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What is CRM? |
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For many people evaluating or looking to purchase CRM software, CRM is not what they think it is. Well, that is, if they think that CRM is software. It's an easy mistake to make. The truth is CRM software is a tool to achieve CRM, and CRM is a business strategy aimed at growing mutually beneficial customer relationships at scale. Understanding how the two work together delivers the best results. |
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The Customer Relationship Management Evolution in 2022 |
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There are a lot ways the Customer Relationship Management software market continues to evolve. But from my vantage point I find the most telling evidence of CRM maturity is based on who benefits. And over three decades I have observed a clear pattern of evolving beneficiaries - from managers to users to customers to communities. |
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Seismic Shifts in the CRM Software Market |
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The beginning of a new year is an opportune time to assess the trajectory of the CRM software market. A clear understanding of CRM direction aids planning to tap into new capabilities, better leverages CRM software with other technology movements and can significantly accelerate your business and systems objectives. Here are four market shifts that will impact the trajectory and value of CRM software. |
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The Future of CRM Software |
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The next generation of CRM software is needed for two reasons. First, businesses need new strategies and supporting technologies to respond to more empowered customers. Second, CRM software is a 23 year old customer data management technology that lies somewhere between mature and commoditized. It's time for a technology refresh. Here's what's needed for the future of CRM software. |
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Is Salesforce Worth the Price Premium? |
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Salesforce is the market share leader. That has earned the company a significant price premium when compared to direct competitors such as Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle CX and SAP CRM. Whether that price premium pays dividends or just results in higher total cost of ownership (TCO) depends on how you use it. This article explains when the price premium makes sense, and when it doesn't. |
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CRM Software Market Share Report |
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Most CRM software leadership claims are based on undocumented disclosures and a variety of different measures such as install base, growth or other ways to slice the market. This CRM software market share analysis looks at three sources in order to compare data points, remove bias and objectively rank the top CRM software solutions. |
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CRM Market Share Report |
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The CRM software market continues its double digit growth but how that growth is being allocated among CRM vendors is incurring steady change. The CRM market share report shows how the top CRM vendor is increasing the distance from the rest of the pack and how a convergence for the number 2 position is about to change the pecking order among the top CRM vendors. |
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Salesforce versus Microsoft Dynamics CRM |
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While Oracle and SAP have viable CRM products for their ERP install bases, their CRM market share is in decline. It's clear the chase for the top CRM software position has reached a two horse race. Salesforce is the market leader and Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the challenger. Here's the head to head match up and expert analysis that compares the top two CRM software solutions. |
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Dynamics 365 — The Future of Microsoft Dynamics |
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 is the new brand for Dynamics CRM and Dynamics AX. While the CRM and ERP software has not actually changed, Microsoft is promoting a new business software strategy and product roadmap which morphs previously departmental solutions into a broader platform of enterprise-wide cloud business applications. |
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CRM Idol |
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CRM Idol a much needed shot in the arm for the upcoming generation of innovative Customer Relationship Management (CRM) providers and the customers who will benefit from their solutions. The CRM Idol competition vets small but innovative CRM software publishers from around the world in order to discover those solutions that most deserve more public attention. |
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CRM Idol Lessons for Emerging Growth Companies |
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CRM Idol offers a classic business lesson in what the most successful emerging growth technology companies do differently than their peers. From CRM Idol founder Paul Greenberg and the primary judges, here are four critical success factors for entrepreneurs and business leaders to keep in mind if they aspire to create the next great technology company. |
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bpm'online Solution Brief |
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As shown in the most recent CRM Market Share Report, a new group of CRM software publishers are taking market share away from the old guard. Bpm'online is one of the up and comers growing faster than the CRM market, and striving to become a CRM market share leader. This bpm'online review and vendor solution brief examines what makes this solution different. |
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Zoho CRM Deep Dive Review |
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Zoho CRM is acquiring customers based on its ease of use, freemium pricing model, low cost and fast deployment. The company is focused on meeting the needs and budget constraints of SMB's, in fact, its name is a play on small office/home office (SOHO) acronym. In this Zoho CRM review, we evaluate the application relative to SMB requirements and the competitive landscape. |
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Oracle Strategy Update and Review |
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In a meeting between Oracle and the analyst community, Mark Hurd led the discussion of Oracle’s most pressing business strategies, which he described as engineered systems, cloud, social, mobile, Customer Experience (CX) and Big Data/Analytics. Here's some musings and analysis of Oracle's progress and where they stand in the competitive market. |
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Greenrope—a Vendor Solution Brief |
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Greenrope offers an SMB all-in-one CRM, marketing and more solution. The CRM software gets the job done, and the social CRM is compelling, but its the email marketing and marketing automation which give this solution unique capabilities, and help small businesses acquire more customers by using software automation for digital lead acquisition, lead scoring, nurture campaigns and rich analytics. |
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Dealing with the Change Prevention Committee
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They're called the 'Change Prevention Committee' — the unorganized or semi-organized forces of resistance that form spontaneously to thwart implementing CRM systems. CRM deployments may run into an informal, but very real, resistance based on the simple fact that it changes the way people do things. This has to be planned for, recognized and dealt with as part of the implementation. |
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Sage CRM Deep Dive Review |
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Sage Group delivers three CRM software solutions to a global market. Sage CRM, also called SageCRM.com, and SalesLogix both serve the global small and midsize business market. In this Sage CRM review, we examine the more focused cloud CRM solution, while at the same time pointing out strengths, weaknesses and differences among Sage CRM and SalesLogix. |
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Step Up Your CRM KPI's for Big Performance Gains
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Managers spend an inordinate amount of time reviewing the wrong data; or at least not the most valuable data that can lead to the most strategic progress. The challenge is to discover which data sets deliver the biggest impact, identify the most telling metrics and display them in a way that makes the information immediately actionable. |
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Converge Enterprise CRM Review |
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In a sea of CRM software products, it takes something truly special to stand out. Converge Enterprise is a new CRM solution that offers an exceptional UX, BPM automation and flexibility that allows SMBs to adapt the software to their business processes, not the other way around. Here's a Convergence CRM review that examines a new up and comer and points out why I think this vendor will make inroads. |
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CRM Winners and Losers |
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During Q1 we saw some changes in the continuous jockeying for CRM software market share leadership. Or more specifically, according to CRM buyers, we saw some vendors increase their presence and more importantly increase the messaging and alignment with what CRM buyers say is most important to them. Here's this quarters CRM Winners and Losers results. |
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Sizing Up the CRM Software Market |
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IDC reports that the CRM software market is about $18 billion, while Gartner says it’s about $11 billion. What each analyst firm counts as “CRM software” and how they source their data leads to some differences. In this CRM software market analysis, we examine the global CRM software market size and growth, and the top CRM vendor market share rankings as reported by analyst firms. |
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The Biggest CRM Industry Events of 2012 |
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2012 was a notable year for the CRM industry, and in many ways outpaced the innovation, change and progress as compared to prior years. In this CRM annual review, we reflect on the biggest events and most accelerated trends in the CRM software industry during 2012, and also consider how social CRM, cloud CRM, CX and the competitive CRM software landscape look to impact future years. |
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Beating The CRM Data Entry Blues |
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When the difficulty or burden of data entry exceeds perceived benefits, user adoption becomes quickly challenged and the CRM deployment becomes at risk. Here we look at the cause of a classic CRM software failure, and identify concrete steps to ease data entry with simpler, more intuitive and streamlined CRM software forms and transactions. |
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Five Ways to Increase ROI from CRM |
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For too many companies, their CRM system has become a necessary evil—a little-understood, complicated business system that delivers on its promise to share data and improve customer service, but not much more. However, pursuing a few well chosen recommendations can dramatically increase ROI from your CRM software investment. |
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3 Reasons CRM Fails to Deliver |
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The CRM software implementation success record is pretty depressing. Studies have shown than anywhere from 20 percent to two-thirds of all CRM software efforts have either failed to meet expectations or failed outright. In this article, Rick identifies three top causes and mitigating measures to keep your CRM software implementation project on track. |
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The Facts, Figures and Forecasts for the Enterprise Software Market |
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Before diving into a series of articles covering enterprise software, CRM software and software as a service (SaaS) in each of the major global regions we thought we'd set the stage by starting with the big picture — and understanding the market sizes for each region in both absolute and relative terms - and try to also tap into the analyst projections for trends and forecasts. |
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Sizing Up The CRM Software Market |
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CRM software spending will reach $12 billion in 2012, of which social CRM will consist of $1 billion. "Over the next three years, social CRM (SCRM) will continue its exponential rise, Software-as-a- Service will become routine, Salesforce.com will reshuffle the market order, and consultants and system integrators will sell their own CRM software," advised Gartner's Ed Thompson. |