 OUR TAKE -
CRM's Three Legged Stool
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| Lasting Impressions:
A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
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Grace Murray Hopper
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I received many questions regarding my comments on the people, process, and technology comments in yesterday's column. So of the most common ones are: 1) What do you feel is the most important of the three? 2) Which one should I start with? 3) Which one has the most impact (ROI)?
As you might expect, there is not a standard answer for any of those questions. Indeed, it is the proverbial "it depends." And unfortunately, the list of variables is too extensive to dialog in this column. The answers can be completely different for different business situations.
But another common response was not to ignore the technology side and that technology cannot be absent. As a general rule, this isn't about two out of three. All three are necessary. Sorry, there is no easy way around that. One reader suggested thinking of it as a three legged stool that is of no use without all three legs of equal importance.
That's my take. What's your take?
Gary Lemke, Publisher
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| Stock Ticker |
| Rainmaker | 1.01 |  | 0.1 |
| CDC | 0.81 | | 0.08 |
| Vignette | 7.61 | | 0.6 |
| eLoyalty | 3.31 | | 0.21 |
| Interactive | 6.99 | | 0.39 |
| NetSuite | 7.06 | | 0.3 |
| NICE | 19.13 | | 0.72 |
| APAC | 1.48 | | 0.05 |
| ATG | 1.85 | | 0.06 |
| RightNow | 6.83 | | 0.19 |
| Epicor | 3.62 | | 0.07 |
| Chordiant | 2.9 | | 0.05 |
| Amdocs | 17.68 | | 0.2 |
| Tekelc | 12.9 | | 0.12 |
| Oracle | 17.21 | | 0.16 |
| NCR | 12.23 | | 0.09 |
| Convergys | 7.72 | | 0.04 |
| LivePerson | 2 | | 0 |
| ICT | 4.48 | | 0 |
| HP | 36.03 |  | -0.07 |
| SPSS | 26.38 | | -0.25 |
| SAP | 36.16 | | -0.38 |
| Astea | 2.7 | | -0.03 |
| Sykes | 16.23 | | -0.18 |
| ClickSoftware | 2.32 | | -0.03 |
| Pegasystems | 13.93 | | -0.3 |
| Salesforce | 29.33 | | -0.67 |
| Unica | 4.55 | | -0.11 |
| Teletech | 7.59 | | -0.25 |
| SupportSoft | 1.86 | | -0.09 |
| Selectica | 0.48 | | -0.21 |
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As of 3:38 p.m. on 2/4/09 |
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