Infor Adds Missing CRM Piece With Saleslogix Purchase

Infor announced plans to buy Saleslogix a CRM vendor from Swiftpage, who also own Act!. R Ray Wang, founder and principal at Constellation Research, says Saleslogix is a “decent product, but it’s been shuffled about from company to company over the years.” However, Saleslogix just might be the missing CRM piece in the Infor sales and marketing product group. “Infor provides the size, scale and resources that can help position Saleslogix as a leading product in the global marketplace,” says John Oechsle, CEO and President of Swiftpage. Infor has a Salesforce CRM integration tool called Inforce, but that not all of their customers want to use Salesforce. Wang believes the two products can live together and it gives Infor a more complete set of CRM product offerings.

 

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How Technology Changed Customer Relation Management Systems

Technology has almost perfected Customer Relation Management (CRM). Any interaction with the customer is considered customer relationship management, this includes marketing, sales, or the overall customer experience with a business. Technology has made these tools easier to use, more efficient, and often times working in real time.

A soft option and one of the most popular cloud-based Internet platform is Salesforce. Their tools make the entire sales and marketing process more efficient with features like decentralized storage, universal data retrieval, and comprehensive data retrieval. A hardware option when it come to CRM are tablets and mobile devices. Businesses that equip employees with tablets or other mobile devices are able to obtain customer demographics and their contact information for later marketing efforts.

Prior to starting your venture into technology advances in CRM, be sure your employees are well-prepared and your business obtains the required resources to make the best of technology tailored solutions in CRM.

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Business application performance issues are becoming an increasing strain on IT departments

SolarWinds surveyed over 300 business application end-users across various sized UK companies finding that IT departments are feeling under pressure when it comes to maintaining app performance and availability. Ninety four percent of respondents said that application performance and availability affect their ability to do their job, 44 per cent claiming that these are “critical” factors. Additionally, one in five indicated that slow or unavailable applications meant a “significant” loss in financial terms for their organization.

Dependence on business applications is key, but end-user expectations are vital. When a performance issue occurs, users expect quick solutions.

Suaad Sait, executive vice president, products and markets, SolarWinds, observes that “it’s no longer just about if an application is working; it’s about that application working to end-user expectations. These survey results should be a wakeup call for IT Pros everywhere.”

 

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The Benefits of Multi-Tiered ERP Strategies

Companies that have rapidly expanded their international operations by replicating their culture and systems around the world have not proven this to be a successful model. Often times this has a profoundly negative effect on the creativity of local management as well as the ERP software that subsidiaries and departments use. Businesses are beginning to adopt multi-tier ERP strategies which can offer flexibility for local needs, cut costs, and increase implementation speed. This multi-tier approach keeps the corporate and administration ERP system at the Headquarters level and rolls out other ERP systems at local and operational levels. The net effect is companies can keep subsidiaries and their customers happy with a powerful, local ERP and integrate with Headquarters so the global board can see the big picture.
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Three Ways The Cloud Can Help Your Business Thrive

Cloud computing has become a household name for many companies. Using Cloud computing flexible, controllable, and efficient. It is able to accommodate business and IT structure needs. Cloud computing is especially beneficial for music entertainment applications, for example Music Mastermind. Each of Music Mastermind center’s cloud can create 160 virtual instances and support an estimated 400,000 active users. French Managed Services Provider (MSP) Zetark, offers a self-service private-cloud option for its customers with the ability to perform granular billing on exact usage of memory.

 

Can Business Infrastructure Support the Growth of the Internet of Things?

Devices, systems and services continue to fuel the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), which is estimated to reach $7.3 trillion in revenue by 2016 and over 50 billion connected devices by 2020. The inherent benefit of the IoT is convenience and speed of access to data, but this rapid and continuous growth raises questions about how well-prepared business infrastructures are for the increased influx of big data, which will apply more pressures on businesses and squeeze the supply of data center and cloud resources.  Due to the endless potential and priceless value of big data and in an effort to address supply ahead of demand, it is critical that CIOs consider latency issues and plan for where data will be housed and how data will be managed.

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Managed Services Market to Reach $256 Billion by 2018

MarketsandMarkets forecasts the managed services market to reach $256.05 billion in 2018, at a compound annual growth rate of 12.4%. The North America region is expected to have the largest revenue contribution.

Evolved managed services solutions and aggressive pricing have resulted in increased revenues for MSPs in recent years. With the expansion of cloud computing, big data, and mobility opportunities, MSPs are increasingly considered as a business essential rather than a business choice. It has been observed that customers who employ MSPs achieve their ROI in a shorter period of time than in-house managed service processes.

 

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Microsoft is Building a CRM cloud for U.S. Government Users

Microsoft plans on releasing a new version of the cloud in 2015, Dynamics CRM Online for Government, specifically for U.S. government customers. It will share similarities to Microsoft’s Azure Government Cloud and Office 365 Government Cloud. Microsoft’s Azure Government Cloud and Office 365 Government Cloud are operated by pre-screened U.S. citizens. Microsoft has not released the exact date for when the new Government CRM database will be released for private or public testing. It will support integration with Microsoft’s Azure and Office 365 government cloud offerings.

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Government Lays Groundwork for Shared Services, Potential Job Cuts

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems expenditures are on the rise; this poses a challenge given the current fiscal environment. The Department of Finance has proposed a plan that will set out a gradual alignment over seven years. The alignment proposition will include the adoption of common ERP business processes across the government, the establishment of a whole-of-government procurement panel for ERP products, which agencies would be obliged to buy from in order to limit the range of systems in use, centralised coordination of software updates, and transparency of pricing across government. The plan will act a catalyst to for the federal government, however, the scheme is also likely to lay the groundwork for future job cuts.

 

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Why This Cloud ERP Provider Is Getting Interested in eCommerce

Popular ERP Provider, NetSuite has recently taken an interest in eCommerce. Businesses make use of ERP and/or CRM to monitor their inventory, track sales, handle shipment queries, customer support, etc. NetSuite recently released the new B2B Customer Center which offers a “next next-generation self-service customer portal as an engine for B2B commerce, creating a win-win for distributors, manufacturers and B2B buyers alike.” It is suggested that 47% of enterprises will migrate to the cloud ERP within the next five years. By building a ‘B2C-like’ eCommerce platform that the suppliers and distributors could use, NetSuite could bring the entire supply chain under its system.

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