Research firm Gartner has issued a new report noting that it expects IT budgets to increase significantly in 2013 and 2014, led by both cloud computing and CRM initiatives. The reasons given are pretty simple: cloud will provide for cost savings and other long-term efficiencies. Gartner posits that CRM investments will increase due to an … Continue reading »
Filed under cloud computing …
Five Very Smart People Define the Modern Cloud Application
By Chris Bucholtz “The cloud” is a term that has been abused, abducted, misappropriated, Shanghaied and commandeered for the evil purposes of vendors who see it more as a sales tool than as a definition that helps users understand a somewhat complex concept. (Well, not evil purposes, necessarily, but commercial purposes, certainly. And if intentionally … Continue reading »
Lee House: 5 Essential Tips to Protect Your Data Privacy, or That of Your Customers, When Using Cloud Computing
(Editor’s note: security is often cited as a concern when it comes to cloud computing. But it’s not as if you, the user, is powerless or has no role to play in security. The reality is that a cloud deployment is as secure as you make it. Don’t believe me? Okay, then – listen to … Continue reading »
TCO White Paper: CRM Vendor Pricing: Fees, Subscriptions & Hidden Costs
The way companies use and pay for customer relationship management (CRM) applications is changing. Moving from a predominantly perpetual license-based system, where companies paid a large up-front sum and then smaller annual maintenance fees, CRM software providers are now moving towards monthly or annual subscription fees to access CRM software on the Internet. The various … Continue reading »
15 Things NOT to share with your Social Network
Now that CRM is going Social and your activities are being streamed live into people’s work lives, it’s even more important to remember that you don’t have to (and in some cases definitely shouldn’t) share everything in your social media streams. For years we have been told Information Exchange is great and that knowledge shared … Continue reading »
SugarCRM Useful Tip – 5 ways to beat the Spam
So… you just sent out your best ever mail campaign. SugarCRM has pulled the results back into your Campaign Status showing it went out to every recipient, yet there are no reads, no click-throughs and no useful data to go prospecting from. Did they actually receive the mail? If they did, was it simply deleted … Continue reading »
What’s the Difference between the Royal Wedding and SugarCRM?
The Royal Wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday 29th April 2011 was the first Royal Wedding streamed live across the world via the Internet and not only made National and International history, but also set and broke a good few records in the process. With so much emphasis and attention being … Continue reading »
The Secret To A Successful CRM Implementation
One of the recurring questions I get from customers and prospects all over the world is, what is the secret to a successful CRM implementation? My answer resonates with companies large and small, here in North America, in Europe and in Asia. The secret to a successful CRM implementation is process, process, process. A CRM … Continue reading »
Salesforce.com, What the F$#% are You Thinking?!?!?!
I remember there was a song that was pretty popular a few years ago called “If I had a Million Dollars,” by the Bare Naked Ladies. That song seems childish and silly compared to the spending spree that Salesforce.com has been on over the past several months. The two main acquisitions by Salesforce that give … Continue reading »
The Cloud, Big Data, and the Future of CRM
I just read that Basho Technologies, which has created an open source, highly available and fault-tolerant data structure for the cloud called Riak, has landed a cool $7.5m in new funding. The news is interesting, as it shows more and more people are not only banking on NoSQL and other cloud-optimized data architectures from an … Continue reading »
