Customer Relationship Management

How difficult will it be to roll out existing in-use Siebel application to few more European countries? Easier said than done and that's what we have realized in past few weeks. Even after numerous process workshops and conversion sessions, we are tackling loads of setup and data issues. What does it reflect? Global roll-out is a different ball game altogether - not to be taken easily. We had the inputs from incumbent partner doing roll-outs so far. We had the documentation in place. So what went wrong?

Aspects such as process standardization, legacy system integration and most importantly localization of the global application are worth giving a thorough thought. You may have a standard process approved by PMO but without addressing the local angle, it will not get acceptance. Acute case is of Entitlements which vary from country to country. Some countries are offering 24/7 support where as others are sitting to office hours for service coverage. Another example would be setting up Field Engineer teams to cover the geography. Small countries do not cause that much of damage but with big countries covering the service area becomes a nightmare. The fact that Siebel CRM is the front end makes it more difficult as that is the first point of contact of the new system for the end-users. And the 'mantra' to address such diversifications would be to involve local business community to complete the fit-gap. Let them come up with ideas for alternative solutions around the given constraints of 'existing' application. Similarly a detailed study of existing systems is required to arrive at a wise decision of retaining or replacing the system. Engage the teams representing interfacing systems such as handheld devices, Scheduling systems or Dealer Mgmt. systems well in advance to avoid last minute shocks. Give them a heads up and keep sharing the updates so that they are prepared to face what is going to hit them. Last but not the least assimilates your learning from each roll out during the process of deployment - not at the end - as half of the things will get lost by then.

Posted by Nitin Lehri at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With Legacy applications, deciding about expected returns on IT investment has always been a tough task due to numerous cost components involved (Software installations, hardware investments e.g. servers, storage devices, maintenance, training etc.), longer deployment period spread across several financial quarters and nature of benefits achieved. By nature of benefits, I mean, that IT investment not only gives a measureable financial benefits but a majority of benefits are non-financial but crucial too.  Also, the legacy packages come with lot of tools/features which are rarely used by organizations. Does cloud computing add a new insight for decision making?

 

In a recent interview with Forbes Asia, Paul Maritz (CEO, VMWare)1 said that under-hyped thing about cloud computing is the efficiency and simplification that it will bring.  For the first time, we are starting to get some objective metrics with which we can measure IT.  We can measure our own IT with external benchmark.
While browsing through pages of some leading cloud-based CRM players, a sentence on Microsoft Dynamics CRM website caught my attention: "Don't get forced, Get what Fits".2 Certainly, an aggressive marketing strategy from Microsoft Dynamics over Salesforce.com.  On its website, Microsoft Dynamics has put a comparison chart to compare its offering with other major cloud CRM Players (Salesoforce.com and Oracle CRM On-Demand)3. The comparison chart shows that for Salesforce.com Professional edition charge is $65/user/month plus other charges like Mobile, Multidimensional knowledge base, offline access, visual workflow etc.  Oracle CRM on Demand charge have been charging $75/month/user plus other charges for Mobile sales assistant, Contact on demand, partner relationship management etc. As it is MS Dynamics website, they have certainly put their offerings as the best deal ($44/user/month).  My point here is not to evaluate which of these packages is the best one, but to discuss representation of IT investment in very simple components.
Although it can't be concluded that Cloud based packages provide better returns on the investment keeping data security issues and regulatory policies in view, it certainly puts itself as one of the viable options for decision makers in the organization.
Reference:
1.http://www.forbes.com/sites/richkarlgaard/2011/10/19/vmwares-paul-maritz-virtual-success/
2. http://crm.dynamics.com/online/default.aspx?fbid=Bm5MCQ5BFqU#right-value
3. http://crm.dynamics.com/en-us/price-comparison

Posted by Amit Kumar at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

Come 2012 and Salesforce.com (SFDC) will add another lethal ammunition to its stable, taking the cloud wars to the next level. On December 15, 2011, Rypple, an innocuous start-up into cloud based human capital management (HCM), signed agreement to be acquired by SFDC. It will be re-christened as SFDC Successforce (http://www.salesforce.com/company/news-press/press-releases/2011/12/111215.jsp). This plugs a significant gap in SFDC offering portfolio, and will have significant (upside) impact for go-to market strategy for its enterprise social offerings. While Radian6's acquisition was aimed at improving the social strategy for SFDC client's customer, Rypple's focus will be on employees of SFDC clients.

Triggers for the deal
Dreamforce '11 was all about Social Enterprise Strategy. The social offering is broadly based on two pillars, Radian6 and Chatter. Chatter offering, was in fact, implemented internally by SFDC and anchored by Marc Benioff himself. Radian6 is a social media monitor and engagement tool, which is currently available as independent offering and not bundled with SFDC (plans are in effect to integrate radain6 with SFDC license by 2012 end). SFDC already occupies 'Leaders' quadrant in Gartner's Social CRM magic quadrants. Over 100,000 companies worldwide are using Chatter and Radain6 counts more than half of the Fortune 100 companies in their exhaustive customer list (http://www.salesforce.com/chatter/customers/ and www.radian6.com/about-us/customers/). So, why this need to tread the inorganic route? Well, the following points are the place to start.

Filling the Strategic Gaps
Gartner has forecasted that Social CRM market will be worth more than USD 1 bn by 2012 end.

Source: Gartner Press Release 30 Aug, 2011 (http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1777938)

Spending on cloud computing and social media are the only bright spot in the otherwise gloomy scenario in the technology space. Social CRM solution provider space is highly fragmented, and the opportunity is immense. So, having tested the waters with its Chatter and Radian6 offering, the significant 'whitespace' in the portfolio for SFDC was human resource management (HRM) application. Rypple effectively plugs this gap.

Complementary and Supplementary DNA
Social Goals 2.0 agenda unveiled by Rypple on December 2011 is in sync with the Social Enterprise vision by SFDC. After Sales and Service cloud apps, HRM application is a significant complementary offering, with high levels of potential cross-sell opportunity. The client list for Rypple already includes prestigious and hig-end names like Facebook, Nexius, Zendesk, Gilt Groups, etc. The theme of the offering is to move from a transaction based, infrequently used to a engagement and experience based system, with focus on sharing, collaboration and productivity.

Proven Business Model
The on cloud, get-to go applications with collaborative platforms on Web 2.0, is based on businesses model that drive revenue by selling services. SFDC was the first of its kind firm to implement the business model, and no one understands the viability and potential upside better than them. That is why, even though with less than USD 1 mn in total revenue (and not profits) for FY11, the deal value is estimated at USD 65 mn (www.markevanstech.com/.../rypple-revenue-and-canadian-startups/).

 Competitive Intensity
On October 2011, Oracle acquired RightNow Technologies, Inc. for about USD 1.50 bn, paying about 19.60% premium to the listed price (www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/519740). This gives Oracle a significant presence in cloud spaces (especially service space) and mid-market CRM solutions with 2,000 customers. SAP, whose cloud offering Business ByDesign failed to create any ripple in the cloud space, announced a USD 3.40 bn all cash to acquire SuccessFactors, provider of cloud-based human capital management applications. The premium paid is almost 52% (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-03/sap-to-buy-successfactors-for-cloud-offerings.html). What gave in was the diverse customer base (3,500 customers across 168 countries) and sound business model (15 million paying user for repeat business). Hence, when the two of top three package solution companies are growing their footprint in the cloud space, the leader in cloud based packaged solutions needed to respond effectively, and they did by improving their solution footprint (in HRM) and enhancing their strategic offering (Social CRM).
The cloud computing and solutions market place are teeming with seemingly endless and innovative opportunities, and the firm(s) with vision, technological prowess and courage can chart the extraordinary path. The arena is set for the battle among the industry heavyweights and technology leaders.

Posted by Saptarshi Basak at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hello Everybody. Wishing you and your families a very happy New Year!

 
In my last blog - Game-changers in the Cloud Focus on CRM - Part I, I had written about a new offering from Salesforce.com named DRO (Data Residency Option) or On-premise storage of data at customer location. Marc Benioff, Salesforce CEO had classified this offering for few large Salesforce customers who have data security or IP related issues with deployment of their key data on cloud. This development created a lot of buzz and the feature is expected to be officially available in 2012 i.e. this year. Hence, I found it wise to dig deeper and ponder on what is the technology backbone of DRO and what strategic benefits will Salesforce achieve after its acquisition of Navajo Systems, who were the owning company to this data storage and encryption technology.

DRO will be a part of database.com - a cloud database Salesforce made generally available. It gives an option to the customers of Salesforce to store their mission critical data at their own location and hence keeping complete control of the inward and outward flow of the data across the customer firewall.
The technique developed by Navajo, also called Virtual Private Saas, provides the cloud vendor, Salesforce.com in this case, a key that enables it to translate the encrypted data as it passes through its cloud application. The data is then re-encrypted as it leaves the cloud vendor's solution and returns to the customer's data source. The corporate data is unreadable on cloud provider's servers during this entire operation. VPS is available both as a cloud service, as well as an appliance sitting on the customer's local or Wide area network. With VPS, the customer is solely responsible for its data security as it will hold all the encryption keys.
The flip side to using such a technique would be the security of the encryption and decryption keys used for the process. It is highly critical to properly manage the keys as once the key is lost, the encrypted data can no longer be accessed. Hence, this calls for robust key management to avoid any such eventuality.
But, barring the above, In my view, this technique will overcome the most important impediment to cloud adoption and will be a foundation of technological acceptance as it addresses the key customer fear i.e. about potential data threats in the cloud.
Coming to the acquisition, Navajo systems, founded in 2009 was one of the existing encryption service providers for Salesforce. Salesforce decision to acquire Navajo hence made a lot of sense when other cloud based CRM tools such as Sugar CRM already has possible options for deployment on public clouds (Amazon EC2, Rackspace etc.), private clouds such as VMWare and also on-site behind customer firewalls.
According to a recent report from IBIS World, one of the world's largest independent publishers of U.S. industry research, CRM industry today stands at 60% on-premise deployments and 40% cloud based solutions (1). For customers who are looking for new purchases or upgrade of their legacy applications, DRO might just be the key decision influencer. Let's wait and watch!!

Continuing with my focus on Game changers in the cloud, I am hearing quite a bit about Speech Analytics as a technology which promises a lot of traction for the customer facing business functions for any organization. Wait for more on that in my next Post

References:
(1) http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Columns-Departments/Insight/Are-CRMs-Worst-Years-Behind-It-79254.aspx

Posted by Gagan Paliwal at 3:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Since last couple of years internet has been taken over by the likes of Facebook, Twitter & Google.
Social media is impacting every aspect of our lives. People share their ideas, happiness, events, and issues over these social media websites.
"Arab Spring" is a classic example of what social media can do to a country; imagine what it can do to your business if used in the right way! Social media has evolved from just being a mode of interaction to a revolution that harnesses the power of multitude.

Companies across the world have realized the importance of Social media & are doing their bit to be a part of this change. One such example is "Toyota Friend". Now Toyota cars act like a friend to their owners. They provide real time information about themselves to their owners on Toyota Friend webpage, social media sites (Facebook, Twitter) and their cellphone.
More on "Toyota Friend" will be posted in the following blogs.
Organizations aspiring to become true social enterprises need to focus on both the internal as well as external customers.
The most important prerequisite for an organization to cater to external customers successfully is to have a strong collaboration and networking inside the company. Till now employees in large organizations have been working in silos and there was not much handshake between various departments, knowledge remained scattered which resulted in lot of delays and redundancies.
In the ideal scenario, information flow should be smooth & quick. There should not be any information island in the modern organizations.
In this series of posts I will focus on how Salesforce is helping companies to walk the social path.
Salesforce has been one of the first few CRM companies to focus on social media as a channel to collaborate with the customer. Salesforce is continuously investing and innovating its social CRM strategy. Major part of this year's Dreamforce event was focused towards innovations to harness the power of "Social CRM".
Salesforce has provideds various social CRM enablers like Salesforce Chatter, Radian6, and Database.com to harness the power of Social Media.
In this post I will focus on new innovations on "Salesforce Chatter" which is one of the most important & mature tool provided by Salesforce for employee social networks.
Salesforce Chatter is a platform for internal collaboration. Employees can reach each other instantly. They can share ideas, files, videos etc. They can work on the documents in real time. Employees can follow events, documents & colleagues. They may be in different teams, working in different locations but they can help each other in many ways.
With the latest edition of Dreamforce (August 2011) Salesforce has unveiled quite a few new functionalities for Chatter which will extend it from just internal customer focused to include external as well -
1. Chatter Now - with this feature Salesforce is trying to build IM (Instant Messenger) like features in Chatter. Just like IM users, Chatter users will be able to see their online colleagues and can do real time chat, screen-sharing on the same Chatter page.

2. Chatter Connect - with this functionality Salesforce is providing REST APIs for Chatter. Using these APIs Chatter feed can be integrated with SharePoint, internal company portals and legacy systems. Information can be streamed into these systems or vice versa.

3. Chatter customer groups - employees can now create focused chatter groups. Customers can be made part of these groups. These groups can be used as a place for employees & the customers to work together on common Assignments, issues etc.

4. Chatter approvals - this is an important addition to chatter. This brings workflow & approvals functionality in Chatter. Now the managers will be able to approve requests via Chatter messages only.

5. Chatter inline filters - with this functionality Chatter user will be able to filter the Chatter feed to suit their needs.
With the addition of the new functionalities Salesforce is making Chatter a stronger collaborative platform which can talk to internal customers, external customers and third part legacy systems.
Time is not far when Salesforce Chatter is going to become the new wall of employee social networks.

Posted by Dinesh Singh at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Higher productivity, better resource utilization and innovative solutions are some of the critical factors for sustainability of any organization. In today's highly competitive environment, organizations need to be more agile, flexible and able to respond to changing customer preferences quickly. IT, as an enabler of doing business efficiently, has always provided a bucket of solutions to organizations to achieve their business goals. Customized applications, SAP, Oracle, Siebel packages etc. are some of the preferred solutions for the organizations. Although these IT solutions provide desired results to organizations but their implementation and maintenance are huge upfront costs for any organization. In global economic uncertainty and tightening market, organizations need to evaluate other options which are secure, reliable and cheaper. It makes a case for cloud computing based IT solutions. Cloud computing has become buzzword in today's business world globally and organizations are certainly cannot ignore it without evaluation. I am going to discuss various benefits and concerns associated with cloud computing solutions. I have taken example of Salesforce.com (SFDC) in next few paragraphs for better illustration. SFDC is pioneer in cloud computing based CRM packages.
Some of the important features of cloud based solutions are multi-tenancy, rapid deployment, pay-as-you-go model, high flexibility, On-demand solution, automatic upgrade and Lower total cost of ownership.  Salesforce.com as compared to traditional systems (SAP or Oracle) has very small implementation cost and deployment time. Pay-as-you-go model works like our electricity bill. Organizations are charged for what they are actually using. Hence, Organizations are not needed to buy heavy infrastructure and licenses keeping future expansion plans in mind. They can scale up their CRM application as per their requirement. It puts lesser burden on company's cash flow.
Salesforce.com offers automatic upgrade to any new feature to running applications. It also has a repository of hundreds of applications where organization can browse, test and implement as per their need.  Force.com is delivery platform for Salesforce.com which is secure, reliable and scalable. Salesforce.com also offers Chatter, a collaboration cloud product for providing private organizational networking tool.
Cloud computing solutions are fast, user-friendly and cost-effective compared to traditional IT solutions. So, should we assume that traditional system has outlived its utility and cloud based solutions are going to replace them? In my view, there is little possibility for it.
There are certain downsides also with cloud computing solutions. The biggest threat is that as organization's crucial data is lying in cloud and if unauthorized access is obtained to these data, it would pose a big question mark to Cloud based CRM reliability.  As these cloud service provider has tie-up with various third-party vendors, it makes the system more susceptible.
As most of the organizations have already invested huge sum in implementation, training and maintenance of legacy system, they would be reluctant to move to cloud based system. Any CTO would not be willing to experiment their business data with new cloud solutions.
Any interruption in third-party data hosting facility would impact the all organizations under multi-tenancy arrangement. In August this year, Amazon's Elastic computing cloud (EC2) suffered outage for few hours impacting its clients' (Foursquare, Netflix) business.
Keeping above concerns in view, organizations can adopt private cloud or hybrid cloud options. I would discuss about these options in my next blog.
Reference:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390702,00.asp

Posted by Amit Kumar at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Lately there has been a lot of debate on the possible barriers to user adoption of cloud based technologies due to obvious concerns of data privacy, especially when it comes to sensitive data like company IP (design, manufacturing, etc.) residing on service provider's datacenters with little or no control.

Lately there has been a lot of debate on the possible barriers to user adoption of cloud based technologies due to obvious concerns of data privacy, especially when it comes to sensitive data like company IP (design, manufacturing, etc.) residing on service provider's datacenters with little or no control.
In an extension to this debate, I shall focus on this lingering concern about data privacy, security and ownership of CRM data as a first part of my series of Blogs around innovations which may/already have altered the course of the industry ecosystem.
In the Dreamforce'11, though primary focus was on Chatter social networking platform as the foundation of the new "Social Enterprise", a subset of eye-balls was dedicated to the announcement of Database.com DRO which will be a hybrid model of cloud deployment. DRO or Data Residency Option provides an alternative to customers for on-premise storage of critical data instead of Salesforce datacenters. Although, with the announcement of DRO, Salesforce is in essence, replicating the model that already exists for SugarCRM and is in the stack from Microsoft Dynamics CRM as well, I believe DRO will be a new disruptive trend which will jolt the landscape of cloud based CRM industry. With this, Salesforce is finally recognizing the challenge behind data placement outside of a company firewall.
DRO is based on a unique encryption technique (more on that later) developed by Navajo Systems, an Israeli start-up which Salesforce.com acquired shortly before Dreamforce.
Salesforce CEO Mark Benioff said in his keynote at Dreamforce'11 that DRO was intended "only for specific large customers to withhold specific information" (1). In a way this is a response to the rumors that have floated around the cloud industry for years that Salesforce.com has deployed its cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution behind the corporate firewalls for few of their prized customers.
I shall bring to you more on how DRO functions and similar other trends in my upcoming series.

I would love to receive feedbacks on the blog and any information which will be augmenting the above subject.

References:
(1) http://blog.sugarcrm.com/2011/09/02/10-questions-about-salesforce-that-dreamforce-answered-%E2%80%93-more-or-less/

Posted by Gagan Paliwal at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

About the feature
Social Contact
Social Contacts feature is enabled by default for organizations created after October 7, 2011, and for existing organizations, they have to be enabled by default. It lets the user of the system view contacts' social network profiles directly in Salesforce.com instance. Currently, it is supported for the following social networks.
 LinkedIn® - Can be used for being up to date on contact's professional information and history
 Twitter™ - Can be leveraged to understand the contact's public personas and track their interactions. Recent tweets, followings, and contact's following can be used to gain insights
 Facebook® - Can be used to gain and track personal information regarding contacts and their interests. Integrate the information related to profiles, status updates, and mutual friends.

Enable Social Contact 

1. Browse to Setup à App Setup à Customize à Social Contactsà Settings
2. Click on 'Enable Social Contacts'
3. In the Social Networks, click on the various social network sites i.e. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
Social Contact - Privacy & Security Overview
 Trusted OAuth protocol is used by Salesforce.com when the user signs in to the social network accounts. Thus, the user's login credentials aren't exposed to Salesforce.com instance.
 Importing or storage of social information does not take place in Salesforce.com. Each time the contact's social profile is selected; Salesforce.com retrieves the information directly from the corresponding social network and displays it. The information Salesforce.com instance is read-only and not modifiable by the user.
 As import or social information storing in contact records is not possible, this ensures that only current details are visible when viewing the contact's social profiles.
 The details that are visible to the user during viewing of a contact's social profile are determined by the connection that the user has with the contact and the contact's privacy settings. Typically, the same information is displayed as that when viewing the profile while logged in directly to the social network. Restricted visibility of some contacts may be enabled through privacy settings, which would limit some or all of their profile details accessibility outside the contact's network. The native feature of Salesforce.com is to display limited information, and not all the details.
 The contact's social profile view is not shared with other users in the organization.
 For other users to view the social profile, users must sign in to their own social network accounts, and the profile details that are visible will depend on each user's connection level with the contact and the privacy settings set by the contact.
 Salesforce.com does not store social profile information. Also, there is no posting of any information about the user or activities to the user's social network accounts.
 There is no notification to the users when the user views their social profiles using the Social Contacts feature.

Social Contact's Profile - Functionality
Signing In
In order to start using Social Contacts, the user needs to sign in to the social network accounts from Salesforce.com. This will create private and secure connections between the Salesforce.com package and the accounts in the social network, which in turn will enable viewing of external social profiles in the Salesforce.com instance.
If the user does not log out from the social network account, the connection/session that is already established with the Salesforce.com and the accounts in the social network will still be present and not cease to exist.
Steps for signing in to Contact's Social Profile:
1. Browse to the Contacts tab à Contacts list view, and click a contact's name to go to the detail page.
2. Click on the specific social network icon in the header on the contact's detail page.
3. Click the Sign in button on the Social Contact popup box.
4. Enter the credentials for the social network account and authorize Salesforce.com to access your account.
Finding and Viewing
Social Contacts can be used to find the account's/contact's social profiles and link them to their contact records. This can be done only after the connection has been established. The information can be viewed as and when needed, directly from contact detail page.
Browse to the Contacts Tab à Contacts list view, and click on contact's name. The contact detail page gets displayed. Click a social network icon in the header on the respective contact's detail page. The profile selected by the user is linked to the contact record, and other Salesforce.com users accessing the record will also be able to view the profile.
If the contact has not been associated with the social profile, Salesforce.com does automatic searches for profiles that match the contact name. Select the appropriate social profile in the search results displayed on the Social Contacts popup.

 

Posted by Saptarshi Basak at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In today's complex networked organizations, integration of different business functions has become more important than ever. Consider the case of a manufacturing unit - the procurement team requires inputs from inventory management before placing orders for raw materials; the manufacturing division has to negotiate with resource management for optimizing human and capital resources; and the sales team has to constantly keep the finance department in the loop about customer pricing. Up-to-date information has to be shared across the organization for centralized decision making. The need of the hour is a platform that helps business information to be shared in real time. Enter Chatter, the enterprise networking application from Salesforce.com.

 

Chatter brings to the forefront the networking principles pioneered by Facebook and Twitter but with an enterprise twist. Over and above vanilla networking functionalities like creation of profiles and contact lists, Chatter provides enhanced capabilities like tracking record updates using feeds and sharing business information using groups (1). The wealth of information available by integrating data across the organization assists management in making critical decisions. For example, a retail store manager will be able to place timely orders for a particular product by tracking real time updates to the inventory field of that product (2); a business opportunity can be converted by creating a group to share available information before the client presentation.

According to a Gartner report (3), over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams like micro-blogging by 2012. The quest for synergizing organizational capabilities has set the precedent for a new paradigm in which an 'enterprise Twitter' or an 'enterprise Facebook' will be used not just as networking tools but also as change agents. What is needed is a holistic understanding of the benefits of enterprise networking and how Chatter, with its collaboration capabilities and built-in integration with the Salesforce CRM suite is best-placed to lead this revolution.
References:
1) http://www.salesforce.com/in/chatter/features/
2) http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/salesforce-steps-enterprise-social-networking-718
3) http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1293114
4) http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/salesforce-chatter-social-network/

Posted by Shyam Ramaswamy at 9:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)