According to US customer relationship management (CRM) software provider LogicBright, small business CRM users primarily stick to the basics when using CRM products, leaving many of the features being built into modern solutions superfluous.

The company says that with CRM software packages springing up all over the place, the marketplace is getting increasingly complex, and doing so unnecessarily according to its research data.

While it doesn’t give numbers of demographics, LogicBright says that it has surveyed users on what they want in a CRM package, and found that 81 percent want to use their CRM as a straightforward contact manager that is accessible by all employees.

Extra features such as mobile phone support, or an offline versions of the software are not needed according to the survey, with users preferring a basic system everyone in the business can access simultaneously to share company and contact information.

“It is no secret that in a troubled economy companies are looking to reduce their expenditures,” says Steve Schmidt, president of LogicBright. “It all comes back to keeping it simple and giving [..] customers what they ask for.”

This is the kind of rhetoric that starts to proliferate when times get rough and budgets are tight.  I do believe that as the CRM market has matured, more and more functionality has found its way into some of the leading CRM packages.

However, the question that each individual SMB needs to answer is, is this functionality needed or is it just adding unnecessary complexity?

That answer to that question my friends is maybe, or maybe not. The notion that ALL SMBs are, or should be, looking for simplicity is foolish.

CRM is NOT just about technology, it’s about improving an organization’s ability to get, keep and grow customers.  So, before any organization spends its precious time and money looking at CRM software alternatives, it must critique its current situation and identify the specific areas where improvements need to be made.  Technology should be viewed as a facilitator for making these improvements. So, when looking at technology alternatives it’s imperative that one evaluate the ability of each product to help.  That’s where a given product’s functions and features become relevant.  If a simple, easy to use CRM product doesn’t have the features that are needed to make desired process improvements, then it won’t be of much use.  If it does have what’s needed, then great!

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A recent conference in Dublin heard that a third of traditional software projects fail. CIOs in large organisations are under increasing pressure from business units to deliver usable technology more quickly. As markets slow, business users can ill afford to wait around for 18 months while an on-premises software development is rolled out.

Speed, ease of implementation, no capital investment costs and rapid return on investment have been the driving force behind the growth of Software as a Service (SaaS). But can it deliver to enterprise the benefits it has demonstrated across SMEs?

I believe there are four great myths when it comes to enterprise implementation of SaaS…

Myth 1: SaaS is only for SMEs

A recent report from Saugatuck Technology found that only 4% of large enterprises (5,000-plus employees) are not planning on deploying SaaS.

Myth 2: SaaS is only for CRM

Michael Ybarra, author and monthly columnist for SearchCIO-Midmarket.com, comments that the SaaS model continues to win adopters because of its speed and ease of deployment. While the most popular applications continue to be human resources, collaboration and CRM, more companies are also looking at the model for enterprise systems as well.

Myth 3: It’s hard to integrate SaaS with legacy systems

A Forrester survey found that integration was the most common reason why tech execs shied away from SaaS. However, according to Frank McCracken, a founder and executive vice-president of Saaspoint, many firms are missing out on the benefits of SaaS because they think that integration with existing legacy systems such as Oracle, SAP or Sage is impossible or overly complex and time consuming. But, he says, SaaS applications vendors have a better track record of maintaining stable APIs than do the legacy on-premises vendors. He points out that not only can CIOs retain their legacy on-premises software but they can also enhance its usability and adoption. The traditional headaches around integrating and making software upgrades compatible are eliminated under the SaaS model.

Myth 4: SaaS is not for enterprise application developers

According to David Linthicum of ZapThink, enterprise architects must plan for SaaS. “Many Global 2000 enterprises could find that 20-30% of their enterprise applications are SaaS-delivered and need to function like any other enterprise system, working and playing well with others – users, legacy systems etc.” Meanwhile, Beagle Research Group points out a major reason why SaaS has infiltrated the enterprise, suggesting the traditional software paradigm is in serious trouble. “Application development has become complex and expensive to the point that it presents a serious impediment to business growth,” it says.

One of the drivers for SaaS becoming central to enterprise application is that it releases CIOs and their developers to innovate. As the research company CXO Media points out: “Too often, IT departments are infrastructure mills, with most of their resources bound up in the rote exercises of maintaining hardware, patching software, tuning databases and running backups.”

A study by IDG Research Services with CIO Magazine subscribers in March 2007 found some 80% agreed that on-demand allows IT to focus more on innovation and less on infrastructure.

Saugatuck Technology puts it best: “SaaS is expanding well beyond its early low-cost, easy-to-deploy, niche application roots to become an important business computing force that is fully integrated with broader enterprise architectures. SaaS is growing up and going global.

SaaS could indeed be the catalyst that finally transforms the CIO into an enterprise’s chief innovation officer.

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Getting the mobile channel to where enabling CRM through accessing applications or web sites a.k.a. mobile CRM is as seamless from desktops is akin to taking young children on a long ride who then inevitably ask: “are we there yet?”

The answers will depend to some extent on the nature of the journey being taken. If the trip is for work, such for field sales staff and support reps the destination is in sight.

“The days with a field sales rep or technician having to go back to the office to get on the desktop for updates and additional information, are over,” says Angie Hirata, director of worldwide marketing and business development, at Maximizer Software.

However, if the travel is for everyday business, such as banking, buying products, and obtaining service via the Internet or accessing data-rich content like videos, i.e. mobile commerce or “m-commerce” then there is a little more ways to go.

Emmett Higdon is a senior analyst at Forrester Research who wrote a recently published report on financial services m-commerce. He identified a lack of commerce and- CRM-enabling mobile applications such as user authentication, payment methods for banking, or tools that leverage the GPS units in phones so that retailers can make offers if customers/prospects are in their vicinity.

“Mobile banking especially is waiting for a lot of that functionality to take hold before it will be adopted in greater numbers,” says Higdon. “Customers are waiting on applications that are timely, secure, location-aware, and transactional.”

North American wireless carriers are upgrading their networks from 2G or 2.5G to 3G. 3G which makes Internet access, downloading and uploading data and bandwidth-intensive applications like video and conferencing feasible. 3G has also proven popular in other countries that had introduced it on a large scale. In the works is 4G that offers even greater capacity at lower costs.

Danny Locklear, Vice President, Carrier Networks Marketing, Nortel, explains that 3G relies on IP packet switching as compared with circuit switching with 2G and 2.5G. IP architectures offer service providers greater flexibility and lower the cost of carrying traffic. They provide a better experience for users, as well, by making it possible to run more than one application concurrently.

There are several road bumps that are inhibiting getting to a fully functional truly user-friendly desktop-equivalent mobile CRM environment, where service-enhancing and cost-saving tools like Web self-service can be fully applied and utilized.

These include a lack of mobile-friendly search capabilities, long and complicated URLs that are difficult to enter from wireless devices, and a multitude of mobile browsers and a wide array of handsets requiring CRM and other applications to be specifically written for them.

Chuck Dietrich, Vice President, Salesforce Mobile, sees the trend toward, simpler, more full-featured and user-friendlier mobile browsers. A majority of his firm’s customers are using a more manageable set of mobile devices with a limited number of browsers.

David Trice, Vice President of CRM Strategy at Oracle points out that software vendors and independent software vendors have been prevented access to some device capabilities such as tighter integration to the phone, better cross application functionality and more efficient data sharing within the devices.

Martin Schneider, SugarCRM director of product marketing and a former CRM analyst says the way forward lies in Web 2.0: open source applications written in XTHML that are Internet-architected that can be integrated with other browsers and applications and which offers other functionality such as mapping the next location and click to call.

One major challenge that is gradually being resolved has been screen size and usability. Small screens and tiny keypads have using wireless devices for anything more than sending or receiving SMS or short e-mails or for quick surface web browsing not practical. In their stead are touchpads like Apple’s iPhone and pullout keypads.

What we’re now seeing is a new generation of handsets that is addressing this form factor issue,” says Paul Gorman, Ciboodle’s product management director. “As their use proliferates there will likely be more of them that begin to effectively and functionally merge the mobile and desktop experiences into portable usable go-anywhere devices.”

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In a recessionary environment, sales and marketing managers should prepare themselves for lengthened sales cycles and decreased pipeline velocity. Tried and true tactics that have always worked — e.g. month-end discounting, bundling and promotions — will begin to sound increasingly desperate as sales reps struggle to make the quotas that were set months ago in the budgeting process. Customers — those in a buying mood — will buy on their own terms, and it is increasingly unlikely that they will be “sold to.” Therefore, price erosion will take hold as vendors struggle to adapt the new competitive conditions.

With reduced headcount and frozen budgets, organizations may be tempted to put technology and capabilities investments on hold. However, now is the time to act; below are some low- or no-cost actions organizations can immediately take to retain a competitive edge though tough times…

1. Get marketing and sales aligned through the establishment of unified goals, common metrics and aligned compensation plans. All too often, objectives and metrics are departmentally aligned. If marketing is incentivized to do one thing (such as increase quantity of leads) and sales something entirely different (focus on highest value leads), the organization is ultimately going to get what it pays for — i.e., disharmony and angst. In this tough environment, sales and marketing leadership needs to agree on a common set of organizational objectives (e.g. revenue, profit, market share, cross-selling, etc.). More specifically, sales and marketing leaders need to create and agree upon a cross-departmental definition of what constitutes a “lead.”

2. Profile both successes and failures. In a November survey conducted by the Aberdeen Group, respondents recognized a top (51 percent) strategic action as the ability to identify high-value prospects by analyzing and segmenting the characteristics of desirable customers. If the organization is not already doing so, it should immediately create processes to identify and focus resources on the most promising leads based on the newly aligned goals and objectives.

3. Go collaborative. Next, the organization should establish an iterative feedback loop between departments to continually refine the lead definition and prospect profiles. This includes putting mechanisms into place for team members to provide feedback and rate the quality leads and campaigns based on the organizational objectives and the lead definition outlined above. In the same November study referenced earlier, more than a quarter (26 percent) of the respondents had already implemented internal social media capabilities (such as a wiki) to facilitate this type of knowledge sharing. Whatever the mechanism, employees should be encouraged and incentivized to share best practices, tips and success stories. Creating an alignment and a knowledge-sharing culture will teach the organization to repeat successes and avoid mistakes of the past.

Aberdeen is currently conducting its annual State of the Market survey of key business challenges, competitive threats and technology trends for 2009. Click Here to participate.

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As the recession deepens, businesses are scrambling to adapt. Some are in serious trouble and looking for a lifeline. Others in better shape are searching for smart ways to take advantage of soft markets or weakened competitors. From either perspective, these are times that test a company’s resilience and savvy. Those who make smart decisions now can survive — and may even come out ahead. To sharpen your strategic thinking, we’ve gathered a set of tactical plays on both sides of the ball.

Play Defense -

Refinance Your Debt
Prioritize Your Debt
Raise Cash Through “Factoring”
Sell of Non-CRitical Assets to Raise Cash
Price Optimize for Your Best Customers
Rebalance Compensation from Top to Bottom

Play Offense -

Land a Private Placement to Fund Capital Investments
Exploit Revolving Credit
Take Advantage of Training Programs
Cherry Pick Top talent Away From Rivals
Double Down on Strategic Advertising
Capitalize on Affordable Luxuries

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10. HP EliteBook laptops

Hewlett-Packard has already overtaken the top spot for worldwide PC sales, but the company is making a stronger run than ever at the business notebook market. HP’s EliteBook line of business laptops now offers a variety of industrial-strength features that cater to IT departments.

9. Zoho online productivity suite

Zoho has quietly been building an impressive fleet of Web-based productivity and business applications that are far more numerous and sophisticated than what Google offers and truly take advantage of the Web rather than just bringing offline apps into the browser. Especially for small businesses, Zoho is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office, and it not only saves money but also provides productivity benefits with online collaboration.

8. LifeSize HD videoconferencing

A lot of businesses are naturally tightening up their 2009 travel budgets, so you can expect that video conferencing will be one of the growing areas of IT in 2009.  Cisco Telepresence offers an amazing video conferencing experience, but the price tag is often at least a half million dollars. Meanwhile, LifeSize  HD video conferencing is nearly as good and it costs far less (usually under $40K). It also uses a lot less bandwidth, which also saves big money.

7. Splunk

One solution that does a great job of consolidating all of that IT data and making it viewable and searchable: Splunk.  Splunk easily gathers data from virtually any system or source and makes it searchable and visual through Web-based reports.

6. Force.com

Salesforce.com is arguably the business world’s most popular Web-based application. It is a customer relationship management (CRM) and sales force automation (SFA) tool that is easy to deploy and simple for always-on-the-go sales professionals to access. Now, Salesforce.com has extended this concept to other applications by opening up the platform that Salesforce.com is built on to businesses to allow them to use it to run their own applications, from Salesforce.com extensions to custom line-of-business apps to third-party apps.

5. Amazon Web Services

Another company that is having an important impact on the way business technology is done is Amazon. Like Salesforce, Amazon has taken the platform it used to build its core business and opened it up to other businesses. In this case, Amazon.com’s robust e-commerce platform that runs its $15 billion retail business has been opened up as Amazon Web Services, which offers storage, databases, payment processing, fulfillment services, and Web site scalability.

4. Palo Alto Networks next generation firewall

Palo Alto Networks has developed a new line of firewalls that transforms them from blunt objects into much more sophisticated tools.

3. Apple iPhone 3G

While the interface has continued to improve with software updates, the second generation iPhone made this year’s list because of the enterprise-grade capabilities that Apple brought to the iPhone in 2008, including Exchange ActiveSync support and remote kill capability for IT. It remains the best-designed and easiest-to-use smartphone on the market, and its widespread publicity has helped stimulate the smartphone market as a whole.

2. Riverbed WAN acceleration

With businesses looking for easy levers to pull to cut costs out of the 2009 budget, one of the best solutions that IT can recommend is WAN acceleration, which can lower fixed leased-line costs while also improving performance for remote offices and telecommuters.  Thus, these appliances can significantly reduce bandwidth consumption and - after the first transfer - dramatically decrease the response time for file transfers and applications that rely on files that get transferred over the WAN. Lots of companies offer WAN acceleration products now, but the market leader is Riverbed.

1. BlackBerry Bold

Despite the buzz and momentum building around the iPhone, BlackBerry remains the predominant smartphone platform for the enterprise, especially in security-sensitive environments such as government and the financial sector. With the Blackberry Bold, Research in Motion has brought its smartphone to the forefront.  This device features top performance combined with all of the familiarity and manageability of the BlackBerry platform - and it includes a real keyboard.

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CNN calls it issue #1. You cannot open a newspaper, turn on the TV, or even have a conversation with friends without talking about the economy and the “r-word” - recession.

Doom and gloom are everywhere. And there is no hiding from the fact that trepidation in the market is having an impact on the paychecks of Sales Professionals across the globe. It can be depressing and people are looking for answers. Hardly a day goes by that I’m not asked by someone, “What should I do?”

While I don’t have all of the answers, and certainly don’t hold myself out as an expert on recessions, I offer salespeople five tips for prospering during a recession….

Tip #1: Play Offense. In every industry segment there is opportunity to win regardless of how hard hit. Smart salespeople go on the offense during economic downturns and take advantage of weak competitors.

Tip #2: Play Defense. At its foundation, sales, and for that matter business, is about getting and keeping customers. Smart Sales Professionals are taking steps to protect their customer base now. These leaders recognize that they have competitors who will be knocking on their customers’ doors with tempting offers to save money. Instead of putting their heads in the sand and waiting for the inevitable calls from customers to discontinue service, cancel orders, or extend payment terms, they become consultants and proactively seek ways to help their customers deal with problems that arise from economic down turn.

Tip #3: Upgrade. When the economy was strong we could afford to make mistakes or ignore bad sales habits. Things have changed now. Recessions separate the weak from the strong. It’s the ultimate “survival of the fittest” in the business world. Your skills, talents, and attitude are the real competitive edge in this market place. Smart Sales Professionals are investing in themselves.

Tip #4: Focus on Fundamentals. During the good times, when things are booming, we have a tendency to ignore the basics and we lose our discipline to execute the fundamentals - we ride the wave where even the weak can survive. However, during a recession there is no room for error. Be disciplined. Block and tackle. Go back to the basics. Do right things right repetitively.

Tip #5: Move Faster. During recessions we have the tendency to slow down. We want to take our time to ensure we make no mistakes. Frankly, in some cases we are just plain old depressed. The fact is though that prospering during a recession means taking action - especially in the 21st Century where speed is key differentiator. Now is the time to get new products to market, now is the time to hit your competitors harder, now is the time to set new goals and create a new vision for yourself.

Bonus Tip: The problem for many Sales Professionals during tough economic times is that they begin looking for magic pills. The reality is there are no magic pills. The best way to prosper is a strict focus on the fundamentals.

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There has been lots of talk of social networking penetrating the enterprise, but what about the little guys?

According to research from AMI-Partners and analyst Nikki Lambda, the uptake of social networking by small businesses is set to double over the next year. In fact, research shows that 600,000 small businesses, (companies up to 99 employees) plan to deeply integrate social networking services in the next 12 months. That number is up from 300,000, which is approximately five percent of the total number of small businesses (SBs) in the United States. Lambda’s research on social networking is part of a larger AMI-Partners report entitled “U.S. Small Business Overview and Comprehensive Market Opportunity Assessment.”

Lambda writes, “SBs form an emerging audience for social networking services. While the proliferation of these services among the general public has been extraordinary, SBs remain a largely untapped opportunity - what could amount to a small boon for those willing to seek them out during these troubled times.”

Social networking opportunities for small businesses come in several forms. For one, social networking services such as LinkedIn are beginning to cater to small businesses and entrepreneurs by creating network branches for small organizations. The designated social networks allow small business owners and employees to communicate, share knowledge, and collaborate on projects. A second opportunity for small business involvement in social networking rests in advertising. In fact, Lambda’s research states that over the next 12 months, about 500,000 SBs will use social networking as a marketing resource and brand differentiator.

Interestingly, IDC Research recently issued a survey indicating that social networking users are not as apt to respond to marketing on social networks as they are on other Web sites. Lambda says, however, social network advertising still could be an area of opportunity for small businesses. “Although social networking as a resource for advertising and promotional activity is growing slower than people expect, it’s still experiencing growth and will be an area to keep track of as social networking platforms evolve, and more specialized services emerge for SB owners,” she says.

Given the state of the economy, Lambda writes that social networking is a relatively low cost solution that could help in fostering, “steady communication with existing partners, and clients as well as incubating new relationships” — a function both desired by consumers networking with friends and with employees in the workplace. The aforementioned IDC social networking survey, in fact, indicates that the majority of social networking users list communication as their number one reason for usage of such sites.

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Viral marketing, a colloquial name given to a subset of social media marketing, is growing like a wild weed. Traditional marketing giants like Unilever and Comcast, to name a few, are increasingly active in using the SMM tools to promote their brands and interact with consumers.

One has to wonder: is it just a flu or has the virus spread so deep as to become a reality?

I firmly believe we are on the way to a pandemic, and SMM will rule modern marketing. Yes, we are infected (in a good way) and there is no vaccination. However, I still feel the virus is just showing its symptoms, and a few things need to happen before it settles in and becomes reality. Let me give you the reasons why I believe we will get irremediably sick, why that is a very good thing, and what I think will have to happen for us to get there.

There are plenty of reasons to explain why SMM will be huge. I know everyone has favorites, so I will dare to give you mine…

Word of Mouth: Every marketer’s dream (especially traditional marketers) is for their product, brand or campaign to generate WOM. It is one of marketing’s basic rules for success. The best way to get the message through effectively is by having people recommend it to one another. The problem has always been the cost of generating high volume WOM. With the internet, this problem is pretty much solved. One example of this is bloggers, who have become a trustworthy source for information. If you get a big blogger to talk about your product, the impact this may have on sales can be greater than a regular TV campaign.

Targeting: So far I have not seen a more effective targeting tool than the internet. Advertisers are confident their message is reaching relevant audience, which makes each hit more efficient in delivering a message.

Engagement: With the possibility of better interaction with the audience, marketers now have the obligation to change the way they approach their target market. New marketing has to be engaging for the audience to stick with it. And by engaging, I mean it has to add value to the consumer either by being funny, instructive, informative, or whatever it is that makes it worth the audience’s time.

Cost: Please bear in mind that by cost I don’t mean cheap. However, SMM is not exclusively for deep-pocketed advertisers. SMM can be ideal for any kind of budget. Advertising is now within reach of everyone, and for the first time quality will be what differentiates good marketing from average marketing.

It would look like infection is imminent. However, I think some things need to be accomplished for SMM to settle in as one of the most important trends in marketing:

Involve Traditional Marketing: For SSM to become big, it is imperative that the big brands get involved with it, understand the benefits of using it, and help to further develop it. SMM has been making big efforts to differentiate itself from traditional marketing, but I fear this has also led to traditional marketers not understanding this new language and therefore not engaging with it.

Metrics: The SMM community needs to agree on the way impact is measured. Just as traditional media’s metrics are standard (GRP’s, SOV, TRP’s, etc.), Social Media needs standard ways to measure the impact of different campaigns. We need to be able to tell advertisers how their money is doing, and they need to be able to compare these results both against what their competitors are doing, and against what other agencies offer.

Academia: It is important for this new trend to start teaching and researching; to unify concepts, debate them, and generate new ones. Social Media Marketing can no longer be an empiric subject, and we need to make sure we get it into universities and colleges.

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Community and collaboration are wonderful things.

Fourteen great minds on social media have shared thoughts on what 2009 may have in store for us.  Here’s some of what a few of them are thinking:

• “Although it is now cheaper to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology - it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful.” - David Armano
• “Intimacy touches emotion; emotion powers conversation.” - Pete Blackshaw
• The tipping point has not only *not* been reached, but could still tilt *away* from Social Media.” - Todd Defren
• “Dwindling budgets suddenly make low-cost social media look like the pretty girl at the ball.” - Ann Handley
• “Companies that focus on earning love will thrive during hard times, and kick ass when good times return.” - Andy Sernovitz

Everyone’s thoughts have been assembled in a free PDF download. Or you can read the entire report within the original post.  Also, these predictions are now posted on Slinkset, where you can vote on your favorites and submit your own.

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