February 2004

Magazine Features

Outsourcing Hot Spots

Low labor costs are spurring more and more companies to consider outsourcing their contact centers to service providers in offshore and nearshore locations.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

CRM can help transport companies to reach new heights, drive profits, and bring them closer to their customers. Here, the stories of three companies that use CRM to do all this and more.

Get Smart!

Analytics is increasingly a hot CRM trend, and vendors have been enhancing the tools that provide for wider deployments of predictive analytics capabilities with better results.

Expert Advice

CRM magazine investigated the depth of CRM expertise and adoption at the companies selling the technology by interviewing executives at several leading developers, ranging from large, traditional vendors to up-and-coming hosted providers.

Front Office

The Great Outsourcing Debate

Outsourcing customer service: For companies considering outsourcing, both are tough decisions.

Reality Check

Is CRM Contracting or Expanding?

A case can be made that the CRM market is contracting, but to focus on that trend is to miss a quiet expansion that is also occurring within the CRM world.

Insight

Merging for Midmarket Dominance

Will acquisitions now be the rule rather than the exception? Will larger firms like SAP AG and Oracle start a buying frenzy that will end up with an even more polarized CRM landscape? The answer is yes and no, according to many analysts.

FCC Hits Hard With DNC Fine; Just 1 Question

What the costs to corporate America are to defend against DNC legislation is as yet unknown, but some companies have started to try new outbound customer campaigns.

Heard and Overheard

Vertical Focus: Financial Services Firms Learn to Value Relationships, Not Transactions

Basics in the financial services world are the branch and the call center--analysts predict that most of the CRM spending in the financial services industry will be on the branch and on the tools to help call center agents make the most of their customer touch points.

Why CRM?

There are as many reasons for implementing CRM as there are companies. But according to a CRM magazine and Aberdeen Group survey, there are 10 primary drivers for deploying CRM technologies. More than 360 respondents--86 percent of whom are involved in their company's CRM budget, implementation, or strategy decisions--revealed which of these drivers are the most important.

Hot Seat: Self-Help Alters the Service Landscape

As Web self-help grows in popularity among both customers and the companies that serve them, CRM magazine asks: Can Web self-help solutions enable companies to bring outsourced customer service efforts back in house? Why or why not?

Trend Watch: Social Networking Is the Newest Link in the CRM Chain

Business software providers are looking to cash in on the social networking hype by applying the concept to corporate sales.

Chart: CRM Success Barriers

Charts: Successful Measures; Supporting Customer Support

REAL ROI

A Leap of Faith

Dollar Rent A Car's top brass wanted more productivity and efficiency enhancements.

Using CRM to Compete--and Win--Against Larger Companies

TransACT's Onyx system provides the coveted 360-degree view of the customer, which includes instantly knowing customer location, products installed, products ordered, and history of usage.

How to...choose the right contact center outsourcer.

To understanding the potential return on an outsourcing arrangement is to first understand the inefficiencies and challenges facing your current customer contact solution and then to set targets for the outsourcer to meet to improve the situation.

Mobile CRM Helps Smith & Nephew Reps

Smith & Nephew needed a solution that would make its global sales force more productive, accurate, and responsive to customers.

Secret of My Success

CRM Is Integral to American Medical Response's Daily Processes

Roylene Rhodes, vice president of American Medical Response, discusses the challenge of implementing CRM.