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The Evolution of Enterprise CRM

June 8th, 2010 by Nitin Bidi

CRM. Customer Relationship Management. BI. Business Intelligence. SMM. Social Media Marketing. In the past few years, the line between these operations solutions have become blurred, and enterprises are sometimes challenged with finding the right mix.

American Unit is dedicated to providing our clients with the best solutions for their business situations. The customer care landscape is changing rapidly; just as the internet has changed from Web 1.0, to Web 2.0, and now on the horizon is Web 3.0. How has the evolution in CRM processes affected the enterprise?

First, there was database management, which came about after computerized solutions for managing large databases become commonplace in the 1980s. Customer Relationship Management as a business solution developed in the 1990s about a decade later. In theory, CRM was a great idea; but in practice it was often difficult and expensive to implement and it was confusing to keep records constantly updated and accurate. The majority of CRM systems were customized solutions meant to help companies tailor their marketing and sales to specific client needs.

At first, CRM was basically a tool for gathering business intelligence, or BI; the data was used inhouse. As CRM matured in the early part of the 21st century, the static databases of the 1990s developed into a way to continually understand customer buying behavior in real-time. Now, business intelligence as delivered through dynamic CRM solutions also included data about both the motivations and the reactions of customers; helping to make B2C communication a truly two-way.

Although today most companies of any size utilize CRM applications, three industry sectors dominate: technology, financial services, and retail. Companies can now quickly and easily both track and respond to customer patterns, habits and satisfaction levels. American Unit helps small and mid-sized businesses find and customize the best solutions as well as keep abreast of the rapid changes in CRM and BI.

Customer Relationship Management solutions, along with the ever-evolving functionality of Business Intelligence applications, offer many benefits to small and medium-sized companies who realize the importance and well as the complexity of integrating technology with business operations. Some of the benefits of a comprehensive CRM solution include:

Up-to-date and accurate data to assist in short-term and long-term decision-making.
Help with scheduling production and JIT (just-in-time) inventory levels.
Relevant information and customer feedback for the marketing and sales departments for future enhancements and upgrades for products and services.
Building and maintaining customer satisfaction levels, customer acquisition, and customer retention.
Strategizing in a customer-centric fashion.
Keeping the sales force on track with its goals.

Successfully and efficiently managing customer relationship management and customer experience management solutions is challenging, yet absolutely necessary. American Unit is ready to work with you to create a viable and highly functional platform for maximum benefit.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Next Generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM

April 27th, 2010 by Bill Martin

While the folks in Redmond can take some comfort in being the fastest growing CRM solution among the “Big 4″, they are also cognizant that they are still fourth in the market behind Oracle, SAP and Salesforce. At Convergence 2010 this week in Atlanta, the product management team for Microsoft Dynamics CRM discussed some of the ways they hope to enhance their positioning against the other three.

The newest version of the platform, Dynamics CRM 5.0, is targeted for release at the end of 2010 and will address some of the key issues voiced by the user community with the current release. “The focus is on simplicity, innovation, and value” remarked David Patterson in his presentation at Convergence. As an example of the value focus, he highlighted the introduction of Dynamics CRM in 41 languages, and the inclusion of their proprietary solution accelerators available for no additional charge.

In a Q & A session at Convergence, Craig Unger, general manager of Dynamics CRM R&D emphasized both the flexibility and integration capabilities of Dynamics CRM 5.0. “A couple years ago, we talked about the cloud as the power of choice. Increasingly we’re talking about the cloud and software plus services…a hybrid approach.” He addressed the importance of the “consumerization” of Dynamics CRM 5.0 – “delivering the experience as the user does.” This includes, for example, integrating CRM with Outlook, having “little bits of CRM on your mobile phone,” and being able to capture leads from social networks, all without having to go back and forth between two or three applications.

It also appears that Dynamics CRM 5.0 will provide an improved user interface and data visualization features, enhanced sales and marketing capabilities, and tighter integration with Microsoft’s SharePoint Server collaboration platform, things that users have been asking about since the release of CRM 4.0.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SharePoint | No Comments »

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Delivers A Shot Across the Bow

November 24th, 2009 by Bill Martin

Microsoft appears eager to take the battle to Salesforce.com and Oracle with regard to leadership in the fast growing CRM market. Microsoft Dynamics CRM, having achieved parity with both competitors in the eyes of the technology analyst community (see Forrester Wave below), has grown twice as fast as media favorite Salesforce.com over the past twelve months and recently crossed the one million user mark.

To “celebrate”, Microsoft announced, several weeks ago, a new promotion targeting current Oracle and Salesforce.com online customers with an offer of free Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service for up to seven months for switching from their existing service provider. The seven months includes Microsoft’s standing offer of 30 days free service plus the new promotion of an additional six months.

Though the string attached to the offer is a commitment to a 12-month contract for Dynamics CRM Online, the savings on the first six months of the contract can be quite significant, meaning Microsoft is clearly smelling blood and playing to win in the customer care space.

While already considered to be the more cost-effective alternative among its peer group, Microsoft Dynamics CRM also owns the advantage of flexibility, at least against Salesforce.com, since Dynamics CRM is offered in both an on-demand and an on-premise model. Additionally, Dynamics CRM’s ability to easily integrate with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX, as well as Office and Outlook, delivers a productivity edge that is difficult for either of the other CRM platforms to claim.

Excepting the anomaly that is the 2009 market, most analyst estimates for CRM market growth remain in the 10%+ range for the near future. With that kind of opportunity at stake, it will be interesting to monitor how pitched this battle becomes.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM | No Comments »

The Advent of CRM 2.0

August 13th, 2009 by Bill Martin

Here at American Unit, enterprise CRM is generally top of mind when it comes to providing solutions with the greatest potential for positively impacting the operations of our clients.

But we also recognize that the traditional concept of customer care has been rocked to its foundation by the rapid advent of social media.

CRM guru Paul Greenberg via his personal blog, has made a nice attempt at defining the differences between 1.0 and 2.0.

CRM 1.0 (2003): “CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a system and a technology, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment.”

CRM 2.0 (2008): “CRM 2.0 is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules and processes, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation to improve human interactions and provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”

On the CRM 2.0 Wiki, Alex Schultze has codified Greenberg’s thinking and proposed that CRM 2.0 is actually CEM 1.0, Customer Experience Management, because, as he posits:

We are talking about the behavioral changes of our customers but I guess we have to more precise than that. The underlying change is significant: It is the change in the customer education process. Just 5-10 years ago customers where mainly educated by the experts in the respective companies, by their solution providers, analysts and media. Not today. The previous education process and therefore influence is rapidly declining and has just minor importance today. Customers educate themselves over the Internet. But not the Internet from 5 years ago but through their connections in the social networks, blogs, discussion forums, wikis, the whole nine yards.

A view to the complexity of the process that we are now talking about comes from a recent report by Forrester analyst William Band.

Locking in customer loyalty through deeper engagement and differentiated experiences will continue to be critical priorities for organizations in all sectors in the decade ahead, but navigating the complex customer relationship management (CRM) technology landscape remains challenging – particularly in light of the rapid rise of Social Computing, the increasing adoption of software-as-a service (SaaS) solutions, and the need to provide mobile capabilities for front-line personnel. But by selecting the right solutions to invest in, CRM professionals can take the proper steps without taking unnecessary risk.

This diagram from that report highlights the complexity of today’s CRM environment and the many technologies involved in successful CEM.

The challenges to CRM ISVs, system integrators and customers to create a successful CRM/CEM platform going forward will be manifest.The evolution will definitely be worth watching.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Oracle Siebel CRM | No Comments »