

Dears,

There are so many things that I long to tell my colleagues and friends in other part of the world about the experience of being in Middle East especially in Saudi Arabia and Dubai. It is so vastly different from what you would expect from reading about the Middle East in newspapers or watching news on television. First of all, people in these regions are very friendly. My favorite story is about an Arab gentleman who helped in one of my CRM project to translate the Arabic version of the requirement to english .He apologized for his lack of English, although his language skills were very good I thought, and I said, "No, no, it is me who must apologize. I am here as a guest in your country, yet I speak no Arabic!" he smiled at me, and then she said, "Perhaps if more people like you and me could talk as we are, there would be peace in the world." I was so moved by that simple thought and by his warmth and helpfulness towards me.
For me, the most fascinating things about being in Saudi, so far from home, were the everyday things. There are American fast food outlets on every corner -- McDonalds, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and even Starbucks and Subway. There are endless little tea and coffee places where men can have beverages and small local pastries. There are also myriads of Indian and Lebanese restaurants where one can eat very well at a reasonable cost. Household groceries, fruits, vegetables etc... a down to earth price with quality far superior than we can see in any of the supermarkets in India and other parts of the world.
The other exciting experience is during my multiple visits to Dubai on the work front. Today, Dubai has considerable wealth and economic stability because of its trade and tourism industries, mainly tourism. Some call Dubai the “Las Vegas” of the Middle East because of its extravagant architecture and fabulous lifestyle. Dubai is home to expatriates from all over the world. Its diverse population encourages international cooperation on both corporate and cultural levels. The experiences and attractions available in Dubai are many and varied. From the miles of immaculate beautiful white sandy beaches to the richly exotic Arabian heritage, from the awe inspiring majesty of the desert to the lively international bars, restaurants and nightclubs – a visitor to Dubai is guaranteed an incredible, never to be forgotten experience. Dubai has a thriving expat population who make the most of their tax free lifestyle in this amazing city of opportunity. The nightlife in the city is excellent, with cocktail bars, wine bars, themed bars and typical British or Irish pubs available, many of which offer food and entertainment as well.
High standard international cuisine is available in the city’s many restaurants and if you are looking for lively evening entertainment there are numerous night clubs around the city. Some of the clubs attract international DJs; there are also Middle Eastern, Indian and Asian nightclubs offering entertainment with singers and dancers. You can be assured of an exciting pace of life in Dubai and a high standard of living.
As a result of my experience in Dubai and Saudi, I have a new perspective of the Middle East and advocate to my friends to redirect their attention to the things that matter most in terms of our being respected globally. I have learned to regard every single day as a new adventure, and if that doesn't keep me young (as they say it does) then it has certainly taught me humility and reminded me that attitude to appreciate other nationals and their culture is my most valuable asset

Your Loving Partner and Companion

DC*

When Quick is Never Quick Enough : Need for Citizen Case Management System

Dears,
The article below is based on the true experience sited by Oracle Corporation efforts to help australian govt.
"It's with some mixed emotions that I highlight this particular story on the state of Victoria, Australia's Department of Human Services. Everyone is probably familiar with the devastating bushfires that became known as "Black Saturday" and how disastrous they were to the people of Victoria. However, there were many people working around the clock to identify individuals and families affected by the bushfires and arrange accommodation, clothing, food, and other services. Part of that effort was a case management system designed, built and deployed in 3 days on Oracle CRM On Demand. "The fires had destroyed towns, people had lost their homes and even their lives," said Grahame Coles, CIO, Department of Human Services. "Within three days we were able to roll out these systems, using Oracle CRM On Demand, to assign case workers to people affected by the bushfires and ensure they received the help they desperately needed."
The CRM is not just about Customer Delight or enhancing customer experience sometimes this is the need of the hour solution for Disaster Management. Today every Public Sector CRM solutions should/must have the case management functionalities.” N “number of Government Department across the globe evaluating this solution for the betterment of citizen relationship services. The case sited above is a classical example of how this could be of help during emergency and adverse situations. Based on my experience with one of the govt sector clients they were truly delighted to have such solution in place .Today the problem of every govt sector employee is that they are not fully equipped to handle the citizen relationship which calls for a system and adequate know how about case and Investigation handling. The case of Government Muncipality do we know how much of operational nuances goes in handling cases let it be a permit for license, inspection of buildings, administering city developments..I would say you really need state of the art information systems to manage such diverse operations. The case management is just a starting point of Citizen Relationship Management and it calls for the decision from Government authorities to make the wise decision at the earliest possible

Your Partner and Companion
DC*

I am (Consumer)Good(s), But I will Get Better with CRM

Dears,

There is little question that the world has changed over the last two years, and while consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies have been less affected than some other industry segments; they have not gone completely unscathed. They are dealing with consumers who are trading down to more affordable products, while their retail partners increase their private label mix and ask manufacturers to take more responsibility for fulfillment execution.

Product mix changes have driven higher than-normal profitability volatility, and cost-cutting measures have been stepped up. One consequence of this changing business environment is a refocus on service levels and both attracting and retaining key customers. As a result, despite cost-cutting measures, and tightening hurdle rates on IT investments, the interest in sales and marketing capabilities overall CRM interest is growing.

In the annual IDC Vertical Group survey of CPG executives, increasing sales volume and improving new product sell-in are both rated in the top 10 priority business initiatives as well as retaining existing customers. This is the first time that retaining existing customers has been as high as sixth place in the survey, and really highlights how important sales and marketing capabilities are becoming .Indeed, the important role of sales and marketing in both driving and achieving these key business initiatives cannot be overstated. Either through the management of the product portfolio, introduction of the right new products, development of new customers or the effective retention of existing ones, sales and marketing capabilities will affect profitability, sales development and the more rapid sell-in of innovation

Mobility and mobility tools are a factor here, as the nature of sales, particularly lends itself to the business benefits that mobility technologies can bring. It is no surprise, therefore, that in a recent
“Mobile Technology” survey by Telecom Major, 57 percent of respondents indicated the solution type with best return on investment (ROI) for mobile applications is CRM automation.

So, where do we expect consumer goods companies to focus their sales and marketing efforts in 2010? Based on survey results for 2010, activities and investments will be pragmatic and targeted on those areas of business building that can deliver the most impactful results, I discussed in brief some of the critical ones below

•Trade Promotion Management is both the second largest cost item on the consumer goods profit and loss statement and poorly understood by many manufacturers. Rethinking trade promotions will be an important focus for companies, in terms of the business process and the facilitating IT tools.
• Category Management, with a particular focus on the “SKU fight”. Category managers have not done a good job at controlling SKU counts in many consumer goods categories, and with the growth of private label and an increasing impatience on the part of retailers for better assortment balance, we see this as an important focus area.
• Downstream Data remains intriguing and challenging in its applicability to sales and marketing initiatives. It has enormous potential to help consumer goods companies improve promotions and new product introductions, but it requires a rethinking of many business processes and the use of more agile business tools.
• Direct-to-Consumer, although not the highest priority for consumer goods companies, it is an interesting growth opportunity and a way for manufacturers to improve “connectivity” with the consumer and combat the growth of retail private label.

• CRM Force Automation, driven both by emerging mobility tools and the desire to do a better job of attracting and retaining key customers.

I am currently exploring CRM handheld implementation nuances and business benefit, In near future I will share it with you .

Have a Great Weekend , Ramadan Kareem to all.

Your Partner and Companion
DC*

Happy Indian Independence Day - Jai Hind

Dears,

I am really grateful to my nation , India one of the greatest nation on earth and soon India will be Dream land for all world citizens . I was on travel to Saudi Arabia,Riyad .Amazing visit and Ramadan Fasting has got a great meaning . Hospitality from fellowmen is beyond expectation and Its a true delight to be in this country during Ramadan Period. Beyond Borders of different nation the spirutuality and humanity rules the world .

Inshah Allah and Peace be upon you

DC*

Cloud Relationship Management : The New CRM Kid

Dears,

Increasing sales, for many companies, equates success. However, figuring out how to do that can often be challenging. Some businesses are looking towards customer relationship management (CRM) systems to help facilitate more leads. The goals of CRM systems are to manage and organize customer data in order to provide supportive customer service, and to find new potential markets.

Cloud computing has entered the arena of CRM by offering technology that is scalable and virtualizes resources over the Internet. Generally, clients do not own any physical infrastructures that host the software platform or applications. Rather, business consume resources as a service, which can offer many advantages, such as potential savings, accessibility, reliability, security, and sustainability.

Specifically, the sales department can improve in several ways by incorporating cloud computing. Everyone knows that the sales team drives the entire company. Creating more leads and sealing more deals can jump start all the other areas of production? Scaffolding your sales department with the tools they need to bring in more money offers more opportunity for success.

Take Advantage of Every Lead
Ensure that potential customers don’t fall through the cracks by having faster access to leads. Companies can quickly import lead information, and act on every lead. In the corporate world, leads equates customers, and that can mean profit.

Focus on Selling
Following sales processes is easy and automatic when cloud computing is the medium. Since all applications are accessible wherever the Internet is connected, sales representatives can view all customer and product information necessary for sealing deals

Knowing is Half the Battle
Stop wasting time searching through files and emails! All the tools needed can be available at the sales representative’s fingertips in an accessible and searchable sales portal. Reps will be able to see what materials are most valuable, see the customer history, and see how their co-workers have closed deals. Having the complete picture before going into a sales call can make all the difference in your company’s lead-sale ratio.

Accessibility
The cloud offers companies their applications anytime and anywhere. This can benefit sales representatives on the road to access information from any wireless device, whether it be a laptop or a BlackBerry. Sales representatives no longer have to worry if their computers have been updated or need upgrades because the CRM service does this automatically. Your sales team can work anywhere, whether it be on the road, at a trade show, or a customers home or busines. Data is always up to date, and customers always appreciate current information. In addition, managers can also benefit from this feature, because they will always be aware of how their sales team is performing.

Oversee Your Forecast
Management should appreciate the features that the cloud can offer how they supervise. Pipelines and forecasts are given in real-time; using cloud computing, managers can assess and drill down where needed. Managers may find it easier to track sales of individual representatives and track competitors.

Quick Customization
Customize your applications, your solutions, your fields and your workflow with the click of a button. Being able to change your customer relationship management program as you need supplies instant gratification and higher productivity. You can spend less time on the phone with the IT department, and more time facilitating change.

Using cloud computing to aid your customer relationship management initiatives could potentially expedite results. Generating more leads, and converting them into sales can be made easier by cloud computing. Its infrastructure lends itself towards improving sales, and therefore profits. The entire company can benefit from having up to date information to offer customers, create reports from, and use to manage.

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

The Best Sign Of A Good CRM Is No Sign At All

Dears,

Like good lighting on a movie set, the best sign of a good CRM is no sign at all. Just as you don’t want the lighting guy to steal the spotlight from Tom Cruise, you don’t want your CRM strategy to steal the spotlight from your product. And you don’t want it to take the focus of your sales force from the product, either. Here’s why: Your product is your business. Without it, your CRM doesn’t matter, your customer support doesn’t matter, and your brand doesn’t matter. Focusing on your CRM—on following up on the leads it provides to you from Twitter or Facebook, on demographics and sales analysis—may help your sales team gain a better idea of what their target market looks like. It will also give you a clearer picture of your most profitable customers, but it won’t help you in the individual sale. Consumers don’t care what kind of CRM software you use; they don’t care if you prefer cloud computing over grid computing, or what kind of application development tools you used; they just want a product they like and can’t live without.
“But CRM isn’t just used in sales, it delivers quality service, too!” you’re probably saying. This is true. And your CRM system is usually the delivery mechanism for that service. But again, the consumer doesn’t care what it is, only that it solves their problem or puts them in touch with someone who can. Using your CRM software to provide support online will help reduce the burden on your call centers, and it’ll certainly please your customers, but service isn’t the final product that they’re looking for. The knowledge management tools you use should fit seamlessly into your customer support without seeming like a new system that you use to collect data, improve marketing, and research consumer trends.

Your CRM solution is a means to an end, so make sure you’re still pushing the product. Because without that, you’ve got a Movie Multiplex, but no movie show.

Enjoy your Weekend and Hope your astro signs are good for the week ahead

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

Are You a "Stupid" ? : Make CRM your Career Choice

Dears,
CRM is the new career choice for our vibrant young generation . Originally thought to be the avenue for experts alone, now even fresher are opting for it. On account of its phenomenal growth CRM has become an interesting and rewarding option. CRM education is fast turning heads. CRM learners can be assured of good career prospects. There is a wide range of certification available from a number of industries.

CRM as a career choice helps students and others gain an insight into how the business processes align along with customer relationship management. One is able to understand the process involved in CRM implementation and its affect on organization goals, processes, technology and people involved. It helps its learners understand what can be used for the identification, acquisition, retention of customers in the concerned organization. CRM jobs can be found without much difficulty as the demand is high. Investing in CRM education is thus extremely profitable.

The most Common Career Pathways of CRM are:
For a CRM software vendor - as a seller
For a company implementing CRM -as a CRM Analyst or Developer
For Consulting firm -Business Analyst and Implementation consultants

Questions you need to ask before Embarking on a CRM career:Do you want to work on for a CRM client or a consultant? You can opt to work with a client company or you could opt to join a consultant dealing in CRM. This helps you gain an insight into varied companies and helps you to find where you're true interest lies.
Which area would you like to specialize in?

• CRM organizational Design and Management
• CRM Solution and Architecture Development
• CRM Metrics and Performance measurement Analysis and Development
• CRM Program Executions
• Enabling Marketing and SalesForce to effeciently use CRM
• you want to work with a business-to-consumer, or business-to-business focus?

Business-to-consumer involves sales, marketing and service automation in huge retail consumer market. Business-to-business is about developing value to large business accounts.

The line between ERP and CRM is disappearing and soon CRM career hunters will have ERP options to choose from as well. It is important to consider the future trends of the CRM industry and look closely at what industries have the most demand for CRM and endeavor to obtain CRM jobs right there or choose CRM paths into that industry. Permanent, contract CRM jobs and interim jobs can also be opted for.

One can search for CRM jobs in areas such as management, strategy, sales and IT. CRM jobs cover sectors like banking, legal, sales, marketing, IT, manufacturing, finance, accounting, insurance etc.
CRM certification is provided by several colleges and universities in the world and also by the Solution Vendors such as Oracle ,SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce etc. They are extremely intensive but very worthwhile. However "Down and Dirty" certification by any university has no value in the CRM industry. Certification programs like these do not provide credibility and thus diminishes its value. The certification of CRM provides individuals with knowledge about the skills, techniques, pitfalls etc. of CRM. It helps them to keep their skills current by participating in updates that are generally open only to certified professionals. Most certification programs embody a course so intensive it includes everything from CRM inception right through to CRM deployment. This certification serves to assist companies in making decisions regarding the knowledge of their prospective employees and helps to identify CRM professionals.
As more and more people become certified the value and recognition of CRM certification will continue to grow and soon CRM will become a career hunter's haven. CRM is combination of Technology, Processes and People Management Skills and just theory of the subject wont help in the long run and you have to really dirty your hands to make the most of your crm knowledge.
Given the demand of CRM professional , everyone of them is STUPID: " Smart Talented Unique Person in Demand"

Your "Stupid" Partner and Companion
DC

Tough and Good Times of CRM : CRM is a badge that your company can wear with pride

Dears,
According to figures from Gartner annual sales of CRM software exploded from $762 million in 1997 to $20 billion in 2010—nearly a 20+-fold increase in just a decade. To be fair, the methodology for gauging the size of the marketplace has always varied widely, and continues to do so today. But there’s little debate about CRM’s ongoing growth streak, a run that shows little sign of abating any time soon.
Is there any company today that doesn’t have at least some form of CRM? You’d be surprised: The percentage of firms that have implemented CRM may have increased from 53 percent in 2003 to 75 percent in 2010, but that means that, even now—as CRM has come to be seen as table stakes, as a must-have—a quarter of all companies are still muddling along without.
As with any enterprise initiative, CRM still requires a compelling business case in order to get the nod, especially in the midst of a difficult economic climate. Startling as it may seem to those who have seen its benefits, CRM often loses the budgetary battle to other projects that promise a better return on investment.
Cost remains an issue, of course—but one that’s faded and continues to fade fast. The expensive start-up price of an on-premises solution is now frequently supplanted by the relatively inexpensive subscription rates of CRM delivered via the software-as-a-service (SaaS) business model. (You may know it better as “on-demand computing,” or its newer tag, “cloud computing.”) .85 percent of all CRM systems in 2003 were on-premises solutions; just 15 percent were SaaS. Fast-forward to 2010, and SaaS has become the predominant method of accessing CRM, now claiming 53 percent of all deployments.
Need a sure sign of how SaaS has forever altered the CRM landscape? You need only cast an eye at SaaS pioneer Salesforce.com. The company accelerated from annual revenue of zero in its fiscal year 2000 to $1.3 billion in its fiscal year 2010, its branding also shifted, from sales force automation to CRM to on-demand computing to cloud computing. The transformation of CRM itself can be said to have followed a parallel path. The client-server era’s basic sales tracking and customer care gave way to Web-based CRM at the turn of the century, which led to the cloud-based CRM applications and services of today.
Some vital statistics for you

Annual Sales of CRM Software:
1997—$762 million
2010—$20 billion
Percentage of Firms That Have Implemented CRM
2003—53%
2010—75%
Mix of CRM Systems in Place
2003—85% On Premises vs. 15% SaaS
2010—47% On Premises vs. 53% SaaS
Fiscal Full-Year Revenue for Software-as-a-Service CRM Pioneer Salesforce.com
2000—$0
2010—$1.3 billion
CRM Failure Rate
2001—50%
2002—70%
2005—18%
2006—31%
2007—56%
2009 —47%

As a maturing market, however, CRM now has the benefit of its own history, a track record to compare against, and recommended practices that can at least help tilt the scales toward success.

CRM is no longer the Four Letter Word and the Badge is worth Wearing

Some words just leave a bad taste, and the notion of washing your mouth out with soap simply isn’t going to do the trick. Some companies had been so burned by failed CRM implementations that they had grown convinced that the technology was only capable of delivering more harm than help. Unfulfilled promise and hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of dollars frittered away on flawed initiatives.

A couple of factors contributed to CRM’s unfortunate reputation, Companies hadn’t put into place what their business objectives were, other than some very high-level vision of ‘keeping in touch with the customer. CRM adopters in the ’90s and early ’00s. “They didn’t realize that the implementations required a fair amount of professional services, organizational change, and business process reorientation to be successful.”

Ironically, for a technology built on the shoulders of sales force automation (SFA); CRM wasn’t seen in a good light by salespeople, a perception particularly true with the offerings from the era’s frontrunners, Siebel Systems and SAP. People were using probably 15 percent of the functionality in 80 percent of the implementations,” he says. It boiled down to the sense of the solution—it was a glorified contact manager with maybe some forecasting, as well. If done right, SFA can be an effective forecasting tool and [can] certainly help consolidate information. “But you also have to give salespeople something they want to use, something that makes their job more efficient so that they don’t mind spending the extra time inputting data.”

Things started to change, however, with the emergence of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and on-demand offerings; mobile computing; and the application of data and business intelligence and analytics. There’s been a democratization of analytics in the last 10 years,” .Refreshed user interfaces and dashboards enable salespeople to customize their own CRM portals for analytics. Breakthroughs in mobile computing have also altered the CRM landscape, with users accessing CRM on their mobile phones, changing the nature of sales and service in the field.

Now you can build systems that are much more end-to-end for your business. Not only that, but companies can connect with like-minded individuals on the social Web. Ten years ago, before customer communities and user groups, People want to know they aren’t alone. If you’re doing an 8,000-seat deployment, you want to connect people up at the same scale.” Today, that level of connectivity can be achieved simply by logging on to Twitter.

The recession also renewed interest in customer retention; CRM became, for many, a crutch during a time of uncertainty. CRM, a badge that industry members can wear with pride. With advances such as SaaS, mobile computing, analytics for the business user, and social CRM and service side of CRM too is enjoying brighter days, with improved interfaces and real-time information brought to an integrated agent desktop.

CRM is fun again and enjoy your CRM moments.

Your Partner and Companion
Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

Are you MDM Aware ?

Dears,

Wht we refer to as the “enterprise” is often composed of many applications referring to multiple, sometimes disparate sets of data that are intended to represent the same, or similar, business concepts. And although in many organizations the administrative control of data is still aligned with operational business applications, there is a growing desire to consolidate common data concepts, subject that data to analysis and ultimately turn it into actionable knowledge to benefit the common good.
In order to exploit that information for both operational and analytical processes, an organization must be able to clearly define those business concepts, identify the different ways that data sets represent those concepts, integrate that data and then make it available across the organization. That need has introduced an opportunity for organizational information integration, management and sharing, thereby creating a truly integrated enterprise. And this is the challenge of what is known as master data management (MDM): integrating tools, people and practices to organize an enterprise view of the organization’s key business information objects, and to govern their quality, use and synchronization and use that unified view of the information to achieve the organization’s business objectives.

Understanding master data and master data management

If replication of these “key business information objects” impedes the achievement of organizational business objectives, then creating a unified view of “master data” will reduce barriers to success. We can define master data as the key business information objects used in the different applications across the organization, along with their associated metadata, attributes, definitions, roles, connections and taxonomies. Typical examples of master data include Customers, Suppliers, Parts, Products, Employees and Locations.

In order to exploit that information for both operational and analytical processes, an organization must be able to clearly define those business concepts, identify the different ways that data sets represent those concepts, integrate that data and then make it available across the organization. That need has introduced an opportunity for organizational information integration, management and sharing, thereby creating a truly integrated enterprise. And this is the challenge of what is known as master data management (MDM): integrating tools, people and practices to organize an enterprise view of the organization’s key business information objects, and to govern their quality, use and synchronization and use that unified view of the information to achieve the organization’s business objectives.In turn, MDM uses business applications, information management methods and data management tools to implement the policies, procedures and infrastructure that support capturing, integrating and sharing the use of accurate, timely, consistent and complete master data.

In essence, MDM should give users the ability to uniquely identify representations about each master data entity across the infrastructure.

MDM technical capabilities

Launching a comprehensive MDM project or program, by virtue of its position as an enterprise application, requires coordination and planning in addition to technology acquisition. When your organization is at the point where critical stakeholders are aligned and prepared to commit to implementing MDM, it is valuable to know what goes into an MDM project in order to assess organizational business needs and appropriately evaluate vendor offerings.

To create a unified view of master data, the MDM platform must have an index or database of each unique entity to be managed. There are several deployment methods. On one side of the spectrum is the “registry,” which is a very thin index that only contains enough information to differentiate between unique entities while maintaining links to all managed data instances of each unique identity. The other side of the spectrum is the “transaction hub,” which is a single consolidated database containing all attributes associated with each entity. Variation in the degree of attribution managed within the implementation of a master data environment along that spectrum is determined by the organization’s business application operational and analytical business application requirements and corresponding need for synchronization.

Layered on top of the core repository, no matter how it is implemented, are additional components and services. We can group MDM technical capabilities into seven general infrastructure and service areas, as shown in picture enclosed

· Core master data hub
· Data integration and consolidation
· Master data services
· Integration and delivery
· Access control
· Synchronization
· Data governance

Different organizations’ scenarios for using master data may reflect different underlying requirements, which may or may not be met by a single MDM vendor.

Core master data hub

The master data hub combines the infrastructure supporting the unified data models, metadata management, reference data management and business rules management. The MDM architecture enables the instantiation of the selected implementation model (e.g., registry vs. transaction hub) upon which the models for each master data concept will be deployed. Some vendor products come packaged with data models that can be extended; other vendors expect the implementers to integrate their own models within the architecture.

Because of the variant syntax (structure and semantics associated with the distributed source data sets), a critical component is metadata management, including data element catalogs with business definitions, data structure and type specifications, as well as a catalog of master reference data concepts and corresponding enumerated value domains, such as country or currency codes. In addition, data hierarchies (such as regions, organization structures, cost centers and product categories) are managed as master data for both transactional and analytical applications. Likewise, business rules that are applied in different applications not only govern the consistency and completeness of master data, the rules themselves are potentially replicated and therefore are subject to mastering.

Data integration and consolidation

Two aspects of MDM are critical when it comes to the data managed inside the master data hub: getting the data into the hub and getting the data out of the hub. The first part requires data integration and data quality components, such as connectors to different source data systems, data transformation, data quality validation, parsing and standardization, data cleansing and loading. Some vendors bundle their MDM platforms with data integration and data quality/cleansing capabilities, while other vendors have partnership arrangements to provide these functions.

Master data services

The second part, getting the data out of the hub, relies on data delivery services. At the basic level, standard data object lifecycle services are implemented, such as “create a customer record” or “update product price.” For each modeled master object, basic master data services can be configured to create, read, update and delete—either the object itself or its associated attributes. MDM products may provide either a service library or the means for creating master data services as master object models are integrated or enhanced.

Integration and delivery

The delivery of information builds on the core master data services. The way we view it in Picture, delivery focuses on adding value to the business services, allowing you to reduce replication of common functions implemented multiple times across different applications (such as “create a new customer account” or “look up product”). In turn, these basic business services can provide more complex business services, implemented once and used multiple times. Creating a standardized interface will also help in transitioning existing applications to use the master data system by facilitating application interoperability.

Access control

While not typically seen as a value added component of an MDM product per se, access control is nonetheless necessary as the unified master data objects are exposed to a greater spectrum of applications (and corresponding users).

Synchronization

Across the implementation spectrum (from registry to transaction hub), there are different requirements for synchronizing data from the numerous source data systems. For reporting purposes, a daily synchronization may be sufficient, while certain operational activities may demand immediate coherence across all views of master data. Every MDM vendor should be able to describe how its product synchronizes data across the enterprise and show how to adjust the frequency and monitor the guarantees of consistency.

Data governance

Not only must the quality of the data be continuously monitored to verify acceptability, there must be operational governance and stewardship services in place to support the inspection, root cause analysis, correction of data and propagation of corrections across the master data environment, as well as data quality and data governance reporting. Note that the inspection of data quality issues will be closely tied to the data quality capabilities of the data integration layers and to the business rules managed within the master data hub.

What to look for in a master data management platform ?When evaluating and selecting MDM software, look for the following core functionalities:

· Identity resolution: Since the objective is to provide a unified view of each master data concept, an MDM product must either provide identity resolution and matching as a built-in component or as an add-on from another vendor.
· Core data models: Some standard similarities can be encapsulated into a template model that can be adjusted to meet customer needs. Same goes for other standard data concepts, like product, agreement, account (as in chart of accounts) and so on.
· Data services: In relation to the core models, the product should suggest or provide a library of services used to create, modify and retire instances of master data objects.
· Hub management functionality: If the MDM tool is used to collect and consolidate a single copy of master data objects, there must be a systemic capability to instantiate and manage that master database.
· Data governance utilities: If issues are identified, usually because of a false positive merge or a false negative non-merge, there should be an interface to allow for manual remediation (either unlinking a merged record into its original constituents or linking two records that the tool may have missed).
· Data federation: To support synchronization with application replicas or to capture and communicate updates, some data federation functionality (e.g., change data capture and message queues) should support observance of the specified expectation for coherence.
· Data integration: The product should include tools with extract, transform and load capabilities
· Standardization and enhancement: When merging records together, these capabilities, which are often part of a data quality suite, will help reduce variance and improve matching and linking.
· Data profiling: While technically this is often a standalone component, its use for assessment of quality and for metadata discovery makes it indispensible, and some MDM tool vendors either bundle it or offer it as a separate product.



Transitioning to a master data management program is a strategic decision that’s intended to modernize and simplify the horizontal integration of enterprise business applications while providing data consistency and predictability. Organizations that want to succeed in building their master data environment must consider how their business processes intersect with their information needs and assess their information requirements before selecting a tool. Because of the complexity involved in transitioning to MDM, identifying key business drivers and their technical needs informs the technology selection process and enables a modern, staged implementation. As the MDM vendor market continues to mature, look for improvements in integration, development, deployment and especially governance capabilities for a successful implementation.

Thanks for your patient reading, hope this blog article made some sense for you in understanding MDM...and now u are MDM aware.

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

DataQuality- NightMares and Horror Stories

Dears,

Data quality seems to be a hazy concept, but the lack of data quality severely hampers the ability of organizations to effectively accumulate and manage enterprise-wide knowledge. Data quality management is not easy, as is evidenced by these true horror stories of data quality gone wrong. Learn from these mistakes to avoid problems with your own data quality projects.

Mars Orbiter
The Mars Climate Orbiter, a key part of NASA's program to explore the planet Mars, vanished in September 1999 after rockets were fired to bring it into orbit of the planet. It was later discovered by an investigative board that NASA engineers failed to convert English measures of rocket thrusts to newtons, a metric system measuring rocket force, and that was the root cause of the loss of the spacecraft. The orbiter smashed into the planet instead of reaching a safe orbit. This discrepancy between the two measures, which was relatively small, caused the orbiter to approach Mars at too low an altitude. The result was the loss of a $125 million spacecraft and a significant setback in NASA's ability to explore Mars

CD Mail Fraud

David Russo, 33, of Sayreville, NJ, admitted that he received 22,260 CDs by making each address — even if it listed the same post office box — different enough to evade fraud-detection computer programs. Among his methods: adding fictitious apartment numbers, unneeded direction abbreviations and extra punctuation marks. The scam is believed to be the largest of its kind in the nation, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott S. Christie, who prosecuted the case. The introductory offers typically provided nine free CDs with the purchase of one CD at the regular price, plus shipping and handling. Other CDs then had to be purchased later to fulfill club requirements. Russo paid about $56,000 for CDs, said Paul B. Brickfield, his lawyer, or an average of $2.50 each. He then sold the CDs at flea markets for about $10 each, Brickfield said. Russo pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud. He faces about 12 to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Closed Account? My Personal experience
Three months after canceling my cellular telephone service, I continue to receive bills from my former service provider indicating that I was being billed for 0.00 — Please pay the bill to avoid penalty charges and till date I am getting calls from Service Reps and I pity them.

Charge Card

A friend of mine is the head of a small home-based business. He received an offer from a major charge card company for a corporate charge card with no annual fee. He accepted, and a short time later, he received his card in the mail. Not long after that, he began to receive the same offer from the same company, but those offers were addressed differently. Evidently, his name had been misspelled on one of his magazine subscriptions, and that version had been submitted to the credit card company as a different individual. Not only that, his wife started to receive offers too. Six months later, this man still gets four or five mail offers per week in the mail from the same company, which evidently not only cannot figure out who he is but also can't recognize that he is already a customer!

These are just a few stories culled out of my interactions with colleagues, or reading the some funny articles. Yet, who has not been subject to some kind of annoyance that can be traced to a data quality problem? I believe everyone of us had experienced such funny horror ones not to blame the corporate house for the mistakes but this gives us lesson to know how much important DQ is for a company .

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

Digital Nirvana Made Easy with Social CRM and Networking.

Dears,
"I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead" – This is the Quote by Mark Twain. At first it didn't seem to make sense. Then I realized it's an observation that the better you understand something, the more succinctly you can express it. So unless you take the time to think about the contents before you write a letter it's liable to be a long meandering letter. It also implies that the short letter is superior to the long one. Except of course he said it much more concisely than I have.

This applies to software too; I've spent years working on traditional Enterprise CRM packages, huge, immensely powerful software suites with a staggering range of functionality. But their very size and complexity is also their biggest hurdle to adoption in that they're difficult to implement and maintain, and their flexibility makes it hard to realize their potential benefits. This syndrome doesn't only apply to big business software. What’s this got to do with Social CRM? Well I think it offers an interesting perspective when applied to successful social networking sites. The successful ones aren't normally the biggest most feature-rich web sites around, they're more focused on doing a smaller number of things but doing them well. When they do seem to offer wide functionality it's normally though some form of add-in such as the plethora of Facebook apps rather than core functionality (and it's interesting to see how face book’s recent redesign put the core social functions to the fore at the expense of those other apps). The most extreme example must be Twitter which does nothing more than allow users to post 140 character updates to anyone interested, yet seems to be taking over the world.

Social media has done several things to make it easier to communicate:
• Enabled individuals to participate in the conversation, not just the marketing machines of television, print, website owners
• Enabled individuals to subscribe or follow people, groups and topics they are interested in. Contrast this with email where you are deciding what the audience is interested in. With email you can deliver the message to specific people, but there’s a good chance it will be ignored.
• Simplified the means of conversation. The free form nature of blog posts means we don’t need to conform to a preset communication format. The 140 character limit on twitter or other micro-blogging forums may seem like a constraint, but it makes it focus in the message and not the format.

“When you give people easier ways to share information, more good things will happen. This quote is from Evan Williams, CEO and Founder of Twitter. Social media enables a conversation with an engaged audience; this is a good thing for your business.

Socializing is part of our everyday existence. Social networking software needs to make it easier for us to do this if it's to have any value. Complex processes don't help this they hinder it. It's always tempting to add new functionality, and techies always like more options to play with. But with software, and perhaps especially with Web 2.0 software, we always need to keep focused on making the core functionality just right. For me this means not being afraid to stop doing and spend more time thinking.

Have a great weekend

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

Put your Thumbs Up for National ID Program : Potential Beyond Imagination

Dears,
Who am I and Who are You? I and You define our identity in different terms but would be there be credibility factor attached to it and You may ask the question is that really matters to know Who am I , I would say like any other motivational speaker you are the most wonderful person in this world and your identity matters.
The national identification number or National Identity Card number is used by the governments of many countries as a means of tracking their citizens, permanent residents, and temporary residents for the purposes of work, taxation, government benefits, health care, and other governmentally-related functions. The number will appear on an identity card issued by a country.
The ways in which such a system is implemented is dependent on the country, but in most cases, a citizen is issued a number at birth or when they reach a legal age (typically the age of 18). Non-citizens are issued such numbers when they enter the country.Many countries issued such numbers ostensibly for a singular purpose, but over time, they become a de facto national identification number. For example, the United States originally developed its Social Security Number system as a means of disbursing Social Security benefits. However, due to functionality creep, the number has become utilized for other purposes to the point where it is almost essential to have one in order to, among other things, open a bank account, obtain a credit card, or drive a car.
Worldwide every Nation is looking forward to implement a National Id program and to name few countries initiated such project are
Bahrain, Hong Kong, Kyrgyzstan ,Libya,India ,Macau, Malaysia ,Morocco, Oman Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, South Africa ,Taiwan Thailand ,United Arab Emirates & Yemen
Implementing a new National Id project has lots of merits and at the same time requires mammoth effort from govt depts., NGOs and IT and Non IT Technical service providers. Introducing a national ID card scheme would cost around $50 million (minimum) for the first four years. The nationwide scheme normally would be implemented in three phases. Phase one involves the collection of data on citizens and non-citizens aged 16 years and above. The second phase covers citizens and non-citizens aged between six and less than 16 years and, the third phase will involve citizens and non-citizens between ages of zero and six.The national ID system will ensure a successful national development and enable the government to know people living under its jurisdiction and make the provision of essential services easy. But, one must ask - how exactly is the national ID card going to work? Besides individual cardholder statistics, what type of information would be required in a database that backed up the ID cards? The information on individuals would be recorded on the National Database upon which a National Identification Card would be issued to an individual. The idea sounds great. But the problem is, demographic databases don't work that way. It should be remembered that, a database does not operate in vacuum. The demographic data is a geographic distribution, a spatial database infrastructure is needed for the development of the type of national database.
Does your country have a national spatial data infrastructure upon which the said national database would be developed? Let me introduce some examples to explain how it's done. In Canada and the United States the agencies responsible for disseminating census data provide a number of digital datasets that can be input to a Geographic Information System (GIS). Census and other statistical data are provided in the form of attribute datasets coded by geographic location linked by means of street addresses, postal/zip codes and census tracts. City streets network data, utilities, municipal boundaries and other geographic features are also represented in digital form and, are used as a spatial database to which census data can be related. The dataset are used primarily with census attribute data like population, household income and employment statistics etc. for planning, tax assessment, locational analysis, utilities network analysis, business information management and emergency dispatch services etc. Statistics Canada organizes its datasets, known as Area Master Files Data, by the city block-face. A city block-face consists of one side of a street between two successive intersections.
The national identification system is a broad-based project, which will provide a one-stop ID cards which will enable state institutions such as the Passport Office, Social Security , Births and Deaths Registry, Banks and the Electoral Commission to function more efficiently. In the US, one cannot open a bank account, apply for drivers' license, State ID, Social Security Number or passport using a post office box number. It is also worth noting that, efficiency of the US system is derived from the uniqueness of a Social Security Number system based on a geocoded data structure, and backed up by street addresses and Zip Codes. I will explore the Financial and other Economic inclusion in my Next article :)
Moreover, it can be argued that, once some demographic data has been collected, it is by definition out of date due the dynamic nature of population distribution. This raises two questions
(1) how often is a national database update required for a particular program or policy formulation? (2) what role would the national ID cards play in monitoring trends in internal migration?
It may be appropriate to note here that, an ID card isn't an ordinary piece of card bearing a name, date of birth, place of birth, a photo and a series of numbers. It is a means of storing spatial data about a particular individual. It is therefore necessary to record the location of an individual to whom an ID card is issued. The location is usually referenced to a street address. This explains why addresses are printed on national ID cards and drivers' licenses used in many countries. If you've lived or live in the United States, you've probably changed your State ID or drivers' license when you moved house. I don't know about other States, but in Washington State, citizens are required by law to change their drivers' license or State ID within ten days of moving house, to reflect their current address. Thus, government databases are constantly updated, eliminating the need to spend billions of dollars to compile new databases.
Development programs to be implemented in the country require a lot of micro level information and planning such as identifying suitable locations and target people, allocation of funds, project monitoring and assessing the results. There are many cases in the past and present in which many development programs faced difficulties in achieving the desired objectives or even ended in total failure. The reasons of failure may be attributed to misuse of funds, political influences and the lack of accurate data to formulate realistic strategies and policies etc. It is therefore important for to recognize that, the national database is essentially a demographic model, therefore, should be designed to mimic all aspects of what is happening in homes across the nation. As a demographic model, the national database should have the capability to answer questions about what exists now or what will happen at some other point in time. The national ID cards scheme is a program that would continue until Armageddon. Hence, project duration and the technology upon which the equipment is built are the major deciding factors. It is also necessary to consider the pace at which the equipment technology is changing.

The application development software packages including Oracle’s and Microsoft’s of the World with MapInfo and Arc View etc.. I will explore the benefits and technology framework required to implement a national id program in my next article on this subject.

Have a Great Weekend

Your Partner and Companion

Dinesh Chandrasekar (AKA) DC*

Magnificent 5 Social Networking Strategies for your Company

Magnificent 5 Social Networking Strategies for your Company
Dears,

Magnificent 5 Social Networking Strategies for your Company

If you’re reading this blog, chances are you have an account with either Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter—if not all of them. It’s almost certain that you have watched a video on YouTube or looked at pictures on Flickr. You might even be a blogger yourself. But social networking for purely social and personal purposes is different than using a social networking strategy to grow your business.

So your company has opened a Twitter account and uploaded its logo as an avatar. What now?

Here are five best practices that can help you be a smart social networker.

1) Decide What to Achieve Through Social Networking
Are you trying to raise awareness?
Is your goal to improve the company’s product through collaboration?
Just here to advertise the product?
Are you striving to improve customer service?
Using the tools for contests or campaigns to drive business to the company’s website?
Want to survey customers to gather information in a crowd sourcing forum?
Are you promoting an event to increase sales or raise funds?
Do you need a forum to facilitate a discussion?

Each answer to these questions will allow your business to determine which social networking tool is the best to achieve the desired goal. Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn may each play a role, depending upon the desired outcome.

2) Decide Where to Apportion Your Attention and Energy
Depending upon the company’s goals, you will want to use various social networking tools in different capacities. For instance, many companies use Twitter for customer service applications. Some companies use blogs to provide value-added information and to engage customers in a less formal atmosphere, while still providing purchasing opportunities. Promoting your business through Foursquare, by offering a badge that user can achieve by “checking in” from your brick-and-mortar site or by offering freebies to Foursquare users, can really get your name out there and get people buzzing, especially since Foursquare is integrated with Twitter. Other businesses rely on Facebook to host contests, solicit feedback from users, and organize events related to their products.

3) Monitor the Social Networking Sites
Once the company decides which social networking tools to use to accomplish the desired goal, the next step is to monitor the social networking site of choice, and to analyze the data once it is received. A cloud-based customer relationship management application can help your company do this with ease, by aggregating the information, presenting it in accessible formats such as charts or graphs, and making the result available to authorized users across all channels of your company. Yet you’ll also need to have a dedicated staff member who handles your social media, reading and sending tweets or updating Facebook statuses. Companies who monitor social networks through a combination of human interaction and automated CRM processes can alleviate customer concerns before they escalate, and use the knowledge they gain to drive marketing initiatives.

4) Implement the Idea or Strategy
Once companies gather information from various social networking sites, they must use the information to make a change or improvement in the product, service, or company. For instance, a company may engage an audience through YouTube. However, once the audience is engaged, the company needs to use the excitement to drive them to action, whether it is to buy a product or donate for a cause. Alternatively, if information is gathered through Twitter or a blog, companies must take action to implement the suggestions. It doesn’t do any good to have a social media component to your business if you don’t use it. These are excellent platforms for listening to your customers—takes what they say and apply it.

5) Follow Up
This might sound simplistic, but it’s surprising how many companies don’t follow up with their customers after responding to a concern or addressing a need using social media. Again, if you’re listening to your customers and responding to them through these channels, wouldn’t it be a good idea to go that extra mile and tell them thank you, or ask if the situation was resolved to their satisfaction? In the case of promotions, you’ll need to keep engaging the new fans or followers that you receive as a result of the campaign—follow up by asking for their feedback or opinions, offer them additional coupons or information, and generally keep your brand on the tip of their tongue, to transform them from a casual fan into a lifelong customer.

Happy Social Networking and Wishing you Great Funfilled Weekend

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

Empowering Government Departments with Public Sector CRM : Long Live Citizen Relationship Management

Dears,
CRM strategies and CRM software have become a powerful combination in helping public sector and government agencies meet their organizational missions. Public sector CRM comes in many forms and may include Citizen Relationship Management, economic development, outreach programs, trade promotion, case management, help desk, call center and citizens self service to name only a few. The purpose of CRM varies by governmental agency or entity; however, there is always a common focus on the customer relationship - whether your customer is an internal civil servant, a citizen or anybody else.

Definition of Customer in Public Sector World
In the public sector, the term “customer” covers a diverse community of stakeholders, ranging from individual citizen to local businesses.Customer are also 3rd Parties such as police, health trusts and agencies sharing information or providing services.Managing these varied need and relationship is a unique feature of public sector organizations
Service Dynamics
From a customer perspective, the public sector is primarily focused on providing open and easy access to services coupled with effective delivery of the required services.The diversity of the customer community demands a range of access points and channels across face to face, telephone, web and post. The challenge here is to provide consistent service regardless of the channel used.
Efficiency Factor
CRM focuses on supporting efficiency objectives and is often referred to as an enabler of the greater objectives.The operation challenges are to deliver better services at a lower cost.The application of CRM principles within public sector organization can pose a challenge for those charged with delivering the CRM vision. It might seem like an impossible task; to transform customer service into an efficient process with consistent performance. However, it is important to remember that CRM is an ongoing journey to more customer focused ways of working and not an “ off the shelf” technology application.

Organizational Goals in Public Sector Enterprises
• Improve Citizen Satisfaction
• Citizen Choice
• Social Inclusion
• Increase Service Quality
• Ensure Compliance
• Same result at any point of service
• Consistent Process Applied to All Cases
• Responsive to Frequent Changes
• Reduce Cost of Service Delivery
• Reduce Manual Work, Re-Work, Extended Delays
• Understand Costs and Delays at Each Step to Refine Delivery
• Target Services More Accurately

Watch this space for more...Long Live Citizen , Long Live C(Z)RM

Your Partner and Companion
Dinesh Chandrasekar