| What is Business Intelligence |
"Business Intelligence is the art of gaining business
advantage from data". Business Intelligence is used to
answer queries like:
Who are my best and worst customers (and therefore, where should
I concentrate my future sales efforts)
What parameters affect my sales (Is there a brilliant sales
person? Has a campaign been successful?)
What advantages does my business offer customers, as compared
with the competition?
Where are we making/losing money (in terms of geography, product
line, campaigns, etc') |
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| Experts Corner |  Having spent the money to identify our online customers, how can we maximize that investment by knowing the best time to reach them?
David King, Fulcrum Analytics
Read more... |
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| Highlights |
 Q&A with Vivek Thomas, President, Maximizer Software
Vivek
Thomas joined Maximizer in
2002 and began serving as the CRM software provider's president on June
first of this year. He graciously agreed to an email interview with CRM2Day
about the current state of the CRM market and Maximizer's plans for the
future.
by
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| Abstract: Our affiliates have begun bidding on our brand words; does this mean that we
will end up paying them for searches that should have led to our website to begin
with?
The relationship with affiliates is one of the most difficult for a business
to handle: on the one hand they are providing leads and sales for your company,
but on the other they are independent entities which require retribution for
their services and have their own interests, as well as your own, at heart.
This is, however, the case with any provider of service or materials and it
is important to establish a relationship of trust and confidence on both parts.
One of the most common sticking points for businesses comes when a decision
has to be made as to whether to allow affiliates – providers of voucher
and coupon services or cash back sites – to bid on your trademark terms.
If they are allowed to do so, consumers entering “M&S” in the
search engine, for example, will not only find the link to www.marksandspencer.com
on the search page displayed but links to websites offering discounts and vouchers
for the purchase of Marks and Spencer’s products.
If they are more popular than the company’s own ecommerce site, these
results may even feature higher in the page rankings than the company’s
own ecommerce site. As a result, customers searching specifically for your
brand may end up purchasing the product via a website other than your own.
This lead will then have to be paid for by your company even though the consumer
would have clicked on your site and not the affiliate’s had the rankings
been more favourable.
In this case the question is- are the high ranking affiliates cannibalising
sales or is your ecommerce site simply not optimised properly? Improving your
paid for search results as well as your natural results should be the pressing
issue for a business whose affiliates are attracting more traffic than the
main site. If the consumer typed in a specific brand term, they almost certainly
have been influenced to some extent by the brand’s own marketing and
advertising; failing to optimise search lets these efforts down in the last
lap. Understandably, however, businesses feel that affiliates should not charge
for leads generated on the back of promotional activity that is not their own.
Marketers tend to see the acquisitions made through affiliates as bringers
of ballooning costs. Firstly there is a cost per acquisition (CPA) charge for
affiliates, then the brand’s own marketing effort is to be added as it
drives the search, and finally the extra bidding cost of trying to keep the
brand at the top of the search results page, which is regarded as the last
straw.
There is, however, another important aspect to consider before letting fears
of cannibalisation and plummeting return on investment (ROI) sever the relationship
with affiliates. In May 2008, Google relaxed its UK regulations against bidding
on competitor trademark names meaning that, for example, when M&S bid on
the term Interflora, M&S appeared on the same search page as the brand.
As Google currently has no regulations against competitor trademark term bidding,
allowing affiliates to bid on key brand terms helps keep competitors out of
that all important first search page. While affiliate bidding may add a fractional
cost to the process of acquisitions, competitors really are driving business
away with their aggressive bidding.
If relationships with affiliates are managed more openly, concerns over the
cannibalisation of traffic can be quelled. Last-minute solutions such as lowering
commission budgets and suspending programmes are simply unacceptable and feed
into the climate of “every man for himself” on which mistrust is
based. Some businesses have even gone as far as making up excuses so as to
legitimise suspension of affiliate programmes over Christmas, a time of the
year that affiliates have been gearing up to as much as your own business.
One solution that avoids stigmatising affiliate programmes is to suggest different
rates of commission depending on the different type of lead or customer acquired.
This way, for example, if the consumer provided by the affiliate turns out
to be a returning customer who has previously bought through the ecommerce
site, the payment can be set at a lower rate than if the consumer is an entirely
new lead or a person whose custom is only available through affiliates. |
| Topics:
Business Intelligence | | | Industry:
Finance | Telco | Retail | Utilities | Government | Healthcare |
| CRM Function:
CRM ROI | Customer Loyalty | Customer Profitability | Customer Retention |
| CRM Methology:
CRM Strategy | CRM Implementation | CRM Overviews | CRM Definition |
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| Author: By Scott Munro |
| Company: Pivotal |
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Doc Type:
Article
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Format: HTML |
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| Abstract: Q&A with Scott Munro, VP of CRM product management
at CDC Software, providers of Pivotal
CRM.
What is the #1 challenge companies face that Pivotal helps to solve?
Scott: What really makes or breaks a CRM implementation is less the system
itself than the issue of user adoption—but the user-friendliness of the
system plays a critical role in whether users embrace the system. That’s
why with our most recent release of Pivotal CRM, Pivotal 6, we made usability
and the user experience our top priorities.
Unlike most CRM systems, which tend to be organized based on the underlying
data structures, Pivotal CRM features task-oriented navigation that allows
companies to group data by user role and task, allowing them to more quickly
and directly access the data and tools that are relevant to their job.
How does Pivotal allow companies to focus on what they do best?
Scott: Pivotal CRM offers a highly flexible platform and customization toolkit,
enabling companies to precisely model their unique business processes within
the CRM system rather than adapting their processes to fit the system.
Like other CRM systems, Pivotal CRM offers out-of-the-box sales force automation
tools that companies can use to immediately streamline their sales activities.
But many sales organizations develop unique sales approaches and ways of tracking
and measuring sales progress, based on years of experience and success in their
specific market and industry. Other companies follow recognized sales methodologies
such as Miller Heiman or Solution Selling. In either case, the CRM system should
reinforce and model this methodology, not change it.
Pivotal CRM makes it easy for a company to implement their specific sales
methodology within the system, ensuring that it is fully integrated within
their processes and consistently applied.
How does a CRM system help companies stay focused and efficient?
Scott: A CRM system that enables companies to model and automate their unique
processes helps them embed the expertise and competitive advantages they’ve
built up within their business over the years into their sales, marketing,
and customer service processes and ensure they’re consistently followed.
Ensuring that your CRM system can do this thoroughly and cost-effectively is
essential.
But just as important is ensuring that the CRM system is flexible enough to
enable the company to continue to learn and incorporate this knowledge into
the system, adapting to changes in the company, the market, and the competitive
environment.
What sets Pivotal apart from other CRM systems?
Scott: Pivotal CRM has a flexible platform foundation unlike any other CRM
solution on the market. This makes Pivotal easier and more cost-effective to
customize, integrate, and deploy. It opens up a world of possibility for our
customers, who can use Pivotal CRM as an application development platform on
which to build out custom applications very rapidly and at a fraction of the
cost compared to starting from scratch. This has made Pivotal CRM the “killer
app” for many of our customers.
Learn more about Pivotal here. |
| Topics:
Business Intelligence | |
| CRM Methology:
CRM Strategy | |
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| Abstract: There is more to technology purchases than simple hardware and software
costs. This TCO study takes a holistic view considering soft dollars as well,
such as
ongoing
maintenance
and efficiency improvements. It details
common TCO models applied to virtualization projects with VMware customers
reporting an
average savings of 74 percent.
Read this whitepaper from VMware to learn how
to leverage virtualization for a 74% savings in TCO. |
| Topics:
Business Intelligence | | | Industry:
Finance | Telco | Retail | Utilities | Government | Healthcare |
| CRM Function:
Customer Profitability | |
| CRM Methology:
CRM Strategy | |
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| Abstract: Today's business applications aren't flexible enough to keep pace with the
businesses they support. Users must figure out where to find information that
supports their tasks, and the IT costs of keeping up with evolving business
requirements
remain high. Adding collaborative Web 2.0 technologies such as
enterprise search, presence, and mashups to business applications can be a
way to
address these challenges for business users and IT alike.
While business users
may be familiar with these technologies through personal use, they remain
uncertain about how these new capabilities can support
their business strategies. This white paper from Epicor explains how Web 2.0 technologies
support business strategies: improving efficiency and productivity and
harnessing knowledge through collaboration. Additionally, these techonologies
can reduce
IT costs by simplifying integration and improving IT administration and
maintenance. |
| Topics:
Business Intelligence | Enterprise Resource Planning | | | Industry:
Finance | Telco | Retail | Utilities | Government | Healthcare |
| CRM Function:
CRM ROI | |
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