The Center for Business Intelligence Education

Data Recovery And Data Loss - A Costly Proposition

2009-01-30T03:03:00.000-08:00

Author: Frank Owen

Data Loss and Business Solvency

Many companies are not able to survive a major data crash. For that reason it is critical you do everything possible to prevent significant data loss when working from a PC. There are a number of precautions you can take to limit your risk of data loss or the nee for data recovery.

Taking precautions will help establish your firm's solvency and legitimacy. You can establish more trust and better business relationships when customers know you protect your data using tried and tested methods. The best way to protect your business data is by backing it up, whether using an outside agency, to disk or to a server.

Recovering Lost Data

Of course if despite your best precautions you find that you still face a data loss problem, its best you find a data recovery specialist to work with. Tinkering too much on your own may result in bigger problems and greater losses than you might have initially incurred. Fortunately there are plenty of data recovery specialists that have worked even under the most dire situations that often are capable of recovering most if not all of a users data in the event of a serious mishap. To ensure the best success you should shop around for a provider with a lot of experience particularly with the situation you are experiencing and one capable of providing you with substantial references. This way you'll make sure you are charged a fair and honest price and get what you pay for.

About the author: Article by Frank Owen, visit his web site for more information on data recovery http://www.datarecoveryinsiders.com

Data Recovery - The Best Method Is Prevention

2009-01-29T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Frank Owen

An Act of Prevention

The best way to protect your data is to prevent problems from happening. Data recovery usually isn't necessary or at least not complicated at all if you properly back your system up religiously.

That said sometimes computers fail. There are usually warning signs involved before a system crashes. Some classic signs may include strange sounds, popping, frequent crashing, virus attacks or similar problems. Most of the time information lost through a temporary crash is salvageable. You will probably however have to hire a data recovery specialist if a crisis occurs to your computer.

Using Computers Safely

One way to prevent a computer crash and the subsequent need for data recovery is by taking good care of your workstation. Consider your computer not just a source of recreation or education but a lifeline to the outside world. People have increasingly become reliant on computers to handle just about everything, thus when a computer crashes a major crisis occurs.

Fortunately with regular or routine maintenance you may be able to avoid a crash altogether. This includes supplying updated virus protection software and ad ware software that removes potentially damaging programs from your computer. Then of course there is the obvious. You should keep your system away from liquids, food and overly hot conditions. You should clean your keyboard on occasion and make sure you plug your computer into a surge protected outline. You should also periodically free up disk space and clean your computer to make sure it is running optimally. These small steps can help reduce the risk you will lose data in an unexpected crash.

About the author: Article by Frank Owen, visit his web site for more information on data recovery http://www.datarecoveryinsiders.com

Before You Take the Plunge: Essential Information on Data Recovery

2009-01-28T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Alex Bezborodov

Know what you're dealing with

The world of data recovery is a big mystery for most consumers and even some IT professionals. This is largely because hard drives themselves are complex devices and their technological specifics are not generally well known. Data recovery companies thrive on their customers' lack of information and often get away with charging obscene rates for any recovery, regardless of complexity. I hope this article will be a helpful resource for consumers and professionals alike. I provide some basic information about data recovery by shedding some light on how hard drives work, how they can fail, what are the chances of successful recovery and how much the user can expect to pay. This information will enable the user to make an informed decision when choosing a data recovery company.

A bit about Hard Drives

A computer hard drive stores data on metal oxide platters which spin up to 10000 revolutions per minute. An actuator arm contains the ' head ' which reads and writes the data in the form of magnetic charges one millionth of an inch above the surface. Any given drive can have multiple read and write heads and each head can 'crash' independently. A head crash occurs when the read/write head comes in contact with the platters of the disk (more on head crashes below). As manufacturers strive to cram more space on hard drives without increasing their physical size, the data gets written increasingly closer together, making for very difficult recovery should one or more heads crash. The brain of the hard drive is its controller board and this is unique for each individual hard drive. One other detail worth a mention is the service track of a hard drive. This is an area located on the outer part of the disk platter and it contains the drive's firmware zone. The firmware of a hard drive is the information used by the computer to communicate correctly with the drive. These are the main components that make a hard drive work, now let's talk about what can go wrong.

There are many ways in which a hard disk can fail

Hard drives are extremely fragile and can suffer failures in many different ways, leading to a loss of data. The five most common types of drive failures are: logical errors, mechanical failure, electronic failure, firmware corruption, and bad sectors, or any combination these. Least severe of these is usually data loss due to logical errors.

Logical errors are often the simplest and sometimes the most difficult problems to deal with when recovering data. They can range from an invalid entry in a file allocation table, a simple problem that needs little work; to severe issues such as the corruption or loss of the entire file system. Logical errors can be spotted when files become inaccessible, there is a delay in starting up the computer, and programs do not run properly . Logical errors are often seen as simple because there is nothing wrong with the physical drive leading users to try recovering it themselves by using third party software. This is quite risky, however, as running such software on a damaged drive can result in total loss of data. The most effective way to prevent logical errors on your hard drive is to regularly use the Disk Defragmentation tool in your operating system. For more comprehensive information on preventing data loss, visit the tips section of our website.

Recovering a drive with logical errors can be simple and quick , however if the problem requires manual bit-by-bit reconstruction of the data, it can also be quite complex and time consuming. Normally, logical errors are in the lower end of the price range as they do not require manual disassembly of the drive, however there are cases when logical failures end up in the higher end of the price range. The bottom line with logical errors is the sooner they are caught and the less a user tampers with the drive, the better the chances for a quick and thorough recovery.

Mechanical failures are often much more serious than any other failure and frequently lead to a partial or even total loss of data. The most common type of mechanical failure is a head crash, which is when the read/write head comes in contact with the disk platter. Head crashes can be caused by a variety of reasons, including physical shock, static electricity, power surges, and mechanical read/write failure. Mechanical failures are detected by a constant clicking or grinding noise coming from the drive . If you suspect mechanical failure, you must immediately shut down your computer and call a data recovery company for advice.

Mechanical failures are usually the most severe and most challenging to recover from . All mechanical failures require physical disassembly of the drive. The replacement of a read/write head is one of the most complex and costly procedures that can be performed by a data recovery engineer, especially with larger capacity drives. The chances of recovery depend entirely on how much damage the drive has sustained, however they can be quite good. A crashed head does not mean that all your data is lost! Once again, the sooner you catch a mechanical problem and turn off your drive, the more of your precious data is likely to be rescued.

Electronic failures are most common after a power surge or due to some other electric problem, and the most common type is control board failure. A power surge can knock out the control board, making the drive undetectable in the BIOS. Because each drive is fitted with a unique control board, recovery of this type is relatively complex. However, the good news is that normally once the control board issue is fixed, the data is usually 100% recoverable.

Recovering a drive that has suffered from an electronic failure can be time consuming, mainly because the specific problem takes some time to diagnose. Once diagnosed, though, the recovery is usually not tremendously complex and would probably land in the mid-range in terms of price. Most of the time, we are able to achieve a 100% recovery from drives that have suffered an electronic failure.

Firmware corruption is caused by logical problems or physical damage to the firmware zone on the disk platter. When the firmware becomes corrupt, the computer is often unable to properly communicate with the hard drive, and drive is not recognized in the BIOS. Fortunately, when the drive fails due to firmware corruption, the data is usually fully recoverable once the drive has been repaired.

Recovering a drive that has suffered from Firmware corruption is possible with the use of our proprietary technology. Because the firmware information is isolated on the outer rim of the disk, most of the data can be recovered successfully. The complexity of recovering a drive that has suffered from firmware corruption depends on the amount of damage suffered by the service track on the disk's platter. Expect the cost of this type of recovery to be in the mid- to high-price range.

Bad sectors are a common fate of all hard drives .

Eventually, all drives develop areas that are no longer functional and when this happens, they are isolated by the operating system. Bad sectors are very much like bumps in the road, areas which are avoided by the read/write head and which are no longer accessible to the user. If mission critical data exists on the drive, we recommend to backup as soon as possible, as the formation of bad sectors often indicates the impending demise of the drive. Finally, and most importantly, do NOT under any circumstances run the ScanDisk or Chckdisk utilities when data becomes inaccessible. These utilities are designed to fix only file system errors and not any other types of errors, so if your hard drive has suffered from bad sectors, these utilities only make things worse.

Bad sectors are accessible

We are able to recover drives with bad sectors using our proprietary mirroring technology. The process often involves manual mirroring bit-by-bit, which can be time consuming. The price of this type of recovery will generally be in the mid-range of the pricing schedule.

I hope the above explanations are of some use to all computer users. The basic fact is that data loss happens to everyone. Every hard drive crashes, and often when you least expect it to. Backup is essential for end-users and business users alike, and there are many excellent ways to back up your data. But if you've lost data, attempt to understand the problem before calling a data recovery company. Be informed, save your money, get your data back.

About the author: Alex Bezborodov is the technical writer for Accurate Data Recovery . Let ADR bring your data back to life!

Data Recovery Made Easy

2009-01-27T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Emil Malmberg

Today millions of people all around the world depend on their computers for their daily work, and while modern computers are fairly reliable millions of dollars are lost every year due to technical problems and loss of data. If you spend more than a few hours per month in front of your computer you probably have some important documents and emails somewhere on your harddrive. In fact, many computers users have the result of hundreds of hours of hard work stored on their harddrives. What most people do not realize though, is that computers and harddrives is not a very secure place to store important information. A virus attack, disk crash or even a human error can easily wipe out irreplaceable files or your entire harddrive. While it is possible, although very expensive, to recover information from a crashed or erased harddrive, there is only one simple way to protect your files, emails and other data from crashes and technical disasters. Save backups on CDs, DVDs or some other secure media and update your backups daily! If you have an up to date backup, expensive and complicated data recovery procedures are no longer necessary.

Creating Backups the Easy Way When creating backups, it is important that you update you backups often or they will not be very useful. To accomplish this I strongly recommend that you use a backup software with built-in scheduling. If your backup software can write your backups directly to a CD or DVD, that's even better. WinBackup is a new backup solution from LIUtilities that makes it very easy to schedule backups of files, documents and emails. WinBackup can update your backups automatically on a daily basis. Since WinBackup also includes fully automatic CD/DVD burning you can even leave your backup DVD disc in the DVD writer all the time and it will automatically be updated every day (or night). WinBackup can also encrypt and compress your backups on-the-fly. By compressing your backups you can often store over 1 GB on a single CD or 10GB on a DVD. Encryption ensures that no one else will be able to access your backups, which may contain sensitive information or documents. WinBackup also lets you backup file from other computers on the network and you can store your backups on server any where on the network. If you are using 256-bit encryption you can even store your backups online without compromising security. Creating backups of important files, emails and documents on a regular basis is simply the cheapest and most efficient way to recover your data after a crash.

About the author: Software developer for LIUtilities ( www.liutilities.com )

The Essential Data Recovery Report

2009-01-26T03:03:00.000-08:00

Author: Greg Duffield

Your worst nightmare just became a horrifying reality. You keep hearing that little voice in your head mockingly shout "you should have backed that stuff up" The voice keeps echoing throughout your head as you perform a quick inventory all of the important information that you just lost…..your client database, a years worth of e-mail, your entire inventory database, even your family photos. Even worse, you've got a deposition in two-weeks and key information needed to help win the case were also lost. You quickly call a service technician and have them come over to check the computer out, only to hear the worst news of all….your data has been lost. When a hard drive crashes, it's too late to worry about what you "should have done."

Today data recovery is a multi-million dollar industry. The number of data recovery firms out there seems to exceed the number of fast food restaurants for the entire planet. These companies specialize in helping their clients retrieve data on anything from hard drives to flash-roms. In the following report, we will discuss what data recovery really is; the different types, the costs, and what you can realistically expect when it comes to getting your data recovered.

What To Do In The Event Of Data Loss? Around 44% of all data loss is caused by hardware failure. It's important to make sure that you immediately shut your system down if you suspect that hard drive has crashed. Don't even try to go through the shutdown procedure, just pull the plug from the wall. Do not try to run off the shelf data recovery software or drive utilities. Many times these applications will assume the drive is functioning properly and will increase the risk of permanent data loss.

Types Of Hard Drive Failure

When we discuss data recovery in this report, we will primarily focus on issues surrounding hard drive failures; since these types of failures are most common. There are really two primary forms of failure in a hard drive, logical and physical. Logical failures are usually a result of file-system corruption. This can occur due to a virus, accidental deletion of key files or registry components, and in some cases even electro-static discharge. In most cases where a logical failure has occurred, the drive is still recognized by the system BIOS, but it will not boot. In most cases, your data should still be intact on the drive, even though it may appear to be inaccessible. If the system BIOS does not detect the presence of the hard drive, then chances are a physical failure has occurred. Physical failures can result from a wide variety of causes. There are really two sub-categories for physical hard drive failures; mechanical and electronic. Mechanical failures usually result from a failure of the spindle motor. Spindle motor failure can result from excessive heat due to a bearing failure. The increased heat resulting from the bearing failure will expand the drive shaft and therefore seize the spindle motor. Suddenly, your drive will become inoperative. Occasionally, you will get a warning that something bad is about to happen. You may hear a loud whining, a grinding noise, even high-pitched screeches. If anything like this starts to occur, BACK UP YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY. Another physical issue that sometimes rears its ugly head is an electronic failure. If you look at a hard drive you will notice a circuit board on the bottom. This board is basically the brains of the drive, and it is where the computer interfaces to the hard drive. An electrical failure can occur unexpectedly at any time. Even brand new hard drives are not totally immune to having electrical failures. Sometimes it's just a faulty component, sometimes it's improper installation (i.e. electro-static discharge, grounding out the board, damaging circuitry during installation). It's important to also keep your system clean and well ventilated, since excessive heat can damage the electrical components on the drive. If you have a system that is in a somewhat contained area, you may look at adding an additional 80mm fan to cool the internal components of the system, especially the hard drive. No other component of a computer works as much as the hard drive, and therefore it is vitally important not to overlook it when cooling issues arise.

How Is My Data Recovered?

One of the most often asked questions that customers ask is, "how do you get my data back?" Well, it's really not black magic or rocket science. It's just a matter of having the right tools and the knowledge necessary to know what to do, much like a surgeon performing heart by-pass surgery. Many prominent data recovery facilities have a large array of hardware, software and tools for recovering data.

Generally speaking when a hard drive is received by a data recovery firm, the first thing they do is evaluate it, and determine what recovery solution will be necessary. If the drive failure is a logical issue as mentioned earlier, then a scan of the drive will be performed to try and repair the file system corruption. Sometimes a partition can be repaired and the drive restored to the status that it was before the failure. If this is not possible, then a very low-level scan will be performed that essentially searches every sector of the hard drive for files. Once the files are located, they can then be copied to the media of choice, i.e. a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or another hard drive. Logical recoveries can take up an enormous amount of time, especially if the drive is on the verge of physical failure. It's not uncommon to allow for one day of scanning and a day for recovering the found files.

If the drive has suffered a physical failure, then the recovery procedure is quite a bit more challenging. As mentioned above, there are really two sub-categories of physical failure; mechanical and electronic. An important element in recovering data from a physical failure is having the necessary parts to get the drive functioning again. Unfortunately with hard drives if you have a 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for example, then you will need another identical 20GB Maxtor Hard Drive for salvaging parts. In cases where the electronic circuit board has failed on the hard drive, then you have to have the exact same circuit board on hand in order to retrieve the necessary circuit components for replacement. Many times you cannot even exchange circuit board for circuit board. These repairs generally require soldering skills and a thorough knowledge of electronics to be successfully completed. You will most likely hear "Class100 Clean Room" thrown around a lot when talking to data recovery professionals. Simply stated, a Class100 Clean Room maintains exceptional air purity, and contains less than 100 airborne particles larger than 0.5 microns in each cubic foot of air. This is vital in protecting sensitive internal components of hard drives. Anytime a hard drive is having an invasive procedure performed on it, a Class100 clean room or better is needed.

The time frame for recovery is generally 5-10 business days for physical issues and 2-4 days for logical issues. Sometimes if components are not readily available, then it may take weeks to complete the recovery. Some firms offer expedite service and you definitely pay for this added attention.

What About Data Recovery Software

This is one area where you really do get what you pay for. Try to stay away from software in the $20-$60 range, since these utilities are generally very limited in what they can do. Also make sure that you NEVER and just to emphasize, NEVER EVER get data recovery software that writes anything at all to the damaged disk. You run the risk of overwriting data that may otherwise have been recoverable, but will be lost forever. If you are fairly computer savvy, then there are a few good data recovery software solutions available.

What To Look For When Shopping For Data Recovery

There's an old saying, "you get what you pay for." In most cases this is true. However, just because a company with a fancy website quotes you $3,500 for data recovery, does not mean that they are any better than a company that quotes you $1,500. Also, try to stay away from companies that want to charge $50-$300 for evaluating your drive. There has been a movement in the data recovery industry over the last couple of years to offer a number of free services. Most reputable data recovery companies will evaluate standard IDE drives free of charge; so don't let the word "free" this or "free" that stop you. The data recovery market is quickly becoming saturated, and a company does not necessarily cheapen itself or lack expertise by offering free evaluations.

You will find as you shop around for data recovery that prices vary greatly. You will get quotes that range from $300 to $5,000 for standard hard drive recoveries. It's not uncommon to literally get quotes that have at least a $1,500 high/low spread. We shopped one prominent data recovery company where we gave them specific indicators of a physical hard drive failure. We were eventually quoted a price range of $600 to $2,900 for the recovery. Many times this is a bait and switch type tactic. They get you to send in the drive with the low-end $600 price, then they let you know it's going to cost $2,100 for the recovery. You end up being well under the $2,900 high-end price, but well over what other reputable companies would charge. Since most customers won't go through the pain of having the drive sent back, only to have to send it out to another company, these bait and switch companies end up making huge profits off of unsuspecting customers. Try to find a company that will give you an up front cost for either a logical or physical recovery. Most companies will be able to tell you within a couple hundred dollars the cost of a recovery. However, don't misunderstand a company that gives you a price for two different procedures. For example, some companies will give you a price if the failure is logical and a price if the problem ends up being physical. We called one firm and were told that if the drive had a logical failure the price would be $400 and if it ended up being a physical issue the price would be $1,600. This is not a high/low spread as mentioned in the earlier example, this is simply quoting a price for two different types of recoveries.

On average you can expect to pay anywhere from $400 to $600 for logical recoveries, and $1,200 to $2,000 for physical recoveries on standard IDE hard drives. If you have RAID drives, SCSI, etc. depending on the configuration prices can be as high as $15,000. Remember, backup backup backup backup backup!!

Can My Data Be Recovered?

In most cases the answer to this question is yes. On average, the success rate for data recovery professionals is about 75-85%. However, there are times when the data is just lost, either due to extensive damage to the platter or unavailability of replacement parts. How Do I Get Started?

If you have a hard drive that has crashed, the most important thing you can do is contact a data recovery professional immediately. Make sure you aren't being charged an evaluation fee if you have a standard IDE hard drive. Most companies only charge evaluation fees for complex RAID and network server drives.

It is important to do your homework, call and talk with the companies. When you find one that you feel comfortable with, give them a chance. Your hardest job, may be finding data recovery firms that actually have someone available to answer the phones. Ask questions and be sure to have the following information available:

· Size of the drive · Operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows XP, etc.) · Situation of failure (what happened just before the drive stopped working) · Is the drive recognized by the computer or not

Good luck in getting your data recovered, and make sure you always backup your important information on a daily basis.

About the author: Greg Duffield is the founder of ACS Data Recovery, a premier provider of data recovery services. You can visit them on the web at www.acsdata.com or call toll-free 1-877-646-0546.

The Best Data Recovery Choice For You

2009-01-25T03:03:00.000-08:00

Author: John Simpson

The best defense against a loss of data is a really solid and faithful backup routine of important files to reliable media. It's also a good idea for the media to be removable and portable if possible so that even if something happens to your whole computer for any reason, the data is protected by being in a totally different physical area.

OK, so that is the best solution to data loss. But what if you have not been backing up your drive like you should and now you find yourself confronted with the daunting task of getting all the important files back that were on your computer before the emergency happened? (By the way, you can take some comfort in knowing that quite a few people find themselves in this situation. You are not alone.) What are your choices at this point?

Well, basically there are two ways of recovering data from a damaged disk, either by using a data recovery service or a data recovery software package. Either can do the job, but there are some factors that should go into your decision about which one to use. First, are you pretty computer savvy? If you are then maybe data recovery software will work for you. If not, do not try this method at all. The other is how much time do you have to spend on retrieving this data? If you have lots of time to put into it, then consider doing the job yourself with a reputable software package. If you don't have much time to devote to this endeavor, don't waste both time and money with the software option.

If you have decided upon using a data recovery service, you should know that the odds are that you will get a good portion, if not all of your data back. The generally accepted success rate in the industry is around 80%. Much of the success will depend on the skill and determination of the data recovery specialist who will be working on your drive. They all have sophisticated software tools to work with, but data recovery is not as simple as just plugging in a piece of software, walking away and coming back when it has found all the files. It often requires a specialist who is a bit of a detective, andnot easily discouraged, to get back a good portion of data, especially on drives with physical damage.

Don't be surprised to get two quotes for data recovery from some companies either. One for logical data retrieval that is much easier to handle and will be a much lower figure, and one for physical damage which is far more challenging and therefore rightly costs more. You will also find that cost quotes will often vary considerably. It is usually best to choose somewhere in the middle of the pack toward the higher end. The reason for this is that some companies engage in a bait and switch tactic that indicates that they will cost less initially, but when they actually receive the drive they wil claim that upon review the cost will be much higher. It's best to avoid messing with these companies at all.

So if you have lost data and have no backups to fall back on, data recovery can still be done. Just use the guidelines presented in this article for choosing the data recovery method that will work best for you.

About the author: John Simpson All About Data Recovery is a website that provides free information, tips and resources for finding the best data recovery, data retrieval, and file recovery options for your data loss situation.

Data Recovery The Easy Way

2009-01-24T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: John Simpson

It's a fact of life that bad things happen to good people's data every now and then. And when it does, too often the victim is not prepared for it. Is that the case with you? Are you prepared in advance for a complete loss of critical files and data on your computer or on your computer network?

If you aren't prepared in advance, you will most likely have to use a data recovery service or data recovery software solution to help get back as much as you can of what was lost. This can be a very good idea if there is no other way to recover your files, but it doesn't have to come to that in most cases.

This is a classic situation of where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A very simple backup routine that is adhered to on a daily basis can usually solve any data loss situation quickly and fairly painlessly. And it won't cost you anything but the time neded to restore the data files from your backups, and maybe the program files from the original disks.

There is a wide choice of media that you can backup your files to, inclusing CDs, DVDs, external hard drives, other internal hard drives, tape drives, etc. They all work, it's just that each media choice has it's own pros and cons regarding ease of use, data storage capacity, and so on. A discussion of those limits is beyond the scope of this article, but the most important thing to remember is that the best backup is the one that works. That means that regardless of the media you choose, just make a choice and stick to a backup schedule like glue.

There are sevral good backup programs out there that work very well and will do a fine job, but most Microsoft Windows users have a great backup program included with their operating software. If you are a Windows XP user that program is called NTBackup. If it's not already installed on your computer insert your Windows CD, find the folder titled ValueAddMSFT tbackup, and run the program in that folder called ntbackup.msi. It will set up the backup software for use on your computer in no time and you will even have simple to use wizards that will walk you through doing file backups and restores simply and easily.

Once the software is installed, it is now up to you to use it faithfully to prepare for data recovery when it is needed. Maybe you never will need it. But don't count on that. You will be so glad that you have a solid reliable way to restore lost files if disaster ever happens on your computer. It's truly the easy way to data recovery!

Hard Drive Crash? The Essential Data Recovery Report

2009-01-23T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Greg Duffield

What To Do In The Event Of Data Loss?

Around 44% of all data loss is caused by hardware failure. It's important to make sure that you immediately shut your system down if you suspect that hard drive has crashed. Don't even try to go through the shutdown procedure, just pull the plug from the wall. Do not try to run off the shelf data recovery software or drive utilities. Many times these applications will assume the drive is functioning properly and will increase the risk of permanent data loss.

Types Of Hard Drive Failure When we discuss data recovery in this report, we will primarily focus on issues surrounding hard drive failures; since these types of failures are most common. There are really two primary forms of failure in a hard drive, logical and physical. Logical failures are usually a result of file-system corruption. This can occur due to a virus, accidental deletion of key files or registry components, and in some cases even electro-static discharge. In most cases where a logical failure has occurred, the drive is still recognized by the system BIOS, but it will not boot. In most cases, your data should still be intact on the drive, even though it may appear to be inaccessible.

If the system BIOS does not detect the presence of the hard drive, then chances are a physical failure has occurred. Physical failures can result from a wide variety of causes. There are really two sub-categories for physical hard drive failures; mechanical and electronic. Mechanical failures usually result from a failure of the spindle motor. Spindle motor failure can result from excessive heat due to a bearing failure. The increased heat resulting from the bearing failure will expand the drive shaft and therefore seize the spindle motor. Suddenly, your drive will become inoperative. Occasionally, you will get a warning that something bad is about to happen. You may hear a loud whining, a grinding noise, even high-pitched screeches. If anything like this starts to occur, BACK UP YOUR DATA IMMEDIATELY.

Another physical issue that sometimes rears its ugly head is an electronic failure. If you look at a hard drive you will notice a circuit board on the bottom. This board is basically the brains of the drive, and it is where the computer interfaces to the hard drive. An electrical failure can occur unexpectedly at any time. Even brand new hard drives are not totally immune to having electrical failures. Sometimes it's just a faulty component, sometimes it's improper installation (i.e. electro-static discharge, grounding out the board, damaging circuitry during installation). It's important to also keep your system clean and well ventilated, since excessive heat can damage the electrical components on the drive. If you have a system that is in a somewhat contained area, you may look at adding an additional 80mm fan to cool the internal components of the system, especially the hard drive. No other component of a computer works as much as the hard drive, and therefore it is vitally important not to overlook it when cooling issues arise.

How Is My Data Recovered?

What About Data Recovery Software

What To Look For When Shopping For Data Recovery

Try to find a company that will give you an up front cost for either a logical or physical recovery. Most companies will be able to tell you within a couple hundred dollars the cost of a recovery. However, don't misunderstand a company that gives you a price for two different procedures. For example, some companies will give you a price if the failure is logical and a price if the problem ends up being physical. We called one firm and were told that if the drive had a logical failure the price would be $400 and if it ended up being a physical issue the price would be $1,600. This is not a high/low spread as mentioned in the earlier example, this is simply quoting a price for two different types of recoveries.

Can My Data Be Recovered?

How Do I Get Started?

You will find links to various data recovery firms on this page. We do not support or endorse any of them, but they are listed for your convenience. It is important to do your homework, call and talk with the companies. When you find one that you feel comfortable with, give them a chance. Your hardest job, may be finding data recovery firms that actually have someone available to answer the phones. Ask questions and be sure to have the following information available:

Size of the drive Operating system (i.e. Windows 98, Windows XP, etc.) Situation of failure (what happened just before the drive stopped working) Is the drive recognized by the computer's BIOS or not Good luck in getting your data recovered, and make sure you always backup your important information on a daily basis. For more information visit: http://www.acsdata.com

About the author: Greg Duffield is the founder of ACS Data Recovery. ACS specializes in providing hard drive data recovery services for clients around the world.

Data Protection And Hard Disk Recovery Go Hand In Hand

2009-01-22T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: J Schipper

When it comes to hard disk recovery, the best method is to insure that you will never need it. Besides making frequent backups, the following measures will keep your system running smoothly.

Antivirus Protection

New viruses are invented every day, and system security is a concern for every business. Malicious software can damage your system to the point where it will not even boot up. The latest versions of Windows are the favorite targets of malicious programs such as spyware and viruses, and it is helpful to use 2 or more antivirus/anti-spyware programs to prevent destruction or theft of your data.

Spyware Scanner

The clues that spyware is on a computer include a barrage of pop-up ads, a hijacked browser,a sudden or even repeated change of your computer's Internet home page, the appearance of a new toolbar or new screen icons, malfunctioning keys, random error messages, and most of all, sluggish computer performance. Any sytem with access to the internet is prone to this problem, but there is software to block spyware installation. In addition, make sure all employees using the office network do not download from unknown sites, and set your internet browser security at ""Medium"" or higher. Install individual firewalls to prevent uninvited users from accessing your network. A firewall blocks unauthorized access to your computer and will alert you if spyware already on your computer is sending information out. Purchase an anti-spyware program from a vendor you know and trust. Set it to read on a regular basis, at least weekly and if possible each time you run your computer. Delete any programs the anti-spyware program detects on your computer.

Computer Maintenance

The best way to avoid having to use file recovery software is to be sure that no corrupt data is stored on your computer. Companies like Norton sell disk optimization programs keep your network running at top speed, correct problem files and maximize the available space on your hard disk. Run disk optimization and anti-virus programs at least once a week.

Hard Disk Recovery

There are disk recovery applications specifically geared to recovering files of a certain format, like graphics files as opposed to word document files, and there are general-purpose programs to hunt for any type of misplaced file regardless of the format. There is no program on the market that can guarantee recovery of every lost file, but you are able to increase your chances for recovery by selecting the appropriate program for the file you are trying to save.

Do-it-yourself programs are a lot less expensive than hiring a data retrieval company that specializes in information recovery, and to save money you should at least attempt to utilize of this type of program before calling a professional.

In addition to recovering deleted files, there exists information recovery programs that can restore files after you have formatted the drive, after a power failure, natural disaster, or even files damaged by a computer virus.

RAID

RAID is short for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks, a category of disk drives that employ 2 or even several drives in combination to improve data storage fault tolerance and performance. RAID disk drives are frequently installed on servers but can also run on individual computers. Because of the duplication of data, it is possible to recover files from one or another disk when the need arises. As you might expect, RAID disk repair is quite a complicated process. However it is one of the most foolproof methods of data storage because the RAID architecture strategically distributes information randomly across the array. However, this sort of architecture demands the services of a recovery professional.

About the author: J Shipper needs Data Protection and Accounting Software

Nucleus Kernel for FAT Data recovery software

2009-01-21T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Nucleus Technologies.com

Nucleus Kernel for FAT recovers data from deleted, formatted, damaged, or corrupted partitions where FAT based operating systems, such as Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003 are installed on the hard disk or data storage media. During recovery process a complete scan of the damaged drive or data storage media is performed to locate and revive the lost partitions, files and folders. After the complete scanning the data found in the damaged disk is displayed in a tree like structure from where you can easily copy your recovered files to a working disk or volume. Nucleus Kernel for FAT Recovery Software helps in easy recovery of your all-important data lost after an accidental format this data recovery utility examines your inaccessible hard drive and shows you the data that is present in the hard disk. Simple FAT disk recovery process requires you to only select listed files & directories and copy to a working drive. Nucleus Kernel for FAT is a quick, simple and easy to use FAT recovery solution that helps you in file recovery in moments of a disk crash. Nucleus Kernel for FAT Data Recovery Software uses quick algorithm for searching and restoring lost partitions, files and folders and hence is fast, simple and easy to use Windows data recovery software, which helps you to recover your lost data and files in minutes in case of disk crash or data loss disasters and hence supports your business continuity. Nucleus Kernel FAT recovers data from deleted, formatted, damaged, or corrupted FAT partitions. Nucleus Kernel for FAT recover after partition loss, boot sector corruption or any other type of file system corruption or after using fdisk or scandisk programs. During recovery process a complete scan of the damaged drive or data storage media is performed to locate and recover the lost or deleted partitions, files and folders. Nucleus Kernel FAT will recover your data if the hard drive's partition table, boot record, FAT/MTF or root directory are lost or damaged, data was lost due to a virus attack, the drive was formatted, fdisk has been run, a power failure has caused a system crash, files were lost due to a software failure, files were accidentally deleted.QFSCI (Quick File System Component Identification) Technology will make sure that all directories and sub directories are put together as they were, and that long file names are reconstructed correctly. Nucleus Kernel for FAT data recovery software recover data from for Unexpected system shutdown or software failure. Windows Registry Corruption. For more information on the product please visit http://www.nucleustechnologies.com .

About the author: Nucleus Technologies.com offers a complete range of data recovery software and utilities for Windows, Linux, Unix, Novell Netware, Apple Macintosh operating system and supports various file systems including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5, Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, NWFS, Net386, NSS, HFS, HFS+, UFS, FFS, VxFS, EAFS, HTFS etc

Data recovery from laptops

2009-01-20T03:04:00.000-08:00

Author: Jakob Jelling

A lot of important data is being stored on laptops today. Laptop use has increased significantly in recent years. Increased demands for portability and convenience have been envisioned in this mobile technology.

Demand for laptops has gone up in part due to the spread of telecommuting in businesses today. Businesses often allow employees to work on laptops at home and bring them to work.

Data loss in a laptop can end up costing the company a lot of employee hours worked. Even people who use their laptops for personal use are not pleased if they lose any important data. Carrying around a laptop all day can cause stress on the machine and increase the chances of data loss.

There are many companies that can help you with the laptop data recovery process. After you contact a company, first you will likely go through an evaluation process to evaluate the extent of damage done.

A lot of companies will offer a free evaluation and a quote if they feel they can successfully perform recovery operations. It may be a good idea to shop around for services to make sure you are getting the best deal. Each company may offer a different price. Some companies even have fixed pricing.

If you are panicking over a blank laptop screen or a hard drive crash, you will be happy to learn that a high percentage of the requests data recovery companies get are successful completed. However you still need to be prepared that some of the data may never be recovered. The only way to find out is get proactive and contact representatives from data recovery firms.

Several data recovery companies have specialized departments for performing data recovery operations on laptops. You can get a lot of your data recovered and receive it in a readable format, even from badly damaged storage devices.

Laptop systems are more fragile and therefore highly susceptible to damage to their hard drives.

There are many companies online that can offer you internet-based laptop data recovery. This allows you to ship of your laptop to company headquarters and have it shipped back to you after the data has been recovered.

Some problems you may experience with your laptop is a dead screen, hard drive crash, etc. There are different types of laptop data recovery operations you can perform. Laptop data recovery can allow you to recover files after such events and after technical malfunctions. You may also be able to recover MS Word, Excel or Power Point files that you may have accidentally deleted.

Laptops can receive a lot of abuse and their hard drives can get damaged. You may need laptop data recovery support if:

- You dropped your notebook and it no longer turns on. - An unsolicited e-mail has downloaded a Trojan or virus on your laptop. - The laptop's hard drive crashes. - You accidentally deleted some important company files and you want them retrieved in a hurry before your boss finds out.

If you have lost important company data and your boss just says to go and recover it, rapid data recovery can be a solution. Often companies can perform emergency operations to recover lost data and get you on your way in only 24-48 hours. However be prepared to pay up for these services. The services will be worthwhile depending on how important the lost data is to you or your business.

If you are involved in the management of a company, you may want to keep the contact information of a reliable data recovery specialist near your desk. You never know when you may need one.

About the author: Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.sitetube.com. Visit his website for the latest on planning, building, promoting and maintaining websites.

Data Recovery Software Comparison

2009-01-19T03:03:00.000-08:00

Author: Brad Triggs

Software programmers recognize the importance of data files, and thankfully, they have been able to create products that demonstrate their understanding of how often people accidentally delete or lose important data. Thanks to software programmers and development companies, people have a variety of data recovery software programs available to purchase in the event they've lost vital data.

There are disk recovery applications that are specific to recovering files of a certain format, like graphics files as opposed to word document files, and there is software that can recover any type of lost file regardless of the format. If you've accidentally deleted an image on your digital camera, there is even software available to retrieve that!

It's important to take the time to research and compare each software program before purchasing one in order to make sure that it will have the best possible chance at retrieving your lost file. Remember that there is no program on the market that can guarantee recovery of every file, as there are simply too many factors and situations that effect whether or not a file can be retrieved once deleted or lost. You can increase your chances for recovery by selecting the appropriate program for the file you are trying to save.

Do-it-yourself software is less expensive than hiring a company that specializes in data recovery and you should at least attempt to recover your data yourself with the use of this type of software program if money is of concern for you. Even if money is not a concern, your first step should be to check whether or not recovering your data is as simple as running a software program, as that will be your fastest and most convenient way.

In addition to recovering data files from accidental deletion, there is data recovery software that can recover files after you've formatted the drive, after a computer power failure, natural disaster, or files lost from a virus.

About the author:

******************************************* Brad Triggs provides more information on Data Recovery at his website: Data-Recovery-Central .com - Data Recovery Software *******************************************

Computer Data Recovery Options

2009-01-18T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Brad Triggs

Losing files on your computer can be a frightening experience if the files are of importance to you personally or professionally. Computer data recovery techniques include the most simple of operations, like simply retrieving an accidentally deleted file, to very complex file retrieval procedures that only professionals should attempt to do.

If you are trying to proceed with your hard disk recovery solution on your own, first start with the most obvious answer. Look in your recycle bin to see if the file has been placed there. If it is, you can choose the ""restore"" option, and your system will automatically put the file back on your computer where it was stored originally. Of course, if every retrieval was this simple, there would be no need for computer professionals who specialize in data recovery, so chances are you'll need to try a different technique to find your lost data.

If you've deleted a file on your computer, and you've emptied your recycle bin, don't despair. When a file is deleted on a computer, it's not erased immediately from the system. What actually happens is the computer marks the deleted file as ""deleted"", and it is no longer in view to users within your computer's files. The file remains on the hard drive until new data is saved over it, similar to recording songs on cassette tapes. So, in order for computer data recovery to happen on files that have been deleted, you'll need to attempt to recover them before new data has been written over the file.

The best thing you can do to increase your chances of success is to immediately stop using the computer until you've retrieved the deleted file. The more you use your computer, the more information will be saved and the more likely the information could be saved over the file you are hoping to get back!

About the author:

******************************************* Brad Triggs provides more information on Data Recovery at his website: Data-Recovery-Central .com - Computer Data Recovery *******************************************

Nucleus Kernel for FAT & NTFS data recovery software

2009-01-17T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: Nucleus Technologies.com

Nucleus Technologies.com offers a complete range of data recovery software and utilities for various Platforms including Windows operating system and supports various file systems including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5, The Hard Drive Data Recovery Software offered by Nucleus Technologies ensures safe and precise data recovery against numerous threats like accidental file deletion and disk formatting, Nucleus Kernel for FAT & NTFS data recovery software is a non-destructive and read-only file and partition recovery utility that helps you in recovering data lost due to accidental formatting, virus problems, software malfunction, file and directory deletion, and sabotage. The program examines your inaccessible hard drives for damage and corruption and recovers the data. It provides partition recovery from FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems. It recovers deleted files and folders, even after the recycle bin has been emptied. It recognizes and preserves long file names when restoring files and folders. Nucleus Kernel FAT & NTFS File recovery from deleted partition, formatted logical drives or deleted files, File recovery from Missing or Lost folders. During recovery process a complete scan of the damaged drive or data storage media is performed to locate and revive the lost partitions, files and folders. After the complete scanning the data found in the damaged disk is displayed in a tree like structure from where you can easily copy your recovered files to a working disk or volume. Kernel for FAT+NTFS Data Recovery Software uses QFSCI (Quick File System Component Identification) Technology for searching and restoring lost partitions, files and folders and hence is a fast, simple and easy to use Windows data recovery software, which helps you to recover your lost data and files in minutes in case of disk crash or data loss disasters and hence supports your business continuity. Nucleus Kernel for Windows supports FAT, NTFS, HPFS, and NTFS5 File Systems. For more information on the product please visit http://www.nucleustechnologies.com .

About the author: Nucleus Technologies.com offers a complete range of data recovery software and utilities for various Platforms including Windows operating system and supports various file systems including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5, The Hard Drive Data Recovery Software offered by Nucleus Technologies ensures safe and precise data recovery against numerous threats like accidental file deletion and disk formatting.

How You Can Avoid My Data Recovery Nightmare

2009-01-16T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: John R. Barker

Many subjects related to your work might be more fun, more sexy. Who wants to talk about data backups, disaster preparedness and data recovery?

I sure didn't.

But, a disturbing thought kept popping into my head for days . .

""You better spend Wednesday . . . Thursday . . . Friday . . . backing up your hard drive.""

Did I listen to that intuition?

Just a couple of weeks prior I begrudgingly sat through a presentation on disaster preparedness for small businesses.

It was a great presentation, actually. I learned a lot. I knew it was a weak spot in my business. But priority number one?

So back to present past time:

It was 12:30 AM on Saturday night / Sunday morning. Sitting on my couch in the living room, I closed the lid on my laptop - the core of my business and family income.

Five hours later, at 5:30 AM, I woke to the frantic screams of my wife. ""John, the kitchen is on fire! Oh my god, our house is on fire!""

We lost everything.

Including my laptop and a lot of precious information. Email addresses, new projects, software, my audio library. Customer testimonials, purchase records, receipts, passwords, bookmarks and more.

Fortunately a lot of it was backed up. Well, at least the guts of my business. But if it had been backed up better, I'd have saved myself a lot of headaches and a LOT of money.

It's easy to put off subjects like data recovery, data backups and disaster preparedness. There are more pressing things to be done, and what are the odds? Right? When you consider the many things that can happen to your data, regular data backups are just smart.

Don't get burned like I did - be prepared.

Backup Your Data

To see what's left of my living room, visit http://www.4data-recovery.com.

About the author: To see what's left of my living room, visit http://www.4data-recovery.com.

John R. Barker is an Internet marketer. His unexpected life disaster has inspired him to launch a site that will, hopefully help you from enduring the same.

Disc Recovery - Data Recovery - Raid Recovery

2009-01-15T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: J. Brian Keith

Data Recovery is probably the last thing on anyone's mind when they buy a computer. Most of us never think something will go wrong until it's too late. Data recovery or Disc Recovery services is something we hope we will never have the need for. Whether your computer simply crashes or you accidentally delete software that is important or imperative to you, it may seem that your information is lost for good. Although, if you have quality data recovery software already in your system or on your computer, you should feel good in the fact that it has backup, even though things like this can and will happen at times. This can be extremely important for you state of mind and well being when it comes to safeguarding your personal or business information and software.

What many don't understand is that there are numerous reasons things can go wrong on their computer. Whether it is your own personal computer you are responsible for, or a large business computer system, having a method of restoring the information when things go wrong can be of the utmost importance. Your computer could run slow or be packed full of non efficacious adware and spyware that can ultimately destroy your important files, siphon and transfer personal data, this could cause a computer crash. In a blink of an eye, everything that is important to you could be gone. Storms can cause Power surges quickly and without much or any advance warning, that could be all it takes to lose everything.

These are not the only ways you can lose the data that is stored on your computer. Most people think this will never happen to them, it's human nature. So what do we do? Nothing, which means you could lose everything. Disc recovery is an absolute must to avoid these things from happening. Disc and Data Recovery is very easy to install and use and can be virtually self maintaining. So why doesn't everybody take advantage of data recovery? It could be the expense, but it doesn't cost much, more likely they just don't understand the importance or simply don't think about it at all until it's too late. Data recovery is quite possibly the most important thing for computer users. Don't get caught without it!

About the author:

For more information about: Data Recovery ,

Computer Forensics or Articles about Data Recovery Services

Hard Disk Data Recovery Expert: Choosing Yours

2009-01-13T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: David A. Williams

If you need a hard disk data recovery expert, you need one now. You have just lost a good amount of work that you need to send, well, yesterday. No matter how well versed you think you are in the computer world, chances are that at some point, something will go wrong. This is when you will want to find the right person or company to help solve your problems. Data disk hard recovery is a touchy situation, though. So, to help you find the hard disk data recovery expert that you need, here are a few helpful hints.

* First off, take the time to find the right company. Don't simply choose one that says they will do the job for you. They can make things worse if they are not prepared. It only takes a few minutes to find out what they can do for you. * Consider the company itself. Does it have the ability to service your manufacturer? What experience do they have? How do you know its not a bunch of college kids? Ask questions, do some basic research. It takes only minutes.

* You will want to know what specifically they will do for your data disk hard recovery needs. The hard disk data recovery expert should be able to handle your specific problem. More than likely, they will ask you just what happened, what type of application is being used and if you know what the source of the problem is. From here, they should provide you with some sort of plan of action that they will take.

* Very important is that the work that they do will not violate your computer's warranty. You will specifically want to make sure of this. * Will they need you to bring your system in? Or, many of the hard disk data recovery experts will work with you over the phone to help you restore data within minutes. That will save you quite a bit of time and expense. Often times they will log into your system and handle the issue professionally. In many cases, though, you will need to take your system in.

* How will they provide the lost media to you? The hard disk data recovery experts often offer a number of methods to provide you with what you lost. They can often be transmitted to you, sent to you on CD-ROMs or hard disk drives. Most of the time, the choice is up to you. * Lastly, it is also important to know what the hard disk data recovery experts will charge you when the data disk hard recovery is unsuccessful. Will they charge you for the service or will the service be free? Perhaps they will offer you a lower price?

Finding the right company to choose from is not that hard. The hard disk data recovery experts that are available to you are able to help you in your time of need. In many cases, they can have your files restored as you need them within a few hours, days or in extreme cases a little longer. Nonetheless, their data disk hard recovery service is something you will likely need and not be able to think twice about having the service preformed. But, when you take the time to find a qualified hard disk data recovery expert, things can go right, right from the beginning!

About the author: David writes for the Business Catalyst where you can find information on Small Business Startups in Nashville, TN. For more information on Data Recovery visit http://www.mydatarecoveryexpert.info

Nucleus Kernel for NTFS Data Recovery Softwares

2009-01-12T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Nucleus Technologies.com

Nucleus Technologies.com offers a complete range of data recovery software and utilities for Windows, operating system and supports various file systems including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 Kernel for NTFS recovers data from deleted, formatted, damaged, or corrupted partitions where NTFS based operating systems, such as Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003 are installed on the hard disk or data storage media. During recovery process a complete scan of the damaged drive or data storage media is performed to locate and revive the lost partitions, files and folders. After the complete scanning the data found in the damaged disk is displayed in a tree like structure from where you can easily copy your recovered files to a working disk or volume. Kernel for NTFS Data Recovery Software uses QFSCI (Quick File System Component Identification) Technology for searching and restoring lost partitions, files and folders and hence is a fast, simple and easy to use Windows data recovery software, which helps you to recover your lost data and files in minutes in case of disk crash or data loss disasters and hence supports your business continuity. Kernel for NTFS data recovery software Recovery of deleted and damaged partitions. Data recovery after the loss of MBR, Boot sector or File Allocation Table. Provides recovery of data lost due to accidental formatting of your hard disk. Recovery of lost data due to variety of viruses(s). Full support for long file names. Recovery possible even if the disk partition has been formatted with different file system type or with different parameters. Kernel for NTFS data recovery software Full support for IDE, EIDE, SCSI and SATA, PAN, ZIP and USB drives. Nucleus Kernel for NTFS will recover your data if the drive was formatted, fdisk has been run, a power failure has caused a system crash, files were lost due to a software failure, files were accidentally deleted. For more information on the product please visit http://www.nucleustechnologies.com .

About the author: Nucleus Technologies.com offers a complete range of data recovery software and utilities for Windows, operating system and supports various file systems including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5 Kernel for NTFS recovers data from deleted, formatted, damaged, or corrupted partitions where NTFS based operating systems, such as Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows 2003 are installed on the hard disk or data storage media.

Choosing a Data Recovery Company

2009-01-10T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: Yaroslav Shkvorets

There are many different factors to consider when choosing a data recovery company. All of them may have strong advantages in some areas but be weaker or less efficient in others.

If this is your first time choosing a data recovery company, you will want to learn as much information as possible regarding them. Browse their websites, contact representatives and find the answers to the following questions. This will help you to make an informed choice. Do they have specialists specifically devoted to data recovery? Some companies offer data recovery as supplementary to other computer support services. You should definitely avoid these since data recovery is a complex process and it requires many years of devoted experience. How do they perform an evaluation? Most good companies offer a free evaluation and do not have any cancellation fees. However some firms will try to make money on ""unsuccessful"" diagnostics attempts. Do they charge for unsuccessful data recovery attempts? Make sure that you won't be charged in case a firm fails to retrieve your data or else may lose your money, time and information. When will they give you a final quote? Upfront pricing is a good choice. You should always have the right to cancel your job if the price or other circumstances don't suit you. Don't leave a final quote for the last moment or the price might shock you. What are their prices like compared to the competitors'? Data recovery is a very comple complex procedure, so prepare possibly a few hundred dollars. Very high or low prices are not usually an optimal solution. Explore your local market to find the golden mean. What about an emergency service? If you need your data back urgently, find a company that offers this type of service. It may be costly but worth the expense. It is also a good idea to discuss responsibility for possible delays. There is also a number of ways data recovery companies may try to trick customer in their advertisements. Among them are: Unbelievably high successful recovery rate No ""magic machine"" exist that can automatically retrieve all data from the hard disk. 15-20% of all cases are entirely unrecoverable and there is nothing anyone can do about it. If a company claims to have successful rate of more than 90%, they are definitely being dishonest with their customers. Class 100 Clean Rooms Clean rooms are only used in most difficult cases when engineers have to disassemble a broken drive in order to fix its mechanical parts. This is a really complex and expensive procedure with very low rate of success. And besides, mechanical failures happen very rarely(only 4-5% of all accidents). Most companies mention clean room for marketing purposes only and most likely you will pay for it from your own pocket. Free Diagnostics A good company SHOULD offer free diagnostics. But sometimes this is misleading. It may still be free, but if you become unsatisfied with the price offered after evaluation and try to withdraw your order, you will be charged a so-called ""cancellation fee"" (that may go up to $200). Be aware of this.

About the author: If you want to learn more information about data recovery in general please visit Choosing data recovery company website. There you can also ask your particular questions in data recovery forum and receive consultation from experienced specialists.

Yaroslav Shkvorets, http://datacent.com

Data Recovery Help

2009-01-09T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: T. Potter

If you are looking for help with data recovery, you are likely not in the mood for the sales hype and the marketing schemes. Individuals looking for it are usually in need of it because their system has crashed or they can not locate the data and information that they desperately need. Many individuals find themselves lost without the precious memory that they have to have in order to make a sale or to contact a company or even worse the data to keep their computer in functioning order. Data recovery options are available though.

There are two main ways in which you can find help here. First, you can call on data recovery specialists that can come in and help you. These individuals can help by accessing your computer and finding what has happened. They are skilled and able to read more into the problem than most computer users can. A good individual to call on for this type of service is someone that has the ability to be around anytime that you need them, experience dealing with your type of system and honesty. You do not want to go with just anyone and it's important to establish a working relationship with a company before you have problems.

The second type of data recovery option that you have is through software. Many software programs are available to help you. These will store and keep your very precious information on file so that if something were to happen, they would have it available for you. Of course, this type of data recovery really only works if you have it in place before a problem.

Do you need data recovery help? Do you need to call on someone to help you through one of the worst computer situations of your life? When all else fails, the best thing for you to do is to call on a specialist. Sure, your brother's wife's aunt's husband says that he can help you, but unless you really know that they can and you have the time to wait around for him to fix it, it is best to call on a professional to handle your situation in data recovery.

About the author: Written by T.Parker.Visit No1 in Data Recovery for further information.

Contract Management Software: the Solution to the Problem of Coordination

2009-01-08T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Joe Miller

Charles Petrie, from Stanford, released a short article entitled "The Problem of Coordination," which highlights 4 categories in which businesses find it difficult to connect:

Interoperability

Agent Communication

Semantic Unification

Coordination

Though this article refers to a specific type of business, its principles are just as applicable to any business, especially when collaborating on a contract. Contract collaboration and management is difficult in any business, and the negotiations can go on for weeks, months, or even years. In seeking to manage contract deliberations, organization of personnel, documents, and software can make or break a clean operation.

Using Petrie's model, this article explores how the right contract management software is the solution to the problem of coordination.

Interoperability

Interoperability is defined by Petrie in the question "Can you read my data?" Search "contract management software" in Google, and in .44 seconds you will be introduced to millions of products indexed for your specific search-18,400,000 to be exact. The only problem is that they are not all compatible.

The most commonly used business software is MS office software, which coordinates email with other applications targeted toward common business needs: spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, etc. The problem cited by Petrie and applied to contract management is that businesses which work together need to have the right contract management software, which will aid collaboration within these commonly used business applications. The solution is surprisingly simple.

Agent Communication

Again, some questions: "What is the protocol? How will you find me?" In contract management, generally a draft is drawn after much negotiation and deliberation. The man or woman who is "lucky" enough to draft the contract must draw from up to thousands of documents of drafts and notes. This draft will quickly multiply into an almost unmanageable number of drafts and documents.

The old way to handle this document influx was either to file them in a drawer, paperclip them together, or pile them on your desk. This is virtually impossible to handle because it takes up so much space and is so difficult to organize. What most people don't understand is that if you are saving these drafts electronically, you still have the same problems. It is almost impossible to manage all of the drafts, and you may overload your desktop.

The other way protocol becomes a problem is that the editorial cycle is really not a cycle at all but a cyclone of drafts whirling back and forth in no particular order. The likelihood of always finding the most recent draft right away is about the same as reaching out into the cyclone for a specific thing and finding it in the first grab. In other words, you may send several drafts to several people before any of them send their collaborative efforts back. When they open and save your drafts to a drive, they are not only needlessly taking up too much space on the drive, but they have also just downloaded a pile of drafts that they now need to sift through in order to make their changes. Now, imagine what will happen to you when they send all of their drafts back-the cyclone image comes to mind again.

How can the right contract management software solve this problem? The answer, again, is surprisingly simple. The right contract management software will have Digital Thread technology, which connects the who, what, when, where, and how of each draft, even creating a "family tree" of the drafts or a flow chart to help you to see exactly where you are in the protocol. No matter what order the drafts whirl by in, they will always be tracked, saving you time and storage space and protecting the integrity of the contract protocol.

Semantic Unification

"What do you mean by ______?" Semantics is a nightmare in contract management. The precision in wording is an important service to any business, and creating the right wording produces a solid contract. It also produces the most drafts. One word can be deliberated over for hours, days, or weeks. Drafts will go back and forth, and a quick and easy way to review changes as small as word choice in a document that could range from 10 to 1,000 pages long.

Document Signature is a feature that is almost a necessity to keep up with semantic changes. It produces a window attached to any document you open that lets you know that changes were made and who made it. It's that easy.

Coordination

"What do I do now?" This question probably cycles through every professional's mind, no matter how briefly, at least a few times a day. In contract management, the question might be altered to "How do I go about implementing all of these changes?"

This simple answer is probably the most surprising. You need the contract management software that will record changes and merge them for you. You are involved in so many drafts and changes that you can barely keep track of them, but with the right contract management software, all of the changes are tagged and tracked, almost like a DNA strand. The changes from various drafts can then be merged within seconds, giving you the ability to review the merge when it happens and use it to produce your final draft.

In collaborating any project, whether a contract, a budget report, a presentation, or even a memo, these four problems of coordination always loom over professionals' heads. Contract management software answers back to the rescue of every collaboration committee. Narrow the search using the answers provided in this article and you will find the right contract management software for your company and finally find the solution to the problem of coordination.

About the author:

Joe Miller is specialist in

online advertising . For more information on

contract management software , please visit NextPage.com .

Finding a Search Engine Friendly Content Management System

2009-01-07T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Mike Goldstein

What is a Content Management System? A Content Management System (CMS) is a third party software application which allows web site administrators to add, update or delete content, photos, and documents to their web site in ""real time"". Many web sites are modified using these web-based tools as they require little to no knowledge of HTML or web scripting languages. CMS programs make it easy for a webmaster or site owner who does not know HTML or have access to a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) HTML Editor, such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver, to update their site.

In today's high paced web world, a good CMS is integral to the efficient operation of a web site. Many webmasters and web site developers are building database driven, or dynamic web sites, which require a third party solution, such as a Content Management System, to update the content that lives in the database. In addition, a CMS allows the web site owner to outsource content development remotely to contract copywriters and other willing contributors. With built in access level hierarchies, webmasters can allow various users to register as authors and start submitting articles and news to be published on their site.

How do Content Management Systems Work? Content Management Systems create a dynamic web site environment, where all the content is stored in a database or XML file. Using a web-based interface, the webmaster can select which page they want to update and then can modify the web content in a text editor, with many of the familiar formatting keys that can be found in a word processing program. Once the content has been updated, with the simple click of a button, the CMS will turn their text into HTML code and publish the content to the web site.

Problems Between Search Engines and Content Management Systems Historically, search engines have had difficulty indexing dynamic pages. While their ability to index and rank dynamic pages has improved dramatically, there are some basic things to avoid. One of the greatest enemies of search engines is URL strings that contain many URL parameters. URL parameters are variables that are passed to the CMS through the URL, which tell it what information to retrieve from the database. URLs with too many parameters generally make little logical sense to the average user and may also scare off search spiders. For example see:

www.mysite.com/mg/vbclass/search.asp?A9_MAKEVBCookie=Yes&vertical =CLTH&cat=Mens& subcat=ID&displayTarget=Subcategory It is suggested to limit the number of URL parameters to two or three per URL to ensure that that search spiders will not have difficulty indexing pages deep within the web site.

Certain URL parameter names may automatically flag a filter on the search engine. One example is the URL parameter names that contain 'ID', such as 'sessionid', 'sid' or 'userid'. Historically, search engines detect the term ""ID"" and assume it is associated with a session dependant variable. As a result, search engines have learned to flag these parameter names and it can cause problems with page indexing. Passing session dependant variables through the URL is a problem for search engines because the spider essentially sees a unique URL each time they visit the site because the session dependent variables change with each visit. For example, on one visit to the site, a page URL may be http://www.mysite.com/page.asp?sessionid=12345. The next time the spider visits the page, the URL may be http://www.mysite.com/page.asp?sessionid=56789. This creates a situation where a spider may think that there are multiple URLs with duplicate content, resulting in penalties which will negatively impact search rankings.

Based on the above, it is imperative to employ a CMS that does not pass session dependent data, such as session variables, through a URL string. Doing so will not only create potential usability issues for the end user, but will also result in indexing problems for the search engine spiders.

Finally, search engines gather understanding from your web site's content by filtering through the HTML code. For this reason, it is extremely important that your CMS generate HTML code that adheres to the latest requirements of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Use the W3C Code Validator to determine if your code meets the W3C standards. Be aware that some CMS's add in many lines of proprietary code or JavaScript at the top of the file, which can choke search spiders. This violates a cardinal rule of SEO; 'To always have more content then code'.

Finding a Search Engine Friendly CMS that will Work for You Now that we have explored many of the potential problems with Content Management Systems, lets look at how to go about finding one that will be both search engine friendly and suit your specific needs. First you will need to determine what server platform you will be using. Many Content Management Systems use scripting languages and databases that are platform dependant. If you are married to a particular platform, it may limit your CMS options. Ideally, you will want to find a CMS that is platform independent, which can run on any server.

There are many search engine friendly CMS's that will allow the web site owner to generate a URL structure that is both meaningful to their users and digestible by search engine spiders. Instead of having a URL that is packed with parameters, you can create a URL structure that looks like this: http://www.mysite.com/children/hats/prodid/121576. Your next step is to check whether your CMS builds HTML pages to the latest standards established by the W3C. Most CMS providers will be able to tell you if their solution generates valid code. If they can't, then ask for a sample page and run it through the W3C Code Validator. In order to rank effectively in organic results of the search engines, it is imperative that your CMS allows you to update your title tags, meta data and alt tags on a page-by-page basis.

The most important aspects of a good CMS are the ease of use and richness of content formatting features. This one is a no-brainer because the very reason that you are looking for a CMS is that YOU DON'T WANT TO CODE. Any good CMS should provide an editing stage that is similar in feature and function to a standard word processing program, such as Microsoft Word. The technical term for this is a WYSIWYG Editor or a Rich Text Editor. This important feature will allow you to type and format your content using standard buttons and keyboard shortcuts. When you publish the content to the live web site, the CMS will write the HTML, CSS and scripting to display your content as it was formatted during the editing stage. Many Content Management Systems are offering additional technologies, such as RSS feed, shopping cart solutions, forums and live chat integration, which can really enhance the functionality of your web site. The key is to find a CMS that will suit your core needs and then determine what add-ons would be beneficial. The ends result will be a web site that is easy to manage and usable for both your customers and the search engines.

This Article was written by Mike Goldstein. Mike is the SEO Manager at Rock Coast Media, a Boston-Area search engine marketing firm that provides results-driven custom search marketing solutions .

About the author:

Mike is Rock Coast Media's Search Engine Optimization (SEO) manager. With extensive experience in web application development, SEO, and instruction at the college level in all web development disciplines, Mike creates the processes and practices that deliver increased organic search rankings for clients of Rock Coast Media.

Before coming to Rock Coast Media,

CMS - Content Management Software

2009-01-06T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Lee Asher

If all this talk of coding and designing scares you off, you might want to know that there is an alternative to all this. You can install a kind of software called a Content Management System (CMS) that allows you to put content up on the web without ever knowing a thing about HTML.

Now in its 8th Edition, the acclaimed CMS Report provides a comprehensive overview of Web Content Management products and best practices, including updated, 5- to 12-page comparative surveys of 31 Web CMS packages (26 in the Standard Edition), as well as short descriptions of 15 other products across 7 vendor categories.

The report is ideal for companies looking to develop a business-driven Content Management strategy, or who are considering selecting a CMS product and need unbiased technical assessments, or who simply need a clearly-written guide to this confusing, fast-changing landscape. Further details can been found here: http://www.cmswatch.com/CMS/Report/

Fantastico

Depending on your host, you might find that you already have a selection of CMSes available and ready to install from your cPanel. Log in, and take a look for the Fantastico script installer. If you have it, then you'll be able to read a description of each piece of software you have available to you - try out a few of the CMSes to see which ones you like.

Finding a CMS

If you don't have Fantastico on your host, or you don't like what it offers you, don't worry: there's plenty of choice out there on the web when it comes to CMS software.

For finding free CMS software, a truly excellent resource is www.opensourcecms.com. At that site, you can use the menu at the side of the page to see lots of open source CMSes running before you commit to downloading them and installing them yourself. Textpattern, Drupal and Plone are very popular right now, so they're a good place to start.

If you're considering commercial CMSes as well, then you should take a look at www.cmsmatrix.org, which provides an up-to-date comparison of almost every CMS out there. Be prepared, though, that commercial CMSes can be ridiculously expensive or unnecessarily expensive.

Getting a Custom CMS Built

If nothing out there seems to meet your needs, you might consider having a web designer build you a custom CMS in a scripting language like Perl or PHP. Any web designer worth their salt should have something basic already that they can build whatever features you want onto. This can be really good when it comes to making your website work the way you want, since the CMS will be built around your website to make it as easy as possible for you to modify.

Using a CMS

The whole point of a CMS is to make it much easier to add content to your website and to edit the content that's already there. Once you've installed your CMS, you will generally be able to log into its user system using a special admin password. This will add 'edit' options to the existing pages of the site, as well as giving you a 'new page' link somewhere to allow you to create a new page.

When it comes to actually writing the content of the pages, most CMSes will make it easy for you to copy and paste from programs like Word: they shouldn't require any special HTML formatting. Some will require you to mark words with special symbols if you want them to be bold or italic, but it shouldn't be too troublesome.

Changing the design with a CMS usually involves installing a template into a template folder and then selecting it in the options. Creating your own templates can be complicated, depending on what software you're using, but it shouldn't be any trouble for a web designer, and most template sites will provide designs in a format suitable for this kind of use

Finding a Hosted CMS

Once you know which CMS you want, an alternative to installing it on a web host that doesn't necessarily support it is to do a search and find a host that specifically supports your CMS. You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a host somewhere that will support you - if nothing else, you might try opensourcehost.com, which supports almost every open source CMS out there.

Using a host solution might be a little more expensive, but it will save you a lot of time in configuration and a lot of problems if anything goes wrong. Using a hosted CMS is one of the quickest ways to set up a website: you simply pay the host, log in, add your content and you're away.

About the author:

Original Source: Articles-Galore.com

Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of The Home Income Portal

Home of Serious Online Business Options.

Content Update Management

2009-01-05T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Delphine Campes-Edouard

The phrase ""content is king"" is no longer new, but its message is stronger than ever. The competition among online retailers is fierce. Businesses of any size are scrambling to grab a domain name and take advantage of the growing online shopping industry. To do this, companies are looking for ways to improve online exposure. After all, if internet users can't find your site, they'll spend their money with the competition. One of the most effective ways to ensure a steady flow of web traffic is by maintaining current information on your site. However, for many small companies, editing pages requires technical expertise--and content update management is left to webmasters and programmers. This often results in update delays, leaving stale content to collect dust on the Web. How can you avoid this?

At Systems Web, we offer DotNetNuke, a revolutionary content update management system that puts the site owner in control. This browser-based system enables site owners to edit, add or delete pages in real-time with just a few clicks of the mouse. Systems Web customers are now enjoying the freedom to update or alter their websites around the clock. What does this mean for website performance? Search engine spiders thrive on fresh copy. With the ability to edit or add copy instantly, our customers are experiencing high volumes of traffic and higher conversions.

Need another reason to choose the DotNetNuke solution? Since our content update management system is open source, you are not obligated to stay with Systems Web throughout the life of your site. In fact, if you want to transfer hosting services at any time, you can--and your content management system will stay with you. For more information on how we can help optimize your website, visit our web site at http://www.systems-web.com or call us at 801-733-5800.

About the author: Delphine Campes-Edouard is currently Vice President of Systems Web, a web development company in business since 1999. Systems Web specializes in the open-source Content Management System DotNetNuke, a simple-to-use tool to edit your web site without any knowledge of HTML. Their award-winning web sites are now all using DotNetNuke. Go visit their web site at http://www.systems-web.com.

Content Management Systems Demystified

2009-01-04T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Tim Priebe

A content management system can be puzzling to non-web savvy users. It can even be complicated for web designers and programmers. This is not a guide for the latter, rather it is a quick overview for the former. If you have heard of a content management system (or CMS) and are wondering what one is, this is the place to start.

A CMS can basically fall into one of two categories. It can be a catch-all that is intended to do a million things. Alternatively, it can be very specialized.

To add to the complication, some specialized CMS's can be integrated into a catch-all CMS. We won't really get into that specific situation much here, but I will mention when it's possible.

Also, there are tons and tons of CMS programs out there. I'm only going to be mentioning some that are available for free and are open source. That way, if you read about something here that interests you, you search Google and get it immediately with no monetary risk to you.

Catch-All

PHPNuke

PHP-Nuke is an excellent CMS for a news site. It is divided into modules, each of which performs a specific functions. In addition to modules made by the PHP-Nuke team, there are tons of other modules available from 3rd-party programmers.

The primary module for most sites using PHP-Nuke is the News module. The Reviews module is for reviewing books, movies, or pretty much anything you would want to review. The Advertising module helps you set up banner ads on your website for revenue. A Downloads module is available for web site visitors to download PDF files, movie files, or any type of file. A Recommend Us module allows users to (you guessed it) recommend your website to someone else.

The possibilities are really endless for someone who decides to use PHP-Nuke. However, because it is a catch-all content management system, it isn't for everyone. It may have way more features that you need.

Drupal

Drupal is a CMS that also uses modules. There are lots of modules available. A Story module provides a similar functionality to PHP-Nuke's News module. A Profile module supports configurable user profiles. The Blog module enables keeping an easily updatable blog. An Upload module allows users to attach files to news stories or blog entries.

Again, you end up with the same issues as other catch-all CMS's where this may be more CMS that you really need. But Drupal does have about the same amount of modules out there as PHP-Nuke does. Drupal even does a better job than PHP-Nuke of listing the best modules at their own website.

Image Galleries

Gallery

Gallery is the definitive gallery software. You can upload images, sort into albums, resize, delete, restrict access, etc. You can even plug it into most catch-all CMS's, including both PHP-Nuke and Drupal.

Coppermine

Coppermine is another popular gallery. It has most of the same features as Gallery, but cannot plug into catch-all CMS's as easily as Gallery. Also, if you are wanting visitors to your site to be able create albums, Coppermine currently doesn't support that.

Blogging

bBlog

bBlog is reportedly used by thousands of bloggers world-wide. It allows for text formatting, visitor comments, syndicated RSS feeds (If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it. You don't have to for your visitors to be able to use it.) and categories.

The downside is that bBlog is not quite as powerful as some of its competitors. However, if you have a site that's a pretty straightforward blog, bBlog can be a simple, effective solution.

WordPress

WordPress is one of the most popular free blogging software packages. It's very easy to use, and unlike bBlog, it has a toolbar for text formatting. Of course, it has visitor commenting, searching, categories and other features.

Being much more popular than other blogging systems like bBlog, there are a lot more plugins available from third parties.

Forums

phpBB

phpBB is probably the single most popular feature-rich free forum software out there. It's so popular that it comes pre-installed in some catch-all CMS's, including PHP-Nuke.

The downside is that it can be extremely complicated. You may not need 10 different forums for 500+ users. If not, this software package may be a bit of overkill for you.

WWWBoard

WWWBoard is a simple forum package. It shows all the message subjects on one screen. Once you click on a message subject, you are shown the message itself. From there you can reply, or view another message in the same thread.

Remember that for the majority of the software I've mentioned here, you have to have mySQL database capabilities on your server, in addition to PHP capabilities. If you are using free hosting, you probably don't have that. If you're not sure, contact your web hosting company and ask them.

About the author: Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design . His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com .

Internet Basics: A Content Management System is Like an Interior Decorator

2009-01-03T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: Grant Pasay

Ever see an interior decorator at work? They come into a home and move things around, get rid of old things, bring in new things, and maybe even add new rooms. They do it all with ease and delight. They're masters at changing things and making them look just so.

That's what a Content Management System is like (except it doesn't work on your house, it works on your website).

With a Content Management System (CMS), you can change the content on your website whenever and however you want:

·Change text

·Add/change photos/logos etc.

·Add/remove webpages

And a Content Management System that's good will be WYSIWYG (pronounced wizzywig). WYSIWYG stands for ""What You See Is What You Get,"" which means you just drag and drop things where you want, and all the coding required to make things look like that on your website is done for you automatically without you having to know about it or understand it.

If it sounds great, that's because it is.

So why don't most people have a Content Management System for their website?

Because up until recently, they were too expensive for the average website owner to have. But now there are lots of companies offering Content Management System services, and they fall into two types:

·Hosted solutions: the company has their own software installed on their own servers. You log in to their website and use their software to change your website.

·Software solutions: you buy software to install on your computer. The software lets you open your online webpages and change them instantly. A great example of this is a product made by MacroMedia called Contribute -- it's easy to use and very affordable!

Whether you go with a Hosted or Software solution, you'll love having the ability to make your website exactly the way you want it to be, quickly and easily.

And that's why a Content Management System is like an interior decorator.

About the author: Grant Pasay is a writer, musician, moviemaker, and author of the new eBook, ""The Internet Is Like A Refrigerator: And Other Weird Comparisons That Make it Easy to Understand Everything From AOL to Zip Files.""

Check out Grant's free/brandable ebook at: http://grantpasay.com/refrigerator/

Check out Grant at: http://grantpasay.com/

How to Make your Content Management System / Web Portal more secure durring setup.

2009-01-02T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: Jason Grant

Most people who use a CMS/Portal do so because they are very simple to setup. A web site in a box so to speak. What 99% of the users dont know is that there are ways to make it more secure and less likely to be hacked durring the install process! What i am going to explain here is the simple change one can make durring the install to help keep the database secure! I will be using PostNuke CMS/Portal as my example!

Most people take for granted that the information preloaded in the database setup screen is there and should not be changed. Well the example here is the Database Table Prefix. For Postnuke and PHP-Nuke they come with a default setting of ""nuke"". When setting up these settings you should follow your host's information as far as database host, user name, password, and database name are concerned. On the issue of the database table prefix you can and should change it from ""nuke"" to anything you like.

An example of a good database table prefix is alpha-numeric. ""If for example your first name is Eric and you want to use that as your database table prefix i would use ""3r!c"", or if it were Amanda and you want to use that ""4m4nd4"""". You can use anything you really want for the prefix but for a more secure database dont use the default ""nuke"", or whatever default setting comes with the CMS/Portal you decide to use!

About the author: Jason Grant is lead developer of Custom Portal a content management system written in PHP scripting lanuage.

Web Design and Content Management

2008-12-31T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Jerry Goldfarb

Web design or Web development has become immensely popular over the last few years. In these short few years, many new code standards, technology and design concepts have come to the fore. There has also been an immense amount of knowledge distribution and with it the demand for more functional and independent web design packages and tools.

The knowledge distribution has also led to shift in demand to the content management systems which facilitate content updates. These updates have become immensely necessary to keep the consumer's interest for visiting the web site again and again and also to keep the consumer abreast with latest happenings regarding the company and its products and services.

CMS or Content Management Systems are becoming more and more popular with web design organizations. They have come to realize that CMS is the future of web site design and may be left behind in the industry if they do not begin offering CMS services.

CMS does not in any way spell doom to web designers. CMS certainly saves the company's time it spends on web design and allows tem to put more efforts into marketing. CMS gives the company the freedom it needs by providing them with an ability to update the site when needed, not when convenient. CMS also saves the company's costs by not having to run to the web designer every time an update is needed.

Any typical CMS consists of the following features - Provides an interface to Add/remove/edit pages. - Provides easy interface to update content of each page. - Capability to add or remove images where needed. - Interface to update contact information. - Display updated listings (ex: Mortgage and interest rates). - Facilitates addition of news on the industry everyday.

Inference

A web design organization should seriously consider offering CMS to their clients to prepare for the future. It is still at a nascent stage, so if a web design and development organization is considering developing a customised CMS and marketing it, they can still see success in the near future. More information and tips are available at http://www.cobbwebdesign.com.

About the author: None

Choosing A Web Site Content Management System

2008-12-29T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Michael Park

As the saying goes on the web "Content is King." There is no argument that if you are going to have an effective Internet presence you must have current, dynamic content that gives your visitors reasons to come back time and again. While content may be king there seems to be little discussion about the optimal way to manage this content for small to medium sized businesses. Have you ever noticed that when your building the web site you have plenty of helping hands but once the site is launched and the daily grind of support kicks in it becomes harder and harder to find that help. This is why it is so important to evaluate your Content Management System (CMS) for you web site in the development stages. Every web site has some form of content management system in place, except for those that never change. The CMS can be as informal as an email to the web developer or a multi-million dollar computer program that warehouses data from several different databases. In focusing on small to medium sized businesses I have decided to eliminate the big dollar systems and concentrate on the three major types of CMS's available.

The first type of CMS is the default traditional and most widely used method I call the manual update system. This usually requires sending the information to the web developer. The web developer then utilizes their FTP program and HTML coding skills to make the requested changes. The changes are then reviewed and approved by the requester. The problem with this model is that the web developer is usually a high priced contractor and not an in-house resource. This means that you end paying a hefty price for web site changes. The cost of web site changes becomes a budget issue so you end up reducing the number of changes you make to your site in turn reducing its overall value.

The second type of CMS is the WYSIWYG system. This model allows the web site owner to use one of the graphical web development tools on the market today such as FrontPage or Net Objects Fusion. These are great programs that allow you to make changes to the web site in a graphical look. The changes are simple and if you configure the software correctly you can update your web site with a few clicks of the mouse. The problem with this model is that you become dependent on the WYSIWYG tool. If you can't get to FrontPage then you can't make your change unless you resort back to our first model. But now it gets a little trickier. These WYSIWYG tools create very convoluted HTML code so manual changes can become very time consuming. Another draw-back of the model is that if your company utilizes a tool like this to create their site they are limited to the graphical templates that come with the software. You end up getting a site that looks pretty much like everybody else's. Furthermore, I think it is important for any company planning on building or revamping their web site to meet with a web development company to at least review the best practices for web development.

The final type of CMS is what I like to refer to as an integrated CMS. This type of Content Management Systems is built directly into the site during development. In order to make changes the web owner simply enters in a secure URL, logins and makes changes to the site without having to know any HTML or FTP commands. Changes are instant and all the user needs is a web browser and access to the Internet. This has been a very successful model for our company because it allows us to build web sites that empower the web owners. Web owners can make changes to their sites as often as they like without the need for a high priced web developer. Of course the cost of a site with an integrated CMS will be a little higher but the overall cost of ownership of the site will be dramatically reduced over time.

Regardless of the model you choose web site owners must acknowledge that their web site does come with a Content Management System installed. An educated web site owner will ensure that their site has a CMS that allows them to get the most out their web site.

About the author: Michael Park, MBA MCP CEO/President DelOtto Systems Inc. Internet Development Solutions http://www.delottoinc.com mpark@delottoinc.com (607) 733-9966 Makers of WebHeadlines http://www.webheadlines.com FAX:(607) 271-9655

Content Management Systems Eyeball SEO's

2008-12-28T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Kevin Kantola

Content Management Systems and search engine optimization (SEO) used to be mutually exclusive terms. But the SEO community has been driving the developers of Content Management Systems to integrate more SEO-friendly methodology within their systems.

Content Management Systems (CMS) are a hot topic right now with many corporate websites are turning to these systems to handle thousands of pages of dynamic data that they need to update regularly. Content Management Systems allow information to be added, edited or deleted automatically over the entire website. This can save hundreds of hours in manual updates. Pages of content are generated on the fly using a template driven system.

When Content Management Systems were first developed, most had little regard for the requirements of search engine optimization. For some Content Management Systems this still holds true. Most CMS's, however, now have workarounds to accommodate those wanting to perform search engine optimization on their websites. The workarounds in the Content Management Systems involve two areas: writing search engine friendly URL's and creating individualized title and meta tags per page.

Writing Search Engine Friendly URL's

Some search engines (SE's) and directories like Google and Yahoo! can now read dynamic URL's but there are still a fair amount which can't or can only partially read them. The SE's like to see pages that have unique content per page and may limit the number of variable strings (i.e. ?, =. &) in a URL to assure unique content.

By using a web server module called Mod_Rewrite it is possible to remove the stop characters from the URL string, thus making it more SE-friendly. To do this you will need to add a rule to the .htaccess file. For more information, see the following article on the Apache website: http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod_rewrite.html

Creating Individualized Title and Meta Tags

Some Content Management Systems such the latest release from Hot Banana Software boast full integration with SEO performance such as offering Conversion Tracking tool, Robots.txt and Meta Tag Management. Other CMS's such as PostNuke.com is struggling to catch up and offer workarounds to make their system more flexible and SE-friendly.

PostNuke.com says that their next version (.8 release at this writing) will be fully SEO compliant. Until then, they recommend the pnMeta module, which will give control over the title, keyword and description tags over an individual page. Dynamically generated meta tag information, however, is not recommended. For more information see: http://www.miragelab.com/News+article-sid-19.phtml

What Does CMS Mean For SEO's?

Search engine optimization experts and others using SEO techniques will need to work closely with Webmasters and developers who use Content Management Systems on their web properties. This collaborative effort is necessary to insure that URL's are SE-friendly and that unique title and meta tags are severed up for each optimized page. A large website with tons of valuable content, should rank well in the search engines according to the SE's guidelines and the CMS technology would do well not to inhibit this, but rather would do well to promote good search engine rankings for large websites.

SEO Marketing Company

Kevin Kantola is the CEO of SEO Resource, a California search engine optimization company, and has published many articles over the past 20 years.

When CMS Met SEO - Using the Power of Content Management Systems

2008-12-26T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Gobala Krishnan

Search Engine Optimization revolves around providing useful, unique content on your website and making sure that search engines can find and understand it easily. 'Organic SEO' as it is called, puts emphasis on optimizing hundreds of keyword rich content pages as 'spider-bait' for search engines, with Google being the most popular target.

While organic SEO in itself boils down to a few simple techniques and a lot of hard work, the most tedious of those is always adding and managing content. If you're a webmaster lost in a world of dead links, missing pages, distorted images and a site structure that beats any maze, you're not alone. Such is the nightmare that many Dreamveawer-and-Notepad type of webmasters hide.

What is CMS?

CMS, or Content Management Systems, is a great alternative to using manual WYSIWYG HTML editors, website builders, and all the others kinds of expensive website tools in the market. CMS applied solely to the purpose of creating and managing websites are also knows as Web Management Systems. A short excerpt from StepTwo.com on the definitions of CMS:

"" A content management system (CMS) supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information. It covers the complete lifecycle of the pages on your site, from providing simple tools to create the content, through to publishing, and finally to archiving. It also provides the ability to manage the structure of the site, the appearance of the published pages, and the navigation provided to the users.""

Advantages Of Using CMS for Your Website

Here are a few often overlooked advantages of using CMS for your web project, from a search engine marketing point of view:

1) Easily Create, Publish and Manage Content

With page editors that resemble a word processor program, adding content with a CMS interface is simple and fun. Most CMS software also allows you to change the location of your content pages and links easily, while the back end processes takes care of updating the links throughout your site.

Done manually, reorganizing a website's content, particularly a large one, can cause a webmaster some pretty restless nights.

CMS also allows the website owner to outsource content remotely from willing contributors. With built in access level hierarchies, users can register as Authors and start submitting articles and news. This is then automatically sent to the next in line, the Manager, and on to the Editor and finally the Publisher or Administrator, and then it can be automatically published on the front page as new content.

And SEO specialists know that search engines love new content, above everything else.

2) Create a Solid Website Structure

While search engine spiders can maneuver your website like a human being can't, they too are fond of websites with good structures and easy-to-find content. Most CMS software can automatically create menus and navigation from categories that you set. Once you create a new category or subcategory, you can instantly publish it on all your pages, with the click of a button.

According to popular SEO wisdom, search engines spiders do not index pages more than 3-4 levels deep on your website structure. In response to this, some CMS software also allows you to put all your content on the first level, for example ""http://www.yoursite.com/article236.html'. However, using the CMS' control panel, you will still be able to see all content within their respective folders and subcategories.

3) Search Engine Friendly Capabilities

This is perhaps the most significant development in Content Management Systems. As more businesspeople and SEO begin to dig deep into CMS, the need for spider-friendly pages has taken center stage. Recent advancements have enabled CMS users to install modules (sometimes already built in) to make it appealing to search engines. The latest CMS software can create keyword rich pages, titles, meta tags and even anchor text.

That, coupled with advanced search engine spiders being able to go deep into databases to index pages, is set to turn Content Management Systems into the next big organic SEO tool. In fact, search engine friendly CMS even makes organic SEO specialists, sad to say, sort of 'obsolete'.

Make CMS Work for Your Web Business

Most content management systems are available for free, or at a minimum costs, under the GNU General Public License (http://www.gnu.org/). While there are literally hundreds of available CMS out in the market, these websites are a good guide for choosing a right one for your website or internet business:

Compare various CMS : http://www.cmsmatrix.org

Try a CMS: http://www.opensourcecms.com /

Search-engine Friendly CMS: http://pss.sfidreamteam.com

About the author: Gobala Krishnan is a writer, internet business entrepreneur and marketer. Visit http://www.home-business-association.com today for important and unique tips on building an Internet Business.

Presentation Pitfalls: Top 10 Content Management Mistakes

2008-12-25T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Melissa Mayers Lewis

Top 10 Content Management Mistakes by Melissa Lewis

Here, David Letterman style, are what I consider to be the Top 10 most common mistakes presenters make when organizing and preparing their content:

10) Not setting the stage.

An introduction should be more than just ""Hello. Today we'll be discussing _____."" If you just jump into the content without setting up the presentation, it can get you off to a jumpy, disjointed start. An introduction should give the audience a sense of who you are, what you're there to do and what's in it for them to listen.

9) Using ineffective notes.

It's almost always wise to have some notes handy to make sure you don't forget anything important, but if your notes are hard to follow or are distracting for the audience, they defeat the purpose. Trying to read from a crowded page of word-for-word narrative is a killer because you look down and have trouble looking up for fear that you'll never find your place again. Disorganized papers or cards can be cumbersome and messy. Keep clear, concise key-word-or-key-phrase-only notes handy to simply to jog your memory, not serve as an unnecessary crutch.

8) Using jargon or acronyms that leave the audience bewildered.

When a listener hears a word or phrase he/she is not familiar with it causes what I call a ""cerebral derailment"". The listener's mind is chugging along happily with you until he/she hears an unfamiliar term and suddenly the mind jumps the tracks to wonder, ""What does that mean?"" Always define acronyms (even if you're sure they know what the letters stand for) and, when in doubt, define any terms that could possibly be unfamiliar.

7) Planning backwards.

Many people begin to prepare a presentation by thinking, ""What do I have that's cool?"" (meaning visual aids, support points, stories, examples, etc.) Then they ask themselves, ""How can I work it in?"" This is backwards. Decide on what you want to accomplish and then ask ""What do I have in the way of support that would help me meet that objective?"" If you plan backwards you may very well end up with a bunch of interesting information that is of no value to the listeners.

6) Not knowing your objective and/or not sharing it.

In addition to being clear on the point you want to make, you should also be clear on the objective you wish to achieve. Do you want the audience to make a decision? Show them the options and ask for a decision. If you need their cooperation, make sure you explain why you need them and how they can help you. If your goal is to familiarize them with a topic, make that clear so you don't get bogged down in excess detail. Both you and your audience should be clear on what you're there to accomplish.

5) Not providing ""signposts"".

Imagine that you can get a new set of information two ways: 1) you can read it in a report or 2) you can listen to it in a presentation. What advantages do you have when you're reading that you don't have when you're listening?

You can go at your own pace

You can re-read things that you found confusing

You can skip sections that don't interest you

You can see when a new topic begins (because of section titles or white space)

You can make notes

You can file it away for future reference.

None of these options are available to your listeners. To the audience, your ideas are just sounds in the ether, so to make up for the lack of these advantages, you need to provide signposts to let us know where you are. Visual aids can help, but remember to include phrases like ""Now, let's move on to point #2"", ""That's all for the background, now let's move on to the current status,"" or ""Let me just wrap up."" These little phrases take very little time but do wonders for helping your audience stay with you.

4) Having complex, hard-to-read visual aids.

Your visual aids should be just that--aids. They should HELP you get your message across. Complicated, crowded, hard-to-read visual aids compete with you for your audience's attention. Keep them simple enough that listeners have a reason to stick around and listen to YOU.

3) Not having an obvious, logical structure.

Meandering from point to point can be very frustrating to a listener. Have your information laid out in a logical structure and share that structure with the listeners up front so they know where you're headed.

2) Not making the POINT clear up front.

There's nothing more frustrating to a listener than to sit there thinking, ""OK, so what's your point?!"" Remember, you know your material cold. The listeners don't. Sometimes you have to smack them between the eyes with the point, as in, ""If you only remember one thing from my presentation, I want it to be __________________."" Don't wait until the end to present your point with a dramatic flourish. Make your point right up front and spend the rest of the time supporting that point.

And the #1 content management mistake. . .

1) Including too much information.

It's tempting to want to cram all the information possible into the heads of your listeners, but ironically, it's possible that the more information you include, the less they learn. Think of a rainstorm. When rain is pouring down, much of it runs off before it can soak into the soil. The water is wasted because there was simply too much of it to take in. Whereas, a slow, steady rain has a chance to soak in thoroughly. It's far better to include half as much information and have them retain most of it, than to squeeze in every imaginable tidbit and have 90% of the information wind up as runoff.

All of these problems are common. Luckily, with awareness and a few simple adjustments, they are easily overcome.

About the author: Melissa Lewis turns traditional thinking about public speaking upside down to give people more comfort, confidence and charisma in front of groups. She is a former comic actress, a certified facilitator of SPEAKING CIRCLES(R), president-elect of the National Speakers Association Kansas City Chapter and author of the soon-to-be-released book, Upside Down Speaking. For more information call (913) 341-1241 or visit www.upsidedownspeaking.com.

What is a content management system and Why do i need one?

2008-12-24T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Polly Nelson

This article introduces content management systems and gives an overview of their features and benefits. It should be read by anyone unsure of quite what a CMS can do for them.

What is a CMS? A content management system is a piece of software that allows you to edit the content on your website without having any web design skills.

In the first instance, a web designer creates a series of CMS templates which your pages are dropped into. You then use a simple interface to add, edit or delete the content on your pages. You can also quickly and easily create new pages yourself.

Why do I need one? There are obvious benefits to installing a CMS. Your website need not change in style at all: it can simply be re-created in the CMS. You can then update it yourself as often as you like, without the need to call a web design company and pay for the changes each time.

If you update your website on a regular basis, and do not currently use a CMS, you could save a lot of time and money by implementing one. If you do not yet have a website and are about to have one developed, you should think very carefully about what you will be using it for. To stay competitive in this day and age, websites need to be far more than a static brochure. If you think you will be updating your content more than a couple of times each month, creating your website using a CMS is highly recommended.

If you do not update your website at all, you should be asking yourself whether you ought to start. If your customers see the same thing each time they visit your website, they will quickly stop visiting. A CMS will allow you to quickly and easily transform your website into an interesting and dynamic marketing tool.

What features do they offer? A huge variety. Most CMS' are available in a few different versions with differing levels of functionality. Obviously the ability to update content is shared by all systems, but some other features that CMS' can offer are: access rights management and content approval; dual or multi-lingual functionality; dynamic site maps; e-commerce; email alerts; form creation and management; image optimisation and processing; meta-tag updating; search functionality; site security; standards and accessibility compliance; statistical reports; versioning...

This is not an exhaustive list and not all CMS' will offer the above features. However with such a wide variety of systems available, you should ensure you take some time to find the one that is right for your business.

What about pricing? This will largely depend on the size of your website, the number of users that will be updating it through the CMS and the amount of functionality you require.

As a (very) rough pricing guide; CMS' suitable for SME's range from as little as £350 per user to as much as £30,000. For larger businesses, enterprise level CMS' start at around £30,000 and go right up to around £250,000.

With such a huge variety of systems and pricing; it is highly recommended that you look around and get some advice before purchasing one.

Where can I get one? You can get in touch with the CMS supplier if you know which is right for you. Alternatively, you can get in touch with a software company or consultant such as us - we'll be happy to advise you on the best way forward. Happy updating...

This article is copyright Fire Without Smoke Software 2003. Permission must be sought from www.fwoss.com or info@fwoss.com for any reproduction.

About the author: Polly is the research director for Fire Without Smoke Software Ltd (FWOSS).

Selecting a Content Management System

2008-12-23T03:04:00.000-08:00

Author: Ric Shreves

There's recently been a lot of discussion and considerable interest in content management systems. Buyers are starting to ask for these solutions from vendors with greater regularity and the buyers are clearly better informed than in the past. Still the issue that comes up again and again is, how do you know which content management system (CMS) is right for you?

Begin with a needs analysis. Define your business goals, prioritise them, and then assess what features or tools are needed to help you reach those goals. At a later point, once pricing research is under way, you can then assess the price of features relative to the priorities of the goals and come up with the basis of an intelligible cost-benefit analysis.

Start by examining the nature of your site. Is it a portal? A marketing exercise? An e-commerce site? These questions will set the outer boundaries for defining the type of system you need. A marketing site will demand far less from a system than a portal. Moreover, security, support, and data integrity issues will be dominant concerns for any firm involved in e-commerce.

Consider not only your short term needs but also your long term goals. Many of the systems that are in the market today are modular. This allows you the flexibility to start with only the features you need to meet your short term goals, then to expand the system as justification (or necessity) develops.

Accordingly, look at the modules offered by the vendor and make an assessment of whether the system will suit your planned future expansion. It is foolish to try to build it all at once as the cost will be high and the time line extended. It is better to start conservatively with a modular system that you can grow into.

When shopping for systems, it is best to approach the vendor with a shopping list of features that you require/desire. Mature systems will offer more modules, but make sure you demo the modules you are interested in, as implementations of similar functionalities tend to vary more than you might expect.

While many systems support basic modules, like membership tracking or online polls and surveys, there are other features which are harder to find and which may narrow your choices significantly if required. Key features you should be aware of include: multi-lingual support, archiving and roll back, and syndication. If your site requires one or more of these more advanced functions, you will find the number of choices left for your review has dwindled (and prices have crept up, too).

Another factor to consider is dependencies on other software packages. Some systems, like the Microsoft CMS, require you to license not only the CMS product, but a number of other related products which are required for the CMS to work properly. Make sure you check database requirements, server and OS requirements, and whether third party components are needed to create templates or maintain the site in the future. And of course, never forget those frequently shocking consulting fees that are often part and parcel of any major implementation. Add it all up and you will find that some systems which may initially appear to be attractively priced are, in fact, quite expensive.

One issue many companies fail to consider is how well the CMS can be tailored to fit the firm's existing work flow. Most systems will give you some flexibility in assigning roles and permissions. Systems vary in complexity from offering only a set of pre-defined roles to completely customisable user systems. Permissions, editorial review, and scheduling are related concepts: Does your firm need to put content through a review and permissions phase and does your firm need to schedule start/stop days or pre-schedule content (load the content before the start date)? Look for a system that matches, or can be tailored to match, your existing structure and work flows, otherwise you will face challenges in modifying offline processes and training staff.

There's no magic formula for finding the right CMS. The market is very fragmented and many systems use similar labels to provide widely disparate levels of functionality. It is essential that you be proactive about approaching vendors and go in the door knowing what you need _ put the burden on them to show that they can meet your needs. Have clear requirements and research best practices so that you are equipped to deal with this sometimes and often expensive buying decision.

written by: Ric Shreves, http://www.waterandstone.com

About the author: Ric Shreves is an Internet consultant and author specializing in web technologies. He is a partner in Water & Stone, a web design agency focused on Mambo, osCommerce, and other open source tools. Read more of his work online at: http://www.waterandstone.com.

Choosing A Web Site Content Management System

2008-12-18T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Michael Park

As the saying goes on the web ""Content is King."" There is no argument that if you are going to have an effective Internet presence you must have current, dynamic content that gives your visitors reasons to come back time and again. While content may be king there seems to be little discussion about the optimal way to manage this content for small to medium sized businesses. Have you ever noticed that when your building the web site you have plenty of helping hands but once the site is launched and the daily grind of support kicks in it becomes harder and harder to find that help. This is why it is so important to evaluate your Content Management System (CMS) for you web site in the development stages. Every web site has some form of content management system in place, except for those that never change. The CMS can be as informal as an email to the web developer or a multi-million dollar computer program that warehouses data from several different databases. In focusing on small to medium sized businesses I have decided to eliminate the big dollar systems and concentrate on the three major types of CMS's available.

The second type of CMS is the WYSIWYG system. This model allows the web site owner to use one of the graphical web development tools on the market today such as FrontPage or Net Objects Fusion. These are great programs that allow you to make changes to the web site in a graphical look. The changes are simple and if you configure the software correctly you can update your web site with a few clicks of the mouse. The problem with this model is that you become dependent on the WYSIWYG tool. If you can't get to FrontPage then you can't make your change unless you resort back to our first model. But now it gets a little trickier. These WYSIWYG tools create very convoluted HTML code so manual changes can become very time consuming. Another draw-back of the model is that if your company utilizes a tool like this to create their site they may limit themselves to the graphical templates that come with the software. You end up getting a site that looks pretty much like everybody else's. Furthermore, I think it is important for any company planning on building or revamping their web site to meet with a web development company to at least review the best practices for web development.

Regardless of the model they choose, web site owners must acknowledge that their web site does come with a Content Management System installed. An educated web site owner will ensure that their site has a CMS that allows them to get the most out their web site.

About the author: Michael Park, MBA MCP Chief Technical Officer 4net Software, Inc. Internet Development Solutions http://www.4netsoftware.com mpark@4netsoftware.com

Content Management Systems (CMS)

2008-12-17T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Viraj Weerawardena

Content Management? What's that you may ask - especially when you are already saturated with HTML, DHTML, PHP, ASP and the lot.

Content Management is basically a system that automates most of what you do manually on-line without ever opening up your HTML editor !

Once you have a Content Management System in place, you can publish articles, delete or edit content, manage passwords, give administrative access, put up links, photos and manage a complete website without ever knowing the meaning of HTML. Basically, if you can click a mouse you can manage even a site like Amazon. Practically all e-commerce enabled websites with shopping carts etc., have Content Management Systems in place. Access to Content Management is by a password protected administrative panel.

The biggest advantage of a Content Management System is that you can operate it from a remote location. Its just like checking your email on Yahoo or Hotmail with the only requirement being access to the Internet. For instance, say you are based in the US, you can actually edit your website while at a coffee bar in New Zealand. So if you have a successful affiliate website, you can be literally touring the world, and occasionally peeping into your webiste just to see how many sales you've made.

The disadvantage of having a Content Management System is that it allows very little structural modifications once the website is up and running. This is fine if you are a web-design expert but if you have got your website designed professionally that entails major revisions to the website which will cost you a lot. Web design companies generally fleece their clients on modifications and that's why major companies have their own IT departments manage their corporate websites.

You now have a broader perspective on what options you have in managing your website should you decide to migrate to a higher level of web management.

*** You may republish this article in any format by crediting the author and the website - http://www.ebookswebmart.com

About the author: The author is an affiliate marketeer and owner of http://www.ebookswebmart.com - a website that provides information and resources on ebook publishing in addition to over 10,000 ebooks on offer.

CRM AND SMALL BUSINESSES

2008-12-16T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Bob McElwain

CRM (Customer Relationships Management) appears to mean different things to different people. I haven't seen two definitions that really agree. The giant companies have many goals when they speak of CRM. One that annoys me, that continues to crop up, is the notion of immediate software response to customer requests. Sounds great. But when you read the fine print, it also means less one-to-one company to customer interaction. This is not a direction in which a small business wants to move.

In the end, what these million dollar CRM systems do or do not do, matters little to small businesses. The price tag is too high for most.

Is ""Personalization"" The Useful Part?

The better approach may be to look at some aspects of CRM to see what can be done with software on our website to provide our visitors and customers with a more pleasant and enjoyable experience. It may help to exit the CRM derby, stroll down a related path, and think of only part of it: personalization.

Neat things flow forth from this orientation. For example, maybe invite visitors to check on things new since their last visit. Or on specials for the day, specifically tailored to this visitor in some way. Or when a customer clicks a form to reorder, fill the entry fields with data provided earlier. A great time saver for the customer, something they will appreciate. Simple, effective things such as these can be abstracted from CRM models at modest cost.

Large Scale Models

Large firms with bucks to burn can make personalization central to a new kind of website. At a minimum, each page can address the visitor by name. At the extreme, the entire site can be presented according to previous information collected about this visitor. For example, if the visitor has kids, and a appropriate new product is available, it can be offered. And not offered to another visitor without children.

Building a website on the fly is a bit heavy for a small business. The coding challenge alone is heavy. The price tag for software is high.

Still, a small business can implement simple ideas as suggested above. And more will spring from these.

For Starters

As a fellow into site performance and promotion, I'm always leery of anything that may annoy a visitor. Hits are so hard to get, there's just no point in inviting anybody to leave. So I'm very concerned about any technology that risks turning visitors away.

I used a Pentium II PC for almost two years. Beginning about a year back, some sites would not allow me to visit because I didn't have the latest and greatest. Maybe the giants can get away with this, but a small business can not afford to lose even one visitor.

In most cases, the reason I could not visit was that my browsers could not handle the trick JavaScript in place. I've a new system now, just 4 months old. A couple of days back I ran into a site that told me my software is out of date.

I have the latest versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape running. That is, the latest what work. (I couldn't get IE 5.5 to stop locking up my new system. And I don't know of anyone who has Netscape 6.1 running yet; I couldn't make it work.)

To exclude any visitor because of the way a site is put together or the technology used, makes no sense to me at all. A small business can not afford this risk.

Let's Keep It Super Simple

Your site must seek to embrace all visitors, regardless of their software or hardware. So what is needed to make such systems work is a very simple recognition procedure. It might go like this.

When a visitor arrives, put up a page in straight HTML, without any bells and whistles that would break even older browsers. (My wife still uses Win 3.1 on a 486, and won't even talk of upgrading.)

Once the page is loaded, try running a brief JavaScript to check for a cookie. If the script fails, fall back and display only HTML pages. If the script runs, but does not find a cookie, ask the visitor if they would like a personalized visit about the site. If no, forget it. If yes, get the information, save it, and use it. And finally, given a read of a cookie, personalize as possible.

Will Bontrager , a top flight programmer, sees no problem in accomplishing the above. Further, he has a plan for holding costs down. Use a standard database with all possible fields, all of which will not be needed by a given site. By holding to a standard format, the great expense of a customized database installation is avoided. While Will did not put a price on it, a few hundred dollars might be ample.

With the database in place, JavaScript can handle a vast array of personalization functions. If you don't want to get into writing this kind of code, libraries and code generators will provide you with workable code that can be cut and pasted into your pages. And, of course, there are people like Will, who will produce precisely what you need.

It's Past Time To Be Thinking

I ignored early announcements of CRM because there did not seem to be much of value to a small business. Which is the area in which I and my clients work.

I see now, though, that there are some things that can be done in a simple, straightforward way. So long as we do not reject any visitor for lack of the latest tools, we can make the visit to our site more personal and more enjoyable for many.

About the author: Bob McElwain Want to build a winning site? Improve one you already have? Fix one that's busted? Get ANSWERS. Subscribe to ""STAT News"" now! mailto:join-stat@lyris.dundee.net Web marketing and consulting since 1993 Site: Phone: 209-742-6349

CRM...And The Real World - Part 1.

2008-12-15T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Roger J. Burke

Here is my latest article. It may be freely used in ezines, on websites or in e-books, as long as the Resource Box is left intact.

I would appreciate notification of where it was used, and if possible, a copy of the ezine or newsletter that it was used in. Please send notification mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com

I hate computers.

Now, coming from a person who's been involved with them since 1967, you might think that's a bit over the top.

Well...it's not *actually* the computers that's the problem, of course, it's the software - the programs that run in them, that I *really* hate.

I also hate ATMs. Now, that's a double whammy for the poor, dumb machines!

But, like computers on the desk, ATMs are everywhere, and by golly, there're *so* convenient, aren't they? However, now that we have ATMs and computers in an unholy alliance, specifically designed to ruin your day at any nanosecond, I was happy - *well, almost* - when I had to turn to the customer service desk at my local bank for help.

Y'see, the ATM had just swallowed my cash card and had issued this terse message: ""Invalid transaction - card retained"", to be immediately followed by another: ""Please use another card and try again."" Huh? I didn't *have* another card on me right now, did I! And, I knew that there was sufficient money in the account...

Naturally I was annoyed but, resisting the urge to give it a Coke machine kick, I went instead to the customer service desk to sort the problem out. Here, I thought, I'd get the attention I deserve as a good customer, you know, talk to a *real* person, blah, blah, blah...

Ever been to la-la land? Well, we all get there, once in a while I guess, but...at 9.30 in the morning? Bear with me, for a few moments, while I relate the nadir of Customer Relationship Management - aka CRM for all internet aficionados - a la local bank style...

ME: ""Look...er...my son, Danny Burke, asked me to get some money from the machine, and that one"" - me pointing accusingly -""just upped and took it. Would you be able to help, please?"" I smile helpfully (I tried to look a bit sheepish also - that sometimes helps).

SHE: ""You shouldn't have done that!"" Slightly frowning, and a bit of a sharp note to her voice.

ME (nonplussed, eyebrows raised): ""Huh...what...oh, yes, well, he gave me his PIN...he's in school now"" - glancing at my watch - ""so, he can't be...""

SHE (cutting in): ""You're not supposed to use his PIN - unless of course you're AUTHORIZED."" Voice definitely rising now, but not yet shrill. Glares at me, accusingly.

ME (defensively and now, a bit angry): ""Hey...I know about PINs and their use...and I don't need a lecture from you!"" (glaring back now). I had been part of the online systems development team, at one of the major Canadian banks, in the mid 70s...so, I knew whereof I spoke.

SHE (slightly retreating now): ""Well!"" A pause. ""Well, where is the card, you say?"" I point to the machine again. ""Well, I suppose I'll go and get it...one moment...please"" (almost an afterthought, by the sound of it).

She stalks off. Idly, I contemplate darkly how hard I can jam some old receipts down an ATM slot when I leave...if I ever get outta here, as the band said, yeah, if I *ever* get outta here...where are *my* wings, I wonder?

Her shrill voice breaks my vengeful reverie.

SHE: ""Well, here it is,"" waving it about triumphantly, ""but you can't have the card back. It's *not* yours, you know...you'll have to get authorization from your son...a letter...to pick it up."" Emphatically, she puts the card in a drawer, slams it shut. Thud! Smiling now, full set of ivories, dripping insincerity.

ME: ""Huh...what?"" (I know, I know...I tend to repeat myself!) But, before I could go on...

SHE: ""Anyway, what happened? Why did the ATM take the card? Did you enter something incorrectly?"" I couldn't believe her accusing tone. At any moment, I expected her to start shaking her finger at me.

I look at her blankly, but I'm thinking. Now that was the funny thing about this whole mess - I'd followed everything to the letter...er, number: key in PIN, hit WITHDRAW CASH, select correct account...hmmm, must be SAVINGS, Danny has no CHEQUE account, but just after I key-entered 140, the ATM issued the above messages and ate the card. That's it...kaput! I felt that I'd just been executed. Maybe it was some kind of read error on the unit? Most unlikely...the card had already been accepted - PIN, account, the lot! But, what then?

ME (finally shrugging, shaking my head): ""Hmmm...well, no...there's no obvious reason...that I can think of..."" Brow furrows, bites lip pensively.

SHE (primly): ""Never mind, never MIND, either fill this form out for a new card"", handing me another bank form, as if I didn't have enough already, ""or get your son to bring a letter back...and then you can get the card back!"" She said the last with more false bonhomie, teeth glittering.

As I walked away muttering, I glanced back at the large sign above the area: ""Customer Service Desk"". Some service, I thought; more like ""Customer Punishment Area - SFA (that's Self Flagellation Acceptable)""! My only option now was to return with some sort of letter to satisfy these goons and their procedures...so much for *this* bank's customer relationship management program.

That woman on the service desk failed miserably at CRM: the cardinal rule is that the customer is always right, even when s/he's wrong. She didn't *have* to tell me that using another's PIN is not recommended; from Spitzbergen to Tierra del Fuego, everybody knows *that*, already! Additionally, she didn't even have the courtesy to address me by my name...

And, to cap it all, instead of apologizing to *me* for the inconvenience, she made me feel as though I had been the one to inconvenience *her*. Some service, huh?

Y'see, she was intent *only* on enforcing procedure, even to my detriment, instead of trying to get to the root cause of the problem...which, by the way, may also be happening to other customers. Even as I speak...

I was thinking about *that* as I drove back home, but put it aside, while I enlisted the aid of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. First things first, after all: get the card back, then worry about why I was card-swiped! This was going to be interesting, I thought, as I knew that Sherry had already had a run-in with the personnel in *that* particular branch some months ago...

Oh, the joys of online banking! ;-)

P.S. Part 2 will complete this sorry saga...

About the author: Roger Burke has been involved with computers since 1967, and has managed to break quite a few, over the years. He, and his wife Sherry, are now actively engaged in online self-publishing and promoting specific affiliate programs at http://online-wealth.com . If you have any comments or questions about this article, please send emails to mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com . Copyright 2001, Online-Wealth. All rights reserved.

YOU AND CRM

2008-12-14T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Bob McElwain

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is on the tip of a lot of tongues these days, of those hoping to break through into a new and better way of doing business. But the real strength of this idea isn't new at all. In plain English it simply means putting your customers first. Many successful merchants have utilized this approach for years. They even know it's far better to refer a customer to a competitor who can provide what they need, than to seek to sell something in stock that isn't going to make it in the long run. This is not fancy theory. It works. Likely the best hardware store in your neighborhood is run with customer support as a primary, interwoven throughout all aspects of the business.

Who Will Run The Show? Systems Or People?

What is new about CRM as the term is being used today is the hope of implementing a technology on a website that emulates the interactivity a visitor feels in an offline shop. I'm a bit skeptical about the outcome of current efforts. As a professional programmer for many years, I've seen first hand how seldom usability is considered in developing software. Anything the theorist or techie types get a hold of tends to be system driven, as opposed to people directed.

To catch a glimpse of what I mean, think of a computer program you use often. Chances are there are some things it does not do in the way you want it done. For example, one of my programs uses a spell checker. But every time I start it up, it jumps into the middle of the text window. This means I can't see the misspelled word or the context within which it is used. So I have to move the window. Every time I run the program.

This is nonsense, for the consensus is windows moved or adjusted should reopen as they were left. Or at least there should be an option to request this behavior. What do you suppose my chances are of getting a change in this program? Zip. And that's fact. We are all invited to accept what is offered on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

Will CRM Work?

This is my concern with increased interest in the technological side of CRM. My hunch is much of it will be implemented with a similar attitude: We hope you like it because that's it, if you want to play in our sandbox.

To the extent technology is implemented in such fashion, it is doomed to fail. How many sites have you abandoned because you couldn't remember some password? Or even worse, how many sites have you encountered that won't let you set up a new one so you can get on with business? Nuts.

Can We Afford It?

Even if all works out nicely, this technology won't be cheap. The underlying structure depends upon a comprehensive database, and nobody is giving this kind of software away. My hunch is that prices will be out of reach for small one-person businesses, at least until they are able to produce strong profits. For those just getting started, forget it. We're talking of dollars in the thousands at least.

So What's One To Do?

You don't have to wait on technology to implement CRM. As suggested earlier, it's a way of doing business that works. Simply be sure customer support and satisfaction is the fundamental goal of your company. Sure you want to sell, but not at the expense of this core aspect of your business.

Here's a partial list of things you can do right now to demonstrate that for your company, your customer comes first.

> Be sure site content is complete and easy to read.

> Make certain navigation is a dead cinch.

> Keep order forms as simple as possible.

> Throughout your site, encourage feedback in every possible way.

> Respond quickly to email. Be sure you have answered the question completely. And as possible, anticipate and respond to other possible concerns as related to the question.

> Provide complete contact info at the bottom of every page on your site. And yes, you must include a street address and a phone number, preferably an 800 number that is answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, by someone who knows what they are about.

> Provide a fax number as well; some people love paper.

> Follow up on all queries and sales. Make certain a high level of satisfaction has been generated.

> Be sure your product or service delivers more than expected.

> Offer an unbeatable guarantee. 12 months has merit in that customers will not feel hurried into making a decision. And later they may not feel comfortable making a request.

CRM Technology

I'm looking forward to seeing such systems in action. And I hope they are as effective as those designing them claim they will be. To achieve this goal, designs must be customer directed and controlled.

But with or without such tools, there is a lot we can do right now to demonstrate our concern for our customers. Our bottom line reflects how well we are doing in this matter.

CRM in SmallBiz: Disappointing Misconceptions

2008-12-13T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Dinko Bacun

In the last few months there has been quite a lot of discussion on CRM (customer relationship management) solutions in the forums and ezines. Although it is extremely positive that people finally started to talk about the one concept that will make the future of a business successful or unsuccessful, there are quite a few misconceptions about the term. Those misconceptions make people lose time and energy finding solutions in areas they should not be even searching, instead in concentrating on the really important things. First, the simplest and the least obvious: Customer Relationship Management is about RELATIONS between people (yes, business is done by people, not companies). It is NOT technology. Business did exist before computers, so relations between business people existed before computers, i.e. CRM was not invented with the invention of computers (just the name CRM was). The good practices of relating with your customer did not become obsolete with the introduction of computers, though the TOOLS changed. So we use the same practices, but we take advantage of the possibilities that technology gives. It certainly is a different experience for the buyer if he is met on the web site by a human voice or keyboard chat (LivePerson, FireTalk, HumanClick) which is what technology now makes possible. The technology enables us to see how the customer is navigating through the site, and, if we want to, interrupt him and offer assistance. But I wonder whether the customer will welcome that. If you are a salesman in a brick and mortar store, you would watch the expression of the customer and, based on that, decide to approach him or not. On the net you cannot see his face (it's questionable if he'll let you even if possible). In any case, CRM is NOT technology, so you will not find your CRM solution among SW vendors. Which brings us to the misconception number two. Business people tend to search for a CRM solution among SW developers and vendors. ""They know the technology, which I (the business manager) don't know, so they will know my needs and how to implement it"". If a business manager would object to such a suggestion he would be labeled ""old"" and ""overdue"". In today fast business lane, fortunes are made fast, and young managers tend to ""buy"" a CRM software solution. CRM should already be in place, functioning, BEFORE starting IT implementation (who has to forward which info to whom to be ready for who, when? Who has to respond to what in how much time?). CRM Software solution is only a TOOL for procedures already in place. Let me draw a parallel. With the invention of cars, the way we conduct business changed. We could do much more business and do it better. But never once, it occurred to us to let auto designers lead and ENFORCE the way we are building relations with our customers. So why does everybody think that software designers are capable of that? They might be brilliant SW developers, but still they wouldn't know how to better customer retention in a company manufacturing furniture. So why do we try to do that? Because it is easier not to lose time over enforcement of customer retention rules in our own company, when we can pay someone to do it. Because we have the money, but we don't have TIME. Well, we can't do that. We cannot avoid our involvement in the process (and our hours, of course), although I know most of you didn't want to hear this. Which brings us to the misconception number three. You search for an SW solution for your CRM, buy it, and let those people do their job. As good manager, you organize weekly meetings to have your finger on things. Because you selected a SW vendor which is a respectable company, the first thing those people do, is to organize internal audit. They pass out forms to people in different departments, to find out exactly what are the needs of different parts of your company. Alternatively, they conduct interviews. And that is good. That is much better then them trying to force their ""proven"" flow of documentation upon your company. But what they are actually doing is LEARNING the way your company functions. And the teaching is done by people who work in each department, that most probably, don't have the whole picture. So the integration of the whole picture is done by the SW vendor. Can they learn in a fortnight or a month? I would suggest another approach. Find an ""oldie"" within your company, preferably one year from retirement. The one that does know how your company lives, who preferably worked a bit in sales, a bit in procurement and a bit in support or reclamation. If he doesn't like computers, all the better. If he later likes the results, you can be sure everyone else will. Assign him full time as a liaison, and let him guide the implementation. Have everyone know all the doors must be kept open for him. Remember, CRM implementation is about KNOWLEDGE of how your company functions. It is about how EXISTING customer care procedures (remember misconception number one?) are automated (complemented, modified) by computers. And if there is no such person(s) within your company? Well, that leaves YOU. I bet you didn't want to hear this, but remember that everyday customer relation procedures will be done by your people, not the SW vendor. Which brings us to misconception number four. CRM is sales automation. No, no, no, it is customer support. No, no, no, it's the lady who says hello answering the phone on the helpdesk. No, no, no, it's the operator who chats with the potential customer on the web site. Actually, it is all of the above. In a company, sales people seldom talk with the support people. And vice versa. As if those were two different non competing companies so they have little to talk about. Last few months everybody talks about customer retention. Which is normal as it is much easier and cheaper to sell again to an existing customer, than to get a new one. But only if he received good customer support and service, that is. So a good CRM SW solution would have some data common to everybody (name, address, phone, etc), but also data needed by sales, procurement, helpdesk and support. This does not mean you have to have an ERP system, it just means that you need some extra fields which are specific to each department. Ideally, you yourself would be able to add some extra fields as needed, without becoming a programmer. Which brings us to misconception number five. After the first year of coughing and hiccuping, your CRM solution is finally in place and humming nicely. You are getting all that nice data you needed, and you are finally able to watch and build your customer relations. So you are home and free. If you need an extra report, or an extra field, you'll call the SW vendor and he will make the necessary changes. Well, that's not entirely true. The life of your company is not static. It changes daily. The same way, your CRM solution cannot be static. If your sales person needs to call an IT liaison, explain to him the change he needs, then to the SW developer, then wait for implementation, you can be sure that he will not do it. He will rather scribble it into his note book or the Excel sheet on his notebook. He should be able to do just that in your CRM solution. Which means you should have a modifiable solution, one in which you can add fields and tell the system how to handle them. But that means you will have to invest time to learn how to do it. Or leave it for later when you will have more time. Which is misconception number six. People tend to search for a CRM software solution when they cannot cope any more with the traffic. By then, it is too late. It is late in the sense that you have to implement a solution in which you have to invests time, and time you don't have. That means that the implementation will be much longer, it will cost much more in hours, lost business, poor customer service, which means you will spend more hours dealing with a customer, you will have less hours in sales, you will have to hire more people... There is no nice way to tell you, so I will say it straight out: You should start implementing a CRM system, the moment you start using PC in promotion and sales. And that is now, isn't it? So what really is the difference between a CRM software system and old, traditional relations with your customers? Documentation and analysis. With a CRM software system you have historical data which you can analyze. Analyzing our customer support data we found out that about 60% of our helpdesk activity was done with new customers (within 2 months of purchase) which is normal, but about 90% of those incidents were trivial questions about simple use of functions. Although we were issuing three manuals and giving a six day course to our customers, we decided to issue a special cookbook for novices, based on the most common questions. The style was light, simple and straightforward, one page max per function. It was a double jeopardy. Novice interventions dropped to about 30% and the customers had a feeling they were driving the system, not the other way around. So we were both happy. And that's called customer satisfaction, right?

About the author: Dinko Bacun CEO of Tendriks dinko@tendrix.com http://www.CarpioHelpdesk.com

CRM...And The Real World - Part 2.

2008-12-12T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Roger J. Burke

Here is my latest article. It may be freely used in ezines, on websites or in e-books, as long as the Resource Box is left intact.

I would appreciate notification of where it was used, and if possible, a copy of the ezine or newsletter that it was used in. Please send notification mailto:webmaster@online-wealth.com

""WHAAAAT!"" Sherry looked at me in disbelief. ""That machine took my card...and that bi...bit...*person* refused to give it back!"" Her face was quickly going brick red with mounting rage.

Hmmm, wait a minute, *Sherry's* card?

I said, ""I *thought* it was Danny's?"" It had his name on it, in fact. ""Yes,"" Sherry said impatiently, ""it's his, but it's a *joint* account - Danny *and* me."" She pauses. ""That...that...person should've given it BACK..."" She's really fuming now...I wondered if her Kirlian aura was gonna turn purple, or maybe red. I look at her, ""Well, now...I didn't know that, did I now?"" Sherry glares at me - but not *at* me - then relaxes to a sheepish smile, ""Sorry, dear heart...I thought you knew."" I shrug, ""No matter...we gotta get the card back, OK?"" *And*, figure out why the machine ate it too, just quietly...but, one thing at a time!

So, thirty minutes later, we're both at the branch, fronting up to *that* Customer Service Desk...ho, ho, HO, ho, ho! The woman who had served me is nowhere in sight, but another clone steps up, vacant smile glowing, 'Colgate' white...

SHE: ""And how may we help you today, hmmm?"" (The royal 'we', no less, thinks I).

ME: ""Ah, look, about half hour ago, one of your machines took the card...it's in the drawer there"", me pointing, ""and, I went to get autho..."" Sherry elbows me to the side.

SHERRY: ""Listen, and listen good!"" She transfixes the hapless woman with her fury. ""You have a card of MINE, in that drawer...get it out and give it BACK. Now!"" She glares magnificently. ""It's in the name of Danny Burke...and I'm the *other* joint owner of the account, his MOTHER."" Sherry made the last word sound like 'HITMAN'. The woman visibly wilts...truly, she cringes.

SHE: ""Er...oh...um, but, but...you...you...must have a l..letter that author..."" Sherry raises her hand, like a cop stopping traffic.

SHERRY: ""Stop...go to your fax machine, and there you will find the letter waiting for you."" She smiles benignly now, soothingly, waving her away. (Just to let *you* know, we went to Sherry's other branch first and got them to draft and fax the necessary letter. We *knew* it would be waiting by the time we got to *this* branch.)

A few minutes later, the woman came back and, after satisfying procedure, Sherry got the card back. Twirling the card in her fingers, Sherry looks at the woman...

SHERRY (softly, sweetly...but with an edge): ""Now, I'm going to put this card in again and if *that* machine gives any trouble, I'll be back to get the money from YOU."" She made it sound like big Arnie talking to the cop at that desk, remember...just before he came back with a truck and an M16! ""And, I don't want to be hit with any extra fees, if I do...right?"" I *almost* began to feel sorry for the woman.

SHE: ""Ah...mmmmm...tha...hmmmm....well, yes...alright."" Sherry gives her a final glare and we go to the machine.

Sherry goes through the same procedure that I used. And, I watch closely as she keys in the PIN, hits WITHDRAW CASH, selects the account, and punches in 140.00, and lo, the money runneth over! And immediately, I know why the machine ate the card when I did it, and I know also that there probably is a program bug in the software or firmware. A bug so simple, a novice programmer would be able to fix it...or maybe an ATM service techy.

""Ya gotta be kidding,"" says Sherry looking at the machine, shaking her head, when I tell her. I nod my head, grinning like an idiot. ""Well,"" says Sherry, ""what are yer gonna do about it?""

_________________

What I Thought Of Doing: ""Now, *I'm* gonna have some fun..."" Leaving Sherry to count the money, I go back to the Service Desk.

With a wave, I said, ""Have a day!"" and walked out. __________________

What I Did Instead: ""Now, *I'm* gonna have some fun..."" Leaving Sherry to count the money, I go back to the Service Desk.

'Colgate' is still there, smiling but obviously a bit uncomfortable to see me back. ""Good news...it worked OK."" The relief on her face was palpable. I paused. ""And, guess what?"" She leaned forward slightly, expectantly. ""I know why the machine failed the first time I did it..."" And proceeded to give her a very detailed and complicated explanation, very quickly. I really wasn't too concerned about her comprehension; she looked a bit confused as I finished...which was understandable, given the jargon I used.

With a wave, I said, ""Well, there you are...better get it done quickly!"" and walked out.

CRM? Cruddy Response Management, is what I say. ;-)

P.S. OK, if you want to know why the ATM ate Danny's card the first time (in Part 1), click this link and fill in the form: http://online-wealth.com/crm_solution.htm .

Is CRM Technology Living Up To the Hype?

2008-12-11T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: Mark Levit

Over the last few years the buzz about CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has grown extensively. It seems that every Sales & Marketing executive is talking about it. A study conducted by Jupiter Media Metrix found that U.S. businesses spent more than $5.2 billion in CRM technology software in 2001, a number that is expected to rise to $8.7 billion by 2006. CRM spending has been growing considerably, especially in financial services, retail, and telecommunications.

Many companies have invested in CRM systems to retain customers who demand more and better services by the day, but why? Due to recent trends, consumer behavior has changed dramatically in the last couple of years, and even more with current market conditions. According to a study made by The Center for Customer Strategy, consumers are less concerned with minor price differences, but choose companies based on their value-added services. They want to be able to get what they need, quickly. With tools like the Internet, it's now a lot easier for both consumers and businesses to compare offers, and switch over if their needs aren't met. This is especially true of high-value customers that produce the most profit for the business.

Businesses are scrambling for ways to retain these customers, and attract new ones in the process. So how is CRM an answer to keeping up with these trends? CRM is a strategy (no, not software) to transform your business to be customer, not product, focused. The CRM software is just a tool that helps the company carry out this strategy. Depending on its implementation, it can help your business identify who your customers are, what they need and anticipate what could want. It allows businesses to tailor offers to their current customers, building closer relationships that make them feel valuable. It can help eliminate contact and data overlap between departments and improve consumer service. For example, Leah Holzman, Marketing Manager of TradeCard Inc, explained how the marketing and sales departments in her company had problems tacking each others' progress and customer data. They spent "hundreds of hours managing disparate data across multiple systems. That is, until they implemented a CRM initiative with the help of Salesforce.com. Overall, CRM can make your company more efficient and customer-friendly to capture greater market share, increase customer loyalty, and attract more customers.

So far, CRM sounds like a dream come true. Yet studies show that more than half of CRM initiatives fail. Despite rising spending in CRM, a survey of 1,200 businesses executives conducted by the Data Warehousing Institute showed that 41% considered their CRM project "a potential flop." Only 16% were satisfied with their CRM software implementation. As one senior marketing executive claimed, "We turned a manual mess into an automated mess, and as a result we just made the same mistakes faster and more efficiently."

The problem with these companies is not that CRM automation fails to meet expectations. There are several reasons why these systems don't always generate the desired results. And most times, it has nothing to do with the software. The biggest mistake that a manager can make is think that once the software is installed, all problems will be solved. To be successful, a CRM initiative must be a company-wide strategic culture change and process design. It entails getting all your employees (not only customer service) to change the way they perform their every day tasks so that the appropriate information is collected and used in a productive way. The software is just a tool that keeps things organized so that a successful CRM is easier to accomplish. As any change in a corporate culture, this project requires complete support from senior management.

One of the most common problems is that data collected isn't used. Great sums of money are invested in collecting all different kinds of information on clients, yet many times this information is never analyzed, never used to understand the customer or provide all the benefits that CRM can deliver.

For better results, a company investing in CRM must first evaluate their current situation. They should determine what problems need to be solved, and what type of data are needed. Since implementation is often a complicated process (especially in large companies), it is vital to get input from all departments. It is also a good idea to include your customer in the process to get a better idea of what changes will be embraced. Often when a CRM initiative is left up to the IT department, it is harder for other areas of the company to accept any changes in processes (which are usually substantial). To be successful, the initiative must take place throughout the entire company. Employees must be trained to function with the new technology and processes.

When considering a vendor and/or product, it's imperative that any software, system or processes implemented are flexible. They can then adapt, along with a company, to changing times and trends. This is especially useful in growing businesses, where needs might change as client bases grow and business expands.

No matter what precautions you may take when planning and implementing a CRM initiative, the only thing that can assure its success for the company are your people. After all, the whole concept of CRM is based on relationships. And those can't be completely automated. There is no technological substitute for a friendly voice or face that understands a customer's troubles and is willing to go above and beyond to provide the best service. CRM can only help a company manage these relationships to provide a more personalized service to loyal customers.

About the author: Mark Levit is managing partner of Partners & Levit Advertising and a professor of marketing at New York University. For more information visit http://www.partnerslevit.com or call 212.696.1200.

Is Your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) System Doomed To Fail?

2008-12-10T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Perry Norgarb

""Right, People. Let's blast out that mail campaign we've been planning for so long.""

It's time to put your trusty CRM software to work; to let it earn its keep. You run a search of people and companies you want to target.

You soon realize something's wrong when your list is far smaller than anticipated. A quick check reveals many profiles/categories have not been filled in, impacting your search results. Further inspection shows numerous records are incorrect; others are riddled with typos. And that's just for starters.

With a sinking feeling, you realize that last push isn't going to happen in a hurry.

Time for some Damage Control or Preventative Maintenance.

Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high failure rate of CRM systems - poor data quality - is also one of the easiest to avoid.

Your CRM software is only as good as the information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes 'garbage in, garbage out'.

So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your CRM software?

You need to gather your key CRM users together and thrash out a DATA CAPTURE PROCEDURE document, defining the rules of use.

Spell out: *Who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert, Modify or Delete records, assuming your software supports all these functions? Forward this information to your system administrator to action. *Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before creating a record. Depending on what 'de-duping' or 'data scrubbing' features your system has, this might require some simple searches before starting a new record. *Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM, or I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. or Incorporated and so on. A policy on ensuring consistency of input will help to avoid duplications in future. *Are records going to be created in Upper and Lower case and when are CAPS acceptable? *By when do you expect records, notes and so on to be created or updated? Same day, on return to the office? *Check to see whether your Postal Services have specific requirements. Ensure your data meets these criteria. *Is the primary address of clients to be created as a postal or a physical address? *Make sure everyone checks spellings if they are unsure and do not trust spellchecker! When in doubt, ask the client - they'll respect that. Is it Clark with an 'e'; Shawn, Sean or Shaun? One certain way to get your mail binned is to spell someone's name incorrectly. *Also confirm the kind of corporation e.g. LLC, Inc, PTY Ltd. and so on. *Make rules for creating new profiles or User Definable Fields (UDF) (or whatever your specific CRM software calls them.) Place a lot of emphasis on this. Every time a new UDF is needed, it should first be approved. Otherwise duplicates will permeate your database e.g. Lead Source: Yellow Pages, YP, yelo pages. *Ensure that email addresses are put in correctly. Basic but common mistake! *Set up procedures, if not supported by your software, of how to create records from inbound emails. *If applicable, are you going to use Mandatory/Forced fields?

You might as well address the issue of Backups while you are about it. *Who is the responsible person for backing up your databases/s? Who covers for them when they are absent or unavailable? *How frequently are backups to be done? Diarise! *How are backups done e.g. by the Grandfather, Father, Son method. *Ensure backups are made on good quality CD's or whatever format you are using. It's no good doing a backup, then finding on attempting a Restore that it doesn't work! It is also a good idea to copy backups onto more than one data format. *Where are the backups to be stored? *Are the backups secure? This is important for both security and practical reasons.

Once your Data Capture Procedure Document is finished, get everyone to sign it off as READ!

As standard practice, ensure that document is handed to all new employees at your company.

Refer back to this document for possible revision every three months or so.

Try this: select a couple of records - both good and bad - every week, to put on the overhead at staff meetings. Make sure you don't unduly embarrass anybody but watch this become the light-relief highlight of your meetings! People learn best when having fun!

What if your database is in one unholy mess? Has the rot set in so deeply that your database needs a complete overhaul? Turn this seemingly insurmountable task into an opportunity to you. This is an excellent excuse to re-establish contact with your clients and let them know you care. You can always put lapses down to data crashes but tell them you have fixed the problem!

Importantly, help your staff understand what you need from the data to facilitate more accurate marketing and reporting and hence the success of your business and their careers.

By creating a sense of pride and ownership in the company database, you are nurturing the essential process of buy-in, necessary for the success of your CRM initiative. Don't compromise this critical tool by allowing your CRM software to be infected by inferior data.

About the author: Perry Norgarb has specialized in Small Business CRM software solutions over the last 15 years. Contact him or find out more about CRM, Contact Management and other Sales Tracking software tips and solutions for small businesses at: http://www.smallbizcrm.com. You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio box and copyright remain intact and the links 'live'. © 10 October, 2005.

Microsoft CRM Development: SDK, C#, SQL, Exchange, Integration, Crystal Reports - overview for programmer

2008-12-09T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM is new player on the CRM software market. The whole conception behind CRM seems to be different. In case of traditional CRM software (Siebel, Oracle) - the application was designed with platform independence in mind. Microsoft CRM is dedicated to Microsoft technology and so deploys all the Microsoft tools: Windows Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, SQL Server, Crystal Reports Enterprise, Biztalk server, Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Great Plains as backend, etc. If you are software developer, database administrator or web designer who is asked: how do we customize Microsoft CRM – we are giving you directions in this article. 1.Microsoft CRM SDK – this is software development kit with C# and partly VB.net code samples – it is supported by Microsoft Business Solutions technical support. It is based on web service calls, if you are C# .NET developer – you are excellently positioned to do this type of customizations. This is the preferred modification scenario and this should be easily upgradeable customization. VB.Net examples will be available soon. 2.Legacy SQL Data integration. This is also easy and safe. If you have SQL database, sitting on the same or linked SQL Server – you can create ASPX .Net application and simply integrate it into CRM. You can place it on the navigation bar or menu in isv.config – please refer to MS CRM SDK 3.Legacy ASP integration – this is somewhat more sophisticated. You have to deploy HTTP handler to be a middle party between CRM which is .Net based and ASP which is legacy IIS. The trick is – you have to have INI file with security settings to penetrate into MS CRM with proper credentials, calling web service. 4.Microsoft Exchange Programming. Microsoft CRM has Exchange connector – which moves CRM incoming email to MS if it has GUID in its subject. You can alter this logic (for instance - move email to CRM if it doesn't have GUID but it is from the sender who is contact or account in MS CRM). Refer to MS Exchange SDK onsyncsave event handling. Then simply apply some MS CRM SDK programming - you need some COM+ objects creation and VB programming experience. 5.Direct SQL touch – in #4 above I described you the scenario with MS Exchange handlers – this would be ideal world if MS CRM SDK does the job. But – in real world this is not always true – you have to do direct flags correction in CRM database (like making Activity closed, moving email attachments/octet streams, etc). This is not supported by MBS technical support – but you can rescue to this technique if you have to get job done. 6.MS CRM Customization tool – this is rather end-user tool and we don't describe it here – read the manual. We've described above the options to use when this tool doesn't do the job 7.Crystal Reports - feel free to create Crystal report - tables and views structure is self explanatory. Try to avoid the temptation to create your own SQL view or stored procedure in MS CRM database, instead - create custom database and place your view and stored proc in it. Happy customizing, modifying and developing! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-866-528-0577! help@albaspectrum.com

About the author: Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, based in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Dallas, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Canada, UK, Australia and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( www.albaspectrum.com ), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer.

The new Customer Relationship Management CRM functions

2008-12-08T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: J.C.Melo

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required. The new Customer Relationship Management CRM functions By J.C.Melo The Customer Relationship Management CRM system was born because of the need for a software to analyze customer's data - as for example its preferences - changing rough data that usually exists in any customer's database, into important information about the same customer. That is to say, a new modern sales & marketing tool. In this first period the data of an online and real-time accounting & management system was analyzed by this stand-alone CRM software, and in the following period those accounting & management systems integrated this initial marketing & sales functions of a CRM. Soon after, this new accounting & management system - now integrated with the CRM functions - included a Call Center system of the last generation with or without a voice processing system - input and output - through the telephone system usually so loved by us. Soon after appeared an obvious question: If the CRM support my customers, why don't change it to support all the external functions of my company, as for example my suppliers, distributors, representatives, branches, affiliated companies, employees's families, etc., each one with different needs and processings? This is the current Customer Relationship Management CRM system, for everything concerning the external world of a company, and consequently its original name no longer represents its current functions in spite to be widely used. Today we should split the IT system of a company in two great sides but in the near future will be only one system: 1. Enterprise Resources Planning ERP, for the internal world of a company, on which we will write another article in the near future, 2. Customer Relationship Management CRM, for the external world of a company. However it's absolutely necessary to understand that a CRM is not a software package that can be installed and immediately will be ready to work, but yes a system that obligatorily should be implemented by IT specialists together with the whole company in a continuous job, besides to be adapted to the specific needs of the company. And because the CRM was not interpreted correctly by a large amount of companies, recent research showed that 42% of purchased CRM systems are inoperative for been interpreted as a push-button software. However if very well designed and installed, a CRM is a powerful tool for a company to grow on this digital business Century, certainly surpassing your competition and generating reasonable ROI Return on Investment.

About the author: J.C.Melo is a 73-years old IT professional with 54 years of experience in computer science & technology entrepreneurship. He was the owner of the first minicomputer factory in South America and Consultant for the U.S. Government in several contracts. Now is the CEO of the organization http://mba-open-university.net.

CRM 101: Customer Relationship Management for Beginners

2008-12-07T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Scott Hawksworth

Customer Relationship Management, abbreviated "CRM," is the term for a business strategy that is designed to improve customer service. CRM is also designed to increase customer satisfaction and gain new customers, thus increasing a business' revenue. CRM is a term that can be applied to software and an entire business strategy.

How Does CRM Work?

Essentially, CRM works by gathering information about customers and analyzing the information collected. An example of this would be supermarket discount cards (I.E. Kroger Plus Cards, ACME cards, Giant Eagle cards, etc...). When a consumer scans his or her card, and then his or her items, the items that customer bought are entered into a database. This gives businesses an accurate idea of which customers buy what. Businesses then analyze this information. After analyzing the data collected, businesses can adjust their marketing campaigns and increase sales. Customer Relationship Management brings the company closer to the customer. CRM closes a "relationship gap" that can be formed between the business and its customers.

CRM is also useful for customer service. Businesses can use automated CRM applications to analyze customer complaints, or compliments, and change the business processes accordingly. Interestingly enough, CRM products also run many automated call-centers for businesses (I.E. customer service systems). CRM applications and practices are used to make businesses more efficient and improve customer satisfaction.

What Can a Business Gain From Using CRM?

There are many goals that businesses have when implementing CRM techniques and applications. The business wants to improve customer service, which will subsequently improve customer satisfaction. The business also wants to maximize revenue by advertising the right products to the right people. In other words, businesses want to know what customers want. Once a business finds what a customer wants through a CRM method, the business can then provide the customer exactly what he or she desires. This will lead to returning customers, and the gaining of new customers. CRM processes also are designed to monitor all of the contact between customers and companies. Maintaining a positive relationship with one's customers is an essential element in business. Well-rounded CRM works to ensure that this element exists.

CRM Applications

CRM applications are applications that run on the same principals as Microsoft Word and Excel. There are many values that can be filled in. Once these values are filled in, the data needs to be analyzed and interpreted. A major advance in CRM application technology is the invention of applications, which can collect data, and analyze it at the same time. This new technology will make CRM even more effective and efficient.

Conclusion

For any business, successful Customer Relationship Management navigation is becoming increasingly important in today's competitive business world. Customer expectations are always increasing, and business services must increase along with these expectations. CRM is the method through which businesses can connect with their customers and therefore serve them better. Businesses with successful CRM strategy and applications will notice a large increase in sales, customer satisfaction, and simply the overall success of the business.

For the latest news and information concerning CRM, visit http://www.crmblog.org . This site is updated daily by Mr. Scott Hawksworth.

About the author: Scott Hawksworth is a writer for a CRM Blog.

CRM

2008-12-06T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Meredith Gossland

The story of the emperor's new clothes is a fairy tale about men who fooled the emperor into believing that they had made him a beautiful suit of clothes. In fact they had not made anything. The emperor went out in public wearing nothing but his underwear because he didn't want to appear stupid since they had told him only the wisest people could see the fine fabrics.When the emperor went out in public a little child yelled...""The emperor isn't wearing any clothes!"" Today I am that child.

""CRM doesn't cover your mistakes or fix your problems and you have been lied to about its ability to ""manage"" your client relationships!"" CRM is a system that is based on faulty logic. The premise that companies can manage clients is foolish!

Business 101 will tell you that clients manage businesses. They tell the company what to sell, when to sell it, how to sell it, where to sell it, and will stop buying it on a whim depending upon a long list of uncontrollable situations (they are getting older, economic circumstances, politics, trends, health issues etc etc.)

What does CRM do? It lulls CEOs, sales and marketing department heads into believing that they can hold onto clients by using data alone. CRM bogs down sales & marketing teams and creates massive amounts of additional work, keeping them connected to their computers instead of visiting clients. CRM requires cleaning just like any other database and the larger the database the more time it takes to clean. The sharing of information within a company can, in some instances, actually slow down the process of customer service, since more people are now involved in decision making processes. The bottom line of customer service is pushed to the side and direct mail marketing moves forward. Direct mail marketing has abysmal response rates and even if it was improved is a poor alternative to actually communicating with clients.

Now is the time to go put on your clothes and fire the tailors!

You have spent a fortune in purchasing the software, you spent thousands of dollars on man-hours used up in training and retraining, sent memos and held staff meetings, paid tailors(I mean consultants), and still are no closer to getting customer loyalty than you were 6 months ago. As a matter of fact it may be worse because client services have suffered while you spent all this time getting CRM up and running. Cut your loses and run!

Now pull out a clean sheet of paper and write down this ""to do"" list...

1. Set goals for customer service that involve ""WOW"" customer service principles. Design a quality customer service program. Set a start date and end date for evaluation purposes.

2. Read a book a week on client relationship marketing and ""WOW"" customer service and give yourself a test to make sure you have retained the information. Then USE it! Make sure all your employees do the same to one degree or another.

3. Evaluate all your employees, are they happy, do the have a vested interest in your success, would they want to be your client? What is their body language on the job, enthusiastic, angry, indifferent, bored? Get rid of dead weight! If a customer is likely to meet your employees it MUST be a positive experience. Pay your front line employees what they are worth. Smiles and enthusiasm are worth at least $1.00 per hour.

3. Reduce advertising budget... increase marketing budget... understand the difference.

4. Cut out or reduce systems that tend to isolate you from your customers, voice mail mazes, advertising campaigns designed for the general public, autoresponders, self help kiosks or webpages, overseas customer service centers.

5. Increase communication through handwritten notes, visits with clients, feed back and brainstorming sessions that put the client and the business on the same side of the table as partners, reduce outsourcing, reward good clients frequently, use greeting cards with commerative stamps instead of postcards with bulk postage ( Customers think, ""If I'm not worth 37 cents you don't need my business.""), put some thought into client gifts (diabetics don't appreciate candy) and finally ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, ask, for referrals! Then ask for referrals again.

Don't look to CRM to solve the problems of customer loyalty. Look at your relationships with your clients.

Meredith Gossland is owner of Lasting Impressions2, a Small business marketing service, specializing in multicultural marketing and high quality low cost customer service. she can be reached at info@lastingimpressions2.com. http://www.lastingimpressions2.com

About the author: Owner Lasting Impressions 2 - Custom Business gift baskets, greeting cards, Customer Service Tips www.lastingimpressions2.com

Web Based CRM Systems: Get Mobile. Get Results.

2008-12-05T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Cameron Brown

Everyday more web based companies enter the business scene. The low initial investment, potentially high revenue, and convenience of owning and operating a business from your home PC or laptop is enticing an ever-increasing number of entrepreneurs to try their hand at e-business. Unfortunately, most of these would-be companies disappear shortly after their initial market entry.

Many of these businesses might have been more successful if they had invested in a web based CRM system. CRM (customer relationship management) systems have been around as long as business has as a way to keep track of what good was sold and who made the purchase.

Most start-up companies quickly go under because they fail to understand their customers. Without putting substantial effort into collecting and making sense of customer data, a small company is effectively flying blind. They don't know whose buying what, why they're buying, or what they would like to see I future products or services. Most new companies not only provide little or no opportunity for voluntary customer feedback, they also fail to make demographic data collection an integral part of their sales and marketing efforts.

Anyone who has just entered the e-business arena ought to be very interested in finding a web based CRM system. While their initial product and service offerings may sustain business operations in the short-term, without proper customer relationship management the company will quickly stagnate or fold.

Today's web based CRM systems are more versatile than ever and are ideal for startup and growing companies alike. Not only do they offer features like power dialing, voice messaging, and fax/email customization, but web based CRM packages also offer the benefit of portability; a web based CRM system operates wherever there is an internet connection. With the ability to allow sales representatives to be kept up to date on the latest leads, a web based CRM system goes from merely tracking sales to creating them.

As far as paying for a web based CRM system, the great thing about a quality package is that it helps you free up sunk costs on essential services you already spend money on to pay for the system. Most all-in-one CRM systems allow you to coordinate efforts between customer service, sales, marketing, and shipping. Again, the benefit of a web based CRM system can be seen in the ease of communication and coordination between departments, even those operating remotely.

If you currently run or are thinking starting up your own web based company don't try to guess what you're customers want-find out for sure with a web based CRM system.

About the author: Cameron Brown is an internet marketer specializing in

ranking automation . For more information on Web Based CRM systems, visit Inside Sales .

CRM System: Give Meaning to Your Data

2008-12-04T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Cameron Brown

A customer relationship system (CRM) system uses technologically-driven strategies to assess customer needs and buying behavior. This allows businesses to market their products and services more effectively. The ever-increasing level of technology available to a CRM system can, however, provide an overwhelming amount of information to a company, not all of it useful. Large corporations compile enough data in their 'data warehouses' each day to occupy a team of marketing analysts for a lifetime. In fact, 'data mining,' a relatively recent term coined by marketers and data analysts, was coined from the attempts to sift sales trends and associations out of the mountainous volume of data constantly pouring into a company.

This information overload has created a need to give useful meaning to data. This is where a CRM system can be essential. A CRM system takes data mining to the next level by focusing on data that will paint the clearest customer portrait possible. If a CRM system works properly, a number of important benefits should result, including:

? Customer retention improvement ? Increase in call center sales conversion rates ? Sales agents are able to more effectively cross-sell products ? Deals close more quickly ? New customer inflow ? Increase in revenue

To get the results listed above, a CRM system must take the name, address, and other important demographic information into account. Moreover, the system must be able to gather information from a wide variety of customer 'touch points' , or instances of customer contact. These can include faxes, emails, direct mails, personal sales, etc.

The most important function of any CRM system is to provide you with an accurate profile of your customer. If you can identify your customer, you know how to market, where to focus R&D funds, and what kind of potential growth road blocks you can expect.

With all the different options available to businesses wanting to pinpoint customer profiles, how do you know what to look for in a CRM system? With ever more sophisticated technology and techniques available, making this decision can be difficult. Let me share a few CRM system features that will not only help you track customer information, but also help to create new revenue.

Power Dialing CRM systems equipped with power dialing allow you to significantly increase the number of sales calls made by your outbound call center. Anyone who's worked in an outbound call center (myself included) will tell you that it's only a matter of time between two calls that end in a sale. This feature helps you shrink that time dramatically.

Voice Messaging A CRM system that includes this feature will allow our sales agents to automatically send a pre-recorded sales message to potential customers with the intent of eliciting a return call. By using voice messaging you will be able to multiply your efforts dramatically without paying for additional staff.

Customizable Fax and Email The ability to customize mass correspondence with potential clients will go a long way toward improving your sales conversion rates. Moreover, the ability to do this quickly will ensure that you don't miss out on time sensitive sales opportunities.

System Flexibility Since every business is different, the CRM should be flexible enough to accommodate your business's particular needs. Make sure that whomever you buy from is willing to work with you until the system is working properly.

With the right CRM system working for you, you can expect a significant increase in ROI.

About the author: Cameron Brown is an internet marketer specializing in ran king automation . For information on CRM System , visit Inside Sales .

CRM = Customer's don't Really Matter

2008-12-03T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Meredith Gossland

CRM was supposed to bring companies closer to their clients. The basic idea was to; find out what a client wants and needs, give it to them, and get them to be your client for life.

But as with all good technology, it hasn't actually brought the sales teams, marketing departments, or customer service departments any closer to the customer at all! Technology is a cold hard process that rarely subsitutes for a human voice and social interaction.

I really feel sorry for the companies that struggled with the software, dumped thousands and thousands of dollars into consulting sessions, developed the training manuals and trained the trainers, held the meetings and issued management memos only to find that the problem of customer loyalty was the same if not worse.

They had the right idea but they were listening to those lame marketing gurus again! The same guys who have been promoting direct mail postcards as the best choice for farming prospects at a whopping 1-3% response rate!! (Whopee! Where do I sign up?) Seeing technology as a cure all for customer service is a grave mistake.

First of all there is a serious problem with the oxymoron Client Relationship Management. Intimate loving families can't manage their relationships! How in the heck is a company that sees its clients only a few hours each year going to manage the relationship?

At best, you can sustain, grow,and cultivate the relationship. At worst, you will lose it due to changes in the client's circumstances, competition, economic and political factors, changing markets or (heaven forbid) your own terrible customer service and shoddy workmanship. But you will never be able to manage your clients. As a matter of fact... it is the client who manages you. They tell you what products they want, and what your product is worth, how they want it delivered, and like green french fries or dirt flavored jelly beans, whether they want it at all!

Companies that have to fight for their customers are doing something wrong. It usually stems from not understanding the customer. Going to a computer program to glean information, or find out what the customer wants is just plain crazy.

Let me give you an example from my own shopping habits. There are 4 major supermarkets within a 5 mile radius of my house. One has great produce prices, the others don't. I usually shop at that market for produce,and meats only because their other prices are too high. I have a membership card with that store. Do they know why I only shop for produce and meat at their store? NO! Will my shopping habits change if their prices change? Yes. Do they know that? No. Can they get that information from my membership card? No. Can they get it if the guy at checkout asks me? You bet! As a matter of fact I have volunteered the information. I have told checkers in passing on several occassions I think their produce prices are the best in town...do you think that information got to the store manager? Who knows! Am I going to seek out the manager to tell him? Is he going to go in the office and make note of my comment somewhere so he can serve me better? No way!

Now,do you think the other stores know why I don't buy their produce? They have no clue, even though I have a membership card with them as well, they have no idea why I shop the way I do.

In-house customer surveys and focus groups put the client and the company on the same side of the table working together as partners to develop better products and to cement relationships.

Getting a personal phone call, from the salesman that sold me a car, asking for my honest opinion about the car and telling me that he is there for me if I need help, is going to bring me back every two years, and as trust is developed, I will give him candid feedback to help him improve both product and service. If he listens to me and all of his customers he will come out a winner..if not... hiring a marketer is not going to make the situation any better.

Case in point, current gas prices are driving down SUV sales. Can CRM software tell you that gas prices are going to hit an all time high in summer? Can CRM software tell you that your competition is coming out with a hybrid that will save produce 50% higher MPG. Can CRM soft ware tell you that your customer was in an accident that will make getting into an SUV painful and difficult and that for the next few years he is going to buy sedans? No...but a single follow-up phone call by the salesman will tell you everything you need to know if you ask the right questions.

Building layers of insulation between the company and the client; software programs, autoresponders, marketers, and voice mail systems are the death of communication. Most people won't tell you they are dissatified they will just leave...and you'll never know why because they won't leave a message on your voice mail.

Hire a customer service team made up of people who love people, are excellent listeners, and who genuinely enjoy their job! Hire a customer service team of problem solvers, people who enjoy the challenge of creatively solving problems for people, pay them what they are worth! Train them to pass on all information from the customer then act on that information immediately. There is no better client relationship than the one that is face to face, person to person. Your customer service employees are the front line, your company image, they represent your company in what they wear,say,think and do much more than your logos or ads. You pay them minimum wage and I guarantee they will tell the customers what they think about you through actions, attitudes, and words!

It's a lot cheaper to pay your customer service people top dollar, than to pay for CRM.

About the author: Owner Lasting Impressions 2 - Custom Business gift baskets, greeting cards, Customer Service Tips www.lastingimpressions2.com

What You Need to Know About CRM

2008-12-02T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Frank Dazerton

Customer Relationship Management (abbreviated CRM) is a very hot topic among businesses. CRM is such a hot topic because it is a way for businesses to connect with their customers, increase profits, and have better customer service. There are several things that you need to know about CRM. 1. It's all about the customer. Some companies focus too much on expensive CRM programs and elaborate IT departments and not enough on what is at the core of CRM. CRM programs need to be designed to appeal to the business' customers. The best Call Centers are the ones which customers find easy to navigate. The best CRM vendors have the customer satisfaction in mind when designing their CRM applications.

2. On-demand is the way to go. Many vendors offer traditional CRM programs and service. I believe, however, that On-demand CRM is the way to go. On-demand CRM is different from traditional methods in that instead of requiring companies to hire new IT people, and use extensive resources to implement elaborate CRM programs, the software comes with support. On-demand CRM is no longer the "bring your own IT department" approach. Many vendors like Salesforce.com, Siebel, and NetSuite offer On-demand solutions that are great for businesses just getting into the CRM market.

3. Customer Relationship Management is not just software. Some businesses would like it to be simply software, but it will never be as simple as that. Customer Relationship Management is an ongoing learning process. The business must learn from the customer and change accordingly. The closer a business gets to its customer, the better. CRM applications and strategies are the methods through which the business can access, analyze, and learn from customer Data. Knowing what CRM applications are actually for is a very important step in understanding how to be successful when implementing CRM practices.

4. It is important to understand that there are hundreds of CRM vendors out there. Many of the vendors claim to be number one, but if you look closely, they may be number one in only one category. Other companies say that they are number one in CRM, but there is no basis for their statement. It is important for companies to choose the right vendor that will attend to all of their CRM needs. This may not always be the most expensive, "number one" company. On the contrary, some simple companies offer CRM solutions that are highly effective. Some of the major CRM providers are Siebel, Salesforce.com, NetSuite, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP.

5. The best CRM technology can be very helpful for any business. Some CRM applications can now be accessed via BlackBerry devices. Major vendors are constantly updating their software and improving their service. It is a good idea to stay as current as possible in terms of CRM technology. However, always remember to balance technology with customer service. There is no substitute for old-fashioned customer service, the most basic of all CRM ideals.

Customer Relationship Management can be very beneficial for a business if it is carried out properly. It is important to keep the customer in mind at all times when you are implementing CRM practices into your business. Remember that there are quite a few CRM vendors out there, and it is important to choose the vendor that is best for your company. Customer Relationship Management seems like a very daunting idea for someone who has never used it before, but if you follow these steps, you will surely see the benefits of successful CRM.

About the author: Frank Dazerton is very interested in Customer Relationship Management and writes for CRM Lowdown .

3 Reasons Why CRM Strategies Fail

2008-12-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Matt Hogansworth

Customer relationship management (CRM) is one of the most effective tools for improving customer relationships and therefore increasing revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. Unfortunately, some CRM strategies fail. This leaves CRM vendors and their customers baffled, but there a few common reasons why a CRM strategy will fail.

1. Too much focus on the CRM vendor and technology. Some companies get too caught up in having the best possible CRM strategy out there. Some companies want entire call-centers, On-Demand CRM, Web-based, and Blackberry devices which allow their IT people to enter customer information wirelessly. While these technologies are extremely helpful, too much emphasis on them can lead any company astray. It is naturally very important to select the best CRM vendor for your company, but best does not always mean flashiest.

2. Not enough focus on the customer. Companies can focus too much on technology and strategy, and not enough on what is at the core of CRM: the customer. The first letter in CRM stands for "Customer" and so the customer should be first when thinking about any CRM strategy. A call-center can be wonderful if it is customer friendly. However, some call centers are too complicated and alienate the customer from the company. Alienation is the exact opposite of what companies want to achieve when implementing CRM. The real ROI of CRM is found in customer retention and the acquisition of new customers. In order to have success with CRM, a company must work towards building a strong relationship with its customers. CRM is the path through which the customer and the company can understand each other. Focusing on technologies and ignoring the basics of customer service will cause even the most technologically advanced CRM strategy to go wrong.

3. Rushing into CRM adaptation. Sometimes, company presidents get the idea of CRM into their head and decide that their entire company must be CRM-ready as fast as possible. Rushing into CRM is a recipe for disaster. IT workers need to understand the concept of CRM. Someone who understands the importance of CRM will be better suited to deal with customers and reach the company's goals concerning CRM. Rushing into CRM does not allow ample time for all IT people to be briefed on the basics of CRM and how it will be implemented within the business. Some companies implementing CRM have to create entire departments that never existed before. The greatest care must always be taken when creating an entire new section of a company. CRM should generally be implemented across the entire company. If this is rushed, it can lead to all sorts of compatibility issues, customer confusion, and even employee confusion. Data collected must be viewed across many applications, and ample time must be given for networks to be set up. Companies using CRM technology such as Blackberry devices, or Call-centers must be even more careful when implementing CRM for the first time. Technology is not perfect, and problems can occur at any time. Any company that sends their sales force out into the market with unchecked technology is asking for disaster.

Some say that it is impossible to determine whether CRM is a success or a failure. The true ROI of CRM lies with the customer. A company that avoids the pitfalls of CRM implementation will notice a dramatic increase in customer satisfaction, retention, and acquisition. CRM can help any company significantly if it is used correctly, carefully, but still efficiently. CRM technology can also help companies if it is used thoughtfully and timely. The entire company must be prepared for CRM when it is implemented. A company cannot expect exact numbers immediately after putting CRM into effect. CRM is a long-term strategy that will help achieve long-term goals of a company. Customer focus is essential and will help any CRM strategy to become a success.

About the author: Matt Hogansworth writes about CRM and other business topics.

A Real CRM Strategy or Just Tracking Customers?

2008-11-30T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Roy Gough

An increasing number of companies claim to have adopted the principles of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), but in many cases they are simply paying lip service to what has become one of the latest 'buzzwords' Carried out correctly, CRM is an active process. It makes a difference which is noticed by your customers. That difference reflects in your bottom line.

Exactly what is CRM The idea itself is nothing new; its roots have been around since trading began. The principle of looking after your customers so that they come back regularly is, after all, merely the basis of good trading. In an increasingly competitive commercial world however, strong customer relationships take on an increasing importance. With the cost of selling to a new customer being five times the cost of selling to an existing one you can't afford to lose established business.

Yes, you still want new markets, and yes, for various reasons customers will still disappear. The important thing is to minimise this loss and make sure the reasons behind it don't stem from something you are doing – or more significantly something you are not doing.

Which is why good Customer Relationship Management is vital – and why the process has now been refined to make it more effective than ever.

What does CRM Involve? In essence, making your customer feel special by understanding his needs and fulfilling those needs in a personal manner which will keep him coming back for more.

Going that extra mile and providing service beyond that which was expected takes your customer to the next stage, where he becomes a 'raving fan' of your business - and you can't have too many of those. Achieve this and your customer suddenly becomes part of your sales force, telling everyone he meets how good you are.

This can actually be achieved without computers and software. A good memory and a card index can keep track of customer's preferences and buying patterns. Newsletter campaigns, post sale follow-ups and special offer mailings can all be organised - given time; except that this is where it so often falls apart. For most companies time is the commodity in shortest supply.

Identifying the Challenge This is where you find the first steps into CRM. Contact Management or Personal Information Manager software can provide substantial benefits. A database of customers for envelope labelling, simple word processing and calendar functions can save an enormous amount of time. The latest breed of contact manager software can do this quite efficiently across small groups of people, an office based sales team for example. So what's the point of moving to a full CRM strategy? Why not stick with a simple address book style contact manager?

The real secret of selling has always been to 'Think Buying' So consider for a moment, the things that annoy you as a customer:

• Promised return phone calls not made, and information not sent • Not being informed of possible delays or problems • That call to tell you when your order is ready – promised but not made. • One department in the company having no idea what another department said to you in the last call or letter. • No one bothering to call to make sure the goods arrived, or are satisfactory. Probably no calls at all – until of course they want to sell you something else • No one knowing what they last sold to you – or when • No one knowing enough about you to offer you items or services that would enhance or compliment your purchase. Frequently only one person in the company seems to know anything about you! And if they're not available…?

Overcoming all this takes more than just contact management software.

The Answer What is needed is a change in attitude that extends from shop floor to boardroom. Not easy! It takes something special to initiate such a major change, but once up and running the change will feed on its own success.

The CRM solution provides a sophisticated but (and this is important) 'easy to use' computer system which monitors all activity with customers, current or potential. Phone, mail, e-mail and fax all link in. Give everyone in your company who deals with your customers access to that system. Link it to word processors, accounts systems, stock control and manufacturing Now you're starting down the right road to achieving your ultimate goal - customers who become Raving Fans.

Your Information Bonus The additional benefit to a company implementing CRM, is far superior tracking of sales and marketing activities. Suddenly it becomes easier to identify the most effective sources of business. i.e. • which Mailshots worked best • which sector provides your best business • how many leads turn into actual sales

All this information makes running your company so much easier. Your Sales Manager will also benefit considerably from being able to see sales activity and ratios more clearly. He will probably produce the most accurate sales forecast you have ever seen!

Conclusion So, should you try to implement CRM or just stick with contact management? That depends on what you want to achieve. If your aim is to look after your customers to the best of your ability, keep those customers, and tower head and shoulders over your competitors, it has to be CRM.

The alternative is to stay with the pack and lose, on average, 50% of your customers every 5 years. Can you afford to do that?

Roy Gough Alloy CRM

Helping you keep your customers away from the competition

About the author: Roy Gough has run and managed businesses for over 30 years. He has experience in finance, automotive, retail, high tech and ecommerce. He uses this knowledge to help businesses to improve their sales and profitability. He currently also sells GoldMine business contact management software, QuoteWerks quotation management tool and Mind Manager the brainstorming and planning tool.

His web site can be found at http://www.alloycrm.com

Microsoft CRM and No-Frills Cadillacs

2008-11-29T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Cameron Brown

In today's business world it's all but impossible to escape Microsoft. Either you're using MS applications, developing your own, or negotiating your company's acquisition by this techno-behemoth. I must that the company is a daily part of my life (in fact I'm typing this article on MS Word). I've found however, that although Microsoft develops many versatile business software products, the company's 'one size-fits-all mentality goes only so far. I'm referring to the Microsoft CRM system. For you lay-people out there, CRM ( customer relationship management ) systems are designed to help you gather and interpret customer data in order to anticipate future customer purchasing demands and trends.

Besides costing substantially more than other CRM systems on the market, the Microsoft CRM system lacks some of the great features that come standard with other systems. I like this analogy: Microsoft CRM can be compared to a Cadillac with no extras; no A/C, no four-disc ABS, no cruise control, no sun roof, no radio, no power locks or windows. Sure it'll get you from point A to point B, but you'll not be making the trip comfortably. And all this at a premium price. Now you have other CRM systems out on the market; let's compare these to an option-packed Hyundai. Sure it doesn't have the long reputation of the Caddy, people may not notice you coming down the road, maybe it only has a 50k mile warranty to the Caddy's 75k, but all that will be quickly forgotten as you enjoy the deluxe stereo system, sun roof, leather seats while you find the shortest route from A to B with your GPS. Best of all, the sticker price is a third of what they wanted for the Cadillac. Just like you can't rely on brand name alone to sell cars, Microsoft shouldn't rely on its former success to sell CRM systems. This is however, par for the proverbial Microsoft course, i.e. Microsoft Office upgrade.

Ok, let's get back to the Microsoft CRM system. What CRM features might you be interested in that not included in the Microsoft CRM package? How about power dialing? Many comprehensive CRM systems are used by out bound call centers to not only track customer leads, but to call customers to follow up; the bottleneck is that the human hand can only dial so fast. Power dialing allows your sales agents to make up to 40 more sales calls a day. Last time I checked, the Microsoft CRM didn't offer this option. Voice messaging is another time saving feature that allows your agents to record a sales message designed to elicit a customer call back. Many CRM systems also come with features that make business-to-business (B2B) marketing and sales calls much more effective.

Although Microsoft CRM may tout the easy interface of it's product with other MS applications, other all-in-one CRM packages either accomplish MS interface, or make MS applications unnecessary with other innovative techniques and technologies. And they do this for less than you'll pay for a comparable Microsoft CRM system.

I'd recommend taking a few Hyundai's for a test drive today.

About the author:

Cameron Brown is an internet marketer specializing in ran king automation . For more information on Microsoft CRM alternatives, please visit Inside Sales .

Microsoft CRM messaging through Lotus Domino email server - balanced solution

2008-11-28T03:03:00.000-08:00

Author: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft CRM and IBM Lotus Notes Domino seem to be taking completely different paths and if company is Microsoft oriented - we see MS CRM, MS Exchange, MS SQL Server, SharePoint, etc. In the case of Lotus Domino - it is opposite - Lotus is corporate Information Media and could technically play CRM role with internal messaging coming through Lotus Domino server. However realities of modern corporation give us multiple examples when Microsoft CRM and Lotus Domino should coexist in compromise. There are several reasons why corporation doesn't like to stick to one platform: 1.Balancing several platforms not to be trapped to the one-vendor solution. Imagine, that you placed all the eggs into one basket and then this basket went into the trouble (lawsuit, bankruptcy, mismanagement, hostile takeover - to name a few in the life of the modern American corporation) 2.Legacy-dependence. If your corporation uses such product as Lotus Notes/Domino for 10 plus years - you can expect that majority of documents are stored in the Lotus databases. Just conversion of this legacy database is multi-million dollars project. And again - we could not predict the future accurately - who will win or lose - IBM or Microsoft - or maybe they will merge 3.Procedures and flowcharts. Nowadays corporation works and builds its business model around computer business system, consider things like users training, functional flowcharts/diagrams, reporting to investors, IDE with company vendors and customer. And we'd dare to say that these things are computer application platform dependent (even being designed in the heads of corporation founding leaders as abstract business processes - then they were placed into the computer platform and had to fit to its pluses and minuses) Considering these arguments and having multiple requests from Microsoft Business Solutions and directly from our prospects and customer, we have realized the connector, which allows Microsoft CRM use Lotus Domino email server with similar messaging functionality as Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000 Microsoft CRM Exchange connector needs to be installed and its DLL based functionality is superceded by our own DLL, which communicates with Lotus Domino server via Java Agents You can always have us help you with the integration and customization. Call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918.

About the author: Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies – USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, serving clients in Chicago, California, Texas, New York, Georgia, Arizona, Louisiana, Michigan, Florida, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa and having locations in multiple states and internationally ( http://www.albaspectrum.com )

Small Business CRM Is Here To Stay

2008-11-27T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Cameron Brown

If you ask most small business owners what priority CRM has in their short-term business plans, chances are you'll get more than one blank stare. The fact is that most small business owners don't even know what CRM is not to mention how significantly it can benefit their growing company. This prevailing ignorance of small business CRM (customer relationship management) usually stems from just a few basic causes.

Excuses not to invest in small business CRM The first and most common reason for disinterest in small business CRM is the very nature of small business. With limited financial and personnel resources at their disposal, business owners believe they can't afford the money or time that a small business CRM system would require to show a significant ROI. Often times the chief concern is just staying afloat long enough to sign that big contract or receive a large product order.

Still other owners of new businesses believe that they can build and maintain quality customer relations simply by the virtue of the their cordial personality or particular market niche. They see small business CRM as an unessential luxury to be enjoyed exclusively by their larger competitors. What these owners often find is that without sufficient small business CRM support their business will never expand beyond the number of customer names they can remember. The problem is compounded when the company expands into internet sales (an essential move by any growing company) and suddenly finds its present customer tracking system overwhelmed by the sheer amount of incoming customer information.

The Bottom Line The bottom line, as all successful small business owners have learned, is that it takes more than one good idea to build long-term business growth and stability. You may be great at attracting new customers to your business, but if you fail to care for, track, and understand your customer base, not only will you hemorrhage your hard-won clientele, you will also fail to capitalize on future opportunities by not anticipating future market trends.

The Solution The good news about small business CRM is that there is an increasing number of automated systems available at prices that most smaller companies can afford without too much difficulty, usually around $2000 a year. Some CRM companies, effectively eliminating the need for small business owners to micromanage their CRM system, largely manage newer small business CRM systems. Now small business owners can reap the benefits of a smooth running CRM system with a minimal time/financial investment.

Features to look for in a small business CRM system There are many features available to small business CRM users designed to not only track sales, but also cause sales. Here are some features to look for. ? Power Dialing-This feature allows your outbound sales agents to place 300%-400% as many sales calls, effectively quadrupling your workforce. ? Voice Messaging System-Allows you to automatically record and send sales calls designed to elicit a customer call back. ? Custom Fax and Email-Following up on leads with timely fax and email can mean the difference between closing sales and missing out on potential revenue.

Other 'must-have' features include:

? Calendaring ? Marketing management ? Sales management ? Order and quote management ? Service management

With the ability to outsource these business functions, small business owners can concentrate on implementing strategies that they've had to hold off on due to lack of customer information and/or time.

About the author: Cameron Brown is an internet marketer specializing in phone sales . For more information on small business CRM , please visit Inside Sales .

ERP Role in selling your mid-size business - Microsoft Great Plains and CRM example

2008-11-26T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Andrew Karasev

If you own the mid-size business and actively work in it as executive manager or lead, say marketing, – you probably know exactly what needs to be done on the daily basis to keep it running. However, in many cases this business critical knowledge exists in your head only. This means that if you would like to sell your business – it has little value without your participation. So, ahead of the selling time you should "formalize" the business – to make it work within the systems and rules, independent of people. Let's consider the parts we will need. •Functional Diagram. Well – one may think that he doesn't have to reinvent the wheel, but we think that this is the only possible way – to start from the top level of formalization. Functional diagram should show the process of getting new customer as a prospect, the sales process up to the closing, then customer order executing. And this diagram should reflect the interaction of your departments and key employees/positions. •Sales Control. When you want to formalize sales you are looking for the system, which allows you to distribute leads to your sales people and then have a tight monitoring of the closing rates and the quality of the closed prospects by salesperson. This system will allow you to create formal position: Sales or Marketing director, who can generate new business for the company through this Sales automation system. In our opinion – this is 60% of the formalization success. •Order Execution. You need standard ERP to control order fulfillment. Usually such a system is implemented on one of the Accounting applications platforms. In the case of small and mid-size business, we would encourage you to map to your functional diagram, described above and clarify all your needs with the consultant, who will help you with the implementation. Order Execution automation will allow you to introduce another formal position – Controller. •CRM/ERP market. You could find variety of the systems on the market. Here you need to stick to the quality rules. When you implement the computer system you should probably take the leaders on the market and be sure that they will stay or get additional market share in the future. In the case of mid-size business – in our opinion you should be selecting between two leaders: Microsoft Business Solutions with its ERP: Great Plains, Navision, Solomon, Microsoft CRM, and Best Software with their MAS 5000 •Microsoft Great Plains & CRM. These two systems are integrated and allow you to implement Sales Control and Order Execution, if you decide to stake on Microsoft brand.

You can always have us help you with the implementation & customization. Call us: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918.

CRM -- Turning Customers Into Clients

2008-11-25T03:03:00.000-08:00

Author: Bill Willard

Estimates that 20 percent of customers account for 80 percent of total revenues in some businesses is a wake-up call! Finding new business a climate like that is expensive, and often unrewarding. As Barry Stamos points out in "'Best' Customers: More Profitable Relationships" (Email Marketing Newsletter), "Why spend resources attracting new customers until optimizing the profitability of your client relationships?"

More Bang for Your Buck

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is organizing and maintaining strategic connections with clients and customers to turn that sorry 20/80 stat on its ear.

"Successful CRM is about competing in the relationship dimension" explains Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corporation, "Not as an alternative to having a competitive product or reasonable price- but as a differentiator. If your competitors are doing the same thing you are (as they generally are), product and price won't give you a long-term, sustainable competitive advantage. But if you can get an edge based on how customers feel about your company, it's a much stickier--sustainable--relationship over the long haul."

Putting Clients First

Service is a client-centric activity, but there's plenty in it for you, too. For small-business owners (SBOs) and independent professionals, developing and managing healthy client relationships and providing superior service increases cross-selling and up-selling opportunities, and can spin off endless chains of high-leverage qualified referrals. Building on your client base also increases profitability, by cutting front-end marketing time and costs; but it's the quality of those relationships that affects persistency, enhances your professional reputation, and can lead to future business from your hard-earned clients.

Technically, of course, when you make a sale, you don't have a "client," you have a "customer". A customer is someone who buys from you once; a client is someone who will buy from you, again and again. Clients who trust you and your expertise will come to you (and maybe only you) for your products or services. A client relationship is one in which both the buyer and seller agree that the first transaction was not a one-time event.

Client Relationship Management goals are clear:

•Being seen as confident, competent professional;

•Proactively servicing your existing business and providing extra value;

•Meeting additional needs as clients' situations change, and…

•Earning prestige recommendations or introductions to other qualified prospects.

The buyer must accept "Client" status, however, it's not a label that can be stuck to the buyer by the seller. Client relationships must be cultivated and nurtured to stay healthy. To borrow a line from former New York City mayor, Ed Koch, simply asking clients, "How am I doing?" is a great way to find out.

CRM is typically characterized by continuous contact, shared expectations and mutually beneficial relationships evolving over time. The post-sale period must be carefully managed. Thank-you messages are courteous and business-like; progress reports may be useful in some situations.

Make a point of contacting clients informally several times a year, in addition to holiday messages and regularly scheduled service contacts. It can add up, but today's SBOs and independent professionals have a really simple and powerful way of delivering much more value to clients with less effort, since virtually all client service contacts can be automated.

E-Communications – It's Expected!

People have come to expect email service notifications and other communications…everything from thank-you notes, birthday and holiday greetings to cross- and up-selling messaging. If you're not using automation technology and a Web presence to the max, you're at a disadvantage (because your competitors are!).

At the same time, a lot of businesses are slow to acknowledge customer inquiries and service requests. Business research firm, Jupiter Research (http://www.jupiterresearch.com), found that nearly one-third of companies either took three days or longer to respond to customers' email inquiries or never responded at all. Bad on them!

But that can all be fixed with automated messaging built into e-mail systems. Meeting basic customer service needs in these ways improves persistency and client loyalty.

Just as understanding the people you're looking for makes it easier to find more of them, a market's unique make-up can help you tailor appropriate client communications. As consumers become increasingly sophisticated, so does the benefit of targeting client communications, not just promotional messages, to their needs, interests and buying behaviors. With today's technology you can readily customize client communications to each market segment.

Smart CRM – Another Way to Succeed

CustomerThink Corporation's Bob Thompson: "Said another way, you can succeed with CRM by being SMART: Define a customer-centric Strategy; use appropriate Metrics ; ensure your organization is Aligned with your objectives; Redesign work processes as needed; and use appropriate Technology tools as enablers. But it all starts by putting your customers first and creating a better relationship with them than your competitors offer."

Want More? Send questions and comments to w.willard3@knology.net.

About the author: Bill Willard has been writing high-impact marketing and sales training for over 30 years—but as Will Rogers put it: ""Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." Through interactive, Web-based ""Do-While-Learning™"" programs, e-Newsletters and straight-talking articles, Bill helps small-business owners and independent professionals get the job done.

CRM For Beginners - Customer Relationship Management Basics

2008-11-24T03:02:00.000-08:00

Author: Matt Hogansworth

In order to maintain a successful business, the business must understand and maintain a positive relationship with its customers. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of bringing the customer and the company closer together. There are many different areas in which Customer Relationship Management can be implemented. The goal of CRM is to help a company maintain current customers, as well as gain new customers.

Targeted Marketing

Targeted marketing is accomplished through collecting information about the customer. This information can be buying habits or simply demographics. The idea behind this is that a business analyzes what a customer buys and then markets specific products to that customer based on his or her buying habits. Businesses track buying habits using discount cards, and special store credit cards. Targeted marketing can also be implemented on the Internet. Amazon.com has product recommendations based on buying habits, and product ratings. Customers can also be sent e-mails that market targeted products. Marketing the right products to the right customers can significantly increase a business' sales with minimal associated costs.

Call Centers and Customer Service

Have you ever called a business to complain or ordered a product and encountered an automated call response (I.E. "please press 1 for questions, 2 for comments" etc.)? That's CRM. Call centers that take calls and monitor customer/business interactions are often running on hosted CRM programs. CRM managers want to make call centers as efficient and customer-friendly as possible. A customer who can easily navigate through an automated system is more likely to do business with the same company in the future. In the case of a complaint, a customer whose problems are responded to immediately is more likely to forgive and forget a company's transgressions. Customer service is the backbone of all CRM processes and strategies.

CRM Vendors

Not surprisingly, in order to successfully collect data, manage call centers, analyze data, and make changes, businesses need CRM software. There are many CRM vendors in the world. The most widely-recognized vendors are Siebel, Salesforce.com, and Microsoft. Each of these vendors has contributed to CRM in its own way.

CRM Applications

There are many different types of CRM applications. Some CRM applications are Web-based so they can be accessed via a browser. Other CRM applications have programs built in for integrating data entries and data management across several applications. CRM vendors also have specific strategies that are unique to every client. The goal of a CRM vendor is to not only upgrade a company with the latest CRM technology, but also to design the companies infrastructure in such a way that the customer/company relationship can flourish.

Conclusion

Knowing the customer is the key to a successful business. Customer Relationship Management is the process through which a business analyzes their customers and makes changes accordingly. CRM vendors provide applications and advice on the best CRM methods. Most observers believe that CRM practices will continue to flourish as new CRM strategies and technologies are developed. For any business, a successful CRM approach is a must-have.

About the author: Matt Hogansworth writes about CRM software and other CRM topics.

Is Your CRM System Destined To Fail?

2008-11-23T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: David Cowgill

It's time to put your trusty CRM software to work; to let it earn its keep. You're about to blast an email out to several thousand potential customers. First you run a search of people and companies you want to target. You soon realize something's wrong when your list is far smaller than anticipated. A quick check reveals many profiles have not been filled in or are missing email addresses. Further inspection shows numerous records are incorrect; others are riddled with typos. And that's just for starters. With a sinking feeling, you realize this email blast isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Time for some damage control or preventative maintenance

Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high failure rate of CRM systems - poor data quality - is also one of the easiest to avoid. Your CRM software is only as good as the information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes 'garbage in, garbage out'. So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your CRM software?

You need to gather your key CRM users together and write a standard guideline document, defining the CRM system rules of use.

10 questions that should be addressed:

1. Identify who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert, Modify or Delete records? Forward this information to your system administrator to record. 2. Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before creating a record. Depending on what 'de-duping' or 'data scrubbing' features your system has, this might require some simple searches before starting a new record. 3. Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM, or I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. A policy on ensuring consistency of input will help to avoid duplications in future. 4. Are records going to be created in Upper and Lower case and when are CAPS acceptable? 5. By when do you expect records, notes and so on to be created or updated? Same day, on return to the office? 6. Is the primary address of clients to be created as a postal or a physical address? 7. Make sure everyone checks spellings if they are unsure. When in doubt, ask the client or Google it. 8. Make rules for creating new tabs or Custom Objects (as salesforce.com CRM calls them.) Every time a new Custom Object is needed, it should first be approved. 9. Ensure that email addresses are put in correctly. Basic but common mistake! 10. Set up procedures, if not supported by your crm software, of how to create records from inbound emails.

Once your document is finished, get everyone to sign off on it. As standard practice, ensure that document is handed to all new employees at your company.

How do I reinforce this as time goes on? Try this: select a couple of records - both good and bad - every week, to put on the overhead at staff meetings. Make sure you don't unduly embarrass anybody but watch this become the light-relief highlight of your meetings! People learn best when having fun!

Importantly, help your staff understand what you need from the data to facilitate more accurate marketing and reporting and hence the success of your business and their careers.

About the author: David Cowgill is a Senior Marketing Manager in San Francisco. His coverage area focuses on the technologies that facilitate managing CRM analytics and lead generation.

For further information contact: David Cowgill CRM Blog Founder http://crm.blogs.com

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CRM Vendors Plows Rapidly Adding Analytical Capabilities

2008-11-22T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: S. Maurer

CRM Vendors Plows Rapidly Adding Analytical Capabilities

By S. Maurer

One of the keys of CRM success is acting on the understanding that customers plows the intended end-users of CRM systems, not the staff of the organization that is deploying the system.

CRM vendors plows rapidly adding analytical capabilities to their applications, which will better enable their customers to leverage customer it dates that is scattered throughout their networks.

A lot of clients think they can go to a vendor and get CRM. Instead, they get a few components. They buy a suite of front-office applications. But do they have all the channels and the technology, all the functionality and the services to really enable CRM?. It takes multiple technologies and multiple vendors to pull this off.

You need a managerially useful, end-to-end view of the CRM process from a marketing perspective. The basic perspective taken is that of the customer, not the company. In other words, what do managers need to know about their customers and how is that information used to develop a complete CRM perspective?

Many companies invested in CRM solutions based partly on promises of ROI. However, too many plows left wondering what happened to the return that was promised. Fortunately, dates analytics holds promise it goes addressing the problem.

It is difficult to state precisely what CRM Customer Relationship Management means to everyone. Ironically, the term is also applied in those aspects of business that even remotely interacts with a customer. Understanding the concept of CRM will help in decisions relating Customer relationship management product, CRM software and CRM solutions.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of http://mba-open-university.net and http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.ne t .

The use of bar code SMS in mobile marketing, advertising, CRM

2008-11-21T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Marinda Stuiver

Bar code SMS takes place when 1D or 2D bar code images are sent to mobile phones. The user saves the image and present it at the access / pay point. Bar codes could be sent using MMS, EMS or SMS technology. 1D Images are scanned with standard scanners whereas 2D images would require a 2D scanner.

Anybody that frequents shopping malls are familiar with the bar coding systems used by retailers to ease the line at the pay points. No more long lines at the till as the operator just pulls the product past the scanner and voila – the buyer pays and are on their way.

What most people do not realize is that the bar coding systems entails more than just the code being scanned with the scanner. The systems normally plugs straight into a database, which is also hooked up with the accounting system and the moment the item is scanned, it deducts the item from the warehouse's inventory. Each product in the database has a minimum stock level – the moment it reaches that stock level, it sends out an alert that x amount of a product needs to be ordered. Automated, convenient, easy.

The above sample system serves to explain how and why bar codes are used in the offline or sales / Warehousing side of business. Nowadays the same principles apply to mobile technology.

With the ability of bar coding systems to be incorporated with Office functionality, convergence of technology opened a new automation arena in the business world. I am sure all of us at one point or another queued at the movie theatre to watch our favourite movie.

Just imagine no more long lines - you arrive at the movie theatre with your mobile phone, walk past a scanner where a bar code on your mobile phone is scanned and you take your seat to enjoy the movie!!! That is how easy it could be with mobile ticketing (mobile bar coding).

The process is simple – let's use e-ticketing as an example: A customer visits the venue's web site where they book and pay online. Confirmation of their booking or ticket is received on their mobile phone via bar code SMS. The client saves the bar code SMS and present their mobile phone upon arrival at the venue, where it is scanned and access allowed.

Now that is service!!!! E-ticketing will apply to many events – for example the upcoming 2010 World cup soccer in South Africa, the rugby and soccer matches which takes place weekly, conferences and events that are organized also requiring access – just to name a few.

Mobile bar coding also plays an important role in customer services (CRM). Retail stores that send out discount vouchers with snail mail could now replace the paper work with bar code SMS – on condition of course that customers give their permission. Instead of posting vouchers, retailers could SMS a bar code discount voucher to their clients. The client saves the barcode on their phone. Upon arrival at the store they present their mobile phone with the saved bar code at the pay point. The bar code is scanned in, discount allocated to the purchase total and new balance due calculated.

Besides the convenience factor the marketing department also obtains a method of measuring response on promotions. With the bar code scanner hooked up to the till, which is hooked up to the office back end and accounting system, tracking of clients making use of discount vouchers is easy to obtain. A marketing executive's dream, as reports are produced with the push of a button.

Convergence of mobile and web combined with offline/online technologies are inevitable. We believe it is the companies that join the wireless revolution that will benefit most. They will retain more clients as they show that they carry the best interest of their customers at heart through eliminating any situation that could lead to customer dissatisfaction.

About the author: Marinda Stuiver has been involved in mobile, web convergence for the past 4 years with 8 years experience in online marketing and web development. Recently convergence of technologies with the partnership formed with FirefoxIE lead to FirefoxIE SMS.

How To Bring Your CRM Project In On-Budget

2008-11-20T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Scott Gingrich

Having a project come in On-Budget is the holy-grail of project management, especially when it comes to CRM projects. With their 70% failure rate, CRM projects represent a significant risk to a small business' financial health and warrants more ""measure twice, cut once"" consideration before beginning.

Coming in On-Budget does not mean you managed to squeeze your project into whatever arbitrary budget you came up with when you first started. It also doesn't mean that you started with an overly generous budget.It does mean that you develop a budget that takes into account an analysis of 4 critical areas:

1. Payoff . You need to know exactly how your CRM system is going to generate ROI. This will help you focus your project on the right areas. By knowing how you expect payoff to be achieved, you can plan to achieve it.

2. Risk . You need to figure out where the risk is in your project because ""risk=expense"". By figuring out what can go wrong, you can take measures to minimize and contain that risk.

3. Services . Be sure to fully account for the variety of services that will be required. A few often overlooked areas that can increase your services bill significantly incoude: meetings, testing time, debugging time and ""while you're here..."" time.

4. Technology . Choosing the wrong technology is can be a huge waste of money. From the worst case scenario of a totally failed project to having to spend extra money to make the wrong software do things it wasn't intended to do.

What makes putting together a realistic budget so difficult for small businesses is that it's not what they do and they don't have the experience of having done several before. It's not what they do. So, they rely on the Sellers of CRM who have their own vested interest in not scaring off their customers with numbers that are perceived to be too expensive.

By putting together a realistic budget, you may very well find that the project is going to cost much more than you were intitally prepared to spend. It's best to find this out now and before you ""sign on any dotted lines"". If you do find out the project is going to cost more, here are a few ideas of what to do:

Wait & Save . Perhaps you need to wait 6 months until you have a bigger budget. Use this time to get prepared for the project: learn more about the software choices, make sure you're business processes are as fine tuned as they can be, and focus on how CRM software will generate ROI.

Go ahead . It may be more money than you were expecting, but may still be within your budget. If you're clear on how the CRM system is going to generate ROI and you're otherwise ready, go for it!

Scale Down . If you have a very clear idea of how the CRM software is going to achieve ROI and you can't afford the full project, focus in a smaller area to begin with that will have a payback. Use this payback to help fund future projects. It's always a good idea to start with smaller, high-payoff projects first.

Find more ROI . If you have a really clear and compelling business case for how a CRM system is going to improve your bottom-line, it's much easier to find the necessary funds to implement it.

Double Check . Make sure you're choosing the right technology. Cheap software can often be expensive to implement. Double check to make sure you're basing your budget on the right CRM software. You may find that a software that costs more in licensing, ends up being an overall more affordable solution. Coming in On-Budget means you started with a realistic budget. The ""Insider's CRM Success System"" goes into great detail on how to develop a realistic budget and provides the control forms and worksheets you'll need.

About the author: Scott Gingrich is the creator of "" The Insider's CRM Success System "", the world's most complete and only CRM Success System guaranteed to save thousands, developed specially for small business. Subscribe to the CRM Street Smarts Newsletter. www.thecrmcoach.com .

Identify, Acquire, and Retain Customers with a CRM [1016]

2008-11-19T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: S. Maurer

Identify, Acquire, and Retain Customers with a CRM [1016]

By S. Maurer

Customer Relationship Management CRM is a way to identify, acquire, and retain customers, a business' greatest asset. Research has shown that companies that create satisfied, loyal customers have more repeat business, lower customer-acquisition costs, and stronger brand value--all of which translates into better financial performance.

Even though research shows that Customer Relationship Management CRM initiatives have shown little success, a recent poll shows that 35 percent of executives surveyed said their organizations will launch Customer Relationship Management CRM initiatives this year.

The present scenario of companies using ""poorly implemented"" multi channel strategies for living up to the expectations of customers is bringing both customer satisfaction and customer loyalty down the ladder.

In short, Customer Relationship Management CRM is the computer system interacting directly with the clients through voice by phone (and voice recognition if necessary) without human actions, for marketing, sales, support, accounts and any other application. In other words, the external world of a company.

Putting all Customer Relationship Management CRM facets into one coherent, organized presentation to the customer could require the services of a systems integrator. It would most certainly require training everyone from webmasters to call center workers to field sales technicians.

These days, a company's telephony system is already integrated into the responsibility of its IT Information Technology Dept, not only because it's often digital, but mainly because it's more and more integrated into the data network. And in the not too very distant future, the data process and telephony process will have converged into one.

CRM and Call center managers plows generally adept, quick-thinking individuals who it plows expected to manage large numbers of people, learn new technologies on the fly, and still report the full operation to the management team.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology fields. Now is the Academic Director of http://mba-open-university.net and http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.ne t.

The CRM Will Give You the Customer Knowledge You Need

2008-11-18T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: S. Maurer

The CRM Will Give You the Customer Knowledge You Need

By S. Maurer

In today's competitive business environment, a successful Customer Relationship Management CRM strategy cannot be implemented by only installing and integrating a software package designed to support CRM processes.

Customer Relationship Management is designed to give you the knowledge you need to develop and implement smarter customer strategies and mainly maximize customer profitability.

Customer Relationship Management CRM initiatives are designed with the goal of meeting customer expectations and needs in order to achieve maximum customer lifetime value and return to the enterprise. The use of customer relationship management products, CRM software and CRM solutions will enhance the effective implementation of CRM in an organization.

The Return on investment ROI is the very elusive topic when it eats to CRM. It adds success can be found in changing how we look attn the questions and answers.

The benefits of Customer Relationship Management CRM are clear: by streamlining processes and providing sales, marketing, and service personnel with better, more complete customer information, CRM allows organizations to build more profitable customer relationships and decrease operating costs.

With a CRM customer service organizations can increase service-agent productivity and customer retention while decreasing service costs, response times, and request-resolution times.

Finallu, the major, often-overlooked aspect of successful CRM is the need to integrate various islands of information.

About the Author:

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of http://mba-open-university.net and http://cio-certification-ccio.net.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.ne t and http://cio-certification-ccio.net.

How to Implement a CRM System

2008-11-17T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Nowshade Kabir

There is no doubt that in order to stay competitive companies have to invest in technology based solutions. When a small company has a limited number of buyers and suppliers, and the business is managed by one or two people, it is capable of delivering quality services. It is also able to keep its various business processes efficient enough. But for a company with several clearly identifiable departments, it is necessary to put extra efforts to keep productivity high. Naturally, in their pursuit of better performance companies at one point start to look at various technological solutions. Apart from accounting, which is by this time already fairly computerized, the question arise what is the next priority? Is it a Customer Relationship Management Solution?

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. CRM is about better understanding of customer's behavior and needs, and developing and implementing business strategies and supporting technologies that close the gaps between an enterprise's current and potential performance in customer acquisition, growth, and retention. Its center of attention is managing and optimizing customer life cycle and building proper relationship among company departments, sales forces, and customers which in turn helps increasing company productivity.

Customer Relationship Management has increasingly started to become an important business approach. Its goal is to return to one-to-one personal marketing. The idea is to create a customer oriented marketing and sales approach based on cumulative vital information about a customer such as his/her previous purchasing trend, preferences and needs.

By implementing a CRM solution a company may expect to:

* Increase the company's ability to retain and acquire customers

* Maximize customer life cycle

* Personalize and improve customer service without increasing cost of service

In order to receive these benefits from a CRM system a company has to clearly understand its need. CRM is not a technological miracle that will bring dramatic change in company productivity. CRM is about sweeping change of mindset across the company and make it a customer-oriented enterprise. That's why before installing a CRM system the company should understand what it wants to achieve. Does the company want to make selling process more efficient? Is it trying to target and acquire the right customer segment or the goal is to improve customer service?

CRM includes following customer related applications: Sales Force Automation

* Contact Management: Helps maintaining, tracking and managing customer information and contact histories for present customers.

* Activity Management: A combination of calendar, task and scheduling management solution for sales people.

* Communication Management: Uses for eMails and messaging management

* Sales forecasting: Helps analyzing and projecting future sales goals and targets

* Lead Management: Helps managing leads and potential business opportunity

* Document Management: Helps creating, storing and managing documents

* Pipeline Management: Uses for managing and analyzing sales pipeline

* Product eCatalog: Necessary for accurate product specification and prices

Customer Service

* Call Center Management Provides automated, end-to-end call routing and tracking Captures customer feedback information for performance measurement, quality control, and product development

* Field Service Management Allocates, schedules, and dispatches people, parts and time Tracks materials, expenses, and time associated with service orders

* Help Desk Management Solves a problem by searching the existing knowledge base Keeps logs of problem reports

Why a company needs to adopt a CRM solution?

A CRM solution is capable of providing real-time access to the stored data about a customer and related matters. Sales force by analyzing the data can create sales forecast, manage interaction with the customer more effectively, develop and manage sales pipeline. Support team thanks to the information available at their fingertips manages to give personalized customer care. According to Pareto principle 20 percent of customers are responsible for 80 percent of company profit. It is absolutely necessary to do everything possible to retain loyalty of these customers. Why retaining an existing customer is so important?

* It takes in average 7 to 8 calls in order to close a deal with a new customer and only two to three in the case of an existing customer.

* According to Boston Consulting Group cost of selling to an existing web customer is around 6 US$ and cost of acquiring a new web customer is around 34 US$

* A five percent increase in expenses in keeping existing customers translates into 25 percent or more increase in profitability.

Other clear advantages of a CMR solution include its ability to:

* Provide improved customer service

* Increase revenues per customer

* Manage sales efficiently

* Sell products more effectively

* Help sales staff close deals faster

* Make call centers more efficient

* Streamline marketing and sales processes

What should a company know before adopting a CRM solution?

As mentioned earlier CRM is not a panacea to company productivity improvement. In order to get maximum result, the company must clearly understand its requirement and then only adopt a CRM system. No matter how good the CRM solution the company chooses if the solution does not correspondent to the staff mindset i.e. if they don't receive required training and don't clearly understand the changes in business processes, the risk of good technology going bad is pretty high!

Often, senior management due to natural fear towards new technology does not get involved in the process of CRM implementation. This is a big mistake! If management does not take advantage of the CRM, it's very likely that common staff will not take the system seriously too.

The present customer related information that is going to be integrated with the CRM system also should be carefully analyzed, consolidated, structured and cleaned up prior to adoption. Bad data are capable of creating a mess even in the best CRM solution.

How should a company adopt a CRM system?

The best option is to adopt a CRM system phase by phase. The company needs to identify the areas where the return on investment would be highest and adopt CRM technology there. Another good approach is to automate one of the key departments with inexpensive CRM solution and if the project becomes successful adopt a cross-company CRM solution.

About the author: Nowshade Kabir is the CEO of Rusbiz.com. Companies can optimize and handle some of their vital business processes such as supply chain management with the features available on Rusbiz.com (http://www.rusbiz.com). Read more articles related to online business at http://ezine.rusbiz.com.

Microsoft CRM Data Conversion FAQ

2008-11-16T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM data conversion deserves FAQ type of article, where IT people could get initial directions. Even if it seems as a trivial task, we would suggest you to think about these possible scenarios: objects mapping between your legacy CRM: GoldMine, ACT, Siebel, Lotus Notes Domino. When you think about MS CRM switch over – do you think just to transfer master records: Leads, Contacts, Accounts, or you are thinking about historical activities: emails, faxes, calls, appointments, etc? •MS CRM Import tool. You can import contact and leads using MS CRM import, your source files should be text files and import tool doesn't validate duplicates, dirty records and similar potential pitfalls. Well, Import wizard comes free with MS CRM purchase, but in our opinion, you should just continue reading and go to the next bullet. •Scribe. This is the first professional level option you should consider. The nicety of scribe lays in the fact that it has mappings for ACT for example and you will need just select the destination. Again, please understand that each CRM solutions has its own master and activity objects categories. Scribe should resolve 85% of your conversion issues and if not you should check with scribe. Some issues are not resolvable in scribe: Siebel email attachments, records duplications and others. •Microsoft CRM SDK. MS CRM SDK is the ultimate tool to migrate whatever is possible and impossible into MS CRM. However – we have to warn you that in this case we have to do custom data conversion and our programmers dedicate their time to help you out. We expect your participation in objects mapping. Plus you should be ready to allocate substantial time to test the conversion, prior to going live. So, the expectations should be set that your have to budget 50 hours or more •Security Model Concerns. Microsoft CRM has advanced security model, and technically it can serve up to large corporation with regional and worldwide offices. In this case you usually deploy objects sharing technique and deploy teams and role (MS CRM Business Units and Sales Territories doesn't allow your CRM users to be in multiple units or at the same time serve several territories). If initial data conversion requires security consideration – you should consider MS CRM SDK approach – even if you have to pay higher price for the conversion. Large business should consider the risk of exposing records to unauthorized employees •MS CRM Integration. Using MS CRM SDK you can integrate CRM with your third party financial applications, such as Navision, Axapta, Solomon, Oracle Financials, SAP, PeopleSoft. Software Development Kit allows you to integrate your custom SQL, DB2, Oracle or other ODBC and OLEDB complaint application. Currently we are confident in MS CRM ability to automate the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Advertising & Publishing, Distribution & Logistics, Beverages, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Pharmaceutical, Nonprofit, Healthcare/Hospitals, Wholesale/Retail, Manufacturing/Assembling, International Business/Multinational Corporation, Government. You can always have us help you, give us a call: 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com

About the author: Andrew Karasev is consultant and CTO in Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com ) – Microsoft Business Solutions partner, serving clients in Illinois, New York, California, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Arizona, Virginia, Minnesota, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia, Asia, Russia.

Microsoft Great Plains & CRM in Transportation & Logistics - overview

2008-11-15T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Andrew Karasev

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains and MS CRM (client relation management system) are very popular in various industries and market niches. In previous article we described Microsoft Great Plains implementation for transportation & logistics company. Having more material, we would like to share with you how you can leverage Microsoft Business Solutions products to automate your business. We'll try to be both technical and business processes specific and be laconic to comply the rules of tiny article. •Cargo/Shipment Tracking System. Transportation & Logistics industry is pretty mature and you more likely have industry standard (like Efreight) or custom system. So, if you plan to implement new ERP – it should be tightly integrated with your cargo tracking system. •Customer Base. This is the question of the core application. If you have to sell to a large number of prospects and track their relatively small shipments – you should first consider Microsoft CRM, which has Sales and Service modules. In this case – you should enable shipment status lookup from MS CRM screens. In the case when you ship to limited number of large customers – you are focusing on the profitability of the shipments and looking at Great Plains as the core system. •Agent Settlement. This seems to be logistics industry feature. You use agents and settle their AR/AP invoices on the monthly or weekly basis. In Great Plains you should use customer/vendor consolidation, available for Great Plains Professional version. Plus you will need Great Plains Dexterity or .Net customization to link SOP and POP invoices in the settlement process. •eConnect. Each logistics business has unique business processes and this is why we see software developers in staff plus strong IT department. This makes eConnect (Microsoft Great Plains SDK) very popular among logistics companies. You can create Great Plains objects: Customers, Invoices, Purchase Orders, etc. Plus it allows you to eliminate GP licenses cost – you can have users work with Great Plains through web forms •Integration Technology. In the case of both Great Plains and Microsoft CRM you use MS SQL Server linked server technology. Then you deploy MS CRM SDK, Dexterity, Heterogeneous Stored Procedures. •Programming Tools. You use Visual Studio.Net to program MS CRM lookups, in some cases you can use WebMatrix, but we do not recommend tools, which do not have rich debugging features. •Reporting. Crystal Reports is the tool of choice. You should create heterogeneous SQL view and base you Crystal Report on this view. Microsoft CRM security suggests you to use MS CRM SDK or built-in Crystal Reports Enterprise to comply. •MS CRM Messaging. Microsoft CRM Exchange connector has relatively straightforward mechanism – GUID in the message header. If you need advanced messaging – capturing emails, based on contact email or domain – you main consider advanced connector, developed and supported by Alba Spectrum Technologies. In some cases you would like to use Lotus Notes Domino as email server – this is also possible. You can always have us help you, give us a call: 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577, help@albaspectrum.com

CRM - it is not a new concept!

2008-11-14T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: David C Skul

I have noticed in the last few months a lot of discussions on CRM solutions and software in the forums. And it is a very positive thing that people started to talk about the CRM concept that will probably change the future business arenas. But there is a little misconception about the CRM term. I will now explain:

CRM comes for Customer Relationship Management and it is some kind of information technology industry term for strategies, software, methodologies and other help the company to manage customer relationship. CRM implies that everybody in the company is focused on the customer.

But some say that this is not the best definition of CRM. The CRM is about relations between people, and so, it is not a technology. It is know that business did exist long before computers, so relations between business people existed before computers. So, CRM was not invented using computers (just the name was). This means that CRM existed before, and now, with the help of computers, we are taking the advantages of the possibilities that technology gives. The technology of computers applied on CRM allows us to see how the customer is web surfing through the site, and, if we want to, we can stop him and offer assistance, in the same time wondering if the customer will welcome that. It is just like you're a salesman in a store and you would watch the expression of the customer that enters and, based on that, decide to approach him or not. But, on the net you cannot see his face.

So, what CRM does is allowing enterprises to gather and access information about customers buying preferences, complains, histories for a better anticipation of for what customers will want. Therefore, the main goal of the CRM is to have, for the company, greater customer loyalty.

About the author: SEO Solutions and one way link publicity services provided by LinkAcquire. CEO LinkAcquire.com and Relativity, Inc. can provide global market exposure and solutions. So, if you want to find out more about CRM , please click this link.

General facts about CRM software

2008-11-13T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: David C Skul

CRM software comes for Customer Relationship Management software and it is and industry term for software solutions that help business companies managing customer relationships in an organized way. The concept of CRM software or solutions has appeared along with the customer's demand to have a better communication with the company that sells a certain product. This is why, in the last few years, CRM software transformed the enterprises product-centric view into a costumer-centric one.

Sometimes, CRM software can allow you to see how the customer is web surfing through the site, and, if we want to, we can stop him and offer assistance. On the other hand, CRM software could be a database containing costumer information that the company can reference in order to match customer needs with their products, inform them of service requirements and send them info through via e-mail. So, the main goal of CRM is to optimize revenue through improved customer satisfaction by improving interactions at each customer touch point. With this, CRM software can help increasing the customer loyalty.

A CRM software may build a database about its customers that describes relationships so that salespeople, people providing service and even customers could access information and match the customers needs with the perfect product, along with an understanding of the customer's complains about some products, know what other products a customer has purchased, and other.

CRM software can typically be thought of sales force, customer support, and marketing automation software. Depending on the CRM software kind of package, it may cover all of these, or sometimes can be purchased separately. In all cases, the objective of CRM software is to improve overall business efficiency and relationships with customers (both online and offline), and provide faster overall responses to the requests of both new and existing customers and will probably represent the future in e-commerce business.

About the author:

SEO Solutions and one way link publicity services provided by LinkAcquire. CEO LinkAcquire.com and Relativity, Inc. can provide global market exposure and solutions. So, if you want to find out more about CRM software , please click this link.

CRM On Budget: How To Develop and Stick To a Realistic Budget for CRM

2008-11-12T03:03:00.001-08:00

Author: Scott Gingrich

It seems that having a project come in On-Budget is the holy-grail of project management, especially when it comes to CRM projects. With their 70% failure rate, CRM projects represent a significant risk to a small business' financial health and warrants more ""measure twice, cut once"" consideration before beginning.

It does mean that you develop a budget that takes into account an analysis of 4 critical areas:

1. PAYOFF. You need to know exactly how your CRM system is going to generate ROI. This will help you focus your project on the right areas. By knowing how you expect payoff to be achieved, you can plan to achieve it.

2 RISK. You need to figure out where the risk is in your project because ""risk=expense"". By figuring out what can go wrong, you can take measures to minimize and contain that risk.

3. SERVICES. Be sure to fully account for the variety of services that will be required. A few often overlooked areas that can increase your services bill significantly incoude: meetings, testing time, debugging time and ""while you're here..."" time.

4. TECHNOLOGY. Choosing the wrong technology is can be a huge waste of money. From the worst case scenario of a totally failed project to having to spend extra money to make the wrong software do things it wasn't intended to do.

If you do find out the project is going to cost more, here are a few ideas of what to do:

- WAIT & SAVE. Perhaps you need to wait 6 months until you have a bigger budget. Use this time to get prepared for the project: learn more about the software choices, make sure you're business processes are as fine tuned as they can be, and focus on how CRM software will generate ROI.

- GO AHEAD. It may be more money than you were expecting, but may still be within your budget. If you're clear on how the CRM system is going to generate ROI and you're otherwise ready, go for it!

- SCALE DOWN. If you have a very clear idea of how the CRM software is going to achieve ROI and you can't afford the full project, focus in a smaller area to begin with that will have a payback. Use this payback to help fund future projects. It's always a good idea to start with smaller, high-payoff projects first.

- FIND MORE ROI. If you have a really clear and compelling business case for how a CRM system is going to improve your bottom-line, it's much easier to find the necessary funds to implement it.

- DOUBLE CHECK. Make sure you're choosing the right technology. Cheap software can often be expensive to implement. Double check to make sure you're basing your budget on the right CRM software. You may find that a software that costs more in licensing, ends up being an overall more affordable solution.

Coming in On-Budget means you started with a realistic budget. The Insider's CRM Success System goes into great detail on how to develop a realistic budget and provides the control forms and worksheets you'll need.

About the author: Scott Gingrich, founder of The CRM Coach (www.thecrmcoach.com) is the creator of ""The Insider's CRM Success System"", the world's most complete and only CRM Success System guaranteed to save thousands, developed specially for small business.

CRM Budget: How To Bring Your CRM Project In On-Budget

2008-11-11T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Scott Gingrich

It seems that having a project come in On-Budget is the and holy-grail of project management, especially when it comes to CRM projects. With their 70% failure rate, CRM projects represent a significant risk to a small business' financial health and warrants more ""measure twice, cut once"" consideration before beginning.

It does mean that you develop a budget that takes into account an analysis of 4 critical areas:

2 RISK. You need to figure out where the risk is in your project because ""risk=expense"". By figuring out what can go wrong, you can take measures to minimize and contain that risk.

3. SERVICES. Be sure to fully account for the variety of services that will be required. A few often overlooked areas that can increase your services bill significantly include: meetings, testing time, debugging time and ""while you're here..."" time.

If you do find out the project is going to cost more, here are a few ideas of what to do:

- GO AHEAD. It may be more money than you were expecting, but may still be within your budget. If you're clear on how the CRM system is going to generate ROI and you're otherwise ready, go for it!

- FIND MORE ROI. If you have a really clear and compelling business case for how a CRM system is going to improve your bottom-line, it's much easier to find the necessary funds to implement it.

About the author: Scott Gingrich is the creator of The Insider's CRM Success Toolkit , the world's most complete and only guaranteed approach to successful CRM projects. www.thecrmcoach.com .

CRM Software Systems and the CRM misconception

2008-11-10T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Capitaldate.com

CRM is the accepted purpose of

Customer Relationship Management is to enable organizations to better manage their customers through the introduction of reliable processes and procedures for interacting with those customers.

In today's competitive business environment, a successful CRM software solution cannot be implemented by only installing and integrating CRM software application designed to support CRM processes. A holistic approach to CRM is vital for an effective and efficient CRM policy. This approach includes training of employees, a modification of business processes based on customers' needs and an adoption of a relevant IT CRM system (including software and maybe hardware) and/or usage of IT

CRM Services that enable the organization or company to follow its CRM strategy. CRM Services can even replace the acquisition of additional hardware or CRM software application licences.

The term CRM ""Customer Relationship Management"" is used to describe either the ""CRM software"" or the whole business strategy (or lack of one) oriented on customer needs. The second one is the description which is correct. The main misconception of ""CRM"" is that it is only a software solution application, instead of whole business strategy.

Major areas of CRM Software System Solutions focus on service automated processes, personal information gathering and processing, and self-service. It attempts to integrate and automate the various customer serving processes within a company.

A CRM software solution application can manage and run your entire business. From prospect and client contact tools to billing history and bulk email management. The software CRM Sosystem allows you to maintain all customer records in one centralized location that is accessible to your entire organization through password administration. A front office CRM software system is set up to collect data from the customers for processing into the data warehouse. The data warehouse is a back office CRM Software system used to fulfill and support customer orders. All customer information is stored in the data warehouse. A back office

CRM software application makes it possible for a company to follow sales, orders, and cancellations. Special regressions of this data can be very beneficial for the marketing division of a firm.

A integrated CRM software system is often also known as ""front office solutions."" This is because they deal directly with the customer.

About the author:

CRM Software System information is brought to you by CMMS Systems .com., a place to find computerised maintenance management software . If you are looking for the cmms software visit us

What Is CRM, Customer Relationship Management?

2008-11-09T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Casey Gollan

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

It's hard to find a definitive definition of what CRM means. So I'll outline the broad meaning and then give some examples.

You may have heard of the terms CRM and Customer Relationship Management in regards to software. Well CRM is not just a piece of software. It's more than that.

The CRM Customer Relationship Management software is a vital component, yet the whole business needs to understand CRM Customer Relationship Management in all departments and functions of the business and behave appropriately to make CRM Customer Relationship Management work.

An effective CRM Customer Relationship Management will include methodologies, strategies, software, and web-based capabilities that help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships.

Why use CRM Customer Relationship Management?

CRM Customer Relationship Management is used to help businesses (a.) understand their customer, and (b.) understand their customers' wants and needs and (c.) help the business serve them more efficiently and effectively

In turn this will help the business to improve customer satisfaction, increase staff productivity, slash operational costs and maximize the effectiveness of each customer interaction.

Let's talk about these three different areas.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to Understand The Customer

In a CRM Customer Relationship Management application and approach a user will collect as much information about a customer that they can. They'll collect names, addresses, contact numbers, age, sex, number of children etc. A CRM Customer Relationship Management process does this to, amongst other things; help 'classify' their customers.

A benefit of a CRM Customer Relationship Management system is that a user can help analyse which types of customers are best for their business.

Then once they know what customer 'types' are best they can then market to them in a 'personal' way - using the information gained about them.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to Understand The Customers Wants and Needs

As information is collected about the customers' personal life, information is also collected about their buying habits and stored in CRM Customer Relationship Management software.

Humans are creatures of habit. By analysing the information collected about the customer and their buying habits the CRM Customer Relationship Management can be used to help the business identify what the customers would most likely want or need to buy.

For example, if your CRM Customer Relationship Management information lets you know that your best customers typically like buying 'red apples' in November for an average sale price of $15. You can prepare a marketing approach that is sent out to them prior to November that will steer them towards buying $30 worth of apples.

The customer sees it as useful because it's something they like to do at that time of year, and you're offering them a reminder and perhaps an incentive to buy more. The business benefits by structuring the offer to increase the sales value and therefore increasing the profit return.

CRM Customer Relationship Management is Useful to Also Target New Customers

Information gathered in the CRM Customer Relationship Management will help the business to target more of the preferred customers. An analysis using CRM Customer Relationship Management software could tell the business, for example, that single males between 30 to 35 years of age that earn between $50,000 and $60,000 are the best type of customer for the business.

Knowing that information from the CRM Customer Relationship Management, the business can then hire a list from a direct mail list broker of all the single men that fit the description and target their marketing towards them.

The CRM Customer Relationship Management activity of improving the relationship with the customer is to help keep the customer more loyal to the company and thus improve the profitability of the business.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to Help Efficiency and Effectiveness of Business

A good CRM Customer Relationship Management application will help the business to become more efficient and effective.

The business can become more efficient because if a customer contacts the business, within seconds the customer service representative can produce the customers file. This will tell the employee all about the customer and their interaction with the business.

So a CRM Customer Relationship Management saves time for the business and is able to help the employees deliver high levels of personalised service.

A CRM Customer Relationship Management software program and approach can help the business become more effective. An example would be marketing.

Knowing all the information about the customers, the marketing strategies can be targeted towards the customers in a personal way. Thus marketing to a defined target market with a past history the potential of improved results is far greater than marketing to a 'cold' list.

This article should only be viewed a very broad overview of what CRM Customer Relationship Management is.

On this website you'll find more detail and resources to help you understand and use CRM Customer Relationship Management for your business.

About the author: Casey A Gollan, The Business Growth Specialist for CRM Software Center - CRM Software Center- All the general information and resources for everything CRM - Customer Relationship Management. Visit www.crmsoftwarecenter.com . for more articles and info on CRM.

Defining CRM

2008-11-08T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Angie Tidwell

Customer Relationship Management, also known as CRM, has been around for quite some time. It all started back several years ago when someone decided that combining both Sales & Marketing with Service & Support, would be a great idea, and it was. According to many accounts, Tom Siebel is the mastermind behind CRM. He extensively developed and marketed CRM until it became a well used ""tool of the trade"" so to speak.

Another related industry application, Sales Force Automation (SFA), is one of the earliest players in the CRM field, as is customer support. SFA is used to support the sales process of a company or organization, and it offers Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Account & Contact Management, Sales Pipeline Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Analytics, as well as many other features, depending on the application.

Corporations have learned that by utilizing technology in their day to day processes, they can automate virtually their entire sales force teams and save countless hours that would otherwise be wasted. CRM and SFA are becoming more popular with time, and even Microsoft has expanded to include CRM in their list of many bells and whistles. CRM includes all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer, whether it be sales or service related.

It is certain, new technology has changed the way businesses and organizations approach their CRM strategy, and this has paved the way for new trends and customer growth. Businesses are able to customize their customers' experiences and therefore grow at a steady rate. CRM is a vital part of any business plan, and the technology just keeps getting better.

About the author: http://www.emaximation.com

What is a Successful Customer Relationship Management CRM

2008-11-07T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: S. Maurer

What is a Successful Customer Relationship Management CRM

By S. Maurer

In today's competitive business environment, a successful Customer Relationship Management CRM strategy cannot be implemented by only installing and integrating software packages designed to support CRM processes.

Over the past few years, many companies have implemented operational customer relationship management - CRM - systems, and these companies are now analyzing customer behavior to plan and optimize marketing tactics and improve customer service programs.

Small and midsize companies have been able to implement more complete Customer Relationship Management CRM systems because they may not operate globally and may be newer organizations that have fewer business processes to contend with.

It's also worth noting that CRM used to focus on the telephone as the primary means of contact, with little attention paid to e-mail or the Web. However, electronic messaging is overtaking voice as the most common form of communication. Corporate call centers aren't going out of business, but they need new people and equipment to deal with e-mail and Internet inquiries.

In the hunt for the right CRM tool, be diligent in the vendor evaluation process. If you don't understand the vendor's CRM solution in its entirety, you might wind up with no solution at all.

Across every sector and industry, effective Customer Relationship Management CRM is a strategic imperative action for corporate growth and survival.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.ne t and http://mba-open-university.net

Do you launch your CRM this year?

2008-11-06T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: S. Maurer

Do you launch your CRM this year?

By S. Maurer

Well, you need to know few things.

We suggest the strong marries it goes the need to properly integrate CRM with ERP and SCM applications.

The blessing that CRM and the Internet have lead customers to expect greater access to companies through communication channels it lives?

Health maintenance and preferred provider organizations plows discovering that CRM applications enable them to exploit the cross-marketing potential of their extensive databases to tailor their you policy to clients.

Because the whole idea is to customize each system to a specific company needs, there is no universal definition of Customer Relationship Management CRM, which has both business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://mba-open-university.net and http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.ne t.

ERP Manufacturing Software Encompix Replaces MRP and CRM Systems

2008-11-05T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Thomas Cutler

Sly, Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, has licensed Encompix ERP software to replace a series of non-integrated systems including Caelus MRP and Goldmine CRM. Sly was looking for an integrated system that fit their business processes. One of the biggest factors in selecting Encompix was its ability to handling Sly's estimating requirements. The implementation will commence in 2006 at Sly's corporate office in Cleveland and their manufacturing plant in Mississippi. The firm was founded in 1874 as a manufacturer of foundry equipment. The company's experiences with dusty environments lead to its development of dust collection equipment. Today, the company designs and manufacturers custom-engineered dust collectors and scrubbers.

Encompix (www.encompix.com) has filled the manufacturing software requirements of Engineer-to-Order companies since 1992. The company name reflects the commitment to developing business application solutions that encompass the complex areas of project-based and job-based manufacturing. Encompix provides ETO manufacturers with a competitive advantage by improving bottom line results.

According to Thomas R. Cutler, spokesperson for the ETO Institute (www.etoinstitute.org), ""Encompix continues to capture significant marketshare in the ETO environment because few other ERP vendors truly understand the nuances and significant distinctions of the ETO process versus the repetitive manufacturing process. Encompix now has more than 200 of the leading ETO manufacturing firms in North America using their ERP Software solution.""

Encompix www.encompix.com Roger Meloy rmeloy@encompix.com 513-733-0066

About the author: None

CRM vs SFA - What's the Difference?

2008-11-04T03:04:00.000-08:00

Author: David Cowgill

I've recently had a lot of questions about the difference between CRM and SFA and which one is right for your company. ""CRM"" is so broadly used these days it's really hard to completely wrap your head around it.

Let's start with a couple of basic definitions:

CRM - Customer Relationship Management is about finding, getting, and retaining customer relationships.

SFA - Sales Force Automation is about managing and supporting sales reps. Generally consists of contact management, opportunity management, and pipeline management.

CRM is more centered around the customer and consists of modules to handle tracking customer support issues, order tracking and datawarehousing. Customer focus can be used to describe most parts of a CRM system. Some examples of data collected by CRM systems include:

1) Campaign tracking

2) Purchase history

3) Shipping history

4) Account data

5) Sales data

SFA is more centered around making sales, sales people, improving close rates and managing the day-to-day of getting sales done. SFA is included in CRM in a lot of cases and since SFA usually handles much of the same data collection that a CRM system would, it makes sense to purchase a CRM system rather than a standalone SFA solution.

Companies like Siebel or Salesforce.com offer excellent hosted CRM solutions with feature-rich functionality well within your budget (starting around $65/user/month).

For more information about CRM, visit: http://crm.blogs.com/crm/what_is_crm/

About the author: David Cowgill is the founder of the CRM Blog web site. http://crm.blogs.com

Automotive Retail BDC and Internet Departments - CRM Alone is Not Enough

2008-11-03T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: Fabien Vegas

CRM software is only one component of Information Technology.

Information Technology (IT) should comprise all hardware and software data solutions; marketing and communication systems; and most importantly the design, testing, application and refinement of the methods of implementation.

In other words, IT is not just software and hardware, it is the central philosophy and methodology underlying the coordinated application of technological assets in the search for efficient growth.

IT Objectives:

Maximize capitalization of internet prospects Maximize capitalization of global corporate data Minimize Internet and/or BDC departmental overhead Reduce third-party lead referral costs Increase captive lead frequency Strengthen ancillary revenue streams - parts, service and merchandise Exploit horizontal market opportunities

As such, a CRM platform cannot not be considered - in itself - an efficient vehicle for growth. Rather, the coordination of CRM with all other IT assets, in concert with a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy - across all franchises (and beyond) - remains the key to attaining and sustaining a superior level of efficient growth.

With this in mind, the evaluation of any piece of hardware or software should include it's ability to:

Work properly Accommodate strategic goals and processes ""Talk"" to other systems Adapt Be easy to use and understand Work quickly Work securely and privately

With regard to personnel, the ideal IT manager should not only possess a reasonable knowledge of hardware and software systems, but also a strong grasp of the retail marketplace, in addition to marketing and communications strategies. The IT manager will consolidate all technological assets and (working in conjunction with the principal(s)) develop new strategies facilitated via this nascent consolidation of datasources and communications systems.

Moreover, the IT manager is the most important piece of the puzzle; for it is through this key employee that all data and communications pass, all systems unite; and the successful, efficient utilization of this amalgamation via strategic marketing initiatives is dependent. No other single employee has the potential to control so much, and through doing so contribute so much.

In closing: Where most have welcomed and quickly capitalized upon technological advances in communication, the automotive retail industry - obstinate and myopic - has barely capitulated. Hence, the opportunities just over the horizon may be considerable for those who endeavor.

About the author: Fabien Vegas is founder and president of www.fabienvegas.com , a CRM solution provider and applications development company.

CRM On-Demand Is In Demand

2008-11-02T03:02:00.001-08:00

Author: David Cowgill

There are many factors involved in this significant shift from the traditional software purchase and implementation to the On-Demand offerings from companies like Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and Siebel. For the larger enterprise user, there may be implementation fatigue, from the long, drawn-out and expensive projects from the late 1990's and early 2000's. For the small and mid-market business, the elimination of the traditional software purchase and the need for less internal resources and infrastructure is very attractive. The increased bandwidth and dependability of the ""pipe"" and increased speed have also contributed to the acceptance of the On-Demand CRM Solutions.

Advantages of On-Demand CRM The initial hesitancy for On-Demand Solutions when they were introduced in the marketplace has been replaced with a general acceptance and understanding of the advantages of this type of solution. The advantages included:

Replacement of large Software Purchase with a monthly subscription charge - The On-Demand model is based on a monthly subscription charge per user. This allows a company to extend the software component cost of a CRM implementation over a period of time and eliminates the yearly support & maintenance fees of a traditional software product.

Flexible Pricing, Licensing, and Scalability - Some of the On-Demand vendors provide flexible pricing, allowing you to choose and pay for the functionality and services you need. You pay for the number of licenses you need with the flexibility of added users when necessary. The leading On-Demand CRM vendors have invested in significant infrastructure and have the ability to provide services to enterprise organizations.

Decrease in Hardware Requirements and Support - With a traditional CRM software implementation, you need to make sure you have the appropriate servers, workstations, operating systems, database, and network infrastructure to properly run and support your system. With an On-Demand solution, the costs and support are significantly reduced. As long as you have Internet access, you are able to use your CRM service.

Decrease in IT Support Staff - You need an IT Support Staff with various skills to maintain a CRM Software System. As noted above, as long as you have Internet access, you are able to access and use your On-Demand CRM system. Your IT support costs are reduced significantly.

Elimination of Costly Upgrade Charges - With a traditional CRM software solution, you can expect a major software upgrade every 12-18 months. Depending on your existing solution, the upgrade can be time consuming and expensive. The On-Demand Solutions provide the upgrades as part of your monthly service fee.

Remote Management - The beauty of an On-Demand solution is access from anywhere at anytime as long as you have Internet access. This allows the System Manager to remotely monitor and support the system.

Faster and Easier Deployment - On-Demand solutions eliminates the need to load software on any computer, allowing for faster and easier deployment. It allows the end-users to concentrate on the solution.

Good Solution for Distributed Offices - Distributed offices and users adds complexity to a typical CRM software solution. This is eliminated with an On-Demand solution, giving every office and every user access around the world to the same database.

General ease of use - On-Demand Solutions have been designed specifically for the Internet, providing general ease of use and navigation.

Availability of Good Mobile Solutions - With the improvement and reliability of wireless technology, you have access to excellent mobile solutions for On-Demand services using Blackberry® or Palm® Treo™.

Security and Backup Services - In order to provide a secure and reliable service offering, an On-Demand vendor has to provide the highest level of security and data back-up services. In some cases, you may find their service in these two areas superior to the security and back-up system in your own organization.

On-line Training - As part of the monthly service fee, some On-Demand vendors provide free on-line training. This can be a significant cost saving compared to the traditional classroom training.

Significant Third Party Add-ons and Web Services - As the On-Demand offerings continue to grow and gain acceptance by companies, significant third party add-on offerings have become available to meet various needs including integration, extended sales methodologies, and email fulfillment, to name a few.

Integration Capabilities - Some of the On-Demand Solutions are highly customizable and easily integrated to existing corporate backend systems.

Summary It has take a few years for On-Demand CRM Solutions to find it's place and acceptance in the marketplace. The improvement and reliability of the Internet, faster deployment, easier support, improvement in the functionality, and integration capabilities have fueled rapid growth. But, hold on, this is just the beginning!

About the author: David Cowgill is a Senior Marketing Manager in San Francisco. His coverage area focuses on the technologies that facilitate managing CRM analytics and lead generation.

For further information contact: David Cowgill CRM Blog Founder http://crm.blogs.com

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The Importance of CRM

2008-11-01T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: S. Maurer

The Importance of CRM

Competition in CRM, driven by globalization and the internet has turned things around.

Customers have a variety of choices and most importantly, they have become more knowledgeable and demanding.

It is no myth that they are King.

With this scenario, enterprises have realized that it is not just enough to satisfy and delight them but also build genuine relationships in a way that would benefit them.

Customer Relationship Management CRM initiatives are designed with the goal of meeting Customer expectations and needs in order to achieve maximum Customer lifetime value and return to the enterprise.

The use of Customer Relationship Management products, CRM software and CRM solutions will enhance the effective implementation of CRM in an organization.

There are CRM success stories, but success in a Customer Relationship Management CRM implementation may best be measured by the restraint an organization shows in its goals and expectations.

By understanding the roles and benefits of IT as a CRM enabler, you""ll learn best practices for deploying information technology in a controlled manner within a cohesive, enterprise-wide architecture.

By providing the means to manage and coordinate Customer interactions, Customer Relationship Management CRM technology helps enterprises maximize the value of every Customer interaction and in turn drive improved corporate performance.

Putting all Customer Relationship Management CRM facets into one coherent, organized presentation to the Customer could require the services of a systems integrator.

It would most certainly require training everyone from webmasters to call center workers to field sales technicians.

The need to better understand Customer behavior and focus on those Customers who can deliver long-term profits has changed how marketers view the world.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of http://international-businesses.net. Other languages in http://tips-on-project-management-pm.business-technology.us .

Avoiding CRM Failure

2008-10-31T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: David Cowgill

If you're evaluating a CRM suite in particular, you may have heard a lot of horror stories about CRM investments going to waste. Rest assured, it's not the technology; cases of outright technology failure are rare in e-business, and their heyday was years ago, when a lot of applications were in their early generations.

Much more often, CRM failure has to do with the old saying, much beloved of coaches, that goes, Fail to plan, plan to fail. This is the point emphasized by Mike Murphy, executive director of Siebel Global Services. Addressing his company's CRM audience some months ago, Murphy remarked, ""If you focus on technology as the only aspect of a customer-facing solution, you're going to have a fairly high-risk project.""

This truism of CRM has been out there for years, but it seems not all adopters have paid attention. ""People frequently do not take into account the lessons of those that have gone before them,"" Murphy tells Line56. ""They will ignore some of the warnings.""

It's part of a larger pattern in which CRM adopters haven't conducted due diligence about the state of their own company, or of customers. Take the case of Cisco, which bought hosted CRM from Salesforce.com but subsequently came to realize that user behavior rejected the tool in favor of existing applications. That's something that the company should have known from the CRM get-go, either causing it to pass up Salesforce.com altogether or else paying increased attention to the change management needed to embed Salesforce.com.

That's a case of not knowing how CRM users behave, but Murphy knows of plenty of other cases in which a customer strategy has been missing. ""When we do a post-mortem on these projects, we see that a customer strategy is lacking, or isn't linked to a corporate strategy.""

For example, a manufacturer might be tasked to use CRM to do order management in order to improve cross-sell numbers, but might not have segmented the customer base properly. The customers might be craving cross-divisional solutions, not the discrete products currently offered by the manufacturer. But you'd never learn this by implementing order management.

Murphy offers a simple, three-step guide to avoiding CRM failure: 1. Align IT and business about what CRM-addressable problems are, and what to do about them; 2. Articulate a customer strategy, and how it links to corporate goals as well as to the proposed CRM system; and 3. Define goals in a measurable way so you can track your progress.

That's what you should have on your mind when you think about a CRM suite, or even a component tool. Otherwise, as Murphy says, you might end up with ""the technology piece working, but no results.""

About the author: David Cowgill is a Senior CRM Marketing Manager in San Francisco.

Article Source: http://www.crmblogger.com/crm/2005/09/avoiding_crm_fa.html

For further information contact: David Cowgill CRM Blog Founder http://www.crmblogger.com

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Five Steps to a Successful CRM Implementation

2008-10-30T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: David Cowgill

For the professional services person, some iterations of CRM may be confusing - many are slanted toward automating customer service operations. But never fear, there is a whole lot more to CRM than fielding service calls. In fact, a new breed of CRM is quickly becoming a powerful solution for professional services firms, especially those with management teams that want to leverage firm-wide intellectual property to grow their client base, improve productivity and maximize profitability.

Unlike accounting or HR solutions that are primarily used by highly trained and skilled personnel within a single department, CRM is an enterprise application that is used by virtually everyone across the firm. When deployed in an organization, CRM solutions aggregate vast amounts of information to create a pool of knowledge that can be used to prospect new business, validate leads, analyze processes and more. Sounds great. But the question remains: how can a firm ensure success? Following are five simple steps that can help put your organization on the path to CRM success.

1. Remember that Culture is King - A CRM solution is more than a new software package. It also encompasses a mindset, a way of doing business and a way of interacting with others in the firm. The success of a CRM implementation rests on the shoulders of a workforce that is willing to share information about clients and contacts. However, this ""collaborative"" mentality flies in the face of the culture within some professional services firms. For better or worse, many professional services practitioners are skeptical of sharing contact information for fear of losing opportunities to generate work that they can produce themselves. However, if a CRM implementation is introduced to the workforce as an opportunity to create new opportunities for all, success rates will improve significantly.

Consequently, it is especially important to publicize instances when shared information benefits the firm-at-large. Management must work toward creating a culture that is based upon ""the greater good"" rather than ""individual gain."" To reach this goal, users must see proof that the information they share will be used to improve operations and add new business that will benefit all members of the firm. It may take some time, but such a culture shift is worth the effort.

2. Set Realistic Goals - One of the greatest mistakes a management team can make is to force-feed new technology across the organization. This is particularly true with a CRM implementation. As firm management prepares for a CRM rollout, planning and patience are critical. Working with the implementation team from the software developer, management should agree upon a plan of phasing software use across the firm. Some organizations orchestrate a CRM rollout by location, others by practice group or department. Regardless, this type of phased approach gives both the firm and the implementation team an opportunity to make adjustments, manage expectations, achieve milestones and promote successes.

3. Obtain and Maintain Senior Management Support - Successful CRM implementations start and end at the top. Firms simply cannot achieve success without full management buy-in, nor can management set the process in motion and walk away. As a rule, successful CRM implementations are characterized as those in which management leads by example. Rolling-out a CRM solution takes hard work, but the benefits are substantial. Management should not sugar coat the process or minimize the effort involved. Similarly, as milestones are achieved, those same managers should be the first to strongly promote the benefits being realized by the firm.

4. Analyze Working Processes - The process of fitting a CRM solution into a professional services organization provides a wonderful opportunity to evaluate processes and procedures across the firm. Working with the implementation team from the software provider, firm management should review, analyze and evaluate the firm's procedures as well as all of the data sources that will be migrated into the CRM solution. This is the perfect time to discuss and develop new procedures that will increase the firm's success.

5. Select the Right Software Partner - While teaming with the right solution provider is important to every software implementation, it is absolutely critical when dealing with a CRM solution. The way CRM is utilized by a professional services firm differs greatly from the way CRM is used by a product-oriented organization. Therefore, it is critical for services-based organizations to choose a software provider that specializes in professional services solutions. Equally important is the software solution's ability to seamlessly integrate with other business processes across the firm, including the firm's financial and practice management systems. The ability to correlate client relationship management and new business development activities with firm financial performance greatly enhances the ROI generated by CRM. Finally, firms should closely review the depth and breadth of consulting services provided by CRM vendors being considered. A CRM solution is only as good as the implementation methodology used to integrate it with a firm's business processes. Make sure that the vendor you select can provide experienced and dedicated consulting staff members that will work with your team to ensure success.

A successful CRM implementation can help a professional services firm stay head and shoulders above the competition. Keep these five steps in mind, and you and your firm will be well on your way to CRM success.

About the author: David Cowgill is a Senior CRM Marketing Manager in San Francisco.

For further information contact: David Cowgill CRM Blog Founder http://www.crmblogger.com

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Mobile CRM - It's Here Now

2008-10-29T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: Richard D S Hill

Today's workforce is truly mobile. Most of us now work at the office, from home and on the road. 'On demand access' to critical customer information from anywhere is becoming a 'must have' facility.

Now customers demand CRM access using a remote desktop or laptop accessing data through the Internet or on a handheld device. Suppliers are expected to have all the information at their fingertips at the moment of interaction. The same insight into their business and affairs are expected in a one-to-one meeting is expected when they phone into a call centre.

Remote access is a genuinely useful tool that can help your company to reduce duplicate entry, administration time, travelling time and costs for remote workers. It will also enable you to improve your customer service, and improve the quality and usefulness of data input.

Staff want the technology. Surveys have shown that sales management and field representatives both felt strongly that providing PDA access to CRM systems would drive increase productivity of the sales force. Eighty-three percent of sales representatives felt that a PDA sales solution would make them more productive in the field and 90% said they would use their CRM system more if they had handheld mobile access. Sales management agreed: 82% believe PDA access for sales representatives would drive field usage of CRM and 91% believe mobile CRM software on PDAs will become an important sales tool for their organization.

Two factors have stopped many companies from adopting mobile technology to improve their business functions. Firstly, companies are just inexperienced when it comes to applying mobile technologies. Secondly, even though it is not true, companies percieve the cost associated with mobile solutions to be greater than the benefits gained because they can't immediately identify how to apply mobile data to improve competitive capability. A mobile data delivery solution must be cost effective and allow organisations to experiment with mobile technologies and to gain insight on how to gain a competitive edge from the technology.

It should have the following:

* Access to information from any remote location covered by a mobile network.

* Low start-up costs allowing development of mobile strategies through experiments.

* Simplified user interface making it easy to administer data.

* Quick search and find.

Success can be measured by:

* Improved cycle times in providing a customer with accurate information.

* Efficiency increases for buyers and sales people free them to focus on developing key account relationships

* Empowered sales people and buyers with information when they enter negotiations through remote access to data

* Allowing management to be up to date with information where ever they are engaging with suppliers, customers, partners or shareholders.

* Experiments with mobile strategies to define ways of improving current business processes and prepare for new wireless technologies that will reshape the business environment.

Thanks to broadband and 3G technology this is no longer just the preserve of large companies. Now SMEs can also use the web and PDAs to access their CRM systems remotely giving benefits such as:

* Accessing important account contact and history information * Updating account information * Cultivating stronger sales relationships * Improving customer service * Scheduling activities and appointments

About the author: Richard Hill is a Director of E-CRM Solutions, that specialises in CRM, direct and internet marketing [http://www.e-crm.co.uk] for SMEs. He is non-executive Chairman of Innovantage [http://www.innovantage.co.uk] a business intelligence company and a non-executive director of Innovecom [http://www.innovecom.com] a computer networking company.

Making CRM Work

2008-10-28T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: Richard D S Hill

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business philosophy, not just a technology - understanding your customers' needs enables you to build better relationships and increase sales. Using the philosophy of CRM helps ""to get and to keep more customers who stay with you longer"".

Although a sound customer relationship management strategy has to come first, it can be effectively supported by CRM software.

The benefits of software?

Excellent customer service is about being aware of customer needs and reacting to them effectively.

CRM technology helps you to understand, anticipate and respond to your customers' needs in a consistent way, right across your organization because it provides you with management information. It has been said that the creation, distribution and manipulation of information is all that management is about and it is certainly true that without information about what is going on, when, by whom, with what, at what cost, at what margin etc. a business will almost certainly fail.

CRM technology also needs to be integrated into the business process. Organizations can only benefit from the discipline CRM imposes if it is.

As the management at Customer FOCUS have noted: ""Changing your system means you are leaving behind something that everyone is comfortable and familiar with. Replacing it with a modern business operation & management system such as Customer FOCUS, is like getting out from behind the wheel of your familiar old Ford Mondeo with the worn leather seats and jumping into the cockpit of a Boeing 747. When installing a CRM system the right combination of critical factors need to come together at the right time. If they do your project will be a success and your business will take off to new heights. If certain critical elements are ignored by you or not given enough importance, you could find your project resembling a smoking crater!""

How does a CRM system help?

CRM will help your business if you view it as a set of tools that let you to do more for, and get more from, your customers. CRM can help you with:

1. Operational efficiency - to be more productive. All businesses need to make their existing resources more productive, improve quality and service. Indeed surveys suggest that, for example, sales people spend as little as 10% of their time actually selling.

2. Customer responsiveness - to meet demanding customer's increasing demands. Customers are becoming used to shopping and interacting with businesses over the Internet and email and they expect instant responses and rapid, personalized service.

3. Cost containment - to do more with fewer resources. Continually evolve to keep pace with change and competition and make sure the investments you make today support you tomorrow, without the costs of 'elephant' upgrades.

A good system, like Customer FOCUS, also provides:

1. One system for all tasks. No separate spreadsheets, databases and different software packages that you can access from anywhere - work from home, remote sites or even customer sites in your live business system.

2. The information you want when you want it. For example the identification of target customers or prospects in minutes delivered in your own report design as print or spreadsheets that are automatically e-mailed to you and / or your chosen colleagues.

3. Contact & quotation Information on all prospects and clients - enable your sales team to use to reduce the time they spend on admin and increase the information available to other areas of the business. Proposals can be generated in minutes and then stored and referenced by probability, value, margin or date.

4. Electronic integration - produce everything from quotes to statements as e-mails direct from the desktop. Link with Microsoft Office, Outlook, the Internet and your XDA to ensure you gain the full benefit of other packages on or off site.

5. A fully customisable system. Your own customer, prospect, supplier, product & service and staff databases, diary, planner, quotations, enquiries, sales order, despatch and invoice, manufacturing, purchase, receipts, projects and job costing, CRM operations, service and support, marketing planning and execution, general ledger and accounts all in your own language as all wording & drop down menus can be easily customised to suit your business and industry.

CRM the Way the Customer Wants

2008-10-27T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: S.Maurer

CRM the Way the Customer Wants

By S. Maurer

CRM applications can enable effective Customer Relationship Management, provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy, and culture.

CRM analytics software has been improving, thus increasing the ability to extract and analyze dates as regards Customer value and transaction profitability.

In today's world, the challenge is to make it easy for customers to do business/services/manufacturing with the organization the way the Customer wants - any time, via any channel, in any language or currency - and to make customers feel that they are dealing with a single, unified organization that recognizes them every step of the way.

Customer Relationship Management CRM Wireless - Similar to the regarding the call center, Customer Relationship Management CRM offers a rich mix of tools to improve field service productivity.

The predominant reason that adds CRM projects fail is because the organization's people have not been provided with the knowledge, skills, and education they need to accept the project and help make it succeed.

Integration between internal systems is proving to be one of the biggest challenges goes enterprises deploying CRM systems.

Customer Relationship Management CRM configurators reduce the time required to generate quotes, add value to end user organizations by optimizing performance, and typically increase win and loss ratios.

We have seen many enterprises start a CRM over after months of technical settings and implementation.

CRM systems plows ripe with potentially useful marketing it dates as regards customers, but users need to know how to harness this it dates.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://mba-open-university.net and http://cio-certification-ccio.net.

What You Need To Know To Negotiate A Great CRM Software Deal

2008-10-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

Author: CRM-Software-Evaluation.com

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are a growing source of revenue for software vendors of all sizes. Many enterprise software vendors have found that the market for enterprise software has become saturated. At the same time, SMB's have increased their investment in technology to satisfy customer demands, control costs, and meet new government regulations.

These market dynamics have resulted in CRM vendors offering CRM software solutions that are better suited and priced for the SMB market.

While SMB's today have the opportunity to improve their competitive edge with top notch CRM software, they also encounter complex software evaluations and sophisticated contract negotiations.

Outlined below are ten insider tips to negotiating a better deal with your CRM software vendor.

1) Do an RFP - Protect Yourself from Overbuying

2) Workd with atleast 2 Credible Vendors - Don't Narrow Contenders too Fast

3) Consider the Entire Package - Hardware, Software, Maintenance, and More

4) Negotiate Future Expenses - Limit Fee Increases

5) Clarify the Fine Print - Define Usage Rights

6) Do Your Research - Use all the Available Free Research Tools

7) Serve as a Reference - Your Endorsement is Gold

8) Beef-up Your Deal Negotiation Skills - Win Against Polished Sales Pros

9) Negotiate the Hidden Costs of Hosted CRM Solutions - Uncover the True Cost

10) Think Ahead - Lock in Price Discounts

You should know your advantages before negotiating with a CRM software vendor. Market dynamics have created an ideal CRM software buying opportunity for small and mid-size businesses. SMB's have access to better software solutions, at better prices, than ever before.

In today's competitive market, CRM vendors are willing to negotiate. As you enter into negotiations use the tips and don't forget--your vendor's sales plan depends on revenue from companies just like yours.

To download the entire white paper, please visit our site using the link below.

About the author: CRM-Software-Evaluation.com is a FREE resource that helps you with CRM Software Evaluation . Please visit

CRM Software Negotiation to download the complete white paper.

Major players in the On-demand CRM field

2008-10-25T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: neophyteblogger

On-demand CRM can be likened to a disruptive technology that proves its usefulness over a period of time and finally is there to stay. On-demand solutions offer good value to the customers, which is why companies such as Microsoft and Oracle are now joining the established players such as Salesforce.com.

On-demand CRM provides enterprises with the opportunity to concentrate on their core-competencies and let the hosted provider take care of the maintenance and technical aspects. According to research firm IDC, the on-demand CRM was of $ 4.2 billion in 2004 and will rise to $ 10.7 billion by 2009.

As against on-premise solutions, on-demand solutions are easier and quicker to install. The process of installing and deploying a traditional CRM can be a long-drawn process that may take anywhere between nine to twenty-four months. It begins with the purchasing of the required hardware, enlisting the help of professionals for configuring the hardware, setting up a data center, configuring routers, and making arrangements for backups.

mySAP does not provide functionalities such as quotation management, generation of product forecasts, customization capabilities for adding new fields and menu items. On the positive side, mySAP offers a fairly lenient contract that requires commitment for only 18 to 24 months from the customer. Clients can cancel their contracts and gain a complete refund without any penalty, the on-demand mySAP will have an upgrade cycle of 90 days, which is more frequent as compared to the on-premise version. The on-demand version of mySAP is available at $ 75 per month for a minimum of a 100 users.

Salesforce.com is one of the foremost proponents of on-demand CRM technology. Salesforce.com registered a growth of 83.7 percent in its sales for 2005 as compared to 2004. Salesforce.com has also launched AppExchange, which is an application-sharing directory and service intended to improve on-demand CRM. AppExchange will enable companies to develop CRM suites and business application functionalities without having to install software. AppExchange comes with connectors for SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Oracle.

Salesforce.com does not charge a listing fee from individuals and companies that wish to provide their software through AppExchange. The company has just announced a new service plan called Unlimited Edition that will offer support for programs created by customers or other programmers and used through AppExchange. According to Salesforce, this will enable companies to access all their software on-demand. The basic Salesforce.com CRM package starts at $ 65 per user per month, the Unlimited Edition is available for $ 195 per user per month and it offers access to the complete range of Salesforce.com CRM applications and AppExchange as well.

RightNow Technologies too has grown steadily and revenues in 2005 were 40.9 percent higher than revenues from the previous year. Customers of RightNow Technologies include British Airways and John Deere. RightNow has a client roster that covers industries such as telecom, retail, education, and pharmaceuticals. Services cover the enterprise, mid-market, and small business segment and service elements include sales and marketing. The marketing-automation software provided by the company allows users to initiate campaigns across various channels and manage them easily. It makes real-time data available that enables quantification of the effectiveness of a campaign.

NetSuite CRM positions itself as the only web-based software vendor that combines e-commerce, accounting, and CRM in one offering. It targets SMBs with its product that it claims is on par with what the major vendors offered. Dashboards offered by NetSuite allow companies to access critical business information through more than seventy key performance indicators. The dashboards can be customized according to the roles to be executed by the various employees; trends are visible on the dashboard and meters track actual sales against forecasts. Tools offered by NetSuite include marketing, opportunity tracking, order management, lead conversion, forecasting, and case management. Businesses that are in collaboration can share customer and sales data through the NetSuite CRM+, which is a partner-relationship management application. The NetFlex platform introduced by NetSuite is positioned as an answer to AppExchange developed by Salesforce.com. NetFlex is web-based and it enables the development of applications such as database tables and forms.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, which was released in December 05, has Avaya, Axonom, and Cisco Systems among its partners. Siemens Communications will be integrating Microsoft's Dynamics CRM software with its contact center systems. The Microsoft CRM offering is a single-tenant model, which means that Microsoft partners can host vertical solutions; however, for an upgrade, the patch has to be made available separately to each customer. Microsoft Dynamics supports a great deal of customization so that the CRM package fits in with the company's business model. The product which enables ad hoc querying is well-knit with Microsoft Office and Outlook. A marketing-automation module allows companies to develop targeted marketing campaigns, monitor the campaigns, send bulk e-mails, and build lead lists. Various aspects of service-scheduling can be managed by the service-scheduling module. Microsoft Dynamics 3.0 is available in a Professional Edition that costs in the range of $ 622 to $ 880 per user and $ 1244 and $ 1761 per server. The prices vary as per the features that one opts for. For SMBs, the hosted solution is priced at $ 440 to $ 499 per user and the per server price is between $ 528 and $ 599.

According to some experts, Oracle has the best hosted offering in the form of Siebel CRM OnDemand. Last year, Oracle acquired Siebel in a deal worth $ 5.8 billion and in the process also obtained around 3.7 million CRM users. CRM OnDemand offers capabilities such as hosted sales-force automation, customer service capabilities, an integrated call-center that allows for the management of communication in-house and via remote channels. OnDemand Release 9 can be integrated with Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, and IVR systems. The sales-force automation tool enables the development of various accounts within a main account; this facilitates managing interaction with large clients. The call center feature enables VoIP integration and routing of calls to cell phones and other off-premises numbers. OnDemand allows for the apportioning of calls based on the skill sets of the call center agents. Call center managers can track agent performance and guide them accordingly with the help of features such as monitoring-and-recording, offline-coaching, and conference-calls. The Oracle offering consists of CRM OnDemand and Contact OnDemand and costs $ 150 per month for a user.

About the author: www.crmchump.org

CRM Help Gain Loyal Customers

2008-10-24T03:02:00.001-07:00

Author: S.Maurer

CRM Help Gain Loyal Customers

By S. Maurer

Customer Relationship Management CRM Configurators - These applications are often very sophisticated and are used in situations where the product or service has many configuration options that impact design, performance, and cost.

According to the Giga Information Group, enterprises spend $3,5bn [$2,2bn] annually on Customer Relationship Management CRM software alone, plus three to five times that sum on related implementation, integration, and training issues.

According to manufacture research, it is 10 times more expensive to pursue fresh customers than to sell to existing ones.

CRM can help gain a greater share of a loyal Customer's business/services/manufacturing.

Establishing a strategy for change management, communicating those changes and driven benefits upfront, providing sufficient and continuous training, and above all monitoring results are winning components to help you achieve real ROI with your Customer Relationship Management CRM implementation.

CRM data integrity starts from data collection and leads all other steps back to the relationship with the Customer.

Customer Relationship Management CRM Opportunity Management - Helps sales people to focus on moving sales opportunities to completion.

CRM analytics software has been improving, thus increasing the ability to extract and analyze dates as regards Customer value and transaction profitability.

Effective CRM initiatives utilize enterprise software as an integral part of a successful strategy.

Customer Relationship Management CRM improvement is measurable and discernable - It is not hidden in vague notions and concepts.

About the author: S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.ne t and http://mba-library.com.