TMCnet News
First Coffee: SAP's Hosted CRM - Switchvox VoIP SMB Survey - Mobile CRM for RealtorsBy David Sims [email protected] The news as of the first coffee this morning, and the music is The Kinks 1975 album Schoolboys In Disgrace: Interesting news about SAPs decision to offer hosted CRM after saying no, we have no plans to do so. At the US Sapphire user conference in Boston a couple months ago SAP talked a lot about its CRM version 5.0, which youll see in the third quarter of this year, but quashed talk of a hosted product offering. First CoffeeSM doesnt see it as a coincidence that the announcement came after SAP announced their second quarter results, which showed that the CRM division was the only one where revenues stayed flat. But as he had to, SAP CEO Henning Kagermann denied a link between the CRM applications below-par performance and the tactical volte-face, according to Pete Swabey at Infoconomy. The service is scheduled to launch later this year. We are in preparation [for hosted CRM], Kagermann said, according to Swabey. Youll see something soon. Were making our business models right at this time. It took Siebel longer than most companies to catch on to hosted CRM, it took SAP a little longer. Maybe it was seeing the likes of RightNow, salesforce.com and others seeing archrival Larry Ellison bankrolling the successful NetSuite must grate back in Walldorf doing brisk business that finally convinced SAP thats where the future is. Kagermann defended SAPs CRM strategy in talks with analysts, saying that sure, CRM had dipped for this quarter, but maintaining that one slower quarter does not indicate a trend, according to ComputerWire, which speculated that the low second quarter sales could be the result of everyone waiting for a rumored hosted application. ComputerWire thinks the move is a complete change of strategy. Evidently back in May at the European Sapphire conference Peter Kirschbauer, head of business solutions, said the company had no plans to release a hosted version of its CRM product because although SAPs platform-and-service approach would make it technically feasible, it would not fit with the companys CRM strategy. Today on-demand is very siloed, Kirschbauer told ComputerWire back in May. If it was only used that way it would not be difficult but customers are looking for ways to integrate data across the enterprise. You need a safe and secure way to communicate with systems that are out of your control. Thats changed, evidently. Other hosted CRM vendors are beings sporting about it. Salesforce.com, with whom SAP will butt heads sooner rather than later, is taking the official line that its fantastic because it endorses on-demand as what customers want. Well see if such pleasant toasts last much longer. First CoffeeSM isnt betting on it. 57% of SMB owners are apprehensive about the reliability of Voice over Internet Protocol service providers available today, according to a recent survey by PBX vendor Switchvox, who sells PBX phone systems to SMBs. The online survey found that 33% of SMBs are concerned about the quality of calls when using VoIP services. 76% of respondents were open to testing out VoIP, as long as a service level guarantee was in place. The need for VoIP providers offering reliable, quality services was a recurring emphasis in the study results, given that SMBs dont have a lot of time or money to spend fixing such problems themselves. Joshua Stephens, CEO of Switchvox said his company has come up with some key items to look for and be aware of before switching to a VoIP system: First, find a reliable VoIP provider. Look for carriers that are responsive when contacted and will offer a service level agreement guarantee. Secondly, know your bandwidth capabilities. One rule to use is that each call will use 100 kilobits of bandwidth. Thirdly, get a static IP from your ISP. This is necessary for such tasks as peering two offices together for free phone calls, or having remote extensions for offsite employees. Fourthly, investigate quality of service. QoS is the ability for a router to prioritize certain types of traffic (like phone calls) over other traffic (like big downloads). And get the right equipment. Make sure that any new VOIP-enabled PBX purchased can work with existing phone services Stephens says a system that allows you to migrate to VoIP slowly, rather than jumping in all at once is preferable. First CoffeeSM notes that yesterday mobile marketing vendor CellStory announced the beta release of CellStory for Realty, a mobile CRM product realtors can use with a camera phone to build professionally designed web pages on-the-fly from any property location and deliver them via their mobile phone directly to buyers and online property listings. Basically it lets real estate agents take digital pictures, add video and audio and, following a series of prompts on the cell phone, use plain English to build a snazzy listing while still on the property and send the listing in standard web-based format to potential buyers and partners. They can simultaneously send the property listing to multiple listing sites, including their own. It costs thirty bucks a month now, and itll go up to fifty soon. A 30-day free trial is also available at http://www.cellstory.com. The beta version is compatible with all Series 60 Nokia camera phones. Announcements for support for PalmOS, Java, BREW and Windows Mobile phones will be made in Q3 2005. Just sounded like a cool idea. First CoffeeSMs glad to see RightNow Technologies has posted good results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2005. Theyre reporting consolidated revenue of $21.1 million for the second quarter of 2005, an increase of 43 percent from the second quarter of 2004 and the 30th consecutive quarter of revenue growth for RightNow. Net income in the second quarter of 2005 was $1.6 million, or $0.05 per diluted share, compared to net income of $634,000, or $0.02 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2004. For the six months ended June 30, 2005, RightNow reported revenue of $39.4 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.07, as compared to year-ago revenue of $27.6 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.03. Businesswise theyre a smart company selling a good product, and their rock-solid corporate integrity is a welcome presence in the business world today. Youre not going to see CEO Greg Gianforte haled before any SEC hearings or pleading in court, there isnt going to be any whistle-blowing on corporate malfeasance out there in Bozeman, Gianforte and the top management hes surrounded himself with simply have too much personal integrity for such garbage to happen and its refreshing to see that in todays business world. A tip of the coffee pot to Mr. Hendriz Inogacia Santos, pictured above, Lead Barista at Dubai World Trade Center who was declared the UAEs number one barista in the Coffee Bean and Tea Leafs 2005 Champion Barista competition. Santos will enter the next round of competitions to be held in August in Malaysia for the CBTL Asia Pacific regional competition, the winner of which competes at the international Olympics of coffee blending in Los Angeles. 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