By Alison Harris Company: When Raindance Communications was founded in 1997, its primary focus was delivering video streaming services. As technology, telecommuting, and industry needs evolved, so did Raindance. Today, the company offers integrated Web and audio conferencing services, allowing…
By Bonny Georgia Whether you’re campaigning online or off, marketing efforts fall into two major categories – strategies that build brand awareness and tactics that drive potential customers to take action, like registering for a service, using a coupon, or…
The customer relationship management (CRM) solution market in Japan is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.3 percent to reach US$6.8 billion in 2006, up from US$2.9 billion in 2001, said IDC Japan. Investment on…
I haven’t talked about the technology aspect of personalization yet. Having had some high-profile clients, and having worked for some high-profile companies, my voice mail is flooded with tech vendors trying to sell me their wares. Over the last few…
By Todd Tweedy For many marketers, the explosive growth of real-time communication isn’t raising questions about whether to advertise on the Web using instant messaging (IM), but how. A major barrier marketers will face when using IM as a marketing…
By Bonny L. Georgia It’s not enough to launch an e-store and wait for shoppers to empty your shelves. Once you’ve brought buyers in the door it takes effort to keep them coming back. FastForward’s Easy Platform for Integrated Communications…
By Bonny L. Georgia The key to building lasting, profitable relationships with customers is making superior customer service your top priority. But if your e-business is too overwhelmed by online inquires and service requests to respond in a timely, thoughtful…
IDC has released the findings of a major end user study looking at Internet banking penetration and channel usage of Internet users across Australia, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. In its study, it found that the transaction volumes…
Unilever Philippines went live with mySAP CRM (customer relationship management) on January 2 this year, following a three-month implementation period. It is the first Unilever office in Asia to implement the solution from SAP, said Efren Samonte, commercial director of…
Oracle Corp. has launched its first development center in China, known as the Oracle China Development Center. It is believed that this is the only enterprise software center in Asia that will serve as a development facility created specifically to…
Pivotal Corporation added The Bankers Bank to its customer roster this week with the implementation of a contact center that will be deployed by a Pivotal Partner, Red Clay Consulting. The Atlanta, Ga.-based Bankers Bank employs 220 professionals, including more…
In a new study released by Net Value, it stated that 336,000 visitors were found at online banking web sites in Singapore in December 2001, up 72.2 per cent compared to January 2001. Within the country, Development Bank of Singapore’s…
Here are some recent customer wins by notable CRM vendors: ZAMBA and Volkswagen ZAMBA Solutions will drive Volkswagen of America’s Web site, providing a CRM Blueprint, or execution roadmap, that will allow an industry “best-in-class” customer-centric environment. ZAMBA’s business consulting…
Siebel Systems, Inc. expands its line of industry-specific solutions with Siebel eMedia 7 and Siebel eCommunications 7 for Mobile Carriers. Both products feature enhanced functionalities designed to improve sales, marketing, service, and other customer-facing business processes in order to improve…
Industry experts warn that a prudent approach to CRM could save companies undue hassle. Hoping to cash-in on a CRM-orientated market, many vendors are hyping instant large-scale CRM rollouts. In an uncertain economic climate, however, implementing large and costly packages…
Automakers should be honing their e-initiatives advises research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. Last year Forrester Research chided automakers for running “vast, confusing and unpersuasive sites.” More recently Jupiter investigated the e-attitudes of automakers and found that little had changed. “Given…
By Shelley Dempsey A bird in the hand, as they say, is worth two in the bush. Especially when it comes to hanging onto customers in the rough and tumble of today’s cut-throat telecommunications sector. Nowadays, with so many telco…
By Web Fletcher “Satisfaction guaranteed” has been a mantra of many companies’ march toward “customer-centricity.” And as more and more companies have adopted the principles of CRM, they have made significant investments in measuring and monitoring their traditional gauge of…
The needs of online consumers can be met without overdue expenditure alleged a recent study. In a time when dot-coms are coming under increasing financial and consumer pressure, keeping customers satisfied without incurring unnecessary expenses is becoming mission-critical juggling act…
By Brock Henderson Why is this an opportunity and not a headache? Here’s why: irritate one customer and they’ll tell a hundred people about their bad experience, but deal with them correctly and they will become a loyal and happy…
by Sarah L. Roberts-Witt At the turn of the last century, companies didn’t agonize over weighty terms like customer relationship management (CRM), that overused and misunderstood buzzword currently plaguing the business world. Instead they focused on the individuals who frequented…
A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) advised that e-tailers with both online and offline interests should adopt a multichannel approach. Corroborating findings made by Jupiter Media Metrix, BCG found that a large percentage of European consumers are…
By Mary Brodie Web sites frequently are the main interaction medium between users — such as customers, partners, press — and a company. However, users cannot achieve their goals at a company site without navigation systems that are targeted to…
To handle its soaring customer and commercial data volumes in Asia, British Airways (BA) will consolidate these data into a single enterprise-wide data warehouse that runs on Teradata platform. Previously, the company stored its entire customer and commercial data on…
Guangzhou Price Control Bureau has implemented a 24×7 hotline system to provide the public with a more convenient and quicker way to look for information on fees for medical and educational services, public utilities, real estate and fee standards and…
By Jonathan Eisenzopf In the not-too-distant future, we will begin seeing unified customer support platforms that allow companies and their customers to communicate seamlessly via the Web, telephone, and wireless devices. In this article, we will learn how two evolutionary…
Two recent surveys by Jupiter Media Metrix found customer response rates lagging amongst online retailers. “The implications of unsatisfying online service remain particularly harsh,” noted Jupiter senior analyst David Daniels, having scrutinized the results of two topical surveys. “Retailers would…
In the past costly customer relationship management (CRM) software was exclusively the domain of large affluent corporations – now all that seems to have changed. During November 2001, BT and Siebel decided to appeal to the ‘sub-corporate’ market by offering…
Online service and support structures are apparently still taking a backseat as companies struggle to come to terms with the Web. “There are too many sites that don’t have any customer support features,” bemoaned Yankee Group analyst Lisa Melsted in…
Introduction: bigchalk, The Education Network Bigchalk, inc. is a comprehensive education destination for the K-12 learning community, with both subscription-based and free learning tools for educators, parents, and students. Bigchalk’s vast array of library resources, supplementary curriculum, and assessment professional…
If online marketing efforts aren’t having the desired effect then chances are you’ve bored or upset your potential customers. “Customers are getting way ahead of marketers,” cautioned Meta Group analyst Stephen Diorio, warning that consumers have become increasingly indifferent towards…
Analysts believe that the dot-com crash will slow-down during 2002 and that consumer confidence in the Net will steadily increase. For the last two years the Net has been in the grips of a veritable Ice Age that killed-off a…
By Erin Joyce AT&T and consulting firm Accenture have signed a $2.6 billion outsourcing agreement designed to cut the phone company’s long-distance customer care costs in half and deploy new customer relationship management technologies. Dubbed a “co-sourcing” agreement, the five-year…
by Shari Thurow Getting visitors to your Web site is only half the battle. To be victorious, you need to convert visitors into customers by making purchases, signing up for services, or otherwise fulfilling your goals. At a session called…
By @NY Staff Digital Payments Play AllCharge Gets $3.4 Million AllCharge, which makes online payment technology for digital content sales, has closed a $3.4 million preferred funding investment. The New York-based AllCharge plans to use the funds market its product,…
Just six weeks after its last major update, Oracle Corp. Thursday (Dec. 27) announced the launch of version 7.5 of the Oracle Small Business Suite, powered by NetLedger. New features and enhancements, based on suggestions from customers, have been made…
“Customers are getting way ahead of marketers,” warns Meta Group analyst Stephen Diorio. Contrary to the buoyant promises of an upbeat 2001 Consumer Email study from Net-marketers DoubleClick, Diorio believes that consumers are becoming increasingly desensitised to online marketing efforts.…
Attracted by promises of speed, reach, and significant savings, businesses and corporations are increasingly turning Web-wards to collect consumer opinions and responses. The accuracy of Web-based market research is no longer in question. “We put to rest the notion that…
Although e-mail marketing has many benefits, marketers should nonetheless tread carefully. “Hard work, perseverance, and breaks are what make successes, not gimmicky tricks and grating marketing strategies,” complained one irate victim of an untargeted e-mailing campaign in a recent debate…
By Chris McTiernan One thing that amazes me about our reliance on software to help us is the expectation that somehow software is the solution when, in fact, software is a tool that helps us — people — achieve a…
Chordiant Software , which makes customer relationship management (CRM) software, says it is adding two software industry veterans to its management team. Jeremy Coote, formerly General Manager of Siebel North America is joining the company as President of Chordiant’s Americas…
By Shelley Dempsey As Christmas time looms close once more, it’s interesting to take a step back and examine how far Australian e-tailers – many of them smaller operators – are progressing in terms of customer service compared to other…
by Andrea Maywhort, customer intelligence expert, Truis Corporation Have you heard the one about the vice president of production and the lime green cars? A VP of production for a major car manufacturer was recently reviewing the quarterly data reports…
A recent survey by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) found steady improvements in the online sales industry. “Of late e-tailers have been making more efficient use of their marketing dollars by using more targeted approaches,” stated BCG e-commerce analyst Julie…
By Adam Honig, president of Akibia Consulting Its your salesman’s worst nightmare: unwittingly walking into a sales call with an angry customer that has spent several torturous days trying to rectify a problem with your product. Almost everyone knew about…
Relevancy, trust, and responsiveness seemingly rank highly amongst the hierarchy of valued e-commerce assets. From Microsoft to Amazon.com, players in the heady waters of the Net are reliant on customer allegiance. Keeping a close check on some of the fundamental…
Monitoring web-site performance and reducing the number of transaction failures is made ostensibly easy by a new tool. E-tailers often struggle to accurately gauge online transactions or to respond immediately to system problems. Such potential hiccups can, however, if left…
It’s a well know fact that first impressions go a long way – more so for a web site that’s trying to aggregate eyeballs and drive traffic. Recently research conducted by the Usability Science Corporation revealed that unless a web…
Oracle recently unveiled a new application that’s designed to shorten product release cycles and enhance CRM functionality. Oracle Quality Online is a Customer Relationship Management module that seems to slot comfortably into Oracle’s range of e-business applications, serving to affirm…
The Meta Group warned recently that consumers are becoming increasingly desensitised to online marketing efforts, forcing companies to change their e-strategies once again. “As time marches on, customers are getting way ahead of marketers,” noted Meta Group analyst Stephen Diorio.…