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10/20/06 - Maintenance Fees on the Rise - Part IV
If you have not kept up with the column this week, please take a moment to read the three preceding columns. As promised, today I'll share a vendor's perspective on maintenance fees.
Consider this: "Some clients are very difficult to do business with and force higher fees on themselves. They are so disorganized that it takes ten meetings to accomplish something while for other organizations it only takes one. If you want fee negotiating power...don't threaten to leave. Consider how you can be a low maintenance customer. Respect goes a long way."
It would be nice to price maintenance fees on a usage basis to align costs and prices. Unfortunately, the industry model is more like insurance where everyone pays an average. Some will pay too much for what they get while others will pay too little. Is there anything that we can do to change that?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
(Share your thoughts)
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TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK (more)
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Microsoft announced it has acquired privately owned Colloquis, a provider of conversational online business solutions that feature natural language-processing technology. Microsoft will offer services based on Colloquis technology to businesses with online operations, as well as incorporating the technology into its own products.
Infra has announced infraEnterprise Version 8, a web-based solution that sets a standard in the IT Service Management industry with its advanced ITIL capabilities and ease of integration with third party technologies. The solution is independently verified to the highest level for ITIL compatibility across all processes (Incident, Problem, Change, Configuration, Release, Service Level and Availability Management).
SMBs have opportunities to use CRM to obtain the best value from their business at an exit, succession or transition according to a new Sage Software Business Minds survey conducted by Vanson Bourne. Having customer data in a single CRM system is a tangible asset according to 70 percent of respondents with such exit strategies. However, only 35 percent use a CRM solution to help advise on their business strategy. This problem is further accentuated by poor planning with 65 percent of SMBs not having or unsure about their exit strategy.
ClientLogic and SITEL announced that they have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, a newly formed subsidiary of ClientLogic will merge with SITEL and pay $4.05 per share in cash for all of the outstanding common stock of SITEL.
TeleTech Holdings announced the launch of its TeleTech@Home dispersed workforce solution, presently ramping with several Fortune 500 clients and expected to grow to 15% of TeleTech's current North American agent population by year-end 2007.
Tigerpaw Software announced the release of Tigerpaw CRM+ version 10.5. Company officials confirmed that the new version - including four new features - would be offered as a free upgrade for existing version 10 clients.
Jacada announced that Quelle.Contact Vertrieb GmbH, has signed an enterprise agreement with Jacada to help unify its customer service desktop to automate call center processes and deliver an "intelligent view" of customer data for their customer service representatives (CSRs).
Oracle announced the release of new functionality in PeopleSoft Cash Management 9, part of Oracle's PeopleSoft Enterprise Financial Management 9. The solution enables companies to manage enterprise-wide cash positions, perform automated bank reconciliation and process payments efficiently and securely.
eGain announced that Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank, part of one of the UK's major financial services groups, has selected eGain Service to improve the customer service it provides to its customers on a 24x7 basis.
etalk announced that they had received the highest overall customer satisfaction rating in a recent independent customer satisfaction survey of eight vendors in the call recording market.
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 Research Notes (more)
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 White Papers (more)
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Marketing Automation: The New Automation Frontier - Marketing, it's show time. Finance was automated in the 1960s, HR in the 1970s, manufacturing in the 1980s, and sales and customer service in the 1990s. This is the decade for marketing automation.(MarketingCentral)
|  | | Defining CEM - Wen Joe Wheeler and Shaun Smith wrote "Managing the Customer Experience - turning customers into advocates" in 2001, they did not realize that it would help to stimulate a worldwirde interest in CEM that is growing all the time. For example, a 2005 Forrester survey found that 83% of executives considered customer experience to be more important than in the previous year. This year the figure is even higher. The question is why has CEM become such an issue for organizations.(GCCRM)
| | | Contact Center Manager KPI Survival Guide - Contact center managers are confronted with volumes of data and dozens of reports generated by automated and manual systems and processes. They may have a surfeit of metrics, but lack the fundamental information needed to manage their operating environment. Too often contact centers have no way of systematically measuring and communicating how well internal and coprorate objectives are being met and identifying where change is required.(DMG Consulting)
| | | A Strategic Guide to Self-Service for the IT Help Desk - Self-service support can be a make-or-break proposition. A self-service strategy that is properly developed, tested, implemented, and managed over time can add remarkable business value through saved costs and improved employee productivity.(Pete McGarahan)
| | | Seven Actionable Tactics for Critical Contact Center Improvement - In this white paper, Tim Montgomery, founder of The Service Level Group and Certified Associate of the International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), shares a career worth of valuable research to help your organization take its contact center to a more customer-centric level.(etalk)
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EDP helps companies connect with customers - no question about it - There is a phrase called "The $64,000 Question." Derived from the 1950's TV show of the same name, people will use it when they want to indicate they are asking a critical question.(Streamserve)
| | | Data quality cleans up customer records at Intellidyn - A new data quality system lets the customer information repository match millions of records in just hours.(SearchCRM)
| | | US Medium Businesses to Spend US$1B on CRM Solutions This Year - US medium businesses will spend over $1 billion this year on customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, as they increasingly recognize the need to improve and extend their CRM capabilities. The US medium business market is still under-penetrated in terms of CRM adoption, with just 35% of these businesses currently using CRM solutions. However, MB spending on CRM is set to grow at a 9% CAGR over the next five years.(CRMToday)
| | | Internet Telephony: An Invaluable Asset - Contact centers have become the arteries of organizations, so before a disaster threatens or strikes, take effective measures to protect your centers and the services they provide.(CRMDaily)
| | | Saluting the Squawkers - Complaints Often Key to Improving Sales, Retention and Loyalty(Expressions of Excellence)
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 Case Studies (more)
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AFLAC Increases Efficiency With etalk - AFLAC purchased e-talk Recorder and etalk Advisor. The integrated system enables call center supervisors to set up automatic recording times based on a specialist's schedule, something that was impossible with the old completely manual system.(etalk)
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November 13th-14th, 2006: West Coast - MarketingSherpa Business-to-Business Demand Generation Summit - MarketingSherpa's B-to-B Demand Generation Summits 2006 - Network with 500 B-to-B marketers & discover their best demand generation tactics.
| | | October 22-24, 2006: Contact Center Summit Fall 2006 - The Contact Center Summit Fall 2006 is a unique event created specifically for senior contact center, call center and customer service executives across all major industry sectors. Over three days and two nights, the Summit provides several opportunities for you to interact with senior officers from Global 2000 corporations across North America.
| | | October 23-24th, 2006: East Coast - MarketingSherpa Business-to-Business Demand Generation Summit - MarketingSherpa's B-to-B Demand Generation Summits 2006 - Network with 500 B-to-B marketers & discover their best demand generation tactics.
| | | October 23rd-25th, 2006: ICCM Canada Conference & Exposition - The ICCM Canada Conference & Exposition has become the annual event for business leaders to network and share insights to make their organizations more effective, and for contact centre professionals to discuss the latest issues with people who share the same concerns, interests and ambitions. You will have the opportunity to ask questions, listen to new ideas, seek out-of-the-box solutions, and become part of a network community that will last long after you return to the office.
| | | October 30th - November 2nd: Developing & Marketing Telecoms To Business Customers - Through operator case studies and expert presentations, you will discover how to develop and market competitively priced, innovative and customised FMC, HSDPA and all IP converged services and solutions that effectively facilitate and enhance the operational processes of your business customers. The conference will also address how operators will have to evolve their organisations, especially the customer care and sales departments, in response to increasingly complex and personalised product and service portfolios.
| | November 1 - 2, 2006: Professional CRM Certificate Program - Get CRM Certified. Attend a fall seminar to receive a Certification in Applied CRM Strategy, based on Paul Greenberg's the best-selling book "CRM at the Speed of Light" and endorsed by Rutgers University Center for CRM Research, CRMGuru.com, the National CRM Association and GCCRM. 20% discount until September 30th.
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| CRMAdvocate Stock Index |
| CRMSI | 55.49 |  | -0.40% |
| Dow Jones | 12,002.37 | | -0.08% |
| Nasdaq | 2,342.30 | | -0.02% |
| S&P 500 | 1,368.60 |  | 0.14% |
| Top Gainers |
| Oracle | 18.98 | | 0.52 |
| Tekelec | 15.04 | | 0.47 |
| Amdocs | 40.08 | | 0.32 |
| Top Losers |
| Interact Intell | 15.83 | | -1.10 |
| SAP | 49.49 | | -0.92 |
| eLoyalty | 17.69 | | -0.56 |
| Complete Stock Index |
| As of close 10/19/06 | |
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