Articles by Maria Verlengia

This story was originally published on July 28, 2009, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. In the past, businesses typically used lists of leads in a type of marketing strategy that Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, refers to as "interruption marketing." The goal was to get in front of a potential custome...

This story was originally published on Oct. 2, 2009, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Many small businesses fail to fully utilize automated time-reporting tools or shy away from them altogether.

Small businesses frequently rely on a haphazard assortment of tools to manage their CRM processes, such as email, contact managers and spreadsheets. However, such methods are usually not sustainable or scalable. "Their customer data ends up fragmented across 10 different applications and physical locations," Dmitri Eroshenko, CEO of Relenta, told...

Many small businesses fail to fully utilize automated time-reporting tools or shy away from them altogether. However, once a business starts to reach about 30 staff members, time reporting helps them understand costs, improve efficiency, and focus on the right areas, Journyx CEO Curt Finch told CRM Buyer. It helps them track how much is spent on e...

One business sector weathering the current economic downturn is that of business intelligence (BI). In fact, Hans Hultgren, director of the Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence program at Daniels College of Business, told CRM Buyer that business intelligence is growing and will continue to do so "The industry has not been impacted as much by ...

In the past, businesses typically used lists of leads in a type of marketing strategy that Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid, refers to as "interruption marketing." The goal was to get in front of a potential customer, book an appointment, and sell the product However, that model is changing into "permission marketing," Port said, a term...

In the past, companies with tight budgets frequently turned to outsourcing during tough financial times. The current global recession, however, has curtailed outsourcing as much as it has other parts of the economy "Oddly enough, the global recession has hurt outsourcing significantly," said Chad Hahn, principal owner of Hahn Consulting and CEO of ...

Sarah Betesh's career in customer service began in box office call centers at venues such as the Walnut Street Theater in Philadelphia. She moved on to Tickets.com and Vertical Alliance, at one point becoming a call center manager. However, in spite of her success, Betesh left her call center career behind in 2003. She now teaches autistic childre...