CRM Weblog

UK Users Able To Access Salesforce

When Salesforce’s On-Demand software went down on Tuesday, it appeared to be only a US problem, as users in the UK were found not to be affected.

Salesforce has since recovered since yesterday, and issued a statement outlining that the problem that “an error in the database cluster”.

The article went on to say that:

“Some users of Salesforce have suggested that the company's upgrading scheme has eaten away at reliability. The company upgrades its software three times a year, and then forcing all customers to upgrade through the central servers.”

A user of ZDNet UK wrote in this opinion:

"Salesforce's up-time continues to slip as they implement new features and add complexity. Each new release reduces their system's robustness.”

IPO of CRM Holdings

The long awaited IPO of CRM Holdings occurred yesterday with the shares being priced at $13-16 dollars.

The company is expected to generate $115.1 million from the sale of approximately 8.9 million shares.

The shares are scheduled to commence trading on The NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "CRMH".

CRM Holdings is a Bermuda based company that provides fee based management services.

Salesforce Suffers Downtime

According to writer Bill Snyder of thestreet.com, Salesforce was not available to its customers for most of the day.

However, the article said that the information was not released by the company, but instead announced by two analysts that keep track of Salesforce. As well, Snyder noted that bulletin boards that had discussed stocks had frustrated posts from affected customers.

The article continued to state that this recent “downed” status of Salesforce has been the most drastic in its history, making the company possibly liable to customers who were not able to access their service.

Siebel CRM OnDemand Selected

In an article appearing on businesswire.com, it was announced that a customer solutions company called NBOGroup, had selected Siebel Systems OnDemand CRM software. This announcement occurred after the NBOGroup abandoned Salesforce.com.

The NBOGroup is based in Singapore, and markets training programs. Due to the nature of their business, the company felt that leaving Salesforce.com, and migrating to Siebel was the best idea, “Because we need to manage the information on all our current and prospective clients, Siebel CRM OnDemand was the ideal solution for creating a single, comprehensive view of our customers and prospects that could be viewed across the whole organization," stated Gary Nelson, Director of the NBOGroup. He went on to say, “This powerful hosted CRM solution enables our marketing staff to manage customer relationships at every point of interaction, across the Web, email, and phone."

Bugs Fixed In Version 3.0

Early it was reported that Microsoft had released the update to the CRM software entitled Microsoft CRM 3.0. However, the new software release has a few CRM software users unsure if they would purchase the update version, due to numerous “glitches” that were reported in the previous version. This resulted in Microsoft have to send out a point release to fix the present bugs.

With the previous version of Microsoft CRM, Michael Synder, Information Systems Manager of Designer Doors Inc., was disappointed and ended up putting, “the software back on the shelf”. However, many others are quite pleased with corrected bugs in version 3.0 of the software, “The new CRM software and Outlook share a nearly identical look and feel, according to those who have seen early demonstrations of Version 3.0,” he said.

HSBC Mexico Wins CRM Award

It was made known yesterday by SSA Global that HSBC Mexico had been awarded the prestigious 2005 Gartner CRM Excellence Award. The award was given based on the strategy that HSBC Mexico uses in its CRM.

HSBC Mexico has seen substantial growth since it has started using SSA CRM Implementation. According to the article reviewed, “HSBC Mexico attributes over 63% of their new credit card accounts and 71% of their personal loan sales to their SSA CRM Implementation.”

Speaking on behalf of his company CRM director of HSBC Mexico, Gustavo Martinez had this to say, “To achieve our vision, of being Mexico’s leading financial services company in the eyes of our customers, HSBC Mexico needed to create a corporate culture focused on customer needs, employ and develop the best people, and find and implement the best solutions on the market. SSA Global provides the CRM solutions and support we need to realize our vision. SSA CRM is playing a critical role in helping us instill customer loyalty and increase our market share.” More information about HSBC can be reviewed here.

Microsoft Dynamics SL 6.5 Released

It was announced that Microsof was releasing Microsoft Dynamics 3.0 update a few weeks ago, but along with the 3.0 update, Microsoft has also released it Microsoft Dynamics SL 6.5 software.

The SL 6.5 software was formerly known as the Microsoft Business Solutions-Solomon. This product is available in the United States and Canada but will not be available in other countries until 2006.

The SL 6.5 version updated version allows the ability to coordinate the software with Windows Sharepoint, as well as the feature of new bank reconciliation.

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

Feel Safe With Sandbox

According to an article written by Susan Kuchinskas of InternetNews.com, businesses that used the application AppExchange from Salesforce.com, now have the ability to test the system.

According to Phil Robinson, Vice President of global marketing, more and more customers are using AppExchange, and will welcome the addition of Sandbox: “We're seeing customers beginning to deploy Salesforce.com across the entire enterprise, not just for CRM”.

Robinson went on to say, "Customers are customizing and extending Salesforce.com, so they can build other applications that sit alongside it, and also installing applications out of AppExchange”.

The full release of Sandbox will cost between $18-25 per month extra. Visit the source article entitled, “A CRM Sandbox For Wary Customers”.