CRM - May 2008 - (Page 17)

Insight software-and-services offering, hindered by an incomplete vision. Ballmer’s view of owning the “white space” between personal productivity and applications platforms is something Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal of Beagle Research Group, a CRM consultancy, calls “a 15-year-old Microsoft strategy.” Pombriant’s reaction to Microsoft’s positioning? “The message that sends is that [Microsoft is] a big ERP company that is building integrations from ERP to CRM, which is backwards for this industry.” “The messaging is really a mixed bag,” writes Paul Greenberg, chief customer officer of CRM consultancy BPT Partners and author of CRM at the Speed of Light, on his blog. “It’s not wrong— but it’s not what I’d be doing up against SAP and Oracle, Salesforce[.com] and Sage [Software].” In fact, Greenberg and others believe Microsoft has turned a corner. He calls Dynamics CRM 4.0 the company’s “first truly good CRM product”—but also stresses that its success rests heavily on the savvy of certain executives, including Ballmer and Brad Wilson, the general manager of Dynamics CRM. “Microsoft has an extraordinary opportunity to grab some market share and even, with some fortuitous breaks, lead the market,” Greenberg writes. Microsoft isn’t about building new frameworks for its ecosystem, he says, but merely extending an old framework “that is long broken.” In the industry at large, according to Greenberg, that outdated, vendordefined model is “now being replaced by one dominated by the customer.” Another sign of rejiggered frameworks? In the aftermath of Convergence, Microsoft announced a branding change, rechristening Dynamics CRM Live—its hosted CRM product—as Dynamics CRM Online. The new labels denote what is being delivered, to whom, and who is doing the hosting: “Live” will now be reserved for consumer and verysmall-business offerings; “Online” will refer to small-and-midsize business and enterprise services hosted by Microsoft in its own data center. —Marshall Lager www.destinationCRM.com ON THE SCENE: SAP CRM 2008 Vendors Go Virtual for Feedback Online communities are another way to get into customers’ heads O ne critical aspect of success is knowing what customers think. Judging from the language and tone at the recent SAP CRM 2008 conference in Las Vegas, SAP is urging vendors to take it another step further by leveraging online communities to receive constant customer feedback. Reza Soudogar, senior director of SAP CRM, said that reconnecting with customers is a major emphasis for SAP, a kind of “customer co-innovation,” adding that there has historically been a “disconnection in the software industry” when it comes to recording—and, more important, heeding—the voice of the consumer. “[Feedback] is not a point-in-time process,” he said. “We need to have a constant dialogue in the development process, and that must include our customers. We had to fine-tune our development process.” For SAP, that meant opening up its Business Process Expert (BPX) community to all members of its ecosystem to share feedback on the company’s offerings in forums, blogs, and articles. With this online community, Soudogar said that SAP has a “constant feedback loop in place, which is now a part of our DNA.” While only those directly involved with SAP can actively participate, the site (www.bpx.sap.com) can be viewed by the public. Industry analysts applaud the drive to refocus on the customer. “Any initiative SAP is taking to be closer to customers is a good one, because being closer means they can better understand challenges customers are having and figure out ways to address them,” explains Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research at Nucleus Research. “Traditionally, SAP had real challenges with that.” Ray Wang, principal analyst at Forrester Research, says that the BPX community is only one facet of the company’s progress, citing SAP’s industry value networks and developer networks. “SAP has done one of the best jobs in terms of reaching out to its customers,” he says. “Co-innovation is just another part of expanding on that tradition of theirs as well as building on an Being closer to ecosystem model that they really believe in.” SAP is not alone in offering an online customer community. customers helps Salesforce.com’s IdeaExchange and FrontRange Solutions’ Front- companies better Range Connect are similar to SAP’s BPX. “Most successful softunderstand challenges ware vendors, whether structured or not, are building a feedback customers are having network with customers in some way,” Wettemann notes. Still, analysts are quick to warn about potential pitfalls. Wang and figure out ways says that while user adoption for BPX is initially promising, the to address them. long-term success of the forum depends on customers actually participating.“It’s like any other relationship: You get as much as you put in,” he explains. “So SAP is putting [its] best foot forward, putting out all these tools and trying to enable these kinds of discussions and conversations. It’s up to the customers to respond.” There are also issues with being able to winnow out the pertinent information from what Wettemann calls the “squeaky wheels.” “It’s about striking a balance between how much input you want the customer to have in the development-and-design process, and also communicating very clearly to them about what your plans are so you set expectations correctly,” she adds. The benefits of these sites are clear, but Wettemann stresses that vendors need to have a clear strategy in place first. “It’s not just about setting up a community; it has to be more than that,” she explains. “[Vendors] must be able to take the concepts or challenges of the customer, put these into the design requirements, and deliver it within a reasonable time frame.” —Christopher Musico CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | MAY 2008 17 http://www.bpx.sap.com http://Salesforce.com?s http://www.destinationCRM.com

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

CRM - May 2008 Contents Front Office Feedback Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Is CRM Too Hard for Microsoft Vendors Go Virtual For Feedback Sense-sational Marketing How UGC Can Benefit CRM DestinationCRM Dashboard Price Check, Aisle 5 Required Reading The Moving Target The Excellence Myth Seven Steps to SOA Success And They're Off! Are You Ready to Party? Skin in the Game The Right Numbers Secret of My Success Re: Tooling Connect Pint of View

CRM - May 2008

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