• HubSpot Releases Social Inbox and Reveals So Much More
  [May 30, 2013] I spent yesterday afternoon at HubSpot’s “Open House” in Cambridge, MA, during which they briefed the community on their business progress, introduced their new Social Inbox, described their  approach to marketing and sales alignment, explained their “culture code”, and answered questions.
• Considering an Investment in CRM? Three Must- Answer Questions Part 3
  [May 9, 2013] If you are a CEO, a C-Level Executive, or a decision maker in any size or type of company and are seriously considering a CRM investment, there are three questions that you must ask and answer.
• Considering an Investment in CRM? Three Must- Answer Questions
  [April 18, 2013] If you are a CEO, a C-Level Executive, or a decision maker in any size or type of company and are seriously considering a CRM investment, there are three questions that you must ask and answer. 
• FirstRain Releases Customer Intelligence Module for Salesforce Touch
  [March 28, 2013] Salesforce Touch just got it’s first third-party enterprise integration from FirstRain, allowing Salesforce Touch users to seamlessly add business and customer intelligence to their apps. The announcement, which came last week, allows data integration from FirstRain’s patented big data analytics technology to present relevant business intelligence information and visualizations directly into apps built on the [...]
• Clone ‘A’ Sales Reps and Help ‘B’ Players Improve Focus on Core Customers
  [February 18, 2013] InfoGrow just released our CRM Call Planner module that integrates Bing Maps directly into Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
• BroadVision Offers Social Engagement Analysis Consulting Service
  [January 31, 2013] BroadVision has announced its new Clearvale Social Engagement Analysis Service. This service is designed to help Clearvale enterprise social networking customers better understand and measure how well the level and type of engagement occurring with employees, customers, and partners through the use of social analytics. I spoke with Richard Hughes, Director of Social Strategy at [...]
• Oracle Buys Eloqua: Winners And Losers For B2B Marketing Automation
  [January 3, 2013] Oracle announced today that it has agreed to purchase B2B marketing automation leader Eloqua for $23.50 per share, which comes to $871 million. This was a bit of a surprise, given that Eloqua just went public in August. The stock had been hovering around $17.50 recently, so $23.50 is a 34% premium: reasonable but not [...]
• MindMatrix Adds Sales Support to Marketing Automation
  [December 6, 2012] One easily predictable trend in B2B marketing automation is that vendors will tailor their systems to specific industries. This is happening to some extent, but not as quickly as I had expected. The reason may be that B2B marketing automation products have a narrower scope than B2C systems, meaning there’s less advantage in creating vertical editions. For example, the data model of B2B systems is largely fixed, so industry-specific data models (a major component of vertical systems) are largely irrelevant.
• Add the Power of Marketing Automation to Your CRM
  [October 23, 2012] We all know that customers and prospects are more in control of the buying conversation. Not that long ago, sales were almost exclusive achieved by us looking for strong sales hunters. 
• The State of Social Media Marketing 2012
  [September 13, 2012] Social marketing software company Awareness has just released the second part of its bi-annual State of Social Media Marketing report for 2012, and it makes for some pretty interesting reading.
• Raab Report: Neolane, Aprimo, and Eloqua Rate Highest for Large Company B2B Marketing Automation
  [August 28, 2012] Tuesday’s post looked at the micro-business sector leaders according to our VEST report and gave a bit of background on how the ratings are created.  Today let's take a look at the same diagram for large businesses, which we define as companies with $500 million revenue or more.
• Q: What?s your best advice to social media managers? A: Stop talking about social media
  [August 16, 2012] I recently presented at Microstrategy's iCommerce Summit in Amsterdam on the importance of looking inside to improve how to engage on the outside. Following the event, I was invited to join Peter Gentsch of Big, Michael Buck of Dell, and Andreas Bock of Telekom. The conversation explored the importance of rethinking how businesses approach social media. Rather than driving social media strategies based on just clever ideas, campaigns, soft KPIs, and intangible results, I shared the importance of focusing on the bigger picture. At stake is nothing less than not only the future of social media in your organization, but more importantly, how decision makers recognize and value relationships throughout the customer life cycle.
• Customer Life Cycle Optimization with Content in 6 Steps
  [July 26, 2012] As an active observer and participant in the digital marketing world, I see a spectrum of attitudes and perspectives towards attracting and engaging customers online. There are a growing number of great examples and case studies within the world of content marketing in particular, but it's really only a fraction of the digital marketing spend overall. Despite well promoted studies, statistics, trends and tactics, many companies don't come close to realizing their potential when it comes to customer acquisition and community building online.
• How to Create the Total Customer Experience
  [June 28, 2012] For some time now I've been sharing a concept I call The Marketing Hourglass TM. I truly believe it's become the most significant thing I've contributed to the concept of marketing.
• What If Your Customers Could Talk to Your CRM
  [May 24, 2012] I spend a lot of time talking to and about the stuff that we do to make it work now. So sometimes it's a real treat to get to talk to someone that's so far out ahead of most of us in their thinking that you pretty much just listen with your mouth open when they talk. (I would put my conversation with Kevin Kelly in this class)
• Adobe EchoSign Updates Salesforce Integration
  [May 10, 2012] Adobe's electronic signature and enterprise content management system EchoSign has today released an update to its integration with global enterprise software platform Salesforce, entitled Adobe EchoSign for Salesforce version 12. Adobe acquired EchoSign last July, in a bid to add an e-signature platform to its document exchange services, integrating the software with existing Adobe products SendNow, FormsCentral and CreatePDF. The new update at the Salesforce end facilitates faster document signing, tracking and filing - on a global level - and now allows users to:
• The Business Value of Social CRM and Common Use Cases
  [April 26, 2012] Last month we announced that we teamed up with Avectra to release a series of whitepapers on the topic of Social CRM. ?We already released our first whitepaper which looked at the business value of Social CRM. ?Today we are releasing the second whitepaper in the series which looks at several common real world Social CRM problems that organizations are faced with and how they can be solved.
• Still Not Using CRM?
  [April 12, 2012] You Must Be Feeling Lucky Are you one of those companies who still don't have a CRM system in place? Maybe, don't want to spend the money? Don't see the value or need? After all, you have your Excel files, right? Those should provide everything you need for managing your reps and staying in touch with customers, won't they?
• Salesforce.com Announces Site.com Web Site Management
  [March 21, 2012] Will Marketing Automation Features Follow? Salesforce.com yesterday announced the launch of Site.com, an enterprise-class Web site management system. The news didn't seem to get much attention, perhaps because Salesforce.com itself pretty much buried it. But Salesforce.com VP of Product Management Anshu Sharma did post a detailed explanation of the rationale on a Salesforce.com blog.
  
• Cloud Computing Replacing Complex Systems With Easy-To-Use CRM Products
  [March 9, 2012] Cloud Computing Replacing Complex Systems With Easy-To-Use CRM Products
• The Shift Away From Social CRM to Social Business to Maybe Just ?Business?
  [February 23, 2012] A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the need for new thought leadership in the social CRM space. I wasn't trying to pick a fight but I do feel strongly that it's a legitimate issue to discuss. Reason being, I talk to many people on the enterprise side of the business i.e. clients, friends on Twitter and colleagues that I used to work with at HP and Intel; and the consensus is that while there is a lot of good theory being shared by super smart people, nothing is quite actionable.
• 5 Trends That Will Change CRM
  [January 31, 2012] I was recently asked to join a group of experts to contribute thoughts on trends driving the evolution of CRM over the next five years. I must say, that it's a group of individuals whom I not only respect, but also am lucky enough to know in the real world.
• Come to Atlanta to Get Down to Social Biz
  [January 20, 2012] I have the opportunity to go to a lot of CRM/Social events during the course of the year, most of which are held in cool places like San Francisco, Boston and Orlando. And while I love going to those places, I've always wanted to have one of those events down here in Atlanta. And while I've threatened to do it, I would always find an excuse (or 200) not to do it. Not the right venue, not the right time of year, nobody in the industry would come, nobody likes me? man I better stop before I really depress myself.
• SpringCM Upgrades Mobile Capabilities and Offers Enhanced Support for Salesforce.com
  [December 29, 2011] SpringCM provides a cloud based enterprise content management platform. It was founded in 2005 and I have covered it before (see SpringCM Goes Beyond Content Management). I recently spoke with Roger Bottum of SpringCM on their latest moves. SpringCM is set up to put content into the work process. They are also putting content wherever you need it with an enhanced mobile capability that now includes a version specifically designed for the iPad. This is a smart move as mobile enterprise apps are now on the rise with tablets and smart phones passing desktops and laptops in usage. Over 15 million iPads were sold in 2010 and the numbers are increasing. 
• CRM is Different Than an Accounting System
  [November 10, 2011] Successful CRM Requires an Organization to Know Their Own Best Practices