Comments on: Web 2.0 and Customer Service: Consolidating Channels Into a Single Experience http://www.crmoutsiders.com/2009/07/17/web-20-and-customer-service-consolidating-channels-into-a-single-experience/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=web-20-and-customer-service-consolidating-channels-into-a-single-experience Former analyst and journalist discuss CRM from the vendor-side Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:49:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: David Davies http://www.crmoutsiders.com/2009/07/17/web-20-and-customer-service-consolidating-channels-into-a-single-experience/comment-page-1/#comment-1676 David Davies Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:42:04 +0000 http://www.crmoutsiders.com/?p=861#comment-1676 I agree that many organizations seem to be facing the dilemma you outline – how to put in place a modern, service based architecture to deliver the flexibility and re-use they need when the financial constraints are all focused on rapid payback. Bringing new channels (including “Web2.0” capabilities) into the contact center is no exception, with perceived risks increased by the fact that many new channels on the web are at an early, experimental stage, so heavy investment in integration might not have long enough to pay back. One answer is to employ enterprise mashups to “weave” these new capabilities into the contact centre and its processes, combining them with more established, slow-moving applications. A common approach is to use them to extend CRM applications – whether modern such as Sugar, Siebel or Salesforce – or legacy / home grown applications, achieving “integration without customization” by extending the UI and user workflow of the application. The attraction is that the business results are achieved rapidly, and the accountants are kept happy by rapid payback while the “mashables” created provide re-usable service based components that move the organization towards a new architecture, and business applications can remain more “vanilla”. I agree that many organizations seem to be facing the dilemma you outline – how to put in place a modern, service based architecture to deliver the flexibility and re-use they need when the financial constraints are all focused on rapid payback. Bringing new channels (including “Web2.0” capabilities) into the contact center is no exception, with perceived risks increased by the fact that many new channels on the web are at an early, experimental stage, so heavy investment in integration might not have long enough to pay back.

One answer is to employ enterprise mashups to “weave” these new capabilities into the contact centre and its processes, combining them with more established, slow-moving applications. A common approach is to use them to extend CRM applications – whether modern such as Sugar, Siebel or Salesforce – or legacy / home grown applications, achieving “integration without customization” by extending the UI and user workflow of the application. The attraction is that the business results are achieved rapidly, and the accountants are kept happy by rapid payback while the “mashables” created provide re-usable service based components that move the organization towards a new architecture, and business applications can remain more “vanilla”.

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