Intelestream, Inc., a CRM consulting firm and developers of intelecrm, a small business online CRM solution, has released the transcript of an interview with Ray Stoeckicht, the company's vice president of Professional Services.

 

Stoeckicht, in the interview, answered common questions that small businesses are faced with when developing a CRM strategy.

 

He also offered his candid thoughts on the growing popularity of Social CRM.

 

"I think there is a lot of hype surrounding Social CRM and not a lot of room for practical application. I'm going to be honest here. Aside from being a marketing tool, I don't see much value for Social CRM in the sales cycle," said Stoeckicht.

 

"Call me a cynic, but I'm skeptical. One of our clients told me the other day that social networking is great, but that her sales reps were interested in closing deals, not building communities. Fair enough. I have to hand it to her; she called a spade a spade," he said in the interview.

 

Back in May, Intelestream (News - Alert) announced that the company signed six new partnership agreements. Joining the company as authorized resellers of intelecrm are Max Communications based in Illinois, Contact Business Systems based in Colorado, Xtreme Solutions based in Florida, Asset Enterprise Technologies based in Delaware, and BootStrapper Ventures and INTAgLIO based in New York.

 

Partners joining the Intelestream Channel Network are authorized by Intelestream to directly sell, provide consulting services, and further customize the intelecrm application.

Developed by Intelestream in 2008, intelecrm offers enterprise level CRM functionality to small and medium sized businesses. Pricing for the application follows a unique model that charges subscribers according to the quantity of records and data storage used, rather than the number of users accessing the system.

 

Intelestream also has applied what the company terms as a 'pay-for-what-you-need' approach to intelecrm. Customers are billed for only the features and add-ons they require, which is an especially appealing option for small businesses on a budget.