CRM - December 2007 - (Page 27)

interested in CRM, understand what they can do with it, and can afford it,” he says. “The biggest challenge for [these small businesses] is using the Web to increase the pool of prospects and automate other activities so they can pursue business and not administrate,” Leary continues. “On-demand is crucial for small businesses, and there’s pent-up demand for quality.” Greenberg is less restrained.“Look out for Zoho, because they will kick ass. They have a real sense of how to build native Web tools: with collaboration and business value,” he says. “Zoho isn’t a personal productivity competitor, it’s a customer engagement competitor.” By giving customers the means to communicate their wants and needs to the businesses they deal with, Greenberg believes vendors such as Zoho put into practice the oft-repeated theory that the customer is always right. “The customer is telling you what’s right for them,” Greenberg says. count Redmond out.“It will have an effect on the market. The pricing alone is compelling enough that it can’t be ignored.” (In October, Microsoft announced that it would be charging partners licensing fees of as little as $15 per user per month— but whether those low costs trickle down to end users, and whether that drives uptake, remains to be seen.) Leary’s a bit more guarded about the industry’s German giant, though:“It’s going to be tough for SAP,” he says. “When you’re used to big-game hunting, it’s tough to sell salespeople on thousand-dollar deals instead of hundred-thousand-dollar ones.” “We will see huge use of social networking and CRM in the public sector— constituent relationship management,” Greenberg says. Presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are two who are really getting it right, Greenberg says, reaching out to voters in a new, engaging way.“It’s driven by the elections of 2008, though, so there’s a time limit crm cool vendors (2007) • • • • • • • • • • Eloqua Enkata Hitwise InsideView Landslide Technologies Loyalty Lab PowerReviews TOA Technologies Vistaar XpertUniverse SOURCE: GARTNER application-development capabilities of its own—SuiteBundler, NetSuite’s thirdparty customization-delivery ecosystem that builds on the company’s SuiteFlex platform. The editors of CRM magazine believe it will be quite a competition to SO WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN? Enough talk—time to close this predictions article with some actual predictions: Leary tells us to expect action in the midmarket during 2008. The October 2007 announcement of SAP Business ByDesign will make waves (see “SAP’s Midmarket Design,” page 16), as will further developments from Microsoft. “Microsoft Dynamics Live CRM will be interesting,” Leary says, noting that, despite delays and hiccups, it’s hard to Marketers must be willing to make their messages consumable for people who don’t want to be marketed to. involved. They must make a passive campaign component active.” Salesforce.com has been making waves with AppExchange and now Force.com; NetSuite, the company’s competitor in the SaaS space, answered back with watch, pitting Salesforce.com’s established community against NetSuite’s well-integrated business suite and industry-standard data architecture. Last, a renewed prophesy: “I made a prediction last year that Google would buy a CRM company,” Leary says. “When Salesforce.com and Google started working together I felt like Nostradamus, but it didn’t work out that way.” Several Salesforce.com initiatives have drawn upon Google applications, including Google Maps and Google AdWords, but the two companies remain distinct. “I still think this will happen. If [Google executives] buy anybody, it will be Salesforce.com. It would give them good footing in business, especially enterprise.” Contact Senior Editor Marshall Lager at mlager@destinationCRM.com. 27 2008 predictions CRM: Through year-end 2008, 25 percent of CRM projects will be postponed or canceled because of the CRM skill shortage in consultants and systems integrators. Marketing: Through year-end 2008, more than 80 percent of marketing professionals will fail to capitalize on the next wave of Web-based consumer interactivity for people 25 years old or younger. Sales: By 2009, more than 50 percent of new SFA deployments will be based on software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery models. Customer Service: Re-architecting the major application-suite providers’ platforms will delay the adoption of their next generation of customer service contact center products until the first half of 2008. SOURCE: GARTNER www.destinationCRM.com CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2007 http://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://Force.com http://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://Salesforce.com http://www.destinationCRM.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CRM - December 2007

CRM - December 2007 Contents Front Office Reality Check Customer Centricity SAP’s Midmarket Design A Shift in SAP’s Growth Strategy: Buy Big to Get Bigger The Buyer Is Your Owner Prime Time for Streaming TV The Word on the Floor Market Focus: Energy/Utilities: Speaking Truth to Power (Companies) The Pulse Required Reading It’s All Coming 2.0gether Power to the People Speak Up! Document Management That's a Breeze Customers Gain Traction With Off-Road Vehicles Getting Connected With Surveys Mobile Data Gets Better Reception Secret of My Success Re:Tooling The Tipping Point Pint of View

CRM - December 2007

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