Features

Features

• Accenture serves up data for all via Salesforce Wave analytics

  Accenture rolled out Wave analytics along with other Salesforce tools to 25,000 users within five months. Though the project moved quickly, it's also being done carefully.  Continue Reading

• Salesforce marketing automation makes one-to-one marketing a reality

  Salesforce marketing automation is helping companies make communications less brute force, more personalized. But there are still kinks in the chain.  Continue Reading

• CRM gets smart with artificial intelligence technologies

  Moving away from legacy CRM to cloud-based systems that can integrate big data and machine learning should be a top priority for businesses, say CRM professionals.  Continue Reading

• Mobile LBS poses challenge for companies, consumers alike

  Mobile location-based services have the potential to give companies serious consumer insight, but ethical issues abound.  Continue Reading

• Mobile location-based services teeter on ethical line

  Mobile location-based services can yield information about customers, but companies need to travel a careful line with the information they gather.  Continue Reading

• Lattice Engines enlists buying signals for strategic selling

  Gone are the days when reps wade through white noise to find prospective buyers. Lattice identifies buying signals and customers.  Continue Reading

• How to break down silos with Salesforce

  From Maryville University to Xtreme Lashes, organizations are trying to get beyond data islands to better serve customers.  Continue Reading

• Conversica cloud AI software tackles sales leads

  The artificial intelligence assistant from Conversica helps sales representatives initiate leads, follow up with potential customers and focus on closing deals.  Continue Reading

• Tactics for fixing the sales funnel and finding ROI

  If the sales funnel at your organization is lackluster, here are some insights into how predictive analytics can help you achieve a return on investment.  Continue Reading

• Mobile, social CRM table stakes for customer engagement strategy

  Mobile and social CRM have reshaped the customer experience, creating two-way conversations and multichannel endeavors.  Continue Reading

• The pros and cons of Salesforce Sales Cloud

  Sales Cloud targets sales reps focused on action, not details. While the app has dominated CRM, there are some areas of needed improvement, such as mobile.  Continue Reading

• Predictive marketing tools trump old-fashioned gut feel

  As customer data volumes grow, more marketers rely on predictive analytics software to zero in on their highest value customers, and it's working -- in spades.  Continue Reading

• Is user adoption of Salesforce Analytics Cloud the next wave?

  Salesforce Wave filled an analytics void when it was released -- but there are caveats. Learn more about the benefits and challenges of moving to Salesforce Analytics Cloud.  Continue Reading

• Mobile consumer behavior reshaping digital commerce

  Mobile consumers will account for nearly half of all e-commerce transactions in a couple of years. Find out what sets them apart from traditional digital e-commerce users.  Continue Reading

• How marketers are reining in the sales funnel process

  The sales process, captured by the sales funnel, is no longer as linear as it once was. How can marketing teams use sales funnel management to gain control of the customer journey?  Continue Reading

• Is account-based marketing right for your company?

  Account-based marketing, a term with hype in the industry, promises to coordinate marketing across an entire account to increase sales success. But is it right for your company?  Continue Reading

• Determining the best CRM software for your organization

  Whether you're a large enterprise or an SMB, we've narrowed your search for the best CRM software by comparing both on-premises and SaaS offerings from the top 11 vendors.  Continue Reading

• Customer communities aren't credible without legwork

  Customer communities can't be credible sources of customer support if companies don't do the up-front work to make the information authoritative.  Continue Reading

• Examining the platforms available in the Oracle CX Cloud

  The Oracle CX Cloud provides large enterprises with platforms that offer customer engagement tools to support and enhance their sales, marketing and customer interaction needs.  Continue Reading

• Examining the SAP CEC suite

  The SAP CEC suite of platforms provides large enterprises with omnichannel customer engagement tools to support and enhance their sales, marketing and customer interaction needs.  Continue Reading

• What to expect in the Act-On marketing automation platform

  The Act-On marketing automation platform provides SMBs with a number of tools to help them reach their sales and marketing goals, and enhance their customer engagement strategy.  Continue Reading

• Zendesk customer service software expands client support

  Zendesk customer service software provides users with tools to help manage and improve their customer engagement strategies and customer support services goals.  Continue Reading

• What to expect from the Salesforce Sales Cloud platform

  Salesforce Sales Cloud is a CRM platform featuring a number of sales and CRM tools, which help businesses of all sizes manage their B2B and B2C engagement and sales strategies.  Continue Reading

• LBS powers personalized intranet design

  Frustrated by its needle-in-a-haystack approach to locating pertinent corporate info, Citrix geared its intranet to specific employee needs worldwide.  Continue Reading

• Cubs merch store homers with location-based mobile marketing

  Sports World Chicago got a boost by targeting a captive audience of potential merchandise buyers near Wrigley Field.  Continue Reading

• Location-based apps hit the streets, the seats and everywhere else

  New technologies are helping companies reach customers more effectively by targeting constituents' locations alongside other customer data. But it's still the early days for location-based services.  Continue Reading

• What to expect from the HubSpot CRM platform

  HubSpot CRM is a free platform aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses that offers both basic and enhanced CRM tools to customer relations teams.  Continue Reading

• Customer data silos continue to hobble the omnichannel experience

  The omnichannel mandate of creating a seamless omnichannel experience for customers regardless of whether they're online or in-store remains a distant goal for enterprises.  Continue Reading

• Considerations for buying the right CRM tool

  By identifying your must-have features, you can select the right CRM tool you'll need in order to build your customer engagement strategy.  Continue Reading

• What to expect from Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015

  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 is a CRM platform that can be used by businesses of all sizes to manage all aspects of their B2B and B2C engagement strategies.  Continue Reading

• Salesforce Lightning strikes with app development for business users

  When Salesforce rolled out its development platform, Salesforce Lightning, it showed promise. But what are the real-world applications of it today?  Continue Reading

• Cloud-based CRM enters new territory for Salesforce partners

  Channel partners are pursuing increasingly sophisticated Salesforce implementation projects, helping customers integrate and optimize complex systems.  Continue Reading

• Zoho CRM platform overview

  Zoho's cloud-based CRM platform helps businesses manage the key aspects of their customer engagement strategies.  Continue Reading

• Adobe Marketing Cloud CRM platform overview

  Adobe's CRM platform, Marketing Cloud, aims to help users drive and manage the sales, marketing and customer support facets of their business.  Continue Reading

• What to expect in the Sugar CRM platform

  Sugar, the latest CRM platform from SugarCRM, marries B2B and B2C engagement strategies using a single appliance.  Continue Reading

• Making CRM part of your customer engagement strategy

  One of the best ways to justify the purchase of CRM software is to explore how other organizations use it in their customer engagement strategies.  Continue Reading

• Mobile, multichannel are key CRM trends

  Multichannel strategies and mobile technologies were just a few of the CRM topics that weighed heavily on the decisions of companies over the past year.  Continue Reading

• What to expect in the Infusionsoft CRM platform

  Infusionsoft's CRM platform helps small businesses manage the key aspects of their B2B and B2C customer engagement strategies.  Continue Reading

• Using the secret sauce of mobile location-based services

  Location-based services offer a powerful new way to deepen customer loyalty and up-sell to consumers. But companies still have a distance to travel with LBS.  Continue Reading

• Cloud-based marketing tools need integration to work

  When companies don't integrate their cloud-based marketing tools, customer data can easily become out-of-date and out-of-sync among various systems.  Continue Reading

• Improving customer engagement strategies with CRM tools

  There are several different types of CRM tools that can be used to improve your customer engagement strategies.  Continue Reading

• Don't get tangled in marketing metrics

  Marketers can get too caught up in measuring everything. They need to find the right KPIs to track performance and drive revenue.  Continue Reading

• Sales is still about data standardization

  Sales practices at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt were all over the place just a few years ago. But unifying teams and digitizing processes helped the publisher gain visibility into customer data.  Continue Reading

• Who will buy? Data-driven sales teams aim to know

  A handful of companies are giving reps analytics tools to chase down promising leads, diagnose sales performance and forecast business opportunities.  Continue Reading

• Ten leadership tips for contact center managers

  A contact center manager shares guidelines of how fellow leaders can get the most out of their agents when inheriting or 'rebooting' a center.  Continue Reading

• Customer personalization brings intelligence to sales and marketing

  Generic messages to customers and prospects are losing their effectiveness. Today, tailoring interactions to individuals is crucial to make the sale.  Continue Reading

• Omnichannel customer experience doomed without clear goals

  Companies miss the boat in building an omnichannel customer experience if they focus first on technology. They need to start with business objectives.  Continue Reading

• Enterprises see the light on marrying front- and back-office systems

  Marrying front- and back-office data is becoming increasingly important to all sorts of business operations.  Continue Reading

• Mobile payment technologies met with interest -- and caution

  While mobile payment systems have piqued the public's interest, a fragmented market and a cautious consumer base have constrained adoption.  Continue Reading

• Why CRM data silos hobble a 360-degree customer view

  For companies trying to serve customers in multiple channels and get a full picture of customers, data silos can get in the way.  Continue Reading

• Security is a sticking point for mobile payment adoption

  Companies jumping on the mobile payment bandwagon need to tread carefully as consumers are still skeptical about the security of their data.  Continue Reading

• Best practices for upgrading contact center technology

  Various contact center technologies and strategies can help your company run more efficiently and enhance the customer experience.”  Continue Reading

• Contact center knowledge management gives agents clickable intel

  Contact center agents are supposed to help customers with issue resolution. But that's tough when agents lack good working knowledge of products.  Continue Reading

• Multimedia-based multichannel CRM still faces uphill battle

  Today's customer service requires that companies use the channels customers prefer. But customers still eye new channels like video chat suspiciously.  Continue Reading

• Can online self-service make contact centers more efficient?

  Companies can use online self-service tools to ease the burden on contact center agents. But phone calls are still critical to multichannel service.  Continue Reading

• Why companies wrestle with the 360-degree customer view

  Getting a holistic view of customers takes more than technology; companies need to eliminate data silos and gain insight about customer experience.  Continue Reading

• Holiday shopping season signals future of mobile engagement

  Mobile shopping is on the rise. Companies trying to appeal to customers on those devices need to make the mobile experience quick and easy.  Continue Reading

• CRM project management requires long-term outlook

  Up-front costs of a CRM system can be daunting at first, but the long-term benefits can justify the expenses -- if companies do their homework first.  Continue Reading

• In healthcare, information silos block patient data analysis

  Government regulations encourage healthcare providers to maintain information silos, hobbling the data analysis that could improve business processes and patient care.  Continue Reading

• Data quality is the key to building customer relationships that last

  Without high-quality data, building customer relationships is a constant struggle. Companies need to clean up messy databases and establish connections based on complete, up-to-date information -- or risk losing business.  Continue Reading

• Customer experience strategy hinges on insight from analytics

  To tailor and improve customer experience, companies need to balance customer experience analytics tools with human insight.  Continue Reading

• Museum puts stock in iBeacon technology to revamp visitor experience

  The Brooklyn Museum in New York is revamping the visitor experience with iBeacon technology.  Continue Reading

• Building a brand: Do all roads lead to Rome?

  Companies take a variety of paths to build their brand and generate customer trust.  Continue Reading

• Privacy concerns arise with proximity-based beacon technology

  Beacon technology aims to change the way retailers interact with customers. But new location-based technologies usher in not only convenience but also privacy concerns.  Continue Reading

• Lead gen software improves, but is still hampered by human hurdles

  With lead generation software available, there's no excuse for sending lame leads to sales. But lead gen needs sales and marketing on the same page.  Continue Reading

• Salesforce implementation positions Bosma Enterprises for growth

  An Ind.-based nonprofit calls on the channel for help integrating its business system and moving it to cloud. One of the project's main challenges: Make its system accessible to the nonprofit's blind or visually impaired workforce.  Continue Reading

• Lead generation software gets a boost with gamification, analytics

  New lead generation tools use gamification and analytics to create competition and boost revenue among sales teams.  Continue Reading

• Location-based apps present opportunities -- and data challenges

  Geolocation apps pair consumer preferences and location to provide real insight about customer preferences. But these apps pose data integration and privacy challenges galore.  Continue Reading

• Legacy technology in contact centers stalls good customer service

  Good CSRs offering good customer service used to be enough for a contact center. But, today, facilities need to dump legacy technology to stay ahead.  Continue Reading

• How gamification has become serious business in enterprises

  Companies are using gamification to rally customers around their brand, create engagement and generate more effective customer incentives for loyalty.  Continue Reading

• CIO shares strategies for IT-business alignment and success

  Celso Mello, CIO at a provider of home heating and cooling services, talks about his path to IT-business alignment and success.  Continue Reading

• Social CRM strategy needs the right company culture

  In devising and implementing a social CRM strategy, companies need to look within and make sure their company culture is set up for success before the first tweet is posted.  Continue Reading

• How CRM systems are helping couples say 'I do'

  At George Street Photo & Video, President Michelle Mantel uses Salesforce to streamline formerly manual processes and make nuptials less stressful.  Continue Reading

• Choosing CRM system features: What users think

  Users weigh in on how they choose CRM system features and what they consider must-have CRM functionality.  Continue Reading

• CRM data integration still hobbles mobile

  A lack of data integration between CRM and other back-end systems still impedes true mobile CRM capability.  Continue Reading

• Making the case for mobile CRM software

  Mobile CRM software and salespeople are a match made in heaven. But there are other use cases for mobile CRM that can also justify the expense.  Continue Reading

• Why customer service automation goes awry

  Customer service automation brings speed and improved quality to the effort of serving consumers. If poorly managed, it can also do the opposite.  Continue Reading

• SIP and the cloud are main targets for contact center upgrades

  As companies seek to develop more mature multichannel communication strategies, upgrading contact center infrastructure has become a top concern.  Continue Reading

• Mobile gamification apps can drive business value

  A medical devices maker sought to improve sales reps' knowledge to boost sales performance. So, it tapped into their innate sense of competition.  Continue Reading

• Beyond Verbal takes on emotions analytics in call centers and beyond

  An emotions analytics vendor says it can diagnose human emotions and identify a speaker's complex emotional state in settings like call centers.  Continue Reading

• Excessive focus on technology drowns out voice of the customer

  Put the voice of customers at the center of what defines a meaningful customer experience. Don't get distracted by the capabilities of the technology.  Continue Reading

• How to pick the right mobile sales force automation app

  Companies shouldn't rush into buying mobile sales force automation apps, but rather base the purchase on how teams really work.  Continue Reading

• The mixed blessings of contact center automation

  In contact centers, using automated voice technology to route customers can add efficiency, but human customer service is still key.  Continue Reading

• The pros of virtual call centers still up for debate

  Virtual call centers provide agents and companies with flexibility and potentially lower costs. But can they provide equal or better customer service?  Continue Reading

• Location-based mobile applications poised to take off

  Location-based mobile application adoption is poised to take off, given technology improvements and cost reduction.  Continue Reading

• Cross-channel marketing lives or dies by data quality initiatives

  Successful cross-channel marketing campaigns need clarity of purpose and ongoing data quality initiatives.  Continue Reading

• Making social CRM tools effective

  Just putting social CRM tools into place is a strategy for failure. Here's some guidance on how to choose the tools your business needs.  Continue Reading

• Mobile POS systems gain ground among SMBs

  Mobile POS systems free salespeople from being chained to registers, allowing them to serve customers where they are: on the retail floor.  Continue Reading

• Contact center technologies finally reflect multichannel realities

  While call centers have gotten a bad rap, new contact center technologies have helped turn their reputation around.  Continue Reading

• Analytics boost the customer experience in multiple channels

  Companies are learning that improving the customer experience makes customer analytics a must-have.  Continue Reading

• A 360-degree view of customers requires better data analytics

  Companies want to use better data analytics to get a more comprehensive understanding of their customers. But today's reality suggests that is in the distant future.  Continue Reading

• Multichannel marketing automation software needs business process focus

  With multichannel marketing automation software a reality, the tools still need to align with user expectations and reflect business processes.  Continue Reading

• Who owns social customer service: Contact centers or social teams?

  Do contact center agents have the right skills to handle social customer service or not?  Continue Reading

• Are companies tone-deaf about social media customer service?

  Customers want customer service wherever they are -- whatever the channel. But many businesses still don't get social media for customer service.  Continue Reading

• Can crowdsourcing ideas boost customer experience?

  Crowdsourcing ideas and product innovation have become more than just novel experiments in several industries.  Continue Reading

• Why multichannel customer service is the new mandate

  Companies have to serve customers where they are. Multichannel customer service is the new mandate for business.  Continue Reading

• Social CRM tools ready for prime time

  Social CRM tools have hit the mainstream. Companies that don't monitor what customers and competition are saying about them could get left behind.  Continue Reading

• Hosted contact centers don't help or hurt customer experience

  Compared with on-premises models, hosted contact centers don't harm or enhance customer experience.  Continue Reading

• Location-based apps bring ease, and privacy concerns, to consumers

  Location-based apps can pinpoint consumer location and make hailing a cab into a thing of the past. But the technology also causes consumer privacy concerns.  Continue Reading

• Contact centers and the hurdle of legacy application integration

  As call centers modernize, they face serious challenges in terms of legacy application integration with new systems.  Continue Reading