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Monday, November 21, 2011

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     OUR TAKE -  Place Your Bet

 

Last week I asked you to help me find the smackdown among the Oracle acquisition of RightNow (read Forbes' Oracle Aims To Smack Salesforce.com With RightNow ). Many in the great CRMAdvocate reader nation affirmed my position that we are not likely to see Salesforce affected in any meaningful way.
 
In fact, not a single person offered a rationale about why such a merger would create the smackdown intimated in the Forbes position.
 
Both Oracle and RightNow had CRM solutions before. Both Oracle and RightNow already have a cloud story in play. The news is about two brands and two products coming under one roof. Rather than a smackdown, this is a story about aggregating market share and product line reconciliation. It's not about creating a Salesforce.com killer.
 
That's my take today. The great thing about offering a take on the future is that we get to come back in a year to see if we were right. How do you bet? What's your take?
 
    .   .   .   .   . Gary Lemke, Chief Customer Advocate    

 
Share CRMAdvocate's Take
   


Recent Editions of CRMAdvocate


11.18.11    Service Recovery with a Smile
11.17.11    Where's the Smackdown?
11.15.11    Chatting Up Chat
11.11.11    Be "All On" Today
11.10.11    Open Sesame (Says Me)
11.09.11    Unintended Consequences


 
Lasting Impressions:
The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit. - Milton Friedman
 
 

  Required Reading - CRM News and Articles

 
noHold and Motorola Mobility Offer Support Tool for Comcast
The Motorola Modem Virtual Assistant can be used through the AskComcast Virtual Assistant at Comcast.com which is made possible through Confederated Knowledge (CK). CK is a patented feature that allows one Virtual Assistant to leverage the knowledge of other Virtual Assistants. When third party products or services are not supported, CK works like a live agent and passes the conversation to an alternate Virtual Assistant. The end result is a reduction in customers who escalate to the call center about third party products.    . . . more >>

 
Veolia Environmental Services Taps HelpSTAR for IT Support
Veolia Environmental Services North America, Corp. (VESNA) is automating its service requests and support across multiple departments through HelpSTAR¹s service desk software. Veolia first integrated HelpSTAR¹s helpdesk solution in 1999 to log and track service requests and IT support. The deployment of HelpSTAR developed a widespread demand in other departments, including Human Resources, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable. Now, Veolia's staff has access to one another¹s trouble-shooting solutions through an interactive knowledgebase tied into the call management system they share, enabling each staff member to handle a wider variety of issues.   . . . more >>

 
DoubleDutch Offers Freemium Version of Mobile CRM App
DoubleDutch, a provider of cloud-based, geo-social applications, announced a Freemium self-serve version of its flagship HYVE Sales product, a mobile Customer Relationship Management (mCRM) app that leverages game mechanics, location-based technology and social functionality to increase employee engagement and promote a more rapid and successful sales cycle. HYVE Sales is built from the ground up for mobile and with an inherently social-driven usability model. The end result is employee engagement numbers that look more like something you would find with Facebook or Twitter, than those of an enterprise system of record.    . . . more >>

 
VirtuOz Enables Creation of Digital Customer Relationships
VirtuOz announced the availability of its marketing and sales IVAs enabling companies to create digital customer relationships and to engage with today’s online consumer across all transactions. In addition, VirtuOz revealed Chloe, the company’s new virtual agent for online marketing. Using VirtuOz’ cloud-based solution and best practices, Chloe not only answers questions about the virtual agent market, the company, its products, services, and customers, she also represents VirtuOz’ brand. She is designed to address the needs of prospective customers, partners, investors, and even job applicants and will serve as a showcase for virtual agent best practices as she continues to learn.    . . . more >>

 
Jacada Announces Version Release of Its WorkSpace Agent Desktop
Jacada announced the release of an enhanced version of its flagship unified desktop solution, Jacada WorkSpace Agent Desktop 6.0. As a part of this release, call center leaders will have access to Dynamic Views, a user interface delivery model that empowers them to own and control user interface (UI) delivery, define call flow processes, and handle UI changes with ease, delivering the optimal agent desktop experience.   With Jacada WorkSpace, contact centers are able to integrate vital applications and multiple channels of communications with the customer into a single, optimized view.    . . . more >>

 
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