OUR TAKE -  The Trend Against Secrecy     Recent Editions of CRMAdvocate 06.08.09    Transparency in Context 06.05.09    A Day Late on Transparency 06.04.09    Speaking of Transparency 06.03.09    A Marketing Opportunity or a PR Challenge 06.02.09    A Call for Transparency 06.01.09    A Good Shirt or a Good Story     Lasting Impressions: If you don't read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed. - Mark Twain If you have been reading this column for the last few weeks, you have most likely sensed my passion for the idea of a transparency policy. My guess is many readers still wonder if I am trying to make this more important than it really is.   You may be asking, why now? What has changed to make a transparency policy relevant, let alone necessary? I believe the long running trend for information to be freely and widely accessible has set new standards of openness. As the "information age" matures, higher expectations have emerged. And not having one means your business could end up on the wrong side of transparency expectations.   Here's the litmus test: Is there something that once brought to light would be impossible to justify? My take is anyone who refuses to play by the new rules of transparency is presumed guilty of having something to hide. (See A Day Late on Transparency.) Yes, it stinks. But it is the new reality.   Delay now and you may be putting your "transparency equity" at risk. That's my take. Do you agree? What's your take?   Gary Lemke, Publisher          Action Center         Free Subscription         Submit Content         Industry Events         Webcasts         Archive   Stock Ticker RightNow 10.47      0.99 Rainmaker 1.65      0.15 ATG 3.62      0.29 eLoyalty 8.5      0.5 CDC 1.56      0.07 NCR 12.78      0.51 NICE 23.68      0.78 APAC 5.65      0.17 LivePerson 3.35      0.1 NetSuite 11.28      0.3 ClickSoftware 4.78      0.12 Salesforce 39.58      0.87 Unica 4.61      0.1 Jacada 2.24      0.04 Tekelc 17.29      0.27 Vignette 12.85      0.14 Teletech 13.86      0.15 Pegasystems 26.56      0.26 Sykes 17.3      0.16 SPSS 34.09      0.27 SAP 42.82      0.27 Oracle 20.99      0.12 SupportSoft 2.36      0.01 Selectica 0.4      0 Astea 2.37      0 Amdocs 21.71      -0.04 Interactive 13.16      -0.06 Epicor 5.51      -0.03 Chordiant 3.87      -0.04 Convergys 9.55      -0.12 HP 36.84      -0.57 ICT 8.48      -0.31 As of 4:00 p.m. on 6/9/09         NEW IN CRM   News:    Avaya Announces New Initiatives for Mid-Size Contact Centers Avaya announced new initiatives related to its flagship contact center solution for mid-size businesses – Avaya Contact Center Express – that enable organizations to deploy the customer service capabilities of larger businesses in a simplified, integrated and more cost-effective way. Avaya also released Avaya Contact Center Express 4.0, the latest version of its mid-market contact center solution. This new release provides users with a host of multimedia, reporting and self-service capabilities designed to enhance customer service and agent productivity for mid-size companies or divisions of large organizations.(Avaya )   Article:    How to be a Responsible Marketer Marketers often have to fight their corner againt the stereotypical image of being a cost drain - preoccupied with making products look nice and pushing them out as fast as possible, in any way they can. But the CIM's Mark Stuart also argues that responsible marketing is not a niche or a segment to be pursued; it’s just good marketing.(MyCustomer )       News:    Toyota France Uses Pivotal CRM for Managing Sales CDC Software announced that TOYOTA France has implemented Pivotal CRM at its nearly 300 reseller sites. The car manufacturer operates in France via a distribution network of more than 200 partners and 300 resellers for its Toyota and Lexus brands. With that scope of operations, TOYOTA France needed an information system that allowed a streamlining of the sales process and the organization of the direct marketing activities. The main goal was to create a single sales activities desk (Bureau d’Activité Commercial) for managing the entire customer relationship chain with a simple, user-friendly tool that interfaced with existing systems. (CDC Software )   Article:    Stop Promising - It's Execution Time When encountering corporate slogans try this little exercise. Approach employees of these companies either in their retail outlets or through the call centers and ask them what this slogan means to them. When encountered with my question, the employees are usually confused and embarrassed. They go through a mental dance of trying to explain what they think it means. Their attempts only reinforce that this slogan was not internalized by them. They do not live it. They in fact hardly understand it. If your employees do not understand the latest slogans, let alone believe and live them, then you failed the first credibility test. (CustomerThink )   News:    TreeHouse Interactive Adds Social Media Integration TreeHouse Interactive is making available new social media integration for its demand generation solution, Marketing View. The new functionality, called Talk It UpTM, enables customers to capture fresh interest beyond their existing databases and create opportunities for both future targeting and nurturing campaigns. Talk It UpTM features include the ability to share any email promotion or landing page via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social media. To share the link to the landing page or online version of email, users add a token to the form or email via a mouse click. (TreeHouse )   Didn't read the last edition of CRMAdvocate? Click here to see what you missed.

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