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09.15.08 Today’s CRM Landscape  By Jim Berkowitz This article provides a fairly comprehensive look at the "state-of-the art" from 8 leading CRM technology solution companies (listed below) that should broaden your perspective on what CRM technologies can do for your organization: Customer relationship management (CRM) in name has been around for about 10-12 years. Yet the concept - knowing your customers and delivering the level of service to them that is appropriate for their existing and future importance - has long been at the heart of commerce. CRM has become more valuable and efficient thanks to improving technologies and practices. Advanced software has given larger enterprises that personalized small business feel of customers, which boosted service and sales. These tools, which have become more affordable thanks to software as a service (SaaS) solutions, have enabled small/midsized businesses (SMBs) to gain big-firm insight into their buyers' behavior to help them stay competitive.
CRM has also become more challenging… The numbers of channels has been expanding, such as SMS and mobile web a.k.a. unified communications (UC). Customers are gaining more control of their interactions through online research. Many products and services have become commoditized, most notably travel. And when the economy turns soft, as it appears to be doing in the US especially, lower prices and greater convenience necessitated by rising gas costs that are limiting travel often trump service and relationships in buying decisions. To get the 360-degree picture of CRM the writer(s) asked leading executives from the following companies for their insights on key CRM-related issues:
• Aperio CI
• Consona CRM • Enkata • Frontrange Solutions • Infor • Sage CRM Solutions • Salesforce.com • Unica Comment About the Author: Jim Berkowitz is a seasoned executive with more than 30 years of professional services and project management experience related to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Financial Management (Accounting & ERP) software solutions for small, mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies. As a Sales Force Automation and CRM Consultant, Jim has assisted more then 100 companies with the design and implementation of custom CRM solutions. Mr. Berkowitz is the founder and President of CRM Mastery, Inc.; a company dedicated to serving small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) by offering affordable tools and guidance to help them plan for and succeed with their CRM initiatives. |
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