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Google Gets Away With What Microsoft Couldn't
Google today launched a new version of its toolbar that employs a new feature called Autolink that turns non-linked content on Web sites into hotlinks back to Google properties and other sites.
Googlepedia Is A Good Move
... Google's support of Wikipedia hosting will see, hear and do evil. According to Usenet analogies, corporate incentives will drive them to neglect, or worse, block Microsoft crawlers.
A Talk With Mark Jen About Google Firing
John Battelle asked some good questions about the Mark Jen controversy. Believe it or not, I met Mark tonight (err, "last night" to most of you at this point) and had a chance to chat with him about his brief time at Google and various other things.
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Is CRM Technology Living Up To the Hype?
Over the last few years the buzz about CRM (Customer Relationship Management) has grown extensively. It seems that every Sales & Marketing executive is talking about it.
Microsoft CRM Integration with Lotus Domino Email Server
Microsoft Business Solutions CRM is in the market expansion mode and this CRM solution is using all the recent Microsoft technologies - Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft Exchange 2003/2000, Active Directory, etc.
Microsoft CRM Customization – If You Give Up
Microsoft CRM is designed to be customizable. However this is a new system and you may not be comfortable to do it on your own. In this small article we'll try to reassure you that you can do it or point to the right direction if you would like to subcontract it to professionals.
Salesnet CRM Implementation Named RealWare Award Finalist
Intelligent Enterprise Magazine has named Sovereign's implementation of Salesnet's on-demand CRM software a RealWare Awards finalist.
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02.17.05
Is Your CRM System Doomed To Fail?
 By Perry Norgarb
"Right, People. Let's blast out that mail campaign we've been planning for so long."
It's time to put your trusty CRM software to work; to let it earn its keep. You run a search of people and companies you want to target.
You soon realize something's wrong when your list is far smaller than anticipated. A quick check reveals many profiles/categories have not been filled in, impacting your search results. Further inspection shows numerous records are incorrect; others are riddled with typos. And that's just for starters.
With a sinking feeling, you realize that last push isn't going to happen in a hurry.
Time for some Damage Control or Preventative Maintenance.
Fortunately one of the most common reasons cited for the high failure rate of CRM systems - poor data quality - is also one of the easiest to avoid.
 Your CRM software is only as good as the information it contains. As the old programmers motto goes ‘garbage in, garbage out'.
So how can you avoid incomplete, incorrect, irrelevant or out-of-date and generally unfit-for-use data from permeating your CRM software?
You need to gather your key CRM users together and thrash out a DATA CAPTURE PROCEDURE document, defining the rules of use.
Spell out:
Who has what rights to the system; who can Create, Insert, Modify or Delete records, assuming your software supports all these functions? Forward this information to your system administrator to action.
Decide on a procedure to check for any duplicates before creating a record. Depending on what ‘de-duping' or ‘data scrubbing' features your system has, this might require some simple searches before starting a new record.
Do you allow abbreviations or acronyms? For example: IBM, or I.B.M, or International Business Machines Inc. or Incorporated and so on. A policy on ensuring consistency of input will help to avoid duplications in future.
Are records going to be created in Upper and Lower case and when are CAPS acceptable?
By when do you expect records, notes and so on to be created or updated? Same day, on return to the office?
Check to see whether your Postal Services have specific requirements. Ensure your data meets these criteria.
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Is the primary address of clients to be created as a postal or a physical address?
Make sure everyone checks spellings if they are unsure and do not trust spellchecker! When in doubt, ask the client - they'll respect that. Is it Clark with an ‘e'; Shawn, Sean or Shaun? One certain way to get your mail binned is to spell someone's name incorrectly.
Also confirm the kind of corporation e.g. LLC, Inc, PTY Ltd. and so on.
Make rules for creating new profiles or User Definable Fields (UDF) (or whatever your specific CRM software calls them.) Place a lot of emphasis on this. Every time a new UDF is needed, it should first be approved. Otherwise duplicates will permeate your database e.g. Lead Source: Yellow Pages, YP, yelo pages.
Read the Rest of the Article.
About the Author:
Perry Norgarb has specialized in Small Business CRM solutions for the last 15 years.
Contact him or find out more about CRM, Contact Management and other Sales Tracking software tips and solutions for small businesses at: http://www.smallbizcrm.com.
You are free to re-publish this article as long as this bio box and copyright remain intact. © 10 December, 2004. |
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