CRM - February 2008 - (Page 29)

CRM Vendors + Web 2.0 BY JOHN CHAN the People,” December 2007, page 28, for more about user-generated content.) You cannot disconnect the digital client’s personal reliance on Web 2.0 from her desire to conduct business with your organization in a similar way. She and others like her are your current and future customers, and their Web 2.0 experiences have set expectations for transacting business. This makes it critical to leverage new and developing technologies to successfully drive the next generation of CRM 2.0 applications. Several CRM vendors have already begun down this path (see “CRM Vendors + Web 2.0,” this page)—and the laggards are now scrambling to catch up. CRM users that wish to survive long term need to master these new technologies and apply them in ways that attract and retain the digital client. Some companies have acknowledged the shift and have already begun to change not just the products and services they offer, but the way they interact with their customers. Apple and eBay would be at the top of that list, but I’ve already discussed them in my August 2007 column. So let’s turn to two new examples: • Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, announced in September 2007 that it had partnered with Sermo.com, the fastest-growing social networking site for doctors. Sermo.com, endorsed by the American Medical Association, offers doctors the ability to network with colleagues to discuss medical cases and/or problems. At the time of the announcement, 30,000 doctors in the U.S. frequented Sermo.com and an additional 2,000 doctors were joining each week. (Sermo.com expects to open its site to non-U.S. doctors this year.) Sermo.com prohibits any advertisements on its site, but Pfizer management sees collaboration with Sermo.com as a way of lowering costs and reducing inefficiencies in its relationships with doctors. Everyone benefits: Members of the site get to partake in an interactive online social community, within which they have the opportunity to publish and receive feedback on numerous medwww.destinationCRM.com S everal vendors currently offer substantial Web 2.0 type functionality in their CRM application with the aim of increasing online collaboration between users, content providers, and organizations. Here are some examples: • Customer Feedback: RightNow Technologies’ Feedback feature enables organizations to set up Web or email surveys to capture real-time customer feedback. Afterward, feedback can be routed by topic to the appropriate department for an appropriate response. • eCommerce: NetSuite can be integrated with eBay’s online marketplace, allowing users to list and sell items, monitor auctions, and automatically create customer records and sales orders from completed auctions. • Open-Source Software: Salesforce.com has played a leading role in the open-source movement, which makes source code available online for users to configure their own software applications. With Salesforce.com’s Apex programming language and development platform, customers are able to customize any component in their existing implementation or replace existing features with ones more suitable to their needs. • Online Collaboration: Several CRM vendors now offer direct online collaboration tools for a sales community. Oracle’s new Sales Library allows sales reps to access and share and vote on the usefulness of materials such as PowerPoint slide presentations. Salesforce.com’s Salesforce-to-Salesforce service allows customers to share data, sources, and leads in a Facebook-like social network. • Real-Time CRM: A number of CRM vendors have really advanced in the area of real-time CRM functionality. Infor CRM Epiphany’s Interaction Advisor drives intelligent interactions throughout the enterprise by delivering the most appropriate message to each customer touch point in real time. eGain continues to raise the bar regarding real-time customer service and contact center management functionality based on impressive cross-channel capabilities. • Additional Web 2.0 Features: Other CRM vendors have jumped on the bandwagon as well. SAP and Oracle both claim to have added robust Web 2.0 functionality to their latest CRM applications: SAP CRM 2007 includes widgets for sales reps’ home pages, a drag-and-drop module for local weather forecasts, Google search bars, and favorite reports. Oracle offers an application that can “mash up” information about customers and prospects from internal systems to predict sales opportunities. John Chan, director of ISM’s Software Testing Lab, has been testing CRM software since 1999. He can be reached at johnc@ismguide.com. ical issues. For Pfizer, the site serves as an efficient way of letting doctors obtain information on its drugs, improving relations with the medical community, and getting assessments from physicians on its clinical trials. Pfizer furthermore sees Sermo.com as a stimulus to reignite growth within the company and prepare itself for changes in the drug market. Other major pharmaceutical companies have taken note of Sermo.com’s suc- cess and many are expected to create their own physician social networking sites. It’s likely that Sermo.com will provide a model for other industries to deal successfully with critical distribution channels (in this case, doctors) within a social networking environment. • AAA, the American Automobile Association, celebrates its 105th birthday in 2008. Unfortunately, the average AAA member is nearly as old—well, 29 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | FEBRUARY 2008 http://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://Sermo.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - February 2008

CRM - February 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point The Loyalty Riddle CRM Drives Down-Market Out of the Gate: Marketers Rate ’08 Traits The Pulse Consultants Adapt to CRM’s Changing Landscape Required Reading Cover Story: CRM Gets Serious Contact Center Solutions Always On Rumble in the Office The Smallest Slice Tying Up Cable’s Loose Ends Burning Up the Paper Trail Sunny Skies for Knology No More Bumps for BlueRoads Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - February 2008

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