The customer relationship management (CRM) space was awash this week with news of companies that have been recognized for their contributions to great customer experiences as well as solutions that help organizations get there.
One of those announcements came from Newgen Software, which Rajani Baburajan reported was included in The Forrester (News - Alert) Wave: Document Output for Customer Communications Management, Q3 2011 report t. Newgen Software provides solutions for BPM, ECM and CCM (News - Alert).
Baburajan also broke the news that business analyst and market research firm Gartner (News - Alert) has included KANA Software, which provides software solutions for Service Experience Management (SEM), as a Leader in its 2011 Magic Quadrant for CRM Web Customer Service.
In other news, Salesforce has completed the acquisition of Assistly, a provider of built-in social capabilities on a help desk solution for the cloud –a move that will help Salesforce improve customer service strategies in the cloud. By merging Salesforce’s leading cloud computing solutions for the enterprise with Assistly’s instant customer service help desk applications, Salesforce will be able to extend its Service Cloud reach to millions of small and medium-sized businesses.
Also this week, TMCnet reported that a new platform that can be used to provide great customer experiences was announced. Deepika Mala, one of TMCnet’s contributing editors, reported that Vision Critical, a technology and research company, has brought the Vision Critical Customer Experience Management platform to market. According to the report, it is designed to provide a real-time and “holistic” portrait of the customer experiences business are providing their customers. The report said it does this by gathering and integrating data from various sources including customer surveys, social media, CRM and transactional databases.
Also this week, TMCnet Contributing Editor Tracey Schelmetic shed some light on a study called Beyond Philosophy 2011 Global Customer Experience Management Survey – produced by a company called Beyond Philosophy – that found that businesses may not fully understand the concept of customer experience management. In addition, it said some companies simply put management in charge of projects who have little experience in the field. The study also reveals the names of companies it finds to be lacking in providing good experiences for their customers, despite the fact that they allocate money and resources to these customer experience management projects.
Linda Dobel is a TMCnet Contributor. She has been an editor in the contact center space for more than 25 years, and has the distinction of being the founding editor of Customer Inter@ction Solutions (CIS) magazine. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Carrie Schmelkin