Continuing its effort to reduce the cost and complexity of linking its
hosted CRM software to other applications, Salesforce.com Inc. recently
announced a series of additional integration capabilities.

The San Francisco-based vendor said it plans to offer a set of packaged
connectors for tying its customer relationship management tools to
Oracle Corp.’s E-Business Suite 11i back-office applications.

The Oracle [...]

Implementing a CRM system and putting some business intelligence into
the processes may help in boosting sales or in creating an end-to-end
strategy for those who have been around during the implementation, but
what happens when a new hire sits in front of the complex, customized
application?

Getting new service reps used to a CRM system quickly is crucial
not just [...]

Achieving the long-term value of customer relationship management (CRM)
requires a strategy involving the whole business and should be
approached at an enterprise level. Only a small, but growing, number of
enterprises are tackling CRM at this level, with most CRM initiatives
consisting of departmental projects or attempts to integrate the work
of multiple projects.
Executing enterprise-level CRM is not [...]

Yes, you read the title
correctly. Marketing campaigns that produce an abundance of leads can
actually do your organization more harm than good. Why, you wonder? For
starters, high-volume lead generation is a lot like creating a haystack
in which the sales rep is responsible for finding the proverbial
needle. Bona fide candidates do exist, but they’re often hidden [...]

Lucent Technologies, the telecommunications equipment giant, outsources
upward of 85 percent of its manufacturing to its contract manufacturers’ 20-plus locations worldwide, along with its own integration centers. Needless to say, it’s not easy to coordinate across different time zones and different vendors.
So Lucent has contracted with Kinaxis, a software provider offering specialized coordination services for electronics [...]

Salesforce.com has further opened up its programming platform, allowing
users to enhance and change the way its online customer relationship
management application functions.

The Apex programming language is already used for Saleforce’s hosted
CRM, but was not available to outside developers. The language is
scheduled for release in mid-2007.

Apex will allow users to change the way buttons, searches and
even [...]

Granted, it’s only been one day since Salesforce.com announced Apex,
its new programming language and platform. Not enough time for anyone
to really digest what’s going on, right?
Wrong. The response to Apex from customers (and, not surprisingly,
partners) has really been overwhelmingly positive. I spent a good
amount of time Oct. 9 and Oct. 10, the first and second [...]

Let’s step back to the basics and revisit what exactly is CRM. SMBedge.com recently launched a new section called CRM Advisor and this is their first story with the following introductory tutorial.
Firstly CRM is not technology nor is it something you can touch or
feel. It was during the dotcom days that led many people [...]

B2B marketers who are recognizing the limitations of today’s
email-marketing and Web-analytics applications for generating qualified
sales leads are switching to a lead- or demand-generation solution to
ensure a continuous stream of qualified leads.
In addition to providing the reporting that legacy email and Web
analytics products provide, demand-generation solutions automate the
progression of leads through the pipeline so that [...]

In 1999, the idea of renting software over the Internet was dismissed by many in techdom as little more than a marketing ploy cooked up by Salesforce.com about Salesforce.com Chief Executive Marc Benioff. At the time, the outspoken exec was operating in the shadow of software giants Oracle about Oracle and Microsoft about Microsoft and [...]