|
CRM Used to Close Feedback Loops: Rally Agile
 TMCnet Contributing Editor
Rally Software Development has announced new product management and support management products "that," company officials say, "together with Rally's Agile ( News - Alert) lifecycle management products," let organizations manage the software lifecycle from business case to deployment."
Designed specifically for product managers and support staff working with Agile development teams and delivered through a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS ( News - Alert)) platform, Rally uses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to "help organizations close the feedback loops between development teams and users," company officials say, adding that this "ensures development priorities are aligned with the highest value opportunities."
Rally Product Manager is described as "increasing visibility and collaboration by enabling product managers and business analysts to collect user feedback, prioritize feature backlogs and radiate development progress to the entire organization."
In other words, product managers and business analysts can create user stories directly in Rally and display development status in Salesforce.com's ( News - Alert) CRM system. Help desk and support staff can submit defects and change requests reported by users and communicate the development status of these issues.
Ryan Martens, CTO and founder of Rally, said by using the user information and contact points in CRM systems, "organizations can now bring user needs closer to their development teams and provide visibility into development progress to all stakeholders."
Built on the Salesforce.com Force.com platform, Rally Product Manager and Rally Support Manager provide users capabilities such as e-mail notifications, custom reports, dashboards, and workflow customization.
In August Salesforce.com announced the appointment of Steve McWhirter as president of its Asia-Pacific operations. He will report to Jim Steele, chief customer officer and president of international operations, and will be based in salesforce.com's Singapore office.
He succeeds Stephen Russell who served as president since November 2005.
"Steve McWhirter will support Salesforce.com's accelerated growth and market development in the Asia-Pacific region," said Steele, adding that McWhirter is expected to be "a driving force in extending the benefits of Salesforce CRM and the Force.com Platform to the growing number of companies in the region."
McWhirter joins salesforce.com from serving as vice president of HP Software Asia Pacific, a division of HP Technology Solutions ( News - Alert) Group, where he led an organization of nearly 500 sales, marketing, services and technical support staff.
During his tenure, the HP Software division saw the company's acquisitions of Mercury, Bristol, SPI and Opsware ( News - Alert).
Don’t forget to check out TMCnet’s White Paper Library, which provides a selection of in-depth information on relevant topics affecting the IP Communications industry. The library offers white papers, case studies and other documents which are free to registered users.
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David's articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Mae Kowalke
[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]
|
INDUSTRIES
Activate Email 
Find Solutions for Enterprises, SMBs & Service Providers at the INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference and EXPO East, January 20-22, 2010. Miami, FL.
