CRM- September 2008 - (Page 15) Insight enough to glean insight at the street level. Perhaps what’s most exciting about the new technology is that software solutions providers are striving for business-user-friendliness. Before, companies relied on specialists to extract insight when having to work with a location dimension, Morris says, but the LIC is elevating the work out of the basement and onto the desktop. “The value comes in by bringing in the sales and financial information along with the geographic,” he adds. Telecommunications companies, for example, can map out precisely where cable lines should go in order to maximize the number of properties covered. MassHousing, a provider of affordable housing opportunities in Massachusetts, was so excited about the tool that it jumped on an unofficial release of the integrated solution two years ago. “I wanted to get ahead of the curve,” says Carl Richardson, BI project manager at MassHousing. Even so, that early version of the system required 10 technically trained users, queries took an hour to answer, and it only provided a 10,000-foot view, he says. With the LIC, Richardson’s been able to expand the product to nearly 30 users with plans to roll it out companywide (at press time, he was waiting for an updated release scheduled for August, which promised enhanced usability). He can put away the map-and-compass technique, and easily drill down to see, for example, how many communities are within a 10-minute walk from the subway station and determine how to better utilize those areas. “It allows us to better respond to information,” he says. Even better? What once took an hour now takes only five minutes. With the convergence of locationbased technology and increased consumer adoption, Campbell says that adding this location dimension is a necessary investment—albeit a major one. But, ultimately, the business value will prove to be immense, he says: “It’s really just a matter of being creative in your application.” —Jessica Tsai www.destinationCRM.com CRM DIALS INTO THE iPHONE Is the industry ready to turn a consumer craze into a business tool? W Of the more than 500 iPhone-native ith the July release of the Apple iPhone 3G—offering applications made available at the App greater speed and higher- Store’s launch, only a handful are debandwidth data access than the version signed for enterprise use. But accentuatthat debuted a year ago—business appli- ing the early success of these applications cation vendors (including such CRM is the fact that Apple had imposed a gag notables as Oracle and Salesforce.com) order on developers, preventing them from advertising or otherwise began offering downloadable disclosing prior to the launch utilities through the iPhone Oracle and date what would be available. App Store. The new version Salesforce.com The CRM-related downof the iPhone software, made loads include Oracle Business extensible by Apple’s release embrace Apple’s Indicators, which builds upon of a software development kit newest gadget. Fusion middleware and Oracle earlier this year, is far more enterprise-compatible than the first, with Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition corporate-strength email capabilities that Plus (OBIEE) to provide a mobile interare on par with those available in the face for critical business information. market-leading BlackBerry platform Chief financial officers can view the latand other Windows-compatible hand- est company financial trends; sales manhelds. (That’s one reason Apple’s one of agers can be alerted to sales performance our Rising Stars this year; see page 30.) and customer satisfaction issues; and Just because you’ve got a star and a rock, doesn’t mean you’re a rock star. 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://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://www.saynotoducttape.com http://www.saynotoducttape.com http://www.destinationCRM.com
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