Roundtable Topic: CRM and Web 2.0: Leveraging New Technologies to Engage Customers
We asked the top CRM vendors to offer tips to our readers on how they might best leverage new “Web 2.0” CRM technologies to Engage Customers. Responding to this topic, Hoyt Mann, President of PhaseWare, Inc., emphasizes the use of social media to build customer interaction.
The Business Software Advisor
You ask the questions, and our resident software guru shares her wisdom.
This week’s question: My company’s business travel expenses are out of control. What can I do to reduce costs?
A: These days, travel isn’t cheap. Facing the climbing costs of sending employees out into the field, companies are tightening the reigns, placing restrictions on all business activities that impact travel budgets. Yet, travel is a necessity in today’s dynamic marketplace, and severe restrictions can hinder critical business operations.
What’s the solution? Many companies are finding that Web conferencing is the answer. According to a market study done in April by Scottsdale-based In-Stat, about 20 percent of U.S. businesses use Web conferencing to some extent, and 13 percent plan to add it in 2008. Small and medium-sized businesses are especially gravitating towards the new technology: Frost & Sullivan, a leading research firm, reports that 64% of SMB’s use Web conferencing regularly in their business. Read more »
Are you looking to streamline your human resources and talent management processes? Today’s human capital management and talent management systems offer advanced software solutions to fit your company’s unique needs. To help you in your purchasing decision, the editors at Business-Software.com have compiled a list of the best vendors in the industry. Just released, the Top 10 Human Capital Management Vendors and Top 10 Talent Management Vendors reports are designed to help you build your short list and make an informed purchasing decision. Read more »
An Interview with Entellium CEO, Paul “PJ” Johnston
By: Mandy Kemp
Q: How does Entellium endeavor to better meet the needs of salespersons with the new Rave CRM solutions suite?
Our goal with Rave CRM is to provide smaller businesses a suite of products that help their sales teams spend more time and be more successful doing what they love – selling!
With Rave, we’ve built in a variety of features – such as pre-built activity sets and sales processes, and ‘leader board’ dashboards that give salespeople instant insight into the activities that will help them close the most business. We’ve also taken an innovative approach to the user interface by giving salespeople the ability to radically personalize Rave so that information is presented in a style that works best for them. Read more »
Salesforce.com’s success in offering on-demand, SaaS applications changed expectations for software delivery. ERP buyers find many aspects of SaaS attractive – low startup costs, fast deployment, and predictable monthly fees. To address this market several new ERP SaaS offerings have emerged. Learn more about ERP SaaS below. Read more »
According to a recent Forrester Research study, nearly half of all businesses in North America and Europe have already deployed – or are planning to deploy – mobile workforce applications. Watch the upcoming webinars detailed here and learn how you can keep your your mobile employees connected to client data while on the road. Read more »
IRVINE, Calif., June 30, 2008 press release excerpt — Epicor Software Corporation (NASDAQ: EPIC) today announced a collaborative agreement with IBM to deliver a comprehensive, integrated retail system management product for specialty and department store retailers. As part of the expanded relationship, the two companies will develop and market a total offering to centrally manage and support point-of-sale (POS) hardware and software via IBM’s Remote Management Agent (RMA). Read more »
from Inc.com, June 12, 2008
Infor has introduced its new SCM Warehouse Management BUsiness Edition, a cost-effective supply chain software solution designed for small and midsize businesses, especially in the third-party logistics, manufacturing, distribution, and retail sectors.
The Business Software Advisor
You ask the questions, and our resident software guru shares her wisdom.
This week’s question: What is a virtual call center and how could it benefit my company?
A: When you think of a call center, you may imagine a noisy room, scattered with desks and overpopulated with chattering agents in headsets at all hours of the day. In traditional call centers, agents are housed in a single site and are guided and monitored by in-house supervisors and managers. Quite oppositely, a virtual call center (VCC) is a customer contact center in which agents work remotely and are connected through an online software system that centralizes the center’s operations.
Often referred to as the “call centers of the future”, VCC’s leverage Web and software technologies to achieve greater flexibility, accessibility, and, ultimately, a higher level of customer satisfaction. These next-generation call centers feature integrated workforce optimization, speech-recognition technology, real-time reporting, comprehensive analytics, enhanced customer surveying and feedback mechanisms. Several key technologies that support and define the VCC model are VOIP, scripting, intelligent routing, workforce management, and call monitoring/recording.
According to the American Marketing Association, the average yearly costs associated with running a 200-agent operation top more than $10 million in some industries. These costs come in part from investment in real estate and capital equipment, as well as from cost-of-living constraints in the headquartered region.
Ask yourself: is the cost of operating a traditional call center a concern for your company? If so, you may want to consider going virtual. In addition to cost-savings, transitioning to the virtual model of call center operations brings several other benefits:
* Having no geographic constraints means companies have broader pool of talent from which to find agents.
* Agent retention improves: studies show that agents who work in more flexible virtual contact center environments experience less stress and greater satisfaction than their counterparts who work in traditional call centers. This, in turn, reduces turnover.
* Strategically placing agents in offices around the globe can ensure more effective and affordable 24/7 service by eliminating such barriers as time zones, foreign languages, and cultural differences.
VCC’s are not solely suitable for large enterprises. Small-to-medium size businesses have the same goals of effective CRM, multichannel integration, efficient call routing, customer self-help, and first-call resolution as the “big guys”, and providers of virtual call center software are recognizing and responding to this market need. Today, there are a number of reputable vendors who offer scalable, easily-deployed, cost-effective and readily-integrated solutions, designed specifically for SMB’s.
If you’re thinking of implementing a virtual call center solution in your company, it would behoove you to research those vendors whose software systems fit with your company’s specific needs and goals. A good starting point for this research is the free Business-Software.com “Top 10 Virtual Call Center Vendors - 2008” report. Now may be the perfect time to get out of that old customer service office and move to a new location: the World Wide Web.
“GoldMine runs our business. I’m where I am today because of GoldMine. I can absolutely attribute making money to GoldMine. Just the amount of time alone that GoldMine saves in our day to day activities quickly translates into dollars!” -Brian Hein, Vice President Read more »
