It is amazing how quickly the marketplace around “social” fragmented into different focus areas. I guess this is to be expected. I mean, the nature of social media is pretty darn fragmented as it is. So it follows suit that the supporting market break off into several directions. I have had a lot of mildly random thoughts ruminating in my mind around where all this is going. I hope some of the social CRM track speakers at SugarCon help illuminate some of these issues and ideas.

So here goes…(I apologize in advance for the parts that don’t make sense.)

…If you are a B2C company, and you are getting excited about being “social” with your customers, you are 200 years too late. You should be excited about being able to better manage and measure the results from the fact that you (hopefully) already interact with your customers in various channels, and for various reasons.

I’m seeing that a lot of the “social” companies that have a good footing right now – Jive especially – stem from internal social collaboration concepts. This needs to be pushed outward. I think they get that and I look forward to seeing how that progresses. Lithium does a good job of creating a manageable customer community – so it will be need to see how those two drive each other’s innovation.

Social monitoring and “listening” tools are great. But we need these to be simple enough to plug in to platforms and channels/networks to inform active decisions, or at least let us know that something might be “about to happen.”  Radian6 – I believe – is on top of this, but frankly I am too socially illiterate to really know right now.

From a B2B sales perspective – how does social media and other web 2.0 data make a sales person’s life useful? I look at tools like Insideview’s SalesView and that makes a lot of sense – showing me aggregated data, but also the hot spots (so to speak) in my networks as they pertain to my contacts, prospects and accounts. Of course, all of this stuff is best viewed from inside a CRM system. While that is great news for companies like SugarCRM, I hope that doesn’t make companies like InsideView too dependent on CRM systems (which are so moored to relation databases and static data) for distribution and relevance. Or it gives InsideView a huge ace in its hand – bringing crappy old CRM products like Siebel up to date.

Back to B2C – when it comes to “social CRM” you have to think about your goals, not just “metrics” in a generic sense. Are you trying to create communities?  Or, are you trying to glean feedback from people “out there” and then aggregate that for valuable use? Just “getting people together” is kinda useless. I wrote a few weeks back about beRelevant. I just met again with their CEO Randy Hamilton and they really understand the concept of generating value among the social consumers in the world – creating either endless or purpose-driven feedback loops for brands in a very cool user format. They have a ways to go in really launching that concept, but it’s a very compelling place to start.

Ok, glad I got those out of my head…I’ll probably completely disagree with myself by the end of the weekend…but please, I invite you to comment and help me get some more grasp on a lot of these concepts…

Well, maybe the title is a bit misleading. The title of this post describes the results of my monthly poll for February (on hiatus this month as I’ll be primarily be using all of my social media mettle to get as many of my analyst, press, users, parts etc. in my universe to come together for some great idea-sharing at SugarCon.)

This monthly poll asked: “How does your organization improve the quality of its CRM data?”

The choices ranged from essentially having no data quality measures in place, up to having a sales intelligence initiative in place that provides more consistent, quality sales and customer data.

I am not sure if I should be surprised or simply pleased that an overwhelming majority of respondents noted that they, to quote the poll, were “Sooo 2.0″ and had a sales intelligence product in use to better control data issues. I mean, call it stacking the deck, but I’d like to believe that most Outsiders readers and Twitter followers are some of the more advanced CRM users out there, right?

The good news is that it is really easy to get tools like Insideview’s SalesView tool embedded in your CRM to better equip sales and marketing agents with better quality data at various stages of the customer life cycle. (As noted in recent posts – myself and InsideView are actually presenting on this very topic at a free event in Boston on March 23 – join us if you can.)

Again, almost a quarter of the respondents noted they use some form of external data aggregation – such as Hoover’s. I think this is a simple and smart start – leading up to the kinds of aggregated views and value that InsideView embedded in a CRM system can provide.

Several people noted they use traditional merge/purge tactics and some other innovative methods. But really, the responses (I think) tell me something about how companies are looking at data, and data quality, in the modern age.

More companies can perform greater data aggregation, and manage greater sets of data attributes around prospects and customers, for little investment. The web 2.0 world has opened up a service-based network of useful data (and some not so useful) that is easier than ever to consume and sift through to discover value. Companies do not (always) have to perform high-level, IT intensive ETL initiatives to create useful customer data pools.

And in my mind -  faster, simpler and cheaper is always a good thing.

I have been guest posting here on Outsiders for only a short time. After this post, one may wonder whether I will be invited back for more, or not. So, I will quickly get to the point. Two things happened during this past week which drove me to write this post.

1. Mark Benioff wrote a great article, and the consumerization of the Enterprise is certainly upon us – a position that I agree with
2. Paul Greenberg  wrote a great post, which hit home on a few fronts – this article is a way to show respect for the thoughts

Starting with Paul’s post first, he raised several issues, but the one that hit home is that there is too much “Jockeying for position”. The reference was not specific to any particular vendor, but the point was made.  Paul stated the following: “When this manipulating jockey decides to differentiate to get “position” they denigrate what others do.” Paul is correct, and it is rather interesting as well that we are in the CRM business. While we certainly would like to do well, there are certain topics where that agreement leads to simply a better product.

Paul went on to say “Compete by the strength of your offerings”. The core of the offerings of any company goes beyond the products that are built, but are also the people behind the products. I would like to further point out that in the future of…well, the future of just about everything, the differentiators will increasingly be the people. As friend and IDC analyst, Mike Fauscette, likes to state, “People are the platform”. My simple conclusion on this topic is that the boundary between work and non-work is getting fuzzier by the day. Making the next part of this post that much more interesting.

Why I believe Mark Benioff agrees with me

Now, not to upset the apple cart by trying to play nice, and then jockey for position. A wording trick suggested to me by a friend, changes the positioning, doesn’t it? In many recent conversations and even comments on other’s blogs I have made the case that there has been a large shift in expectations by people regarding Computing and Access. Until around 2002 – 2004 or so, the faster computer you had access to was at work, and the fastest data pipe you had access to was also at work. Is this true anymore?

If you combine that phenomenon with the availability of cloud based applications, both consumer and enterprise, consumer is growing faster. (Sidebar – anyone who thinks that Gmail, LinkedIn or Facebook are not cloud apps, friend me and we can chat about it).  Ok, enough setting up the scenario, what exactly are we in agreement on? Here is a quote from the article (actually the prequel) “We need to transform the business conversation the same way Facebook has changed the consumer conversation. Market shifts happen in real time, deals are won and lost in real time, and data changes in real time.”

But, it is about usability, not technology

I am not going to try and say “I agree, but” (that is like saying “I’m sorry, but”). I will however extend the thought, in the following way – So, for all 90% or more of you who have one or more of the applications I just mentioned in the sidebar above, how long did you spend reading the manual for any of these applications? Facebook even changed the application 2 or 3 times (depending upon when you joined) and even after the yelling and screaming and the joining of the ‘no do not change FaceBook’ fan page – 350 million of us are members and 175 million log in each day. Facebook did more than change the consumer conversation, it changed the enterprise conversation as well.

Ok, I lied, it is not only about usability, it is about the fact that we enjoy the social dynamic these applications provide. It is also no longer a technology play; that is simply accepted. I am probably the only one who takes a break from Facebook and Skype at home by checking my work email. The boss (my wife) tried to block access to work from home, but the IT department (me) pushed back. If she was successful (unplugging the router) then I just access work via my iPhone and 3G. While this sounds a bit backwards, how far off am I? It is about usability and culture. People, Process and Technology – help people to succeed and we will all succeed. If people enjoy where they spend their time (online and offline) they will spend more time there.

This is the first part in a series where I will explore other topics on the consumerization of the enterprise, data and cultural silos.

Before delving into my continued spotlights on some key SugarCon sessions, I wanted to thank Mitch Lieberman for stepping in and adding some great ideas, opinions and observations on outsiders. Welcome, Mitch.

OK, now, one of the things I used to love/hate about CRM systems was the reporting. Or I should note – the lack of reporting capabilities. Or the ease with which one could pull useful data out of the CRM system.  Or something – all I know is, it was frustrating. After all – what good is a CRM system (or at least making your employees and partners enter customer, product and other data) if you can’t make sense of it?

Sugar Reports are powerful tools. And the company has worked hard over the years to bring deep reporting capabilities down from the heights of business analysts and other people who never return your email requests. It takes a bit of getting used to, but after a bit of practice, even you (yes, you) can become a report-running wizard in SugarCRM.

Now – if you happen to catch my friend Ryan Meeker’s session at SugarCon, this process will happen at a much faster pace. Ryan is leading up a talk called:

Measure Everything: Building Effective CRM Reports

To put it in perspective, Ryan is on the team that manages all the sales operations, license key disbursements and other customer-facing activities at Sugar. In short, Ryan LIVES in Sugar reports. He can spin up a new report to find customers in a certain industry, in a certain geography, who have more than 16 users of Sugar, who deployed in an On-Demand fashion over the past 17 weeks, in about 3 minutes. Or, he can take existing reports and make them even more powerful, with a few clicks.

So, if you feel like there is some untapped potential in your CRM data – come get the keys to unlock that valuable information – with some help from Ryan at SugarCon.

Leading up to the SugarCon event, I will be highlighting some of our partners speaking at the event. SugarCRM has created an amazing ecosystem of technology, ISV and VARs in only a few short years. These companies are doing a lot of cool things that either tie-in to SugarCRM, or simply better enable your CRM deployment.

DataSync is one of those companies that helps you bring your CRM system to a new level – all in the cloud. The company provides an integrated platform where you can link your accounting, CRM, email and other tools together in the cloud to lower your overall costs, but also the complexity of your IT department.

DataSync CEO Mike Vetter is giving a talk at SugarCon called “The Cloud is Suite: Running Your Entire Business in the Cloud.” I had a chat with Mike to talk about his take on cloud computing, business software, and how concepts are meshing in interesting ways.

What is the most profound way in which the cloud has changed the nature of business technology?

The greatest thing about the cloud is that it makes it easier to purchase, deploy and maintain business applications.

That said, the challenge is that we have companies with all these different apps in the cloud – it gets clunky.  They are managing them in a one-to-one manner, and they aren’t talking to each other. What we’re doing is taking these apps and consolidating them into one system. So, with us it is not just apps in the cloud, but also a system to make them more productive. Businesses need a single information source for this system to make it easier to maintain and manage. End user organizations don’t always want to think about managing data from a bunch of different cloud providers – so one source of service and support makes sense.

In my SugarCon session I’ll be bringing in Sugar partners and employees talking about how you can deploy in the cloud even if you want custom work done. With the tools available now, the customer gets a great, integrated product complete with customizations and they didn’t have to do everything from scratch – which increases cost and time to go live.

Does the cloud lift any barriers to smaller businesses?  Or is deep interoperability and integration still only for the big guys?

Our average customer when we launched was five users. So this model is definitely benefitting smaller businesses. I would argue that the reason the cloud wasn’t accessible or caused concerns, was because there were a lot of hybrid cloud/on site deployments out there, which added complexity and required IT to manage.  We’re making the cloud accessible and saying “you can get rid of all your servers.” So that hybrid environment is disappearing slowly – which allows smaller businesses to free up IT costs.

Also – bundling a lot of cloud-based applications, with the economies of scale on our side, allows a small business to be up and running on many integrated applications in the cloud for much less investment than if they themselves went and purchased each application.

The big enterprise ETL companies provide a very valuable service – but not all of our customers need that.  They just want to get peoples’ calendars synched across apps, want to make accounts in their ERP systems and CRM synched – things like that – our DataSync suite is perfect for that.

The great thing is getting all the applications and the integrations – all in the cloud – from one provider.

Are there any business scenarios where you don’t see the cloud as a wise choice?

A lot of our customers have one IT guy that likes to install all their software on site, but that is not always a great model from a support and management perspective. That’s our target market, and showing them how much time and money they can save while increasing their experience tends to bring them around.

But, there are still a lot of reasons why a company won’t or can’t go to the cloud. Regulatory reasons, very highly customized systems, etc. – you’re not going to go in the cloud.  And we have DataSync Suite On Site to address that.

A lot of times, I think there is more of a cultural barrier to adopting apps in the cloud. Just like some organizations are biased against open source, some are either hesitant or simply against the cloud for some reason. It has nothing to do with security or reliability or customization – it’s just a predisposition.

How has the cloud changed the business models for organizations like yours?

The cloud has done a lot of amazing things for software vendors, their resellers, and enabling technology providers. More value has been injected into the model at every turn thanks to the cloud.

What I mean, is that there is the value creation of great technology, delivered in a simple conduit called the cloud. But now, partners and enabling technology providers can communicate and operate much more effectively. To give an example, for DataSync, we can now more easily talk to providers of (email software) Zimbra and work with them to distribute and communicate the value of SugarCRM – with the combined entity managed at a low cost in the cloud by us.

Just as the cloud can create an ecosystem of applications that work together seamlessly, allowing businesses to save time and money – the technology provider ecosystem is benefitting from the cloud as well. The interoperability promised by the cloud allows us to finally provide the hard business value these technologies were designed to provide.

Hi – me again, guess this may actually become a regular thing. Hope you can tolerate two wise guys coming at you from the same blog – both with attitude. I wanted to get out a quick post based on some great experiences this week. The interactions were on many different channels; Twitter, Email, Skype, Phone, Face-to-face, Groups, Blogs…which makes for great engagement, learning and productivity. Or, with so many channels to watch, does productivity take a hit? My approach to work has changed, the question is will everyone be as willing to make the changes they need to, in order to bring your business into the future?

A strong influence on my thinking this week came from two sources. One was a very simple tweet by @designthinkers (Arne van Oosterom) where he said simply “Change is synonymous to future”. A very insightful 5 word tweet. My response was “then why do people look forward to the future, but hate change”? I am far from a student in philosophy, I could easily get myself in over my head quite fast. This was my lead-in to the IDC Directions conference in Boston yesterday. Thinking on this topic during my quick jaunt from Vermont to Boston. The conference was very good, and for those of you on the west coast, you can go the 2.0 version next week.

The subject that interested me the most (and the second major influence) was the Social Business track hosted by Michael Fauscette (@mfauscette) and his team from IDC.  Michael’s talk was a fluid, well presented session on Social Business – or more appropriately how to get there. One running theme throughout his talk regarded the platform – no, not technology, the people. Another running theme was about culture, the culture required to enable a Social Business (a topic that will come up at SugarCon as well). Since ‘people are the platform’ does represent a change and will be required to move us into the future, how to we enable this change, without disruption?

I should be able to quickly bring these two thoughts together

For the most part, people do like looking to the future (no, not all people all the time) but, there may be a bit of hesitation. The reason; because moving forward often requires change, and very few people really look forward to change. As Arne correctly (my opinion) pointed out to me, there is the paradox. If change equates to the future, but people like one, but not the other, where does that leave us? When you say “change” or “change management” alarm bells, defense mechanisms and barriers get thrown up quickly. In order for people to accept Social Business or Social CRM, there is going to need to be a change in the culture within an organization – the whole organization, not just sales, or support.

How do you help people get past the hesitation?

The answer is simple, really. Make your teams, your people, your platform part of the process – and talk about the future, not change. If you listen to your teams, they will in turn become better listeners. People are social, they want to share, then they will lead the charge. Break down silos, enable, reward and promote people being social, why, because they know your customers and it the right thing to do. Being Social is a state of mind and culture, it is not about technology. Focus on establishing value for all the constituents of your ecosystem, and then things will really come together.

A lot of companies still fail to see the value of CRM versus contact management or simple SFA because they simply do not understand the value of underlying workflows in a true CRM platform like Sugar.

Workflow is the magic bean that turns a static database into a living process execution system. Workflow makes workers better (whether they like it or not).

So, check out this session:

Orchestrate Your Business With Sugar Workflow

And you’ll come away thinking that business rules rule, or with an enhanced understanding of how to automate processes inside your system.

Whether you are still managing processes manually with pen and paper, or have some automation in place – you’ll leave this session with some new tools to wring even more value out of your CRM deployment.

Looking back over my last few posts – a few things jumped out at me. What is normally a blog containing (what I’d like to think of as) useful thoughts on CRM and customer strategy, has become to the casual observer an advertising channel for what some would see as a vendor’s user conference.

That is not 100% true.  Nor is it untrue I guess.

I got worried for a moment. Was I betraying my readers’ trust by barraging them with promotions of an event there is a good chance they have no thought of even attending? (Though I will note with total honesty that even if you are not using SugarCRM, the social media track alone is worth attending SugarCon.)

Or, on the flip side, was I taking advantage of one of the toughest things to assemble in this utterly fragmented social universe – a captive audience?

It is a delicate balance, to be sure. And, it is a cycle. We build up trust so that we can garner attention, right?  But how can you leverage that attention to meet your sales and marketing goals (let’s be honest, as much as we are “social” – for us business people with real jobs – there is an end to these means) without damaging that trust?

I don’t really know the answer here. In an online culture that has become increasingly expectant and dependent on “free” – whether that be content, services, platforms, networks, etc. – how can you execute transactions or promotions that originate in this free flowing social realm without breaking that trust barrier a bit?

OK, maybe I do have an answer.  And of course it comes from one of my mentors and someone I respect. Paul Greenberg always says to “create buyers – don’t push products.” So, I do believe that you can leverage the “attention” you have earned, without killing off the trust if you have some sort of value inside your promotional type blogs, tweets, etc.

In short, don’t expect me to stop hawking SugarCon any time soon – as I said, I truly believe that anyone involved in using CRM, building or developing in the clouds, using social media, or involved with business software in general can find something of value in the event.

CRM systems are great at traditional sales automation, and many are pretty strong in terms of providing customer support and service automation tools. But in my opinion, the area where a lot of CRM deployments stall is in the marketing department.

I think this is the case for two reasons. One – marketing is still taking shape as a science, having been more of an “art” for some time. Ideas around measurement, and more internally managed processes are somewhat new. Think about it – ten years ago you would simply hire an Ad firm, they’d draw up some designs, you insert them in trade magazines, and you cross your fingers. Or you had a designer put a catalog together and you bulk mailed it to everyone in your contact list.

In short – marketing effectiveness was unmeasurable at best.

But now, it is pretty easy to segment your contact lists, create unique and relevant email messages that look great, and execute those campaigns within a few hours. Oh, and you can measure the effectiveness of those campaigns against revenue or other goals.

The best part – this is all done in a single system,  and can be done in some cases by a single person. Oh, and email campaigns cost a lot less than shipping tons of bulky catalogs…

That is why I feel this session is a must see for anyone looking to take their marketing initiatives in Sugar to the next level:

Closing the Loop: Simple Campaign Management

Reem Bazzari – who works on my team and is an amazing resource – will lead this session. She is our campaign execution wiz – and can show you how to get up to speed with a few simple tips.

Closing the loop between your marketing initiatives and sales activities – with measurable results – is a huge advantage to any organization. If you’re taking the first steps, or simply looking for some refreshers, this session is going to be packed with useful info.