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NetSuite has introduced its own version of a development platform -- direct competition for the raft of initiatives and platforms Salesforce.com has designed to entice developers to its product line. The difference between them, according to NetSuite, is that it based its new platform on open standa...

Call center reps get a bad rap. They're expected to be constantly nice in the face of increasingly not-nice customer interactions, field the blunt of management's never-ending drive for increased performance, and solve every problem that randomly hits their line. It's no wonder the industry faces a ...

RightNow has updated its flagship SaaS CRM product with new agent desktop functionality, customer-tracking abilities, enhanced analytics and chat features. The new version, which it calls "February '08," also includes a contextual workspace -- that is, a user interface for contact center service rep...

The customer is always right -- except for, of course, when he or she isn't. When it's inconvenient for the company, or when the customer asks for something that could negatively affect the company's revenue streams or business model, the customer is never right -- even when he or she is. That's why...

Through a joint venture with the renowned Cleveland Clinic, Google is entering yet another software category: electronic personal health records. The two firms last week announced plans to develop a PHR pilot program that will test the secure exchange of patient medical record data -- such as prescr...

Empowering sales forces with tools to work remotely has evolved dramatically since the first wave of smartphones hit the streets. Sales reps have grown adept at basic applications such as e-mail and Web browsing, but often still wait for an end-of-day laptop session to access their CRM system. Still...

A new survey of European bank customers could prove useful to banks on this side of the pond. The Future of Communications in Retail Banking survey, conducted by Coleman Parkes and sponsored by Xerox, analyzed how retail banks communicate with their customers and presented an argument for more perso...

Oracle has introduced a new single-tenant option for its Siebel CRM customers. In contrast to the typical multitenant architecture, Siebel's Single Tenant, Enterprise Edition gives customers a path to connectivity via a fully dedicated database, middleware and application instance of Siebel CRM On D...

The dam has burst in regard to the demand for supply chain management services in the small business segment, according to recent Aberdeen research. The results of a December 2007 outsourcing survey of more than 300 organizations reveal that small businesses -- with annual revenues of $50 million or...

Earlier this month SugarCRM announced that it had secured $20 million in a new financing round, bringing its total funding so far to $46 million -- a significant accomplishment for several reasons. If SugarCRM is not familiar to you, it's not a new Caribbean restaurant in SoHo. I never bothered to f...

RightNow has enhanced its retail industry-specific app with chat and feedback functionality -- changes that give users more outreach options to customers using self-service channels. "With this app, retailers can incorporate feedback into chat," said Susan Meriwether, VP of product marketing, "to ma...

A frustrated Best Buy customer has filed a $54 million lawsuit against the electronics retailer in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Her complaint? Best Buy lost the laptop she had brought in for repair; the tech staff was evasive about its whereabouts; and the store refused to compens...

Even in a recession -- if in fact we've crossed that line -- there is still significant economic activity. For example, according to the most recent data I can find, the U.S. economy generated about $13.13 trillion in activity in 2006. That's also known as the "GDP" or gross domestic product. Absent...

"Opportunity computing" is a term that Danny Kolke, founder and CTO of Etelos, has coined -- or at least introduced into general use in the CRM community, thanks to his recent blog post, "Utility v. Opportunity." A partner recently asked Kolke about Etelos' move into the utility computing business.

Salesforce.com has released its Spring '08 update, building on the Content and Ideas modules that debuted in its Winter '07 edition and boosting standard customer relationship management functionality. The primary purpose of the Content and Ideas applications is to give users more tools to manage un...