CRM Weblog

Updated Version Of Saratoga Released

Fans of the CRM software “Saratoga” did not have to wait long, as the new version entitled Saratoga CRM 6.5 was recently released.

According to Mark Elconin, CEO of Saratoga Systems, “You don’t need to rely on ERP vendors to be the CRM experts. We deliver CRM solutions for companies that are serious about making CRM a competitive weapon, and not just a sales contact database. Our customers tell us that they want a sales automation solution that meets their evolving needs from a CRM expert and not an ERP provider, and they don’t want a partial on-demand fix. We offer the power of easy-to-adapt software at a price that competes with on-demand solutions that can’t integrate to back end systems.”

The updated version is quite an improvement over the last version, as it features a new improved Web dashboard, along with a number of enhancements and the ability to integrate.

Nationwide Wins 2005 Award

The UK's Nationwide Building Society was awarded the Information Management Award for the best CRM project of 2005. The award was handed out after Portrait Software completed a nine-month project at Nationwide Building Society.

According to Simon Baines from Nationwide, "Portrait Software is a key part of our CRM business strategy to help all Nationwide employees put our members first. With nearly 11 million members and tens of thousands of customer interactions a day, this project has increased our ability to meet our members needs more consistently and intelligently whether they choose to interact with us through a Branch or over the telephone. This award is a fantastic achievement for the Society and partners involved."

Portrait Software’s entry won first place in a category consisting of 29 of some of the best firms in the United Kingdom

Bag The Elephant

In an article appearing on toptechnews.com, Elizabeth Millard writes about the benefits of using CRM to acquire and retain customers. This article is based on a book by author Steve Kaplan entitled, “Bag the Elephant: How To Win & Keep Big Customers”.

Millard is quoted as saying that small businesses have a feeling of inferiority: “Small business don’t think they can get a big customer, and that’s a major problem”. Kaplan went on to say that, “large companies often seek out small companies as suppliers, partners, and vendors because smaller usually means faster moving”.

Therefore, using CRM can be an effective tool in helping to acquire and retain customers if small businesses put the effort into it. For more information on how CRM software can help you acquire and retain customers click here.

CRM Mastery Releases New Product Directory

Today the CRM software company, CRM Mastery announced in a press release that they had created a new CRM product directory called the CRM Solution Directory.

This is quite an ingenious idea as most of their product directories that were available on the internet, either lacked or contained repetitive information. With the introduction of the new CRM Solution Directory, CRM Mastery will allow the user to access correct directory information that has been maintained by CRM research analysts.

Berkowitz, the CEO and founder of CRM Mastery stated the reason for the creating the new directory:    “...Our goals for this initiative are to include all appropriate CRM-related products, to place each product in only the most appropriate directory categories and to update the content of our directory weekly, at a minimum.”

CRM is Not the Solution to a Broken Business

Tracey Schelmetic writes that CRM is not as far as long as most would hope. She compares the current state of CRM to owning Sea Monkeys as  a child.

CRM still falls prey to the kind of expectations that I and other kids (at least I hope it affected other kids, or I’m publicly owning up to some embarrassing childhood revelations) had about Sea Monkeys, until we tried growing them. Our expectations were sky high, and we were sold a romantic fabrication. Sound familiar?

She later goes on to point out that there are limitations to what CRM can do:

CRM won’t fix your business if it’s broken. CRM won’t help you keep customers if you don’t give them a substantive reason to stay. CRM won’t improve your product or your marketing, and it probably won’t lower your cholesterol level, despite what the brochures say. It also won’t improve the attitudes of your call center workers unless those attitudes are directly caused by frustration resulting from not having the right tools and information to serve customers better.

She notes that integration is the fundamental key to successfully implementing a successful CRM solution.

“Well, the call center is ready for CRM, but the back-office people, accounting, warehousing, the outside sales team and several of our suppliers are not,” proceed no further.

Russ Hill also recently wrote on the sadly disappointing integration issue:

Without this link between their customer base and supply chain, retail executives lack a complete picture of their business and do not have the information necessary to make better business decisions.

Have your ducks in a row before implementing your CRM strategy, or you are stuck facing the Sea Monkey syndrome.