This month, Gartner Research Group held a CRM Summit, and one of the hot topics was e-commerce and its effects on CRM practices. With the proliferation of social networks and smartphone usage, many companies are (or should be) developing mobile-friendly websites and eventually mobile applications. Gartner’s numbers predict that within the next few years, 30% of smartphone users will be shopping on the Internet, 75% of search systems will provide some social search functionality to calculate contemporary relevancy, and about 300 million mobile users will be subscribed to location-based services. Companies need to plan now for the influx of mobile users and e-commerce transactions, and many CRM platforms are introducing mobile counterparts in preparation.

Mobile and social expansion fosters a new community among web users, and one that organizations need to tend. Companies need to focus on an in-depth customer experience—give them options, suggest things they might like, etc.—and acknowledge the importance of user-generated content (UGC). Allowing consumers to review items and services provides helpful troubleshooting information, and it necessary for giving consumers the experience they expect.

Gartner Research VP Gene Alvarez outlined four different types of websites, and indicated at what stage in mobile development each should be.

• Influencers. These are companies like automotive and appliance vendors, and their websites aren’t transaction-oriented, but rather aim to direct customers elsewhere for that exchange. If these companies have mobile apps, they are of similar functionality to their websites, but ultimately they don’t need to rush to the mobile market just yet.
• Informers. These websites disseminate information—like newspapers—and the companies behind them are the ones spearheading the movement for mobile applications.
• Facilitators. These sites belong to service-oriented companies—like banks and airlines—and while they court the mobile market, their customers might be wary of performing these transactions from their smartphone.
• Sellers. These sites sell goods, and as of now the majority of them don’t have applications for mobile transactions. However, Alvarez does note that they should at least be developing some outlet for submitting UGC from a mobile device.

Alvarez termed the effort to cater CRM to e-commerce users as “e-CRM,” and the notion has several aspects to consider. The conference covered the need for companies to consider CRM strategies for mobile users, but there is also the need for CRM companies themselves to put forth similar consideration. Salesforce.com and Oracle have had mobile applications for a while, and NetSuite added an iPhone application to their mobile arsenal this week. Serious players will eventually need serious mobile applications (with good user interfaces and plenty of user options) to stay in the game.

The expansion of cloud computing is unstoppable, and its growth within enterprise software is manifest destiny. Of course, when dealing with cloud storage there are always questions about security. After a recent Unisys survey revealed that more than half of its enterprise participants considered security and privacy their biggest concern with the cloud, eWeek did a little investigation and outlined six tips for security. Details are below, but the main points are to ask questions and don’t assume your storage provider is giving you all the pertinent details, and to be completely familiar—back-of-your-hand familiar—with your company’s security requirements.

• Learn as much as possible about a potential provider’s data management. Whether it’s where data is physically stored or what hiring practices led to the staff responsible for securing your data, make a point to know about it.
• Make sure your provider can show you documentation of encryption used to secure and segregate data between multiple customers.
• Should law enforcement perform an audit, be sure your provider can construct an accurate audit trail. Be particularly wary of providers who can’t give you precise geo-location and compartmentalization of sensitive data.
• Another key to smooth audits: know your company’s compliance requirements inside and out so that these become prerequisites when soliciting a provider. This knowledge could eliminate legal hassles down the road.
• If a provider doesn’t have a trustworthy software security assurance program, find one that does. This means security and privacy will be certain in terms of application development in the cloud.
• Lastly, consider Murphy’s Law. Ask prospective providers how they are prepared to handle a security breach, from damage control to correction.

Salesforce.com has had a pretty strong showing in 2009, due in part to the company’s introduction of Cloud Service (a SaaS application) at the beginning of this year. Early this month, Salesforce announced an upgrade to this application, Service Cloud 2, which consists of three phases to be launched from now until early 2011.

One of the Service Cloud 2’s web-based options is already available to Salesforce.com customers: Salesforce for Twitter. The company integrated Twitter into their platforms in March 2009—and was one of the first enterprise software developers to do so—and now the integration functions within the Service Cloud. This update allows users to track and monitor conversations in Twitter, as well as tweet from the Service Cloud.

Later in 2009, customer service reps will be able to access Salesforce Knowledge, allowing users to quickly access company knowledge bases to provide more efficient customer service. These bases will be like company-specific FAQ pages, and the application will also be integrated with Google search integration.

Salesforce Answers expands customers’ accessibility to company information by allowing platform users to create customizable forums where people can ask and answer questions and rate their peers’ responses. Making this forum feature more modern is the social networking element: Answers also allows companies to set up Salesforce Answers communities on Facebook fan pages, and the information from this integration will be imported into the Service Cloud.

No doubt more enterprise-meets-social-networking features will be added to the Cloud 2 arsenal—at a San Francisco event two weeks ago, Salesforce Founder and CEO Marc Benioff called the company a “cloud computing evangelist” and intimated that real-time search and microblogging give CRM “incredible capabilities.”