David Cameron

Web services will revolutionize CRM (customer relationship management). This revolution will affect not only how sales, marketing, and service professionals interact with customers, but also how IT departments implement and support the technology. CRM is, in fact, suffering from precisely the constraints that Web services addresses architecturally. And several unique characteristics of CRM technology, data, and workflow exacerbate these constraints beyond other vertical applications. The opportunities presented by this revolution will be balanced by equally powerful pitfalls. This revolution will demand a rethinking of the way many aspects of CRM technology are structured - in particular, data integration. As such, CRM is a unique case study in how to apply a new technology to an old problem. What Is CRM, and Why Is It So Hard? Broadly speaking, CRM is the set of bu... (more)

Closing the Deal with BPM

Whether you're in a clothing store, a car dealership, or a bank's online catalog looking for low-interest loans, you're more liable to buy if you get some personal attention. You want someone to answer your questions in real time. The trick for companies doing business online is to provide customers with the same feeling of personal attention that they would get on the shop floor. But since there is no highly experienced sales person sitting next to you when you go online to buy a DVD player, companies need to create the illusion of a seasoned salesperson by setting up systems t... (more)

BPM to the Rescue

In one day, a CIO receives two dreaded e-mails from the CEO, who is acting under board pressure to change the company's fortunes. The first "asks" for a revised IT budget reflecting a 15% cut for the rest of the year. The second calls for new ways of using IT resources to capitalize on missed customer revenue opportunities. Forgive the CIO for feeling trapped. Suddenly the company's future seems to hinge on two fundamentally conflicting business objectives: cutting costs and increasing responsiveness to cross-selling, customer retention, and other revenue opportunities. The trap... (more)