CRM - June 2008 - (Page 15)

Insight This inclination is also spurred by the pressures of an economic downturn, forcing businesses to avoid the traditional (and more cumbersome) practices of acquiring or developing applications, according to Jeffrey Kaplan, managing director of technology-consulting firm ThinkStrategies. Moreover, he adds, as businesses become increasingly mobile, the only way to keep up with the dispersed marketplace is through the Web. Finally, with the support of software giants, mashups are gaining the high profile needed to enter the mainstream. At its Impact 2008 Conference in April, for example, IBM unveiled its Mashup Center and WebSphere sMash (an environment for developers to develop Web 2.0 applications using programming language that is more simplified and agile than traditional Javascript), a move that experts say further validates mashups as an important tool to the enterprise. The Mashup Center allows business users—or, more to the point, nontechnical users—to take a widget from personal, enterprise, or Web sources, drag it onto a page along with other widgets, and very quickly, without any coding, create new applications. Applying other aspects of Web 2.0 technology—usergenerated content and the wisdom of crowds—the Web-based software also hosts a catalogue of widgets and mashups ranked, rated, and commented on by fellow users, who are also free to share and build off of existing widgets to develop their own spin. “The real power of this—the real kickoff—is when [IBM], our business partners, and our end users all start sharing these widgets in the catalogue,” Orn says. Judging by the rapid pace at which mashups are evolving, research firm Gartner advises businesses to incorporate this technology into their corporate strategies immediately. Business may be complex, but that’s what technology is for, the firm advises. “If we can make a tool appear very simple—so it looks almost too simple to do anything powerful—then we’re hitting the mark,” Orn says. —Jessica Tsai www.destinationCRM.com Trouble in the Air With chaos in the airline industry, is it any wonder customers find their faith anything but sky-high? T he airline industry may adore the sensibility behind the old Sinatra tune “Come Fly With Me”—but frequent flyers can be forgiven for finding the invitation a little hollow lately, if not downright bittersweet. On April 8, American Airlines announced the cancellation of more than a thousand out of its 2,300 daily flights due to inspection and rewiring on a range of MD-80 aircraft. Around the same time, a series of small-scale airlines (Aloha, ATA, SkyBus, and Skyway) suddenly shut down. As passengers scrambled to reschedule flights, alter vacation plans, and embrace extra time in stiff airport chairs, what were the airlines doing to maintain customer loyalty and restore customer service? “Maybe there’s no good solution, but there’s got to be a better one,” says Rick Seaney, chief executive officer of Farecompare.com, a consumer Web site for airline-ticket research.“It’s about coming clean with consumers and saying, ‘We are having troubles.’ To some degree automation and technology can—and should—help them do this.” Seaney points out that when chaos erupts due to federal regulations, high fuel costs, and internal airline politics, the passenger ends up bearing the brunt. In the case of the 250,000 passengers American Airlines left stranded in early April, it would be easy to assume that the company immediately alerted passengers about the scale and scope of the cancellations, but surprisingly, on April 9, the American Just because you’ve got a cake and a cup, doesn’t mean you have a cupcake. Just as patching contact center tools together doesn’t yield true contact center performance. Calabrio One™ is the only software suite that truly integrates a unified desktop with workforce optimization. It aligns people and processes, driving continuous improvements to meet your business objectives. Interested? Learn more at www.saynotoducttape.com. ©2008 Calabrio, Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.saynotoducttape.com http://www.saynotoducttape.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

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

CRM - June 2008 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity The Tipping Point Making Mashup Masterpieces Trouble in the Air CRM on Twitter Is SaaS Ready for Its Contact Center Close-up? CRM: In the Public Interest Required Reading Lollipop Loyalty Best Practices Series: CRM & eCommerce eGain NetSuite Infor Longwood Software Vovici The Second Coming of 2.0 Believe the Hype About Hosted Contact Centers All Talk So Hot It’s Cool Linksys Gets Shaken, a Community Is Stirred The Risky Risk Business Awana Hears a SaaS Sermon Secret of My Success Re:Tooling Scouting Report Pint of View

CRM - June 2008

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