In today’s slow economy firms are focused on looking for solutions that enable them to maximize profits by growing revenues and/or cutting costs. Customer relationship management (CRM) software can accomplish just that. It permits companies to determine customers’ lifetime values and focus resources on meeting the needs of those buyers that generate the most net revenues while serving and retaining the other clientele.

The CRM solutions must, however, be easy-to-install and support and able to generate ROI quickly. To meet those goals hosted CRM and on-demand CRM are emerging as options to premise-installed licensed products.

Lagan, now owned by Kana Software, provides supplies CRM and case management solutions to governments and the private sector via on-premise license, hosted and on demand delivery methods: including hosted CRM. To gain insights on CRM issues TMCnet recently interviewed David Moody, who is Lagan’s CTO:

TMCnet: What key trends are you seeing in CRM demand and applications and what are the drivers? Discuss for example the impact of the slow economy on how companies view and treat their customers and what changes if any they are making to their CRM strategies i.e. the use of analytics as a result.

DM: There are three key trends that we see emerging:

(1) An increasing focus on specialist applications that are directly suited to the task in hand

(2) A growing emphasis on self-service applications that provide faster and better access to routine enquiries for customers

(3) A move to cloud-based applications that are rapidly scalable and can be more quickly and efficiently enhanced and maintained

TMCnet: Businesses and consumers are going mobile, and social. Is it now possible to untether the smartphones? How have going from 1-to-1 to 1-to-many i.e. social affected CRM strategies?

DM: Smartphones and social networks will have a fundamental impact on local government CRM and CRM across all sectors. Apps provide a perfect opportunity to engage citizens and government employees in the process of government by enabling ubiquitous access to services and the delivery of location-specific data. iPhone (News - Alert) applications exist that enable citizens to report instances of graffiti, uncollected refuse, broken street signs and more.

Our customers have embraced this technology already. It has been a huge success in the City of Boston [Massachusetts] already for instance and we are introducing this technology to sites around the world. We have also been working closely on ways in which social networks and government CRM can work together, enabling citizens, for example, to tweet government. These new levels of access and integration will transform the way that governments and citizens interact via fixed and mobile devices.

TMCnet: CRM installations have been characterized as slow and expensive; sometimes the lead times have been so long the problems they were purchased to solve have disappeared. Are you seeing companies shorten the go-live and payback/ROI times and if so by how much today as compared to a year or 18 months ago? What CRM methods i.e. modular, hosted are buyers seeking in response? Discuss the advantages and challenges of these alternatives.

DM: We don’t do slow, but yes, we are aware that there are some industry “solutions” that take an inordinate amount of time to develop and a lot of cost.

Our approach is to use agile implementation methodologies. In our view, buyers should focus on the specialist pedigree of their suppliers and ask whether they have the directly relevant experience necessary to truncate the timeline. We run client user groups and the knowledge shared feeds directly into product enhancement and new product development. So customers who work with us become an integral part of the on-going development process.

We do see customers increasingly focused on ROI and on modular and hosted solutions and we believe that these approaches will come to dominate our sector and CRM generally in years to come. The advantages are clear: near-instant implementation, huge potential for scalability and more.

TMCnet: What solutions have you and will be coming out in response to these trends?

DM: We are developing Open311 services that unleash the potential of social media integration. We have smartphone solutions that will be beneficial to citizens and government employees. And finally, we have a cloud-based scalable solution, LaganOnDemand, which is already live in the U.S. and Bermuda and which will be extended to new geographies in due course.