Stories by Paul Krill

Tale of two CRM strategies: Microsoft and AT&T

Although in agreement that implementation of an internal CRM strategy is no picnic, Microsoft Corp. and AT&T Corp. are diverging on which road to take. The telecom vendor is utilizing a single software vendor while Microsoft is adding Web services on top of applications from multiple providers.

Baan seeks united front on CRM

Baan Co. NV on Monday plans to unveil a CRM strategy, iBaan for CRM, that proposes users link existing Baan backend office applications with a new data analytics application.

E-tailers get low marks for customer service

Brick-and-mortar and online-only retailers struggled to quickly respond to customer service e-mails during the just-finished holiday season, according to research from Jupiter Media Metrix Inc. detailed on Thursday.

Jupiter: Customer service crucial for e-tailers

An overcrowded market, current economics, flat spending, and a yearning for suites instead of point solutions will contribute to consolidation in the CRM software industry, analyst reports detailed this week said.

Consolidation predicted for CRM market

An overcrowded market, current economics, flat spending, and a yearning for suites instead of point solutions will contribute to consolidation in the CRM software industry, analyst reports detailed this week said.

J.D Edwards integrates CRM, ERP packages

J.D. Edwards & Co. plans to detail a new version of its collaborative customer relationship management offering, CRM version 1.1, that links to the company's ERP applications.

IBM to make CRM outsourcing call

IBM Global Services on Wednesday plans to launch a hosted service for customer relationship management, with an offering intended to help enterprises get a CRM application up and running faster than an in-house deployment.

Companies partner on automation and compensation

Online customer relationship management and sales force automation vendor Salesforce.com and Callidus Software on Monday plan to detail an arrangement to link sales data to the Callidus enterprise information management system, with a goal of enabling enterprises to meet sales objectives.

FrontRange links GoldMine to Microsoft offering

FrontRange Solutions on Monday plans to announce GoldMine Business Contact Manager, a contact management system that features enhanced data integration with the Microsoft Corp. Outlook contact manager.

Blue Martini details CRM manufacturing offering

Blue Martini Software Inc. this week detailed Blue Martini Manufacturing, a suite of CRM (customer relationship management) applications that enables manufacturers to automate business processes and deploy customer and partner self-service portals.

ThinkFree readies MS-compatible office suite

ThinkFree.com Corp. on Monday plans to unveil ThinkFree Offfice 2.0, a server-based office productivity suite featuring Microsoft Office-compatible word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics programs.

CRM market projected at $13.5 billion

The market for CRM is expected to increase from US$13.5 billion in 2001 to roughly $27.8 billion in 2005, according to a report from Aberdeen Group Inc.

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