BI Breaks Free, Revolution Ahead

BI Breaks Free, Revolution Ahead

Dears,

      One kiss of death for many IT and corporate business houses are a lack of vision. The business does not plan for the future, but focuses instead on speed to market and cut cost. That is not to say that cost savings can't make or break a  company but more important is to create a vision for the company beyond the current situation and BI is one significant tool which provides insight about both current clichés and guardian angel for the future .

Business intelligence (BI) systems are evolving so rapidly as to be almost unrecognizable. Just a few years ago, BI meant clunky, backward-looking financial analysis systems and interfaces deemed unfriendly by users at large. Improved computing power is increasing by orders of magnitude the amount of data that can be crunched, while the advent of new types of media is changing the kinds of data to be crunched. At the same time, the rise in mobile business computing has begun to alter how BI applications are being delivered.

CIOs forging their BI strategies soon will have to grapple with business intelligence systems that are little more than buzzwords today: social network analysis, organizational network analysis, context-aware computing, even sentiment analysis. Sounds far out? The BI Software Wing of a US Super Store  is developing software that instantaneously analyzes shoppers' facial expressions (confused, angry or bored, for example) caught on in-store video cameras, and alerts salespeople in real time to take appropriate action.

If industry experts are correct, next-generation business intelligence systems -- or business intelligence technology 3.0, as some call it -- will be a heady mix of internally generated business data correlated in the blink of an eye with real-time intelligence culled from multiple sources, such as social media, newsfeeds, video and sensor-enabled environments.

Not only will next-generation business intelligence systems solve the latency issues that dog many classic BI operations, but business intelligence technology 3.0 will use predictive analytics routinely, conjuring what-if scenarios to inform real-time decision making. Complex event processing, the detection of patterns lurking in petabytes of data, will no longer be the sole domain of the global investment banks or the military. Every time a customer asks about a product, a company will use powerful analytics software to predict how that customer would be served best at that moment, based on past preferences and the current context. In fact, Gartner Inc. recently predicted (presumably by using predictive analytics) that by 2016, all enterprises will be using next-generation analytics to forecast the future.

But these next-generation BI advances don't mean, run out and immediately update and add a bunch of compute capacity. It means, be ready

Business intelligence systems for business value

CIOs also need to be ready for the explosion in mobile business intelligence applications. Although Blackberries and other Smartphones have hosted mobile BI apps for years, their small screen has been a roadblock to using them, he said. The iPad and other tablets overcome this problem, and his research shows that CIOs should expect enormous growth in mobile BI.At the moment, however, companies' main challenge in this revolution in business intelligence systems is figuring out which kinds of BI tools will give them more business value, rather than just more information, analysts and CIOs say.Companies will discover over the next few years where new business intelligence systems, such as those for predictive analytics, can be applied to provide value for their industries. "That is when you invest"

The 'uncharted territory' of business intelligence systems: Predictive analytics

The New York City Housing Authority is identifying already where predictive analytics can improve the agency's mission of providing affordable housing to poor and moderate-income families. A simple example: As part of a long-term initiative to figure out which conditions actually improve residents' quality of life, A team is studying the impact of security cameras on violent crime. The assumption is that cameras prevent crime. However, after running correlations on a decade's worth of information from multiple sources including police reports, the team found that cameras deter vandalism but have no effect on violent crime after they've been in place for two months, unless they're coupled with other factors, including an effective intercom system and random patrols by police officers. That information will help direct how the authority invests in security. This is what Predictive Analytics to offers it gather all source of Information and predicts the future behavior and actions.
Predictive BI analytics, like many an IT term, refers to an amorphous discipline that involves using statistical and other complex mathematical analyses of data to predict the future. It is not exactly data mining, the industry experts like to point out, and it's certainly not data mining for data mining's sake. Predictive BI analytics identifies patterns in the volumes of data generated by a business and by relevant external sources. Those patterns are used to predict the future so the business can adjust its strategies accordingly.
Using analytics to shape business strategy is not easy to do, however, and not just because it can be expensive or because it's a relatively new undertaking for many but the biggest corporations. Putting predictive analytics to work in the corporation requires change management skills, finding the right people and the right mind-set.

How do we implement Predictive Analytics that’s a Sequel, Watch this space for the concluding part of the Article.

Loving P&C
DC*

SaaS-y-CRM

SaaS-y-CRM


Dears,

Hope the New Year is treating you all well. I am currently in Saudi Arabia meeting some business prospects and believe the trend in MiddleEast is very encouraging and surprised by the mindshare and their projections for the future.

Mention cloud computing today, and many people will immediately picture a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, the quick-win way to deliver an application’s capabilities without a lot of upfront cost.It’s not surprising that SaaS commands so much mindshare. A study conducted by a reputed research found that 68% of global companies that have implemented clouds are SaaS users. But analysts say that while “cloud” and “SaaS” may be synonymous to many organizations, this may change in coming years as other, more potent options become commonplace. Their advice: Take advantage of SaaS for business today if there’s a strong business case to be made, but make sure long-term cloud strategies also include Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and private-cloud models.

I certainly see a trend where more and more companies will be buying a software license and then leveraging a [PaaS or IaaS] provider to run the application in the Future. In this juncture its important for us to understand the top 10 SaaS crm definitions.

The top 10 CRM on demand definitions

1. On demand CRM vs. SaaS CRM vs. hosted CRM

2. Web services

3. Application service provider (ASP)

4. Multi-tenancy

5. Single-tenancy

6. Mash-up

7. Integration connector

8. Application programming interface (API)

9. Apex

10. Widget

1. On demand CRM vs. SaaS CRM vs. hosted CRM

Understanding on demand CRM vs. SaaS CRM vs. hosted CRM can be confusing, and most experts will agree that these terms are not synonymous. According to experts, the term "hosted" means that someone else is managing the application via a remote computer. Software as a Service (SaaS), on the other hand, is a software distribution model where hosted applications are made available to a customer over a network, typically the Internet. The term "on demand" is used to describe applications that are available via the SaaS or hosted delivery models.

2. Web services

Web services, or application services, are services (usually including programming and data) provided by an application service provider (ASP) that are made available to users over the ASP's Web server. On demand CRM is an example of a major service offered as a Web service.

3. Application service provider (ASP)

An application service provider (ASP) is a company that provides customers with access to specific, remotely-hosted applications or services over the Internet. ASPs usually provide their applications or services on a pay-per-use or subscription basis. Any vendor that provides hosted SaaS CRM applications to its customers is an example of an ASP.

4. Multi-tenancy

Multi-tenancy means that multiple companies are using a single, remotely-hosted database. Every organization's customer data is stored in the same database and kept separate. While multi-tenant SaaS CRM applications tend to be less expensive, many companies worry about the security of their customer data in a shared database.

5. Single-tenancy

Single-tenancy means that each customer is provided with a dedicated database, middleware and application instance. Since single-tenancy provides customers with their own private database, single-tenant SaaS CRM applications are often the choice of companies with sensitive customer data.

6. Mash-up

A mash-up is a Web page or application that combines complementary elements from multiple sources. In response to the ongoing shift towards a more interactive Web, many vendors are adding Web 2.0 functionality such as the ability to create mash-ups, to their on-demand CRM products.

7. Integration connector

An integration connector is a software program that lets users map data from one application to another. Many SaaS CRM vendors provide pre-built integration connectors that allow users to load data from other sources into the SaaS application.

8. Application programming interface (API)

An application programming interface (API) is a set of standards for a software program that can be defined by the developer. The API defines the way a developer should request services from a specific program, and allows a programmer writing an application program to make requests of the operating system or other applications. Some SaaS CRM vendors have established APIs for integrating their applications with the user's in-house applications.

9. Apex

Apex is a development platform offered by Salesforce.com for building third-party SaaS applications on top of Salesforce.com's CRM functionality. Apex applications are hosted by Salesforce.com and include API developers can use to access data from Salesforce.com, a Builder that allows for easy customization, and a native programming language called Apex Code. This is also know as Force Platform.

10. Widget

A widget is an element of a graphical user interface that displays information or provides a specific way for a user to interact with the application. Widgets can be anything from an icon to a pull-down menu, and are used by SaaS CRM vendors to help users navigate their applications.

Loving P&C


DC*

How is your MDM “DO” ing Now? ? Introspecting MDM

Dears,

Over the past few years, Master Data Management (MDM) has become an established discipline, and as a result there clearly exists a substantive MDM installed base. While many organizations have grown their business operations thanks to their MDM technology investment, others have simply grown apart from them. As established vendors and new best of breed vendors begin to roll out "next generation MDM offerings," many end users are re-evaluating their existing efforts to ensure their current solution is capable of meeting their over-arching business requirements and managing different master data domains.

MDM technology has proven itself to be exceedingly dynamic, and capable of delivering dramatic growth and business innovation much like any other established enterprise software sector. Companies not only have embraced commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) MDM, but have expanded its use by extending functionality beyond traditional Customer and Product domains to include new domains and use cases involving location, corporate hierarchies, and so on. The MDM to perform beyond Customer and Product is long Due now and Its time to Do It.

Consequently, many end-users who pioneered the first round of MDM software implementations feel compelled to take advantage of the newest wave of solutions. Organizations are reevaluating their current MDM vendors who once seemed avant-garde but now increasingly fail to meet changing business requirements, holding back data management productivity through limitations in their approach. The inward assessment of internal pain-points, coupled with the increasing awareness of new, competitively priced and feature-rich MDM software, can be a highly persuasive argument for change. As a result, this issue can generate serious discussions, spur formal due diligence and finally establish a consensus that it’s well time to move away from the incumbent MDM vendor.

However, the clarion call for change is simply not enough to overturn comfortable and familiar relationships with existing providers; which can create a double edge sword. While change is often an opportunity for improvement, hesitation can plague an organization’s ability to move in the right direction.

It May Not Be Perfect, But It's Here!

Consider highly flexible “Solution A” challenging a not-so-flexible, but incumbent, “Solution B.” The CTO may insist business users appreciate the expanded functional scope provided by “Solution A,” but other end users may actually resent the new learning requirements for not only new functionality, but also for new ways of performing known tasks in the new software's idiom. Consequently, new software acquisitions risk pushing organizations out of their perceived comfort zones, as the boundaries of these comfort zones are defined by the incumbent software.

No Pain, No Gain

While change can often be perceived as painful, the fear that is also associated with it isn’t restricted to business users alone. CIOs, not always from sturdy, pioneer stock, often share the underlying fear of change, leaving organizations as a whole equally apprehension when it comes to implementing enterprise solutions. The fear of taking one big, painful step backward before taking two steps forward is a front-of-mind concern for both CIOs and business users alike.

Let’s face it; increased flexibility should be a huge asset for a new MDM solution, as highly pliable MDM software has the strong selling point of being non-restrictive and non-proprietary in nature. Moreover, these solutions tend to be highly configurable enabling business professionals to be self reliant, meaning the IT group will no longer be required to make programming changes on behalf of the actual user. It’s likely this concept of flexibility will ultimately enable a high degree of enterprise-wide interoperability and data interchange. After all, flexibility can lead to an expansion of functionality and a variety of approaches to facilitate business use cases, and provide alternative options to completing repetitive tasks.

Ironically, however, where some business users praise highly flexible MDM offerings as empowering and supporting business objectives with a myriad of choices, others perceive that same flexibility as too cumbersome, providing too many choices, too many options, and an unwelcomed steepening of the software's learning curve. Again, it boils down to fear of change.

In this respect, enterprise software evaluations, in general, are not unlike political elections in government. Statistically speaking, we favor incumbents because they promise enhancements and more palatably, incremental change, or in software parlance: upgrades.

How much is a comprehensive MDM software evaluation like an election cycle? Consider the following:

1. Familiarity Breeds Contempt - The beginning of a data insurgency; incumbent vulnerable! New enterprise software vendors are encouraged to begin circling, core project teams gain budgetary assistance and welcomed internal support.

As with politicians, incumbent software solutions are measured against themselves. Third party business and IT consultants are more than happy to provide assessment and benchmark studies of an existing enterprise system strategy, often recommending business process reengineering, system replacement or even outsourcing. Comprehensive surveys of end users can reveal dissatisfaction with interfaces, complaints regarding ease-of-use, less than adequate performance – and yes, even lack of flexibility. Surely, there has to be something better.

2. Throw The Bum(s) Out! –Request for Information (RFIs), demos and multiple price quotes.

As if that wasn’t enough, be even more concerned if a company hires a consultant to assist in a vendor search and evaluation as the journey can become long and arduous given the omnipresent and exhaustive list of potential candidates.

Again, enterprise software buy-cycles are not necessarily any more expeditious than U.S. presidential elections cycle. Consider this typical process of due diligence:

•Preliminary, unofficial info gathering of possible software candidates

•Informal meetings and short demos

•Internal status meeting

•The issuing of RFIs

•RFI assessment and creation of the vendor short-list

•Presentations and demos

•Discussions and scoring of vendor presentation and demos

•Additional questions and info request from participating vendors

•Follow-up discussion and scoring adjustments

•Decision: “Let’s pick one or two providers and execute a six month Proof of Concept”

3. The Devil We Know, As Opposed To The Devil We Don't - Also known in IT as "Thank you for your time – but we've decided to just do an upgrade" scenario.Sometime’s it’s not so much that the incumbent software seems the best software or solution, as it is that the original momentum to move forward is dissipated by the process itself.

All Is Not Lost

Ultimately, however, “incumbent inertia” is not a good enough business reason to not replacing a mission critical toolset. Companies with a real need and with significant pain points will overcome their fear of change and continue to perform proper due diligence. Despite detours, they will return to the initial justifications that motivated their re-evaluation of their current solution in the first place.

Loving P&C
DC*

Top CRM Know How z for 2011

Dears,

One of my Favorite Quotes  “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but you can start today and make new ending “ Start this year with all your aspirations and for sure you will end this year with a good note.

The year 2010 was so kind to leave us with some good memories of CRM and expect the year 2011 to be much more exciting and open new avenues for CRM world. Just a thought what would be top 5 “CRM Know How for year 2011” and some indicative thoughts for you. This is not about technology but about Value for the CRM investment.

Know How 1 : CRM Strategy, Why it is important?

Firms do not just “become” customer-centric. In fact, left to themselves, most firms would continue the product-centric practices on which they were founded. As such, companies have to go about consciously transforming themselves into the kind of company they hope to become—one that is focused on the customer. This is where a strategy comes into play. It takes a concerted effort to understand where you are today, where you want to be at some point in the future and how to get there. And under that umbrella strategy, there may be smaller sub-strategies. Some examples include social media, marketing or segmentations strategies. All are examples of the same process: transforming the business. That is why, at its core, CRM is about change management—changing from a product to customer orientation, from manufacturing metrics to service metrics and from “siloed” organizational structures to process-centric organizational structures. Your CRM strategy ties this all together.

Know How 2: Customer Experience, What Is that?

Organizations are struggling to differentiate themselves based on their product features, pricing, costs, supply chains or employee management skills. A great customer experience remains difficult to deliver well, and is therefore a source of differentiation. The result is increased executive interest in customer experience. Actually delivering a superior customer experience, however, is difficult—it’s a differentiator for a reason. So, the battle is on to master the discipline of gaining and maintaining a superior customer experience. The result is increased spending on people, processes and technology, despite the recession, and there is no sign this will slow down.

Know How 3: Social Networking / CRM, Why so close?

Social CRM defined as a business strategy that mutually benefits cloud-based communities and businesses by fostering engagements while also generating opportunities for sales, marketing and customer service. Social CRM marketing applications engage customers to co-develop new products or services, generate brand awareness, aid information gathering and evaluation decisions, offer price comparisons, assist the selling process and enable peer-to-peer marketing support for post purchase dissonance. Social marketing applications share internal- and external-company users and they can be public or private, outsourced or hosted, and can make connections to independent communities such as Facebook. Marketing has been the most aggressive adopter of social applications of any business department. New uses continue to develop, but the most common use cases we have seen to date are in areas such as idea management, new product or service marketing research, new product launch targeting and social campaigns, social event networking for leads, PR, and brand reputation promotion and defense.

Know How 4: Brain Teaser Analytics, Where to Start?

Don’t start by trying to analyze the data you have. Start instead by determining the decisions you are trying to reach. Which decisions do you need to make that should be informed by input based on customer data? Answering this question will determine the road map of your analytic requirements by identifying not only what analysis needs to be done, but also the questions that will determine whether the analysis is truly useful to the business. Issues, such as the time window in which analysis will help serve the decision, the format in which the analysis needs to be provided to the decision maker, the skills of the analyst, the source of the data that will be used to drive the analysis, must all be defined for analysis to be truly useful to the organization.

Know How 5: Integrated Marketing Management - IMM? How zat?

From Enterprise marketing management (EMM) to integrated marketing management (IMM). Every new marketing initiative, whether it’s a new channel or new type of marketing campaign, almost always starts as a separate group and project. Yesterday it was online, today it is social, tomorrow it will be mobile channels. The same is true of new campaign types, such as event-triggered and inbound marketing. Integrated marketing management or IMM brings these initiatives back into the fold over time. IMM integrates people, processes and technologies. It fosters collaboration, improves brand management and the customer experience, supports strategic planning and resource optimization across the entire marketing mix, leverages collective knowledge and assets, promotes relevancy in customer interactions, and makes the customers themselves part of the process via feedback and communities. Companies who take an integrated marketing approach will drive increased growth and improved efficiencies and, ultimately, maximize their returns on marketing investment.

Good Luck Amigos

Loving P&C

DC*

CRM Prophesies & Predictions for 2011

Dears,

For most, the end of the year signals the holiday season. For analysts, it signals prediction time. Thought leaders and experts across the globe bombard the blogosphere, offering up their opinions, expectations, and prophesies for the upcoming year.

2010 was an exciting year in the CRM space. Promising new products from Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce and other majors were released; we saw a burst of interest in the social CRM (SCRM), CRM SaaS /Cloud computing and major vendors added new functionality to their flagship products, stiffening competition in the enterprise software arena. What can we expect to see in the year ahead? Here are some CRM prophesies for 2011.

Prophesy 1: CRM mates Social Networks

One of the most impactful trends in CRM in the upcoming year would have to be integration of social. This has already started to happen. However, for successful execution, social cannot be an add-on -- rather, it has to be fully integrated into the CRM platform and business processes. In other words, it's not enough to just have a Twitter search in a separate tab without tying it back to the contact record. Simply adding a Twitter handle to the contact record is also not enough to qualify as Social CRM. It has to flow through every process, and relevant communications have to be captured in the record, so that everyone in the organization can be on the same virtual page.

In this journey Privacy is going to continue to get mindshare in 2011. Businesses and consumers will continue to define the boundaries of what data is OK to collect, for how long it's OK to keep, and in what ways can it be accessed and referenced with other data. Platforms like Facebook that collect and sell social data will also walk the line between businesses wanting to use this information and consumers wanting to protect it.

Prophesy 2: CRM floats in the Cloud

How quickly will the industry's migration to the cloud take place, and what will this mean to more 'traditional' (i.e. on-premise, enterprise software) vendors? Salesforce.com is the clear success story but which other CRM vendors will benefit from customers shifting their CRM efforts to the cloud? On a related note, we should also be watching the movement of customer data not just to the cloud, but integrated IN the cloud. Salesforce is leading the charge with their integration of Jigsaw (appropriately enough, labeled 'Data Cloud') - there is tremendous value to be gained by companies integrating their customer and prospect data with third-party services and data, but at the same time there are huge privacy implications. Oracle too is seriously building its Cloud Capability and there is some undercover operation to come overnight with exciting version of CRM on Demand. The war in the Cloud is gonna intensify and hope you will see some exciting thunderbolts and Lightening and rain some good offers to Business Community.

Prophesy 3: CRM 3.0

If it wasn’t clear before: we now absolutely live in an instantaneous and interconnected world that our CRM processes must reflect. Growth of open CRM systems, particularly “as a service” platforms will accelerate to leverage social, mobile and global dimensions of essentially the same issue of managing and facilitating customer relationships. Self-serve will gain more prominence as technology makes it easier to facilitate cross-communication among customers. Salesforce.com’s launch of database.com will trigger a new trend towards taking the PAIN out of everything data-related: creating, consolidating, cleansing, appending and extracting intelligence. The idea is bring all these functions into one place, including applying domain expertise. You could argue that benefits might be limited to a particular platform, but this phenomenon will gain momentum as more CRM systems “open-up” as well.

Prophesy 4: Intelligence Cocktail

Embedded BI/predictive actions: Insights are good, but actions are better because ultimately they drive revenue, save costs or increase margins. Companies already invested in CRM will seek to get more out of it by increasing high value analytic content and driving consistent actions across and within all channels. With analytic integration further facilitated by tools such as predictive modeling markup language (PMML), the latency from data to actions will decline dramatically. Micro Analytics: Let’s hit singles. That’s the message we are hearing from many of our clients: understand and solve a key problem critical to success of our major initiative(s). Prospecting and lead generation, new product launch, multi-channel adoption and category penetration are some areas we are asked to solve specific challenges. And it is understandable, given the pressure to show results fast it is difficult to address a number of problems or prepare infrastructure to so do.

Prophesy 5: CRM -One for the Road

I think 2011 will be the year when CRM finally hits the mobile device. With the take off of Apples iPAD and a fresh wave of applications to support mobile and offline working finally hitting the pockets of millions of information workers. Mobile CRM which has always been a "maybe someday" will finally become a "yes, let's do it" . All mobile and Crm vendors geared to deliver the mobile crm sleek and Sexy. Call it Technology, Competition and whatever this is one Street Smart Application that’s gonna make some CRM Rock stars

Prophesy6: From CRM to CEO (Customer Experience Optimization)

The role of CRM needs to change dramatically from Customer Relationship Management to Customer Experience Optimization (CEO). Currently CRM is a database that other functions in the company use. CRM collects and holds customer data and other functions like marketing, loyalty programs, etc. access this data and use it as needed to fulfill their roles and needs. CEO is a attitude supported by CRM application which manages and approves all areas of a company that impact customers. CEO predicts the complete future expected lifecycles of customers along all the separate dimensions of their behavior using predictive analytics with CRM database. Customers are the most valuable asset for any company and they need a corporate department whose role is to optimize their lifetime value to the organization – not just collect their data. CEO will assure that all interactions with customers are for things the customer is expected to actually want or be interested in learning about, and that there are not too many interactions. Only the interactions that are best for the company (which would be those that build lifetime loyalty from the customer) are allowed to reach the customer.

We cannot delay this CRM Prophecies in 2011 and but to be part of it.. Customers are getting too smart and we are falling too far behind. We cannot stand frozen in fear and complain that we do not know how to begin and that no one has done this yet. Competitors will start to do this. The only question to answer is how far behind your competition can you afford to fall and how that will affect your relationships with your customers – and how long it will take you to catch up.

Get Ready, Steady, Go………….2011 Happy New Year Amigos

Loving P&C


DC* Version 2.0.1.1

CRM Warfare : Oracle CoD Vs Sales Force

Dears,

There is an important rivalry shaping up between Salesforce.com and Oracle’s CRM on Demand and you know what -Salesforce is one of  the large Oracle customer – running its data centers on Oracle databases and middleware. It’s bitter and sweet to have your competitor as your customer too. .

It reminds me of Ellison’s decade-long battle with CRM pioneer Tom Siebel (another of his protégés). We all know how that ended: Oracle had the last word by acquiring a battered Siebel (battered by the economy more than Oracle, really). However, we have to think that Tom Siebel rests easy knowing that Oracle needed to own Siebel to own CRM. Afterall, Oracle CRM On Demand is the former Siebel On Demand .Does Oracle need to own Salesforce to own on-demand CRM? Let’s look at some of the factors that might answer that question.

Market Share

From a market share standpoint, Oracle edges out Salesforce with roughly $1.5 billion in CRM revenue (according to Gartner), versus a little over $1 billion for Salesforce. However, Oracle’s CRM On Demand business is probably more like $400 million of the company’s $874 million in annual On Demand revenue (CRM, ERP, etc.). So, when it comes to cloud-based CRM, Salesforce appears to be a clear leader.

Moreover, Salesforce seems to have the momentum. It’s revenue grew about 25% last year, while Oracle’s On Demand revenue was up about half that at 12%. Maybe CRM On Demand grew faster than Oracle On Demand overall, maybe not. Still, both company’s double-digit gains in revenue are impressive, given the current sorry state of the economy.


Functionality

Both products have achieved success by offering quick time-to-value, robust usability and low up-front costs. Those are cloud computing table stakes. Next up, we’ll see a battle for functional completeness. The table below illustrates what we believe represents each vendor’s functional depth by application category.

Opinions
To give some credibility to these numbers, let look at what industry analyst firms had to say on the topic. Forrester says that both Salesforce.com and Oracle CRM On Demand are gaining ground in the CRM space. Salesforce still leads, but Oracle CRM On Demand is experiencing most of its growth in the Oracle applications installed base. Oracle CRM On Demand has also become a leader in sales force automation (SFA), and with it’s purchase of Market2Lead in May of this year, it is attempting to extend it’s capabilities in marketing automation as well. Oracle CRM On Demand still lags in it’s customer service offering, an area where Salesforce’s Service Cloud 2 reigns. For the market as a whole, Gartner predicts a 6% shift in overall market share for SaaS vendors by 2014. This means more space for Benioff, Ellison and others to duke it out over.

Differentiation

Salesforce is differentiating through its innovation and pure-play CRM story. It certainly seems to have occupied the right mind share – that of the innovative, next-generation CRM vendor with the easy-to-use application. This stands in contrast to the Siebel legacy – complex enterprise software, difficult to use and designed for the largest companies. While CRM On Demand is absolutely a different beast, it’s tough to shed that baggage. Salesforce is also executing on its platform strategy, Force.com, which enables an army of partners to develop application extensions for add-on functionality and vertical solutions. Finally, Salesforce is making a lot of, er, chatter about its new social CRM app, Chatter. That app, a “Facebook for the Enterprise” is certainly not a sure thing, but it is reinforcing the image of Salesforce as an innovator.

Oracle differentiates itself through its Siebel domain expertise, vertical market focus, and its roll as a consolidator. Oracle’s purchase of Siebel catapulted them into a leading position in the CRM market. The Siebel CRM applications remain the most functionally complete CRM apps available. Oracle’s ability to transfer this domain expertise to CRM On Demand makes for a good story, and may well deliver. Finally, Oracle has a strong enterprise-wide story to tell when it sells the vision of front-to-back office integration. Oracle’s broad application suite and Fusion integration story back this up. Even with its partner ecosystem, we don’t expect Salesforce to try to compete enterprise-wide any time soon.

So Whats up for 2011

Of course, this Silicon Valley rivalry might be drawing attention away from the very real market share gains of SAP and Microsoft. Gartner has rated SAP as the CRM market share leader again this year. Microsoft has gained considerable momentum with Dynamics CRM. Will personal rivalries lead Oracle and Salesforce to overlook both threats? Or will the competitive intensity drive further innovation for the customer?

If we get out our crystal ball, we see Salesforce continuing to lead in both market share and momentum in the years to come. They are focused, they have a great product and they execute well. Unlike Siebel’s reliance on large, perpetual license deals, the Salesforce subscription revenue model reduces the chance of a major implosion, like the one that made Siebel prey for Oracle.

However, should a prolonged recession or loss of focus at Salesforce lead to stagnation and a drop in share price, we think Larry would scoop up Salesforce in a second. End of the Day its purely about which one of these could do the CEO Magic , I meant Customer Experience Optimization…

Happy New Year Amigos, Get Ready for the battle w Fun in the New Year 2011

Loving P&C


DC*

Facebook to Face off Today CRMs : Raise of The “Black Box” CRM

Dears,
Once a decade, a technology emerges that fundamentally changes the business landscape. In every case, companies that understand the technology win out. The 1970s had mainframe computing, and the ’80s brought us the personal computer. In the 1990s, the Internet revolutionized communications. Today, social technologies are rewriting all the rules. Welcome to the World Wide Web of people, an era of human connectivity on a scale never before seen, and altering every aspect of the customer life cycle. Marketers and salespeople need to be where customers are, and need to communicate through the channels customers prefer. That means participating alongside the 500 million people on Facebook worldwide, and the 75 million on Twitter, and recognizing these sites as important sources of information. Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites have become CRM for individuals. They’re how a growing number of people manage relationships across personal and professional realms. Social media is reminding us — and vendors — that CRM should be about customers, not technology. The future of CRM will be transparent, customer-centric, and customer-driven.

Transparent CRM

Twitter & Facebook exposes weaknesses and strengths, rants and raves, anything that anyone, located anywhere, wants to say about your company. Response time, tone, and actions allow companies to become transparent about their values, building (or eroding) their brands. Better yet, when a customer comes to a brand’s defense, that loyalty gets showcased to the world. Online social networks, in other words, are bidirectional CRM. Customers and prospects can (and want to) learn as much about you as you know about them. Every person maintains her own profile, so companies are no longer solely responsible for keeping customer data up-to-date. Privacy controls and the opt-in nature of Facebook fan pages and Twitter allow companies to generate high-quality — and highly qualified — leads while respecting individuals’ privacy preferences.

Customer-Centric CRM

Thanks to social media, people are sharing more about themselves online than ever before. Everything individuals share about themselves on their profiles, including hometowns, alma maters, jobs, and hobbies, can be used by marketers and sales to personalize — and even “hypertarget” — communications. With hypertargeting, marketers can specify which audience segments see which ads — people with, say, “chief information officer” or “marketing” in their job titles. Social CRM applications can enable users to view social media profiles and connections from within their lead and contact records to learn more about prospects and build better relationships with customers, improving the customer centricity of their interactions. And just in time, too. Prospects will no longer tolerate a generic, product-centric sales pitch. They expect you to have done your homework about their company, industry, and personal preferences, and to come prepared.

Customer-Driven CRM

The World Wide Web of information was content overload, overwhelming users with too many choices. The World Wide Web of people relies on those we like and trust as filters, delivering information that helps us decide what to read, what to buy, and what to do. Because of their broadcast nature, Facebook and Twitter are ideal platforms for word of mouth, which means existing customers will become a critical prospecting engine.To cope with this new reality, companies need to rethink CRM from the ground up. They’ll likely need to invest more in customer loyalty and take steps to empower customers with tools, information, and incentives to be an effective sales and marketing force.

Facebook CRM Empire, The Black BoX CRM

According to the Facebook (as of December 2010), the average Facebook user “Likes” nine pieces of content very month. With over half a billion users worldwide, that translates to more than 4.5 billion Likes per month and 54 billion Likes per year on everything from news articles, to jeans, to movies, and even real-live activities and events. Each of these Likes is tied to a real person for whom Facebook has detailed identity information. Although it hasn’t yet been monetized, this data and the analytics applied to it, could become the basis for Facebook’s core revenue model. On Facebook, you are the product.

For every Like that is made, Facebook is able to correspond a product affiliation to demographic information such as sex, age, geography, and education, as well as social graph data about relationships and influence within a group. With Places, Facebook can even correlate product activity to mobile location data. If mobile payments ever take off, they could get actual sales data as well. What Happens When Facebook Trumps Your Brand Site? (Alternate blog title is: How Facebook Became the Biggest CRM Provider). The online article was accompanied by the following graphic showing the top ten brands on Facebook (in terms of total Likes):

Top brands are garnering millions of Likes, yet only driving a couple hundred thousand visitors per year to their branded sites. What this all means is that Facebook has better data about customers than most consumer products companies do. For many marketers, their Facebook fan bases have become their largest web presence, outstripping brand sites or e-mail programs either because a brand’s traditional web-based “owned media” is atrophying or because more consumers are migrating to social media.

While fan pages may work a lot like a marketer’s traditional “owned media,” they’re not actually owned by the marketers. Facebook hosts the pages and provides analytics for free, but growing marketer dependency on the network for CRM programs, combined with simultaneous declines in traffic for many of their own brand websites, could give Facebook a valuable revenue opportunity.



Of course, it would be difficult to sell granular individual data about users (people would object); however, Facebook could sell aggregate data (trend analysis and market research) and act as a “black box” CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution whereby companies offer targeted promotions and messaging to individuals with select profile characteristics, mediated through Facebook. Already some companies are using basic Like data to hone their retail strategies. In one example, a retail major is arranging clothing in its online store based on Like activity and offering select promotions to all those who have liked products. Additionally, Facebook is making information about the Like activity on ads (i.e. “social context” data) available to advertisers on its site. Armed with this data, advertisers can decide to further optimize campaigns by targeting people who have expressed a Like for the ad.

With the Like button, Facebook is benefiting from the power of weak tie relationships (Facebook calls it “lightweight sharing”). Many markets point to the fact that people that Like a product aren’t real fans or brand advocates in the traditional sense. This is s feature, not a bug. By lowering the bar for Liking something, Facebook has opened a channel to—and is gathering data about—ordinary consumers of the brand who otherwise would have no formal connection to the company or its products other than isolated, anonymous purchases. This connection can be potentially valuable in terms of loyalty programs and promotions, market research, and customer support.



A number of factors suggest that the number of Likes will probably continue to grow, including: the continuing growth of the Facebook user base expansion in global markets (70% of Facebook users are outside the U.S.), the recent proliferation of the Like button on a range of products and services (the Like button is now on over 350,000 sites), and the growing use of mobile technologies that allow users to Like physical products and experiences. With this in mind, it’s by no means hyperbolic to think that Facebook could be the largest single CRM provider in the world.

This is an exciting time for CRM. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media have made the Internet better: At long last, it’s all about people and their experience. Customers can finally become the true focus of CRM.

Loving P&C
DC*

CRM for Roadies, Mobile CRM in Action

Dears,


Mobile CRM devices let users take CRM and sales force automation (SFA) systems on the road for access anytime. Mobile CRM has long promised to answer the question of how to keep field force connected and up to date with company and customer records. Using mobile CRM, sales/Field force has simple, easy access to information through wireless devices

Much as software as a service (SaaS) rose to prominence with CRM, the promise of mobile computing has centered around CRM as well, as companies sought to provide salespeople out on the road with the latest information on prospects and customers. while mobile CRM may never have fully lived up to its initial hype, in some ways it delivered, with most CRM vendors offering some mobile capability with their sales force automation (SFA) applications, unleashing and enabling organizations’ "road warriors." With the emergence and – now -- ubiquity of smart phones, much of the focus and development around mobile applications from vendors has shifted to business intelligence (BI) and providing slick dashboards and reports to executives on the move. For example, in the wake of SAP's acquisition of Sybase, SAP's motto has become "anytime, anywhere, any device," and early demos and promises have focused on BI. But there is plenty of opportunity for mobility in CRM outside of SFA. In fact, a recent survey conducted by the topic consulting house found that mobile enablement is the top spending priority for the organization's members next year, with 34% of field service members having approved a budget increase for mobility.

M’ Knowledge Management

In terms of mobile CRM for service, knowledge management has become a particular area of interest. As companies seek to reuse support content created across multiple departments and subsequently reduce multiple knowledge bases and the search tools required to manage them, they are seeking a cohesive knowledge management strategy. And as they amass this information in one central repository, employees need to access it.Some CRM vendors have begun to extend mobile support capabilities to consumers, allowing them to solve problems themselves from a mobile device.

Mobile CRM beyond SFA

Today, mobile enablement for sales means more than just SFA, Many CRM vendors offer mobile CRM application to the iPhone and BlackBerry, but the way forward is mobile-enable other modules from ERP applications that will benefit sales. Such as - order placement, time and travel, dispatch -- those are on the list for mobilization first. For companies mobilizing their CRM systems and complementary applications, this means thinking carefully about what to enable first.

Enterprise CRM integration with Mobile

Not long ago, integrating an enterprise-wide CRM system with mobile devices was costly, time consuming and riddled with challenges. That is still the perception, but it's not necessarily reality anymore.

There are essentially four steps to effectively integrating CRM systems and mobile devices:

Step 1 -- The needs analysis phase

This is the "do your homework" phase from a business, technical and practical standpoint. Do not rush this stage. Here, it is important to understand the difference between technical needs and the desires of users, and to make it clear to end users that the mobile device is to be used in conjunction with CRM applications and not as a replacement for a PC or laptop. Beyond assessing the needs of individual users and management, it is important to understand the business needs of the entire organization. One key thing to keep in mind for the needs analysis phase -- and one that should prevail during the integration process -- is that the mobile CRM system has to grow and evolve with business and technical changes in the organization.

Step 2 – The mobile design phase

After the needs analysis phase, design is the next critical step. Because there is limited screen size and storage on a mobile device, a user must have access to an intranet to recall specific information at a moment's notice and to be able to input data for use across the enterprise. However, this raises a number of technical concerns regarding security, authentication and data input of sensitive or proprietary information. Organizations need to understand that massive amounts of data, including customer trends, pricing tables (by territory) and other customized fields need to be available in real time with a data-input option.

Integrating a robust CRM system with mobile devices, which often average about 2GB of memory, can be a daunting task on the surface level. We first determine what data is most important to display and then develop appropriate screens to view it within the limits of the device. We balance local storage of data with real-time access on the device, allowing users the option to work off-line with as much data as needed. This Mobile Web application communicates with a host database and allows field representatives to draw real-time information simply by clicking an icon on the mobile device. In addition, implementing a rules-based push to a BlackBerry or another mobile device avoids the need to synchronize all information. Instead, only the appropriate amount and most relevant information is delivered at the right time.

Step 3 – The mobile application testing phase

The main objective of the testing phase is to gain user acceptance through education. This often starts with a group of beta testers, who are trained and prepared to implement a new and improved mobile CRM system. We advise clients to choose beta testers who will also serve as champions of CRM mobile integration. This group should include 10% to 20% of the desired user base. From a technical standpoint, the testing phase is for functional and performance testing, to make sure the software and mobile infrastructure meet the project goals and objectives. This is the time to test the configuration of the live application server environment and security.

From a practical standpoint, avoid the common mistake of assuming that mobile-device users will intuitively utilize mobile CRM applications with little-to-no preparation and technical training -- simply because they are good at sending and receiving emails and looking up contact information. Extended capabilities through Web services can be tricky for first-time users, and therefore accessible, interactive training is a must.

Armed with information gathered from the beta program, in-house IT and, in some cases, integration consultants are able to adjust the infrastructure (without overloading it) and bring the program up to meet the objectives laid out in the needs analysis phase.

As you're going through the implementation process, remember to deliver prototypes to the end-user community. This will grant them the flexibility to request changes so that IT can make adjustments to ensure that the mobile CRM applications will work the way they need them to. This process significantly increases end-user adoption.

Step 4 – The mobile rollout phase

Technical adjustments have been made (although upgrades make this a work in progress), the objectives are in sight, and the feedback from beta testers is in place. Now it's time to roll out the new program to the users. This does not entail simple "keystroke education" but, rather, a comprehensive training program to help users understand the key technical aspects and ensure buy-in.

Remember, the biggest challenge for new end users is "confinement." Users who are accustomed to CRM on a PC, with its large screen, keyboard, dashboards and expansive database, often have a difficult time adjusting and feel restrained when using a large program on a device usually reserved for email, contacts and phone calls. We havelearnt that one way to avoid this problem is to make sure the vendor installing mobile CRM is experienced at training end users until they are comfortable with the application.

It is critical to get the IT department, the end users and management on the same page, especially during the first three steps, so that the program is implemented correctly and effectively meets business objectives. As mentioned, it is also important to ensure that the system is flexible and adaptable enough to grow with the business. Remember, mobile technology is continuously evolving, so it is best to avoid getting tied to specific hardware or one software-operating platform.

Our experiences have shown that end users quickly understand the practicality and benefits of mobile CRM applications. With mobile CRM, quick information is at hand in the field, on a plane, or even in a remote territory, where booting up a PC or laptop is a challenge. Being able to enter information in real time and quickly retrieve client and target data and even business intelligence are often key benefits for organizations using mobile CRM applications.

Loving P&C

DC*

Accelerating the ROI of Mobile CRM Initiatives

CRM binds Mergers & Acquisitions-Financial Industry Perspective

CRM binds Mergers & Acquisitions-Financial Industry Perspective

Dears,

The financial industry has undergone much change over the past decade. Among the most-notable trends has been the movement toward consolidation -- namely mergers and acquisitions. However, the overwhelming majority of corporate M&As do not produce the envisioned increased revenue and profits, often because the merged entity fails to adequately leverage the combining organizations' strengths.

As part of their sales responsibilities, financial services professionals religiously network with business and other institutions ultimately to generate business opportunities. Over time, their networks of relationships become ongoing sources of referrals and new business. In theory, the networks and their power would be doubled after two companies join forces.

After a merger, however, a major disconnect immediately emerges because the relationship networks between the two formerly independent firms are not integrated. In most instances immediately following a merger, individuals are not well acquainted with the new bankers or other financial service professionals that now comprise their firm, let alone the relationships that they possess that could be instrumental in business development. But it is precisely a firm's ability to capture and track these additional relationship networks that will determine how successful the merger will be.

At many successful financial institutions, CRM software capable of managing and tracking relationship intelligence has been implemented to help leverage the collective relationship networks of all investment professionals within the organization. CRM software also can play a key role in quickly linking the relationship networks of all the employees within the newly combined entity. Through social networking functions built into these systems, users can instantly view who else within the firm has a relationship with, for example, a prospective client. Some systems also offer relationship-mapping capabilities, providing users with a relationship pathway to a prospect via intermediary relationships.

How CRM Drives Revenue Post Merger

The examples below illustrate how CRM software can help a firm generate more revenue post merger:

1. Uncovering new strategic relationships. A banker's ability to leverage the firm's strategic relationships with clients and contacts is fundamental in business development. After a merger, the number of potentially valuable relationships has just multiplied. A CRM system will instantly reveal those relationships, providing new avenues to win business.

2. Enhanced cross-selling capabilities. Cross-selling serves as one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to generate revenues. To succeed at cross-selling, employees must have a 360-degree view of the client's relationship with the firm. However, in a post-merger environment, where familiarity with new team members is naturally at its lowest, effectively aggregating experience and expertise information and applying it to existing opportunities can be a near impossible task. CRM systems can drastically reduce a firm's unfamiliarity with its own knowledge resources and increase visibility of the relationship intelligence required in effective cross-selling. For example, CRM systems can integrate with human resources, contact managers and other back-office systems and combine this data to provide a holistic view of clients and their entire relationship with the organization. Once deployed, this allows users to instantly view profiles of clients, previous transactions and the like, greatly simplifying the process of recognizing and appropriately staffing new accounts with employees who have relevant experience.

3. Retaining institutional knowledge. When key staff retire, leave the company, or take a personal or medical leave, a company's ability to service customers and pursue new business can be significantly affected. This is accentuated in knowledge-based industries, where the retention of an employee's institutional knowledge after a departure is critical in allowing a company's key assets to persist. CRM prevents information from walking out the door when professionals leave, allowing the other employees or new hires to take advantage of the valuable information that leads to new business opportunities.

4. Experience and expertise tracking. Staffing appropriately to meet clients' needs can be tricky after a merger, as new experience and expertise is now available. Employees benefit greatly with access to information about the collective experience and expertise of all professionals in the newly merged entity. The selected CRM solution should be able to make this intelligence available. Likewise, CRM can help ensure that specific background and intelligence are not lost. In the first -- and often turbulent -- 90 days following a merger, staff members may seek opportunities with other organizations. Their departures from the merged entity can result in a loss of internal intelligence if relationship and deal intelligence is not properly captured in a central repository.

5. Maintaining high standards of client service. After the merger, client service often slips as staff members struggle to learn new clients' preferences, likes and dislikes. This aggressive learning curve can be avoided with CRM software, which provides a centralized knowledge resource that enables anyone who touches the client to access critical client information. Leading CRM packages also have sophisticated built-in data-quality and data-change management tools. This is critical because as much as 30 percent to 40 percent of all contact data possessed by the merging entities can be duplicate and/or inconsistent. Without tools to identify potentially inaccurate, repeated or out-of-date information, client and prospect communications will suffer, causing unnecessary embarrassment to the organization and client doubts about the firm's ability to emerge stronger from the business combination. CRM systems also can be used as tools by client relationship managers to ensure consistency among all client touch points. During the tumult of a merger, important client activities can easily be overlooked or forgotten. To minimize these risks, business activity monitoring functionality within the CRM system can be set to notify a banker of specific events or nonevents warranting his or her attention.

A merger can be a shrewd business move if executed properly, with revenue growth as its primary objective. To achieve that objective, having the right infrastructure in place to aggregate, manage and share relationship intelligence is critical. In a post-merger environment, the need for a centralized CRM system is critical to enabling the firm to capitalize on the strengths of the combined entity while enabling consistent, high levels of client care. Any firm considering a merger or acquisition should think twice if it does not have the CRM infrastructure already in place to ensure revenue growth and consistent client service. Otherwise, the success of the merger can be placed in peril.

Good Luck Amigos
 
Loving P&C
DC*
 

Get together with CRM & Web Service Integration

Dears,


Merry Christmas and May God bless you with Peace, Harmony and Integration with your loving ones in this holiday season. For CRM to really work its magic, integration must be a crucial ingredient

In recent years, enterprise application integration (EAI) vendors have attempted to address the challenges of integration by providing a collection of proprietary adapters and integration servers. Although EAI solutions are effective, they can require a substantial initial investment in hardware, software and training. A more cost-effective option is the use of Web services, a set of emerging standards that enable interoperability among various IT processes and systems.

What are Web services?

The term Web services refers to a group of evolving standards that allow applications to communicate with other applications -- regardless of platform and application language differences -- over the Internet. In other words, Web services enable cross-platform, program-to-program communications. Web services are loosely coupled software components delivered over standard Internet technologies. Web services are platform- and vendor-neutral protocols that enable different applications from different sources to communicate with one another in a common XML format without time-consuming custom coding. Using Web services allows IT organizations to focus more on building application infrastructures based on standards, rather than on proprietary technologies -- an important foundation for building more agile enterprises.

Using Web services to integrate CRM applications can benefit the organization in many ways. Overall, organizations using Web services for integration have the potential to become more efficient and responsive to market changes and competitive pressures. Web services can help companies resolve system interoperability challenges by reusing components, which can reduce application integration costs. Web services also establish a common format for sharing information and data, which enables enterprises to overcome system incompatibility issues and can contribute to faster user adoption.

Web services can help an organization cost-effectively and efficiently integrate on-demand self-service applications and interactive voice response (IVR) systems with the core CRM application. They enable organizations to exchange data and information seamlessly between self-service tools and modules and the CRM application without having to undergo a lengthy and complicated integration process.

Although Web services provide effective integration mechanisms, they do have some shortcomings. The user interface is inflexible and, because of interdependencies, customization is not easy. It is a relatively new technology, so the standards and specifications are still evolving. As an HTTP-based protocol, Web services are also vulnerable to security threats and must be implemented using authentication mechanisms and SSL-enabled encryptions.

How Web services aid CRM application integration

Integration between any two applications using Web services requires a service-oriented architecture (SOA). The SOA binds the services, which are delivered by an application server environment. A Web server provides the HTTP network transport for accessing the service, while the application server hosts the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) interface. The Web service also provides object components that make up the service, and the object components provide the business service layer above the applications. The end result? A Web service extract underlying applications provides distinct services that aid in well-defined business processes.

The following steps constitute a standard procedure for integrating a CRM application using Web services. The timeline and duration of the implementation will differ from one application to another because it depends on the number of business entities to be integrated and the number of Web services that need to be developed. Likewise, implementation procedures and processes will differ for integration between any two applications -- but the elements and the technology that are used to transact data will remain the same. Here are some technical principles to keep in mind:

• Data transactions should be in eXtensible Markup Language (XML); XML is a language that provides a standard way of representing data and information.

• Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) should be used for listing and locating applications. UDDI is a "directory standard" that is provided by some application tools as a built-in service to use during integration.

• The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file should be obtained from the third-party application to which data needs to be sent or retrieved. WSDL is a "descriptor standard" that an application uses to describe its interface and interaction rules to other applications. WSDL is a document written in XML; the document describes a Web service. It specifies the location of the service and the operations (or methods) the service exposes. A WSDL document can also contain other elements, like extension elements and a service element that makes it possible to group together the definitions of several Web services in a single WSDL document.

• Leverage WSDL with the help of proprietary tools provided for each application and generate the XML message required to meet that data structure.

• XML data is then transmitted using SOAP, which is a lightweight protocol for exchange of information. It is an XML-based protocol that consists of three parts: an envelope that defines a framework for describing what is in a message and how to process it, a set of encoding rules for expressing instances of application-defined data types, and a convention for representing remote procedure calls and responses.

• SOAP can be used in protocols like HTTP and HTTP Extension Framework. The HTTP communication protocol helps to post or query third-party applications using XML data mentioned above.

How to get started with CRM integration using Web services

If you're considering the use of Web services as part of your CRM initiative, the first step is to analyze the existing application servers, application development environments, and their ability to extend with Web services.Secondly, analyze and assess the data in multiple customer management systems before embarking on an integration project using Web services.

Once those steps are complete, you are ready to begin integration of the CRM application using Web services. While Web services technology is still maturing, it has proved successful for integrating most CRM applications.

Good Luck Amigos and Happy Integration in the New Year 2011

Loving P&C

DC*

Inception : Planting the “CRM Vision”

Dears,


This thought is very special and close to my heart. It’s very much inspired from the movie “Inception” and the theme of movie reads as follows

“In a world where technology exists to enter the human mind a single idea can be the most dangerous weapon or the most valuable asset”.  For the people who missed this movie a quick synopsis.
“Corporate thief Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an expert in stealing information from where it is most unattainable, the inner-most depths of the human subconscious. Highly skilled in the practice of extraction, the process of entering an individual’s dream to steal their thoughts and secrets, Cobb’s life has become completely dominated by his intricate and dangerous career. Wanted by the police and unable to return home to his children, Cobb takes on one last job for wealthy business man Saito (Ken Watanabe), who promises to make it possible for Cobb to travel home should he and his team complete the mission successfully. However, Saito does not want to steal an idea from an individual’s mind, he wants to plant one. Cobb and his team believe this process, known as inception, to be near impossible; but driven by the desire to escape his life bound by a world of dreams and haunted by the guilt surrounding a past personal tragedy, Cobb delves into the target's subconscious in the hope he can finally return to reality. In the movie’s tale of corporate Intelligence, we are asked to ponder this moment's most disturbing epistemological questions: Namely, how are ideas deposited in people's minds and how incurable are those ideas when they are wrong?


I strongly believe “Successful CRM is about competing in the relationship dimension. Not as an alternative to having a competitive product or reasonable price- but as a differentiator. If your competitors are doing the same thing you are (as they generally are), product and price won't give you a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. But if you can get an edge based on how customers feel about your company, it's a much stickier--sustainable--relationship over the long haul."

Having said all this how would you plant a powerful CRM vision in people’s mind? Is there a scientific method to do this or this art possible only for few talented individuals like our DoM Cobb in inception movie. Frankly speaking I am clueless but something tells me this is possible when you believe such thing can be done. Here are some wild unstructured thoughts on this Inception.

Everything in life starts off as an idea

As benign as it sounds, it is from the planting of this idea in people’s mind that will set in motion the steps that will eventually lead to the vision of building CRM. Once the idea is planted in a person’s mind, it’ll change the person’s reality – forever. There is no stopping it after that. If we think about our goals and dreams, they all have to start off as ideas in our minds. It’s not possible for anything in the physical world to exist without ever having been created mentally. Look around at everything in your reality. Your Laptop, Your spectacles (if you wear them), Your office. All of them began at some point in time as a seed, an idea, in someone’s mind – whether it’s the architect, the designer, the engineer etc.

What this means is you should be pay less attention to what’s possible and what’s not possible (physical reality) and focus more on thinking about what you want (mental reality). Because once you discover what inspires you, that truly drives you, you’ll take the actions necessary to bring it to life. To create your success in the physical world, you have to first have to be clear of how it looks like mentally.

The CRM idea is for your organization to get CEO (Customer Experience Optimization) reality. This idea needs to be planted in the minds of top executives of the organization and once planted it will create a chain reactions and don’t be afraid to answer the questions that it may trigger both positives and negatives.

The kind of seeds you plant in the mind is absolutely important. Expose yourself to best of the best CRM ideas, books, blogs, conscious/driven people, because the things you’re in contact with will affect the kind of seeds planted in your mind. If you expose yourself to junk entertainment and negative people, you’re going to get lousy seeds that grow into weeds. If you surround yourself with the absolute best, you’ll generate top CRM ideas.

Avoidance is not a solution

Or in other words – “Don’t bury unresolved issues”. The best way to deal with our issues is to deal with them straight on. There could be “n” number of challenges in convincing the team for the CRM project. The more you avoid such challenges more they will kill the spirit. The best way is to conceive this idea and try collecting more valid strong facts to support the CRM initiative.

Everything you experience has a root cause

Issues or challenges were not created out of thin air. Every problem we face has its own root cause. For example, if you’re procrastinating on your CRM goals, there’s a reason why you’re procrastinating. The problem isn’t procrastination, something which many people misdiagnose. The problem isn’t lack of discipline either. The problem is something underneath; a root cause to be uncovered and addressed. One main root cause is lack of buying from key people in the organization and the best way to address this not by procrastinating rather than proactively exhibit the tangle benefits of CRM for your organization. if you’re facing a problem, trying to tackle the problem itself will only solve it temporarily. For example, forcing yourself not to procrastinate addresses your procrastination within that one-off incident, but it does not solve the real issue of why you even procrastinate to begin with. Forcing yourself to go to work in a passionless job will help you to last another day, or week, but it does not solve the original problem that you’re working in a place you don’t like. The issue (or manifestations of the issue) will keep coming again and again, in different forms, until you get to the core and tackle the root cause. This is the same problem why people are looped in patterns of behaviors in their life and don’t break out of it even though they try to – it’s because they are addressing the effects and not the real issues that arose to the patterns. Once you truly understand what the root cause is, the issue will automatically dissipate. The same is very much true in the CRM case

When you resist others, you cause them pain you don’t know

Is there anyone you are / have been resisting in your Organization? Every time we resist someone, especially someone close to us, we cause them pain that we are not aware of. The person may seem okay on the outside, but he/she is actually hurt on the inside. This happens when you try to push your CRM ideas to people rather than planting the seed of CRM. The more deeper they are hurt the more shit your gonna face in the CRM journey.

Positive motivators are stronger than negative motivators

In an organization, there are always 2 key groups of motivators. One is fear. The second is love. Fear, or negative motivators, refer to feelings of trepidation or anxiety that drive us into action. For example, doing something in fear of punishment/losing out/competition/being lesser than others. While these can drive us to take action, it’s short-lived. We only act when such feelings are stirred. In the long-run, it creates wear and tear in our system. It also creates inner weariness, as we’re just acting out of fear/pride/scorn.

On the other hand, love/inspiration, or positive motivators, are the true north drivers that will spur us endlessly, day after day, in joy and happiness. Focus on doing what you love and happiness will ensue. If you’re truly pursuing something you love, your love for it will drive you to places which you can’t even imagine. What we need is the true CRM champions who are positive Bees that spread the message of CRM inside and outside of the organization. They create positive vibes all around and set the stage for the CRM start rolling.

You’re not alone in your problems

Sometimes you might feel you’re overwhelmed with problems and you feel you’re the only person in this world dealing with them. However, it’s not like that at all. Everyone, everyone you see around you, has his/her own problems and challenges to deal with. So don’t think you’re by yourself in what you’re going through. If you’re facing this problem, there are at least tens of thousands of people out there who is undergoing the same thing too. You’re not alone. We’re all here for one another. Try to share your views ,opinions with like minded CRM advocates, Evangelist. Consulting is not always expensive atleast with the boom of Social networking consulting made easy and its always mutual beneficial to both the parties. I believe there is lot more to this Inception and these amateur thoughts wouldn’t be sufficient to justify all of that in my mind. Anyways I believe this is a good start and will keep exploring more of it and watch this space for the Sequel.



How About You?

How do you find thoughts above? Did you have any take away any lessons from Inception or do you have any additional thoughts that are not listed above and if so, Let’s share them with everyone here :)


Wishing Merry Christmas, Fulfilled Holidays and Happy New Year

Loving P&C

DC*