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When Cirruspath wanted to update its Cirrus Insight Gmail extension for Salesforce.com, it asked clients to draw it a picture. The result is what it calls a complete redesign that integrates lead tracking through Salesforce.com seamlessly into Gmail. First and foremost among the features in the new ...

INSIGHTS

Amazon Drops Its Fees

In a move that surprised me, Amazon last week announced that it was lowering its fees for on-demand infrastructure by as much as 80 percent. Should we be rejoicing, or is this a sign that something is amiss? Back around the turn of the century, something similar happened in at least two situations.

ClearSlide has already released several mobile apps targeting salespeople on the road, and recently it rolled out another key piece of its platform in mobile form. Dubbed "Connect," the new app for iOS gives users mobile access to marketing and sales collateral stored in the cloud, such as presentat...

Like everyone else with a pulse, Paul Rand, president and CEO of Zocalo Group, has noted the phenomenal growth of mobile advertising. Statistic after statistic confirms such observations, including the latest from the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which earlier this week reported that mobile adver...

OPINION

Stop Learning, Start Churning

Last year, I polled a group of respected CRM resellers to create a list spotlighting "forgotten features" -- tools and settings in CRM that many users overlook, even when they could bring great value to their businesses. Perhaps the most interesting forgotten feature was internal reporting. Most com...

If ever there was a case for conducting online customer surveys, Adam Lasky, global social media coordinator at Spreadshirt, has lived it. "A week after a customer makes a purchase on the Spreadshirt platform, we follow up with a customer review survey," Lasky said. That's how the company learned th...

INSIGHTS

Data, Information and Knowledge

I still see far too many examples of content confusing the ideas of data and information. Sometimes it seems a writer is simply trying to avoid being redundant when using data and information in the same sentence to mean the same thing. Of course, they are different, and the result is unnecessary co...

The issue of mobile privacy has been simmering for years, and it's long been apparent that there will be some movement at the government level sooner or later. This week, sooner would probably be the better guess -- especially if the European Commission is included. In the last few days, more allega...

BEST OF ECT NEWS

Getting Time on Your Mobile Ad's Side

There is a long-standing debate in the email marketing community about timing -- that is, whether time of day makes a difference in open and click-through rates. In other words, will an email marketing message sent early Monday morning be more likely to be opened than one sent Wednesday around noon ...

INSIGHTS

Who's the Customer? Deux-Dot-Oh

I think I have used this title before, but this is in a whole different context. Also, this is a short piece because I know you are likely out contributing to the leisure economy as you should be. This will be here when you get back. I couldn't help but make one more comment on the Oracle-Salesforce...

Microsoft on Tuesday morning unveiled the latest iteration of its Microsoft Dynamics CRM software complete with enhancements including Skype, Yammer and Lync integration as well as extended availability of MarketingPilot. Due for widespread release this fall, the software will also bring long-await...

It's no secret that online reviews play a key role in consumers' purchase decisions, but that's increasingly true for local brands as well, according to a report published Tuesday by BrightLocal. More and more, consumers are using the Internet to find local businesses, according to the company's Loc...

Some things in life are fleeting -- the lifespan on the mayfly, the appearance of a rainbow, the pure white of the first snow of winter. Some things in your CRM system are fleeting too -- namely, the quality of your data. Did you know that every year, somewhere between 25 percent and 40 percent of ...

This past May mobile app developers dodged a bullet when a California state court sided with Delta Airlines in a dispute over its mobile app. California's attorney general had sued Delta, alleging that the company violated the state's mobile privacy law, which requires a company to clearly state tha...

It's no secret that Salesforce.com has already inspired virtually countless ancillary products and services, including Thunderhead.com's ONE Correspond for Salesforce 2.0. Another example launched even more recently, however, is HP Relate, a cloud-based document management product that provides tool...

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