Section: CRM: STRATEGIES

Title: Vendors focus

on simplifying CRM , Vendors focus on simplifying CRM
By: Bannan, Karen J.,
B to B, 15302369,
11/10/2003, Vol. 88,
Issue 12 Companies roll out new offerings as marketers begin to invest
Database: Business tactically
Source Complete
Life may not be easy, but customer relationship management should be. At
least that's the contention of CRM software marketers. This quarter, vendors
such as Siebel Systems, PeopleSoft and SAP rolled out new products that
focus on simplifying business processes. In addition, Siebel cemented its
commitment to the hosted CRM market with its acquisition of UpShot, a
hosted CRM provider.

The announcements come on the heels of a welcome statistic: CRM

spending is up, according to industry analysts. As a result, CRM vendors are
providing new industry- and department-specific products.

"We see CRM spending rebounding from what had been a multiyear slump,"
said Elizabeth Roche, VP-enterprise applications strategies for research firm
META Group. "Even though the days of $100 million spending all at once
are over, we're seeing people investing tactically, and that's pushing
vendors to introduce new offerings."

Siebel's new strategy

Siebel announced its acquisition soon after it stated a new product strategy
that includes Siebel CRM OnDemand, an offering that combines both
hosted and on-premises delivery models. This product is designed to allow
the company to cater to a wider range of customers and grow with those
customers as they mature. At the same time, Siebel promoted Siebel 7.7,
the newest version of its enterprise CRM suite, which is expected to ship
next spring. It will include customer loyalty management and two-way
wireless support.

Also in October, the company made another acquisition designed to expand

its industry-specific offerings. Siebel acquired Motiva, a software publisher
that designs employee compensation tracking software, for $3 million. The
UpShot purchase cost Siebel $70 million.

The most visible by-product of these acquisitions will be Siebel CRM

OnDemand, which is expected to be launched by yearend. Initially, Siebel
will support the Motiva and UpShot products separately, but company
officials said in a statement that they would eventually merge the two.

Competitor Salesforce.com wasted no time announcing its own migration

path for current UpShot customers. The program includes data transfer and
free training.

The news is significant because a new report released by research firm

Aberdeen Group found that 85% of respondents said they would evaluate a
hosted product when looking for a new CRM installation. Other analysts
agree that hosted products will become more important, especially for those
companies that aren't already entrenched with their own hosted offerings.

PeopleSoft has also boosted its CRM offerings, concentrating on

integration and analytics. The company in September announced six
new CRM Process Integration packs, programs that help users
In addition, more than a dozen new features were released for the product,
including a customer preference tracking option that will help companies
comply with the Federal Trade Commission's do-not-call legislation. Also,
PeopleSoft recently unveiled PeopleSoft Predictive Analytics, designed for
use with PeopleSoft CRM.

SAP adds analytics

SAP also made an analytics announcement this quarter.

The company introduced new analytics capabilities for its mySAP CRM
program. Enhancements include a real-time analytics option, planning
scenarios, marketing optimization and customer lifetime value modules.

META Group's Roche said users should expect to see more new offerings in
the fourth quarter and beyond.

"Vendors know that they need to provide increased choice but also knit
everything they have together. There are plenty of organizations that can't
afford or don't need an enterprise CRM product," Roche said. "CRM vendors
realize that this is a missed market, and they're providing a growth path for
the future."

They're also realizing that without analytics, growth is uncertain, she said.
"Vendors have been good about delivering operational CRM, but analytics is
part of the solution they need to get a panoramic view of the customer.
When everything comes together, the user and its customer benefit."

~~~~~~~~

By Karen J. Bannan
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individual use.
Source: B to B, 11/10/2003, Vol. 88 Issue 12, p17, 1p
Item: 11491334
Title: CRM providers target SMBs , By: Callaghan, Dennis, eWeek, 15306283, 9/1/2003, Vol. 20, Issue
35
Database: Business Source Complete

Section: NEWS & ANALYSIS

CRM providers target SMBs

ON TAP: MIX OF HOSTED, LICENSED PRODUCTS

INTUIT INC. AND MARKETplace Software LLC are each developing

CRM software options for small and midsize businesses, which have
lately sought such functionality through hosted customer relationship
management services.

At the same time, Salesnet Inc. is planning enhancements to its hosted

CRM applications.

Intuit, of Mountain View, Calif, last week announced two customer service
software applications, QuickBooks Customer Manager and QuickBooks
Client Manager. The moves were prompted by company research that
showed only 13 percent of its QuickBooks small-business accounting
software customers have CRM software deployed.

The news followed startup Marketplace's release last month of E-manage.

The software includes modules for customer and contact management,
project management, SFA (sales force automation), service and warranty
management, commissions, asset and human resources management,
employee and customer Web portals, and e-mail marketing.

Intuit and Marketplace, of Long Beach, Calif., are both taking aim at
companies with 20 or fewer users.

Hosted services companies, however, are looking to take advantage of the

ability to have customers regularly log on and update capabilities. For
instance, by the end of this month, Salesnet plans to release Version 2 of its
Dashboard, adding full drill-down capabilities. Users will be able to click on
graphical presentations of sales data to see underlying data. The current
version provides only a graphical interface to reports.

By the first quarter of next year, Boston-based Salesnet expects to add

support for foreign languages and currencies, according to company
officials, speaking at DCI's CRM Conference & Exposition here last week.

Jennifer Fox, marketing specialist and Salesnet administrator for ImageMax

Inc., in Fort Washington, Pa., said she can't imagine how licensed software
could give her company what Salesnet does.

"For a company that has offices around the country, a tool like this is almost
a necessity," Fox said.

CRM for small biz: Newcomers' licensed software

offerings:
A-Software
B-Capabilities
A
B
Intuit's Customer Manager and Client Manager
Manages customer and contact information
Marketplace Software's E-manage
Modules for customer service, SFA and related fields

~~~~~~~~

By Dennis Callaghan
Copyright of eWeek is the property of ZDNet and its content may not
be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the
copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may
print, download, or email articles for individual use.
Title: CRM providers go custom , By: Callaghan, Dennis, eWeek, 15306283, 12/23/2002, Vol. 19, Issue
51
Database: Business Source Complete

Section: NEWS & ANALYSIS

CRM providers go custom

PROVIDERS OF CRM SOFTWARE AND services for small and midsize

businesses are adding features to their offerings in anticipation of Microsoft
Corp.'s arrival on the customer relationship management scene.

Microsoft, of Redmond, Wash., gave developers Salesnet Inc., UpShot

Corp. and Siebel Systems Inc. a little breathing room when it said last week
that it will not release its CRM software to manufacturing until early in 2003;
it had been due this month.

Boston-based Salesnet next month will announce new reporting

capabilities called Dashboard and Report Snapshot that will allow
users of its hosted CRM service to more easily identify, measure and
react to trends in the sales pipeline. These reports will be fully
customizable and configurable and will be able to provide automated
analysis of sales activities, according to sources close to the
company.

Continuing the theme of improved customizability, UpShot, of

Mountain View, Calif., in February will roll out improvements in
adaptability and customization for its hosted service, although
company officials declined to be more specific.

Separately, market leader Siebel, of San Mateo, Calif., next fall will
introduce tighter integration of its Mid-Market Edition CRM offering with
Microsoft Office applications, officials said. In addition, Mid-Market Edition
will benefit from Microsoft's promise this fall to add support for Siebel's UAN
(Universal Application Network) integration platform in its BizTalk Server
integration software. BizTalk is a popular choice for application integration at
midmarket companies. There is no timetable for that support.

For CRM customers, customization and integration, which Microsoft is

expected to come up short on in the first iteration of its CRM software, are
key.

“The fact that Microsoft CRM won't provide a whole lot of customization in its
first release should limit their market from the start,” said John Meyer, CIO of
Code 3 Collectibles LLC, in Woodland Hills, Calif. Meyer, who uses Interact
Commerce Corp.'s SalesLogix application, described CRM software as a
“nebulous product” defined differently from company to company. Having
extensive, yet easy, customization capabilities is key to making the software
work properly, he said.

A Microsoft spokeswoman said the company is in final testing of Release

Candidate 1 of Microsoft CRM. It will shortly move to Release Candidate 2,
gather final feedback on that in January and then make it generally
available.

Shoring up CRM
COMPANY CAPABILITY
Salesnet Dashboard and Report Snapshot
provide
customized sales reporting and
automated
analysis
Upshot Adaptability and customization
enhancements planned
Siebel Tighter integration with
Microsoft
Office; UAN supported by
Microsoft
BizTalk

~~~~~~~~

By Dennis Callaghan
Copyright of eWeek is the property of ZDNet and its content may not
be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the
copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may
print, download, or email articles for individual use
 Section: customer relations
Title: A to Z , By:
Bland, Vikki, New A to Z
Zealand
Management,
11745339, May2004,
Vol. 51, Issue 4 Our guide to who's who in CRM
Database: Business
Source Complete If there's one thing you need to know about customer relationship management
(CRM) in 2004 it's this: CRM is not the same thing as contact management. Why is
this important? Because, according to CRM specialists, New Zealand businesses
still regularly confuse the two.

Unlike contact management, CRM is less about what you know about your
customer and more about what they know about you. CRM strategies encourage
customers to believe a business knows their needs in advance, and helps
businesses to anticipate customer needs rather than just react to them.

Contact management tools are best described as a subset of that; they help
businesses to track and access up-to-date customer-contact information like details
of the last customer enquiry or the customer's account status. Despite this
confusion, CRM specialists say New Zealand businesses are increasingly aware of
the impact good CRM tools and practices can have on businesses' growth and
customer satisfaction.

Helen Robinson, managing director for CRM specialist Pivotal Corporation, thinks
CRM in New Zealand is now in a settled state. "CRM is widely understood to be
necessary -- both from a strategic perspective and technologically."

New Zealand businesses see the benefits and will continue to make CRM
investments, she says. "CRM is expanding into the dynamic front office, or demand
chain automation, where there is further value. Things like business process
management, analytics, marketing automation and execution will enable
organisations to adapt quickly and effectively to changing business requirements."

And smaller businesses now realise that CRM strategies are not just for large
enterprises according to Microsoft New Zealand solution specialist Charlie
Wood. "They [can be] affordable and easy to install for smaller businesses],"
he says.

Research last year from Gartner showed 15 percent of global businesses with up to
500 PCs had a clear CRM strategy and employed CRM software. It predicted this
penetration would grow to about 40 percent within the next five years. "As CRM
tools become more mid-market friendly, they will be used to level the playing field
and gain competitive advantage," says Wood.

Tony Bullen, Asia Pacific managing director for CRM specialists Stayinfront, says
that while CRM decisions should not be based solely on technology, technological
innovation is driving the CRM market.

Recent IT evolutions in IP telephony, automated voice response software and

radio, wireless and other mobile technologies, are examples. "CRM options in 2004
resemble an a la carte menu. Companies that compete on price shouldn't over
invest in CRM; but those that compete on customer service should realise its
positive impact," he adds.

But how much do well-tailored, customised, and supported CRM investments cost
SMEs?

Many New Zealand CRM brand resellers are also small businesses and so
companies of all sizes can pay one amount for software licensing and an
equal amount again for support and training, those costs rise exponentially if
the software requires a lot of customisation or the business needs extra
support."

Costs can also increase if a business decides to add CRM tools to an existing
financial or ERP software suite instead of investing in a full ERP suite that
includes CRM. With "sole CRM" implementations, the quality of software
integration becomes more important and consulting may be more expensive.

No one suggests CRM investment is cheap. But the up-front expenditure can be
offset if companies use hosted software services through application service
providers (ASPs) to trial CRM without purchasing a software licence. The business
then has access to CRM tools through an online connection for a monthly fee. "The
[ASP option] gives customers some flexibility. It's a low risk entry to CRM," says
Wood.

However, even hosted CRM services must be strategically planned -- something

smaller businesses may struggle with.

Bullen says analysing and supporting the New Zealand SME market is tricky
because small companies rarely employ people with CRM skills.

But SMEs that get CRM right have the most to gain. "CRM helps SMEs put
processes in place; they can tailor product offerings and marketing investments to
ensure sales opportunities are not falling through the cracks," says Bullen.

CRM specialists
However good CRM technologies are, most businesses are stuck without a quality
CRM specialist to help with CRM planning, design and integration. The following
guide lists key CRM brands available in New Zealand. Whether locally or
internationally based, brand providers tend to work with local business partners.
Where applicable, each brand provider has listed these partners.

Accpac

CRM claim
Designed to support all aspects of customer relationship management, ACCPAC
CRM is rapidly deployable in-house or as a hosted application. ACCPAC CRM
seamlessly integrates with your back-office ACCPAC accounting applications.

NZ CRM services offered

• Business analysis

• Design and implementation

• Support

• Training

CRM software brands

• Accpac CRM

• Accpac CRM Sales Team

• Accpac CRM.com

Number of NZ fulltime staff