CRM Daily

IBM Shifts Focus To Cloud Computing with New Services

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:46:49 -0500

IBM is getting in the cloud. After a string of announcements over the past few weeks from Citrix, Red Hat, VMware, Cisco and Hewlett-Packard, Big Blue is launching an initiative to extend its traditional software delivery model toward a mix of on-premise and cloud-computing applications with new software, services and technical resources for clients and independent software vendors (ISVs).

As IBM sees it, businesses face a unique set of challenges as they look to grow in a globally integrated economy. The company described a perfect storm of data deluge, a fluid regulatory environment, and widening gaps in IT skills that add more cost pressures to resource-strapped organizations. Part of the answer, IBM says, is cloud computing.

"We are moving our clients, the industry, and even IBM itself to have a mixture of data and applications that live in the data center and in the cloud," said Willy Chiu, vice president of high-performance on-demand solutions at IBM.

A Four-Pronged Approach

Chiu said feedback from the business world inspired IBM's four-pronged cloud strategy, which includes delivering its own cloud-services portfolio; helping ISVs design, build, deliver and market cloud services; helping clients integrate cloud services into their business; and providing cloud-computing environments to businesses.

As part of its initiative, IBM is launching a free, open beta for Bluehouse, its Web-based social-networking and collaboration cloud service that aims to help professionals work together securely. Lotus Sametime Unyte is also on IBM's cloud to let businesses communicate in real time with a worldwide network of employees, partners and consumers.

IBM is also offering Rational Policy Tester OnDemand. Big Blue said the software helps reduce online risks by automating Web-content scanning to isolate privacy, quality and accessibility compliance issues.

Meanwhile, Rational AppScan OnDemand scans Web applications for security bugs, and Telelogic Focal Point helps product-management teams collect, analyze and...

If Gmail Access Fails, You're on Your Own

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:33:31 -0500

Logging on to Gmail or other e-mail services has become a routine of daily life, completed without a thought. What would you do, however, if you woke up tomorrow, plugged in your username and password, but then received an unfamiliar message: "Username and password do not match"?

If you are a Gmail user, what you would want to do is speak with a Google customer representative, post haste. But that is not an option. Google does not offer a live person to resolve the ordinary user's problems.

Discussion forums abound with tales of woe from Gmail customers who have found themselves locked out of their accounts. They were innocent victims of security measures, which automatically suspend access if someone tries unsuccessfully to log on repeatedly to an account.

Tom Lynch, a software entrepreneur who lives near Austin, Texas, discovered last month that he had been locked out of the two Gmail accounts he used; he had no idea why. He received boilerplate instructions for recovering his accounts that did not apply to his circumstances, which included his failing to maintain a non-Gmail e-mail account as a backup. He said it took him four weeks -- and a lawyer -- before he succeeded in having service restored.

A Google spokesman placed the blame on Lynch, saying he did not follow Google's guidelines. The spokesman characterized Lynch's ordeal as a praiseworthy illustration of Google's tough security: "We have had no cases of falsely recovered accounts."

Google does provide telephone support to Gmail customers who subscribe to Google Apps Premier Edition, which costs $50 annually and includes larger storage quotas and other benefits. Customers who use the advertising-supported version of Gmail, however, must rely solely on what Google calls "self-service online support."

Microsoft and Yahoo similarly offer telephone support only to their premium e-mail customers. (Yahoo says it offers...

Keeping Customers in a Crummy Economy

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:24:56 -0500

Even before the U.S. economic outlook darkened as the gravity of the financial crisis came into focus, companies started to get more aggressive in their attempts to hold onto old customers and attract new ones. Telephone companies' offers for two months of free service and reduced rates, discounted gym membership renewals, and generous gift cards from high-end department stores all underscore a pervasive fear on Main Street: With the uncertainty around the credit seize-up, consumers may be digging in for a long hibernation.

In upstate New York and other rural communities it serves, Frontier Communications (FTR) is even sending sales representatives door-to-door to persuade customers to lock in another year's worth of service at a discount rate. Those visits are effective where customers are often two-income families with busy lives, and many of those drop-ins are scheduled in advance, says Brigid Smith, a company spokeswoman. "We're sensitive to what this financial crisis means to them and we have to communicate with them," she says.

It's not only because of the gloomier economic picture that Frontier and other telephone companies are trying harder to hold onto customers. Ongoing attrition of users to more advanced technologies, like wireless, and poaching by cable companies have also called for more aggressive retention efforts. Verizon Communications (VZ) estimates an average loss of 8% to 9% of its customer landlines a year over the past few years, most of them going exclusively wireless or switching to service from a voice over IP [VOIP] or cable company, says spokesman Bill Kule. The barrage of competition from cable operators was a key impetus for Verizon's fiber-optic service, called FiOS, which bundles voice, high-speed Internet, and television service together into a triple-play package, which had been connected in more than 7 million households by the end of June.

Verizon has long been...

Brand Reps: Not Your Father's College Job

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:34:31 -0500

On a sunny afternoon last spring, JJ Anthony leapfrogged across the University of Pennsylvania campus. As collegiate stunts go, this one was a pretty tame: There was no alcohol, nudity, or avant garde political agenda -- just a 21-year-old with a megaphone, hopping over a string of eager accomplices.

It was "really fun," Anthony recalls. It was also a marketing ploy.

As he hopped through campus, Anthony, a senior communication major with a concentration in business, trumpeted the launch of Radar.net, a photo-sharing service for mobile-phone users. Meanwhile, his friends tossed promotional fliers and T-shirts to nearby students. "Check it out," they urged. "You're gonna love it."

Like a growing number of U.S. millennials studying marketing and/or business, Anthony is a "campus ambassador." For several hours a week, he works with San Francisco's Tiny Picture, the technology firm that developed Radar. His duties are diverse, ranging from brainstorming new marketing tactics to boosting brand awareness [hence the leapfrogging].

Walking Taller

Almost every decent-sized company, from Apple (AAPL) to ZipCar, employs several campus ambassadors; their mere existence is nothing new. But as college-aged consumers become increasingly elusive [BusinessWeek.com, 8/22/08], more of these student employees -- once relegated to passing out free pizza and product samples -- are watching their roles expand.

At Tiny Pictures, campus ambassadors are "an integral part" of the company, says Ian Jeffrey, vice-president for marketing and communications. Last year, all 14 were flown to San Francisco for a corporate conference, where they helped revamp Radar's interface. During school, they routinely chat with senior executives, including CEO John Poisson, to discuss possible new features.

Recently, several ambassadors suggested that Radar users be able to make all their photos public [as opposed to friends-only] by default. The idea was implemented within weeks, and Jeffrey readily credits ambassadors for its success. Adds Anthony, who was part of...

Skype Investigates China Surveillance of Messages

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 13:20:11 -0500

Skype is answering concerns about its joint venture with TOM Online in China. A report released Thursday by Canadian human-rights activists revealed a massive surveillance system that monitors Skype messages containing words China's government deems offensive.

Citizen Lab, a research group at the University of Toronto, released the report, Breaching Trust: An analysis of surveillance and security practices on China's TOM-Skype platform.

Skype Speaks Out

Skype President Josh Silverman wrote on the company's blog about the company's position and what the eBay subsidiary is doing.

Silverman wrote that Chinese regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages that offend Chinese authorities. Examples include "Taiwan independence," "the Falun Gong," and "political opposition to the Communist Party of China."

"It is common knowledge that censorship does exist in China and that the Chinese government has been monitoring communications in and out of the country for many years," Silverman wrote. "This, in fact, is true for all forms of communication such as e-mails, fixed and mobile phone calls, and instant messaging between people within China and between China and other countries."

Silverman added that Skype publicly disclosed in April 2006 that TOM operated a text filter blocking certain words in text messages, and that if a message is found to be unsuitable, TOM is supposed to discard it. Skype, he insisted, didn't realize TOM was storing the messages and is now digging into the issue to find out why the protocol changed.

Could Internet Monitoring Come to U.S.?

What's more, Skype said it learned about a security break for the first time on Wednesday. The breach made it possible for people to gain access to the stored messages on TOM's servers. Silverman said TOM quickly moved to fix the breach.

"It's important to remind everybody that the issues highlighted in yesterday's Information Warfare Monitor/ONI Asia report refer only to...

The Challenges of Business Intelligence

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:34:53 -0500

The typical business intelligence (BI) architecture can be seen as having a stack of layers. The base usually comprises source data systems, from where data is processed by "extract, transform, load" (ETL) software into a data warehouse. Above that are the BI and application layers and then at the top there is the presentation or delivery layer, which can include executive dashboards, scorecards and other decision-making tools.

Software houses used to specialize in making applications for these different layers, which meant that businesses would assemble their own stacks using independent suppliers. So a company might have an SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that feeds into an Oracle data warehouse, for example, and the firm's finance department might use an application from Hyperion for reports and another from SAS for analytics.

As BI has evolved, the greatest challenge has been how to integrate data on different systems accumulated from different vendors over many years. This challenge is being addressed in the following key ways:

* "Service-oriented architecture" (SOA) has been developed as a solution that eliminates the need for point-to-point connections between resources. It provides access to data in legacy systems through linked "services".

* ERR ETL, data warehouse and customer relationship management (CRM) software vendors are now offering integrated BI applications. And BI vendors are adding ETL tools. Some brands span different layers of the BI stack.

* The big vendors -- IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP -- which already offered some BI solutions, have moved into performance management by acquisition. There has been a feeding frenzy (see "Who bought whom") and the big players are still digesting their prey. In future, they are likely to offer more integrated BI solutions.

BI and business performance management (or business analytics) used to be seen as separate applications, but the big vendors will integrate them. BI solutions...

Know the Competition, Clients, with Market Research

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:34:12 -0500

Developing an ongoing marketing research process is critical to the future success of your telco. Everyone knows that the telecommunications industry is changing -- at a dramatic pace. Our customer base is changing, as is its use and integration of technology. Gathering customer feedback, researching your competitors and monitoring customer satisfaction is a critical component of good marketing.

Marketing research can go a long way toward increasing customer satisfaction, help to drive your marketing and assist with your strategic planning. Developing an ongoing marketing research process and increasing your understanding of the wants and needs of your customers is critical to the future success of your telco.

Competitive Analysis

To begin your marketing research, start with your direct competition and their offerings. This obviously would involve the national wireless providers, cable television companies, satellite television providers, ISPs and any other company that may be a direct competitor. In addition, it is important to look at the "yardstick" competition. These are companies that do not compete directly with you and cannot provide services to your customer. But your customers see their advertising and promotional offers and are constantly benchmarking your pricing and service offerings against these companies.

At a minimum, you should keep a record of their updated pricing, collect their marketing literature, and keep up to speed on their service and promotional offerings. You also can "secret shop" the competitors, call up for information and sign up for services to go through the installation process. Be sure to share this information with your employees, so they can respond to questions about your competitors' offerings.

Customer Focus Groups

Focus groups are a great way to get in-depth information from customers. Basically, you invite a group of customers to attend a discussion group to get a better understanding of their thoughts and opinions. Waitsfield and Champlain Valley Telecom...

Fuel Costs Drive Increased Contact Center Interactions

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:33:54 -0500

The rise in fuel costs has far-reaching implications, even in the contact center industry. While this phenomenon has been attributed to the rise in home-based agents, it is also causing a rise in contact center interactions as a result of an increase in Internet use among rural residents.

di According to New Zealand rural broadband provider, Farmside, there was a 97 percent increase in inquiries through its contact centers in April, with a similar pattern emerging through May. The company contributes this increase to a surge in rural residents opting to use the Internet for routine tasks in an effort to offset rising fuel costs.

"They realize they can save money by using the Internet for errands that have traditionally required a personal trip, like banking, shopping, vehicle registration, study or even doing tax returns," Farmside sales and marketing director Nick Carter said, in a company statement.

A Ministry of Transport Ongoing Household Travel Survey has found that the average driver in rural New Zealand spends 300 hours driving nearly 15,000km each year. Nearly 30 percent of this travel is due to shopping or carrying out other personal business.

Carter noted that with the increase in online services offered by the retail, business and government sectors, rural people are becoming more aware of how using the Internet could save on travel costs.

The challenge in this increase is that contact centers may not be adequately prepared for such increases. Workforce management software solutions can go long way in helping the contact center to prepare for spikes in call volume. Such programs, however, examine known variables, such as campaigns, seasons, and past performance, to name a few.

While it is true that rising fuel costs are impacting economies throughout the world, contact centers may not be fully prepared for the increase in volume. This is where it...

How Open-Source CRM Works for the Customer

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:33:08 -0500

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Chris Harrick, vice president, corporate and product marketing, SugarCRM about what's going on with open source CRM.

DS: Describe the basic open source business model for someone who doesn't understand how a product can be marketed without proprietary ownership.

CH: Okay, let me use my company for an example, since I'm familiar with it. We write and release code under the GPL v3. The application is downloaded thousands of times per day by people all over the world. They provide the company with feedback on product quality and direction which is factored back into the development process.

They all write feature extensions which can be plugged into the product due to the modular nature of the application. We produce revenues from companies with more complex needs and dedicated support requirements who can subscribe to our commercial professional and enterprise products.

Then revenues from subscriptions are filtered back into the community edition code and the cycle continues. Open Source works on a large scale and every company needs a system to manage its customers.

DS: How does the technology guarantee the quality of products it produces?

CH: There is a misconception about code contribution with open source. My company, and I'm sure others in the field, are careful what is committed to the code base with an eye for IP rights, code quality, security and scalability. The community involvement occurs around quality feedback, language translations, and product complements and extensions of which there are over 500 today.

The project is quite analogous to Linux, where few people have code commitment rights but the extensions and derivations have taken on a life of their own.

DS: Is there any particular function you find open source products are best at, such as reporting, collaboration or customer support?

CH: Open source does the long...

Customer-Service Chat Has Pros, Cons for Health Plans

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:33:31 -0500

If you browse long enough at the online retailer overstock.com, an instant-messaging box will pop up on the screen with a message indicating a customer-service representative is able to answer any of your questions.

The chat technology enables a customer-service rep to communicate online with clients through real-time text messaging, rather than over the phone.

The online site web.com, which helps small businesses design and market Web sites, uses a "chat online" icon as one of its site tools.

The growing interest in chat was also evident at the America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) Institute 2008 conference in San Francisco this past June, says Connextions, an Orlando, Fla.-based provider of technology-based business software for corporate and health-care organizations.

Connextions says major technology vendors, including Microsoft, presented their chat-based software to the nation's leading health-insurance companies during the event.

Businesses are able to reduce operating costs and improve the customer experience with chat, because the technology allows service reps to handle more than one customer simultaneously and provides customers with a detailed record of online text conversations, Connextions contends.

But chat isn't something that's widely used by health insurers serving upstate New York.

Elizabeth Martin, vice president of communications for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield's Central New York region, says her company isn't using any type of chat software.

UnitedHealthcare (UHC), a division of Minnetonka, Minn.-based Unitedhealth Group, Inc., doesn't use chat for customer-service inquiries, but does provide the option for plan members who may need to speak online to a nurse practitioner, says Mary McElrath-Jones, director of public relations for UHC.

McElrath-Jones says Connextions wasn't the vendor for the software the plan is currently using.

On the customer-service side, UHC is using a "sophisticated customer service technology" called behavioral analytics, says Brian Genalo, Upstate director for UnitedHealthcare, who works in the company's DeWitt office.

"It really assesses the qualitative content of every customer...