State of CRM Customer Data Integration in 2012

May 11, 2012 at 3:57 am · Filed under Web 2.0

In February 2012, Scribe Software surveyed 300 business leaders and channel partners to uncover opportunities and challenges associated with customer data integration. “The State of Customer Data Integration in 2012” report contains input from C-level executives, business analysts and IT engineers, and systems integrators and consultants who design and implement data integration for their enterprise clients.

In summary, Customer data integration can play a critical role in addressing operational challenges in sales, marketing and customer service. It increases CRM systems’ adoption and satisfaction. Yet, many businesses lack a solid framework for planning and implementing CRM and other systems integrations that would be most beneficial to their business and have the greatest operational impact.

Cloud systems are less integrated than on-premise: 33% of businesses operating within cloud-only environments report their systems are not integrated compared to 9% for those who operate fully on-premise. Although 40% of businesses report increased investment in customer-facing systems in 2012, they still have a long way to go to – only 15% report full integration among their systems. Third-party systems integrators are key to CRM integration success – businesses using them see less risk and greater cost savings than those that tackle integration projects without an outside partner.

It was interesting to that CRM is main focus customer-facing enterprise systems (100% adoption), followed by Business Intelligence (BI) (72%) and Sales Force Automation (SFA) applications (56%). Surprisingly, investment in Social CRM (46%) precedes Marketing Automation (30%) and Customer Services application (27%). The reported under-deployment of Marketing Automation and Customer Service systems is likely due to these functions increasingly being included as part of the CRM systems. I would have to agree with this conclusion, as I cannot see only 27% of firms with customer service apps. This possible integration is an interesting fact in itself. I have seen it operating in the marketplace.

The main challenge as reported above is that, “many CRM systems remain an island in the business. Integration should be considered a key part of any CRM or customer facing system initiative to get maximum operational benefit and return on investment.” Integration across the enterprise between old school enterprise apps and new school social ones is the key to creating the connected enterprise. Application like CRM are the systems of record and the new social tools become the systems of engagement driving up usage and benefit, But this benefits will not occur without greater integration. This free useful report points out a major gap that needs to be addressed within enterprise architectures and adds some useful ROI data related to CRM data integration. I recommend taking a look at the results if you want to get full value from your CRM investments.

TIBCO Enhances tibbr with GEO and Other New Capabilities

May 7, 2012 at 3:03 am · Filed under Web 2.0

I have reviewed TIBCO before (see: TIBCO Spotfire Brings Self-Service Data Analysis to the Enterprise with a Social Twist). Recently I spoke with Ram Menon, TIBCO President of Social Computing about their upgraded social business offering. TIBCO has been a leader in making the digital world connect for quite some time.  So when they turned to social business software connectivity was naturally a sweet spot for them. It is also essential for social business to work as I have written several times (see for example, Maybe Enterprise 2.0 Is About the Technology).

So Ram and I were of the same mind from the start. If you need to get work done, then you need to have all the resources together and connected. As Ram said, in the enterprise it is not enough to like and share, you have to act. I could not agree more.

TIBCO launched tibbr, a heavy duty and secure social platform a year ago and is approaching 1M users at companies like Macy’s, KPMG, and shipping giant OOCL. Now they are adding a number of new features. There are five guiding principles in this effort. First, you need to be able to have users get started right away and it needs to be easy to use. The consumer Web has set this expectation and reduced budgets demand it. Gone are the days of six month IT projects and extensive employee training programs. Here is a sample user’s view of tibbr.

Second, tibbr provides the option for cloud technology or on-premise installations. You need to be able to provision the service quickly. They were able to get 19,000 MGM employees up and running in a single afternoon. This doubles down on the first goal.

Third, context has become king more than content. They have introduced subject filters to their activity streams so you take out the fire hose effect. You filter on customers, customers in North America, government customers in North America, etc. so you can adjust the level of granularity to see just what you want.

Fourth, the system adheres to the way people work. They found that 63% of tibbr users operate on a mobile basis so they support all mobile devices and the latest version 3.5 had HTML5.  They are also integrating video conferencing. While they find that many people are migrating their work from email to tibbr, you can still post and receive tibbr content through email for those holdouts. Here is a sample mobile screen for a grocery store.

Fifth, you need to make IT happy. So they have focused on such issues as compliance and risk management. They also offer an on-premise version for the same price as the cloud version.

Next I ask Ram about the tibbr GEO function. Ram said that with tools like Foursquare you have to check in. This is not likely to happen in the enterprise. So they turned the consumer ‘check-in’ model on its head for the enterprise. Tibbr GEO is turns physical places into data hubs that can immediately stream important insights relevant to that specific place. Instead of checking in to a location, the location checks into you – and brings you the relevant information, helping you discover important insights and work faster wherever you are.

tibbr GEO gives companies the ability to tag important places, whether in the enterprise or as part of the extended enterprise. As tibbr users approach these places, they’re automatically presented relevant in-stream information. The airline industry is a good example. An airline gate agents can get notified of all the relevant information as they approach the gate.  You can see personal information, changes in schedules, catering updates right from your mobile phone as you arrive at the destination. Here’s a link to a useful tibbr geo video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1p3ugA55T8

I really like what they are doing, especially the five principles, the use of filters for the activity stream and the creative way they have applied location specific information. I look forward to seeing what is next.

Convo Moves to the Web and Enhances Features

May 2, 2012 at 3:43 am · Filed under Web 2.0

I have written about Convo before under its old name (see – Convofy Enables Comprehensive Collaboration Through Enterprise Social Networking) and am also a user at both Darwin Ecosystems and the Merced Group. Convo builds on the activity stream but adds additional features to enable more comprehensive collaboration. I recently spoke with Tad Staley about their latest moves. One of these is to simplify the brand name from Convofy to Convo and that I certainly applaud. It was simply a matter of securing the Convo domain.

Convo has also upgraded it user interface to both simplify it and add more capability. Now there are navigation bars on both sides and this allows them to segment each for specific functions. The left bar now only provides user specific information and links such as groups, filters. It changes as the user moves to different spaces. They added a right bar for system wide functions that stay persistent regardless of location. This makes sense and below is a sample screen shot of the new interface.  There are also filters for search at the top and a home button to get back to your starting point.

They have added a native Web version to go along with the existing desktop Adobe version.  Many other collaboration platforms began as a Web app and then created a desktop app with a subset of the functions. Convo actually did the reverse. It began as a desktop app however they found that not everyone wanted to go through the download process so they created a Web version which allows you to just sign up and go.

For Convo the desktop version is fully featured. In fact it has a few more capabilities than the Web version as it takes advantage of its desktop status to do some things not possible on a Web app. You can use drag and drop for file sharing. There is desktop notification in a small window when new updates are posted. Perhaps most significantly, the desktop app has its own built-in browser so you can bring a native Web page into Convo and comment on it and mark it up for collaborative discussion. With the Web version of Convo, like the other Web-based tools, you are sent to the actual Web page instead, when a link is attached to an update in the activity stream.

Convo is putting LDAP integration in place to make it easier for large enterprises. has also added smart phone capabilities, support Apple iOS and Andriod . The user interface is adapted to the smaller screen. You can see sample screens below.

These moves are all designed to make Convo more useful for large enterprises, as well as the small to mid-size market. I have found the previous version very useful for small organizations through my personal experience as a user. I can see how these new moves are properly designed to expand their attraction to a wider market.

eXo Offers Cloud Workspaces Enabing Flexible Social Intranets

April 25, 2012 at 3:15 am · Filed under Web 2.0

I have covered eXo before (see Benjamin Mestrallet, eXo CEO, Looks at the Social Enterprise). Recently, I had a chance to speak with Benjamin again about their latest offering. He said that the goal with eXo Cloud Workspaces is to provide an easy-to-use social intranet so work teams can start to collaborate in a fully functional space.  He feels that there is a gap between simple activity stream-based tools and the full-function enterprise collaboration platforms, including their own eXo Platform 3.5. So they are now offering eXo Cloud Workspaces to fill this gap. Here is a sample home page screen.

eXo Cloud Workspaces offers out-of-the-box social intranet features for small teams that can be scalable to meet the IT needs of the enterprise. For the last eight years, eXo has been selling its comprehensive on-premise collaboration platform to large organizations. eXo Platform 3.0 added social intranet features to that collaboration platform, then eXo Platform 3.5 added low-level features that enable the delivery of hosted services, such as Cloud Workspaces. eXo can now meet the needs of large enterprises, as well as the needs of smaller firms that want a low-cost, on-demand social intranet and collaboration service. For small firms that eventually need more capability and want to go inside the enterprise, they can easily migrate from Cloud Workspaces to eXo Platform 3.5 on-premise or in a private cloud. Here you can see a sample screen from the enterprise wiki as mentioned below.

eXo Cloud Workspaces (Beta) is a fully-functional, cloud-based service hosted by eXo. It offers a full range of social intranet and enterprise portal features, including:

• Content Management System features, including the ability to store, share, version and organize documents.
• Built-in collaboration tools, including an enterprise-grade wiki, discussion forum, and shared calendar components.
• Social network components, including the ability to create/follow activity streams, create work groups, and more.
• Embedded integrated development environment (IDE), enabling the ability to develop, customize and extend the social intranet capabilities on the fly (and with one-click ease-of-deployment).
• Secure mobile access to documents, activities and apps from iOS and Android-based devices. Below are some sample mobile screens.

Here also is a sample of the shared calendar feature.

It comes with REST APIs for two-way integration with enterprise apps. This is a critical feature as I have often written about (see Integrating the Interactions with the Transactions). There is also an online development tool – eXo Cloud IDE that allows developers to create apps in the cloud without having to go through traditional IT channels and backlogs. The integration can be extended beyond simple connections to create mashups with tools like Salesforce.com. For even more complex integrations, Cloud Workspaces-based sites can be easily migrated from the eXo cloud to a deployment of eXo Platform 3.5 on premises or in a private cloud setting. Here is a sample IDE screen.

Insert IDE

eXo Cloud Workspaces will be initially offered as a free application. You can sign up at their site (www.cloud-workspaces.com/). This free application will also remain available. At some point, a paid premium version will also become available with more storage and other capabilities. I like what they are doing and will be exploring Cloud Workspaces further.

Badgeville Provides Cloud-based Gamification Behavior Platform™ and Expertise

April 20, 2012 at 3:20 am · Filed under Web 2.0

Badgeville provides the Behavior Platform™ a cloud-based gamification platform that allows organizations to build custom gamification programs for their employees, business partners, and customers. I recently spoke with Kevin Akeroryd, SVP Field Operations of Badgeville, about their offering.

My first question was why there is so much buzz today over a concept that has been around for decades. Like many others I was involved in creating incentive programs for employee participation in learning efforts in the 80s and knowledge management programs in the 90s. Kevin said that he sees four main reasons. First, the social games from companies like Zynga and Playdom, along with geolocation check-in applications such as Foursquare, have created awareness and high interest in behavior recognition and gaming activities on the Web.

Secondly, many thought leaders and pundits have begun to write about gamification and academics have started to research the topic. Third, there are new tools that make it easy to build such programs, especially those that work through the cloud. Badgeville is one of these. Fourth, there are more advanced analytics to track the results. This all makes sense to me.

The advent of social networking site and online communities has kicked this trend into high gear.  In the past companies invested in monetary incentives, usually in the form of free products. Now with the social Web, companies are finding that status and associated privileges are actually more effective that simply providing product rewards.

For example, getting to vote on the coffee of the month or some other status can be more rewarding to the customer and generate greater loyalty that a free cup of coffee. This trend has the dual benefit of costing less money and gathering customer intelligence on preferences.

As Kevin explained Badgeville is a SaaS platform, not an app. It is not an out-of-the-box solution. You customize it to fit the individual needs of your program and it enables your business to track behavior across all of your web and mobile properties. This is a good thing since every program has different audiences and different goals. Here is a sample Badgeville screen.

Badgeville also provides a team of experts in make your program more effective.  They can look at such issues as what motivates people, social mechanics and game design, how to build loyalty, and how to build effective analytics and make use of them to fine tune your program.

Badgeville can also be integrated with such applications as Salesforce.com and Jive. It has a partnership with Klout to help organizations identify and reward top influencers in their community. Badgeville also has a partnership with Bazaarvoice – through game mechanics – to provide reputation and social loyalty programs to Bazaarvoice’s network. Bazaarvoice’s solutions are now integrated with Badgeville’s Behavior Platform to increase contribution of customer-generated content and online social sharing. Here is another sample Badgeville screen.

Badgeville provides a Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) for iOS and Android devices. Deloitte, Apontador, Menuism, George Mobile and BAMM.tv are among Badgeville’s global customers that have added gamified mobile experiences using Badgeville’s API and SDKs.

I have written about BAMM.tv and spoke with their CEO Chris Hansen. I like what they are doing to provide exposure and profit to emerging bands. He is quoted as saying, “BAMM.tv will be launching a new iPad application for discovering emerging bands that places users in a virtual venue with live performance HD videos and includes a gamification program built on top of Badgeville’s Behavior Platform.”

Founded in 2010, Badgeville is based in Menlo Park, Calif.  Clients include: Samsung, Recyclebank, Deloitte, Dell, eBay, Universal Music, The Active Network, and more.

Darwin Awareness Engine Offers Hip Hop / Rave Aware

April 16, 2012 at 3:57 am · Filed under Web 2.0

Darwin Ecosystem has created a new free hip hop and Rave Edition that allows you to keep up with the hip hop and Rave music scene. With this Edition you can either look at the general buzz in this music scene or choose attractors to focus on specific topics of interest. The BuzzTape™ reports topics that are receiving rising attention in real time. The Scan Cloud™ looks at relationships between sub-themes and the main topics of interest.  Since the content self-organizes itself, it is not possible to compromise the results through SEO or spam. Here is a sample screen shot.

The Darwin Awareness Engine™ is designed to support the quick scanning of content to find the anomalies that lead to insights for effective decision making. If you are spending a lot of time and energy collecting information, you are more likely to get too much as the focus is on collecting. If you are scan for interesting content and anomalies through the Scan Cloud™ within the Awareness Engine, the focus is on looking for the right information.

With the Scan Cloud, the top 100 themes within a set of content are displayed in a manner that allows for easy sorting and investigation. As you scan over the themes the related themes are highlighted in yellow allowing you to see the relationships between them. Through any of the themes you can see links to the actual content that generated these themes and go deep into what you find relevant. As you mouse over the themes other related themes are highlighted so you can see relationships as shown in the close up of the Scan Cloud™ below.

You can find an overview of the Awareness Engine here, and a list of FAQs here. As a disclosure, I am part of the Darwin team.

Moxie Announces Spaces to Enhance Customer Engagement

April 10, 2012 at 3:42 am · Filed under Web 2.0

I have covered Moxie before see (Moxie Provides a Social Workspace Through Employees Spaces). Recently I spoke with their CEO, Tom Kelly, about their latest offering. Spaces converges customer communications with employee collaboration into a single offering that I think is a great idea. I have always preferred the term social business to enterprise 2.0 as it conveys both an internal focus and the need to align them. Moxie has taken this a step further with an integration of these domains.

We began with a discussion of enhancements to their customer support capabilities. They can provide call centers with multiple online channel options to regular and expensive phone calls. These include email, chat, communities, and a knowledge base. This will help as firms migrate away from live phone contact to online options for customer support and engagement. These capabilities are not designed to totally replace phone calls, as new communication channels seldom replace old ones. The TV did not replace the radio, simply put it where it was most effective. The same principal operates here.

There are many things now done on the phone can be better handled online, reserving the direct phone contact for when it is really needed and reducing overall operations costs. Recent Harris poll has indicated that more people actually prefer to interact with companies online (60%) than on the phone (53%). I imagine that these numbers will only grow.

The second major effort is the introduction of an internal product fro the enterprise. But this is a product that is integrated with the externally facing one. It offers a way to set up collaborative spaces in a simple manner for a variety of uses. Tom said that they have seen very diverse sets of markets adopt this tool and approach. It is very customer centric. In many cases a customer will call with a question the contact center person cannot answer. Now Moxie offers a variety of ways to get the right answer.

Expert Connect™ enables cross-departmental collaboration for Customer Service and Support, IT, HR and Sales and Marketing to ensure accurate and efficient customer communications across channels – e-mail, community, chat, Knowledgebase and social media. Here is a sample Expert Connect screen

There is also an Activity Stream App to integrate activity streams into communication channels for faster knowledge sharing and collaboration. Real-time Insight is another feature that enables real-time visibility into issues in the field for faster resolution. The Virtual Response Team automates the creation of Web 2.0 tools (activity feeds, wikis, projects and groups) that bring resources together quickly to collaborate. Finally Click-to-Publish seamlessly publishes content to the Knowledgebase portal reducing the time spent finding the right answer. Here is a sample activity stream screen

It is critical for the success of any social business platform to connect with enterprise apps and Moxie does this with Spaces Connect™, a comprehensive integration framework with secure APIs and pre-built connectors, integrating Spaces by Moxie with applications such as CRM, ERP, Content Management, HR and other 3^rd party applications.

This approach puts intelligence, workflow, and integration into the crowdsourcing the answers to customer questions and makes them accessible through the knowledge base for future use.  I wish had tools like these when I did a lot of contact center works in the late 90s and early 2000s.