...but a somewhat tongue in cheek opinion piece on a blog that sometimes touches on news items, sometimes on personal experience and sometimes just on flippant observation.
I take your point that the billion dollar mark has not yet been passed - and you didn't see that headline on here! - but as noted in our article it's well "on track". Most of the analyst firms are pretty happy with that prediction. Marc Benioff is clearly entirely confident and keen to flag it up. Time will tell.
The deferred revenue issue? Well, that also remains to play out of course, but it's interesting that the concerns might be attributed to whether Wall St overestimated what the figure should be. We've seen that time and again, especially with firms that generate their own sense of excitement and momentum. Maybe, as Bradley Whitt points out in the URL that you link to, "In other words, The Street just had it wrong." I guess we'll find out in about 3 months time...
I think smaller players will always be able to challenge the giants - the way the tail that is Salesforce.com has managed to wag the dogs that are SAP and Oracle (and Siebel in its day) is evidence that a good idea, implemented and executed well can always find room to grow.
That said, the consolidation in the market that has been underway for the past couple of years does mean that at the top of the market we have two behemoths who need to crack the SME space and are making considerable efforts to do so. So we have SAP's 'salesforce.com killer 'Business ByDesign.
Whether these giants can gear up to tackle the lower end market is yet to be seen - previous forays have crashed and burned. At the same time, you have the Salesforce.coms and indeed the Microsofts of the world reaching up to prove that they are enterprise-fit. All told, 2008 will be an interesting battle between giants and challengers for the hearts and minds of the SMEs.
....that whatever anyone may think of the conclusions of the report - and I have my own thoughts on that! - this article is by no means a 'sponsored article'. MyCustomer.com deals in independent editorial. This is a report on the publication of a report from a respected analyst firm. Other CRM firms were invited to contribute their views - to date, only Microsoft has responded.
....it's entirely likely that your emails were spam-filtered by my systems. I receive upwards of 100-150 emails a day from vendors/PR firms/marketing people/business development people all wanting us to write about their products/services. There simply isn't enough time in the day to go through them all let along reply to them all and get work done as well. There is so much 'noise' out there that you need to raise your voice above the crowd to get off-diary attention I'm afraid. Sorry - not trying to put you off, but those are just the facts of media/PR life I'm afraid.
You are of course quite correct - citizen marketing is a far-reaching concept and one which we will be returning to periodically over the next few months. This was intended as an introduction to the idea in its most obvious manifestation and starting point - marketing. As we come back to the subject, we'll be looking at more sophisticated and wide-ranging forms. Watch this space...
...I can assure you that the editorial content of CMC is totally detached from any sales activities - as my often frustrated sales colleagues will also tell you - sorry chaps:-). They exercise no control over the editorial and news content any more than the editors exercise control over the sales/advertising.
As for the so called 'press releases disguised as CMC news articles', it's a weekly newswire which is a diary of record of events. As such it is inevitably partly driven by announcements from major vendors. But off diary events and activities also account for a large proportion of editorial. For example, the above report is nothing to do with SF.com's PR and marketing activities.
Well, for starters, a world in which I wouldn't be so ill mannered as to post a truculent comment like that just because I didn't agree with an opinion that someone else made in a community forum.
The basic theory - and one of the major selling points - of the on demand model is that you can switch provider very easily. And I've spoken to a number of end users who have done just that, the majority of them on a 'big bang' overnight basis with several thousand strong client databases.
My first editor told me all those years ago: "Never take a pop at Apple - the Macintosh Fundamentalists will come after you." She was right judging by some of the intemperant comments we've received. Fascinating how so many of the outraged hide behind spurious false names on a mac.com account rather than having the courage of Steve Jobs convictions though...
To 'Steve' - I'd be more inclined to take your advice if you'd managed to complete your abusive comment with the correct spelling :-) It's 'off' not 'Not'.
As to John Dooee - yeah I knew how long telephone support lasted on a working machine. This machine was defective and crashed fatally within the three month period. When it was returned it was not in the condition that it was in when its defective components failed. As such I think I'm more than entitled to expect it to be put back in the condition that it was in. INdeed the Apple repair outlet told me it was Apple policy to return it "like for like" (ie no operating system upgrades etc). That works both ways, surely? Oh and "bully pulpit"? It's nice to know I have a regular reader, but perhaps you might find a new phrase to attack me with next time you disagree with me (which by my reckoning is every Thursday).
John B - why do you assume I haven't contacted Steve?
Frances - Apple has indeed been in touch. We're now talking. I'll let you know how it proceeds next week.
This was not the lead article in an international CRM magazine. It was the leader article which is an entirely opinion-based piece of writing, the so-called 'why oh why' section. As such it is entirely 'proper journalism' as the rules and etiquette of such articles is entirely different from, for example, a news analysis piece. However as I have only been writing about the IT industry on both sides of the pond for 17 years, I am of course always grateful for any advice, tips and guidance on what constitutes 'proper journalism'.
Swiss Air, you may be interested to know,has responded to the article and in a relatively positive way - or negative perhaps if you are the two employees who were responsible for this mess in the first place. I'll keep you updated how that progresses. It's a shame that those without access to a 'bully pulpit' are less likely to get a similar form of response. My calls to the Swiss customer service department delivered nothing; an opinion piece on a public domain forum did.
As it happens, I entirely agree with you that these sort of 'CRM [***]-up/experience' pieces could have a wider impact and a more didactic purpose. Watch this space is all I can say on that one, we have some naughty little plans to address just such requirements relatively soon.
My answers
...but a somewhat tongue in cheek opinion piece on a blog that sometimes touches on news items, sometimes on personal experience and sometimes just on flippant observation.
I take your point that the billion dollar mark has not yet been passed - and you didn't see that headline on here! - but as noted in our article it's well "on track". Most of the analyst firms are pretty happy with that prediction. Marc Benioff is clearly entirely confident and keen to flag it up. Time will tell.
The deferred revenue issue? Well, that also remains to play out of course, but it's interesting that the concerns might be attributed to whether Wall St overestimated what the figure should be. We've seen that time and again, especially with firms that generate their own sense of excitement and momentum. Maybe, as Bradley Whitt points out in the URL that you link to, "In other words, The Street just had it wrong." I guess we'll find out in about 3 months time...
I think smaller players will always be able to challenge the giants - the way the tail that is Salesforce.com has managed to wag the dogs that are SAP and Oracle (and Siebel in its day) is evidence that a good idea, implemented and executed well can always find room to grow.
That said, the consolidation in the market that has been underway for the past couple of years does mean that at the top of the market we have two behemoths who need to crack the SME space and are making considerable efforts to do so. So we have SAP's 'salesforce.com killer 'Business ByDesign.
Whether these giants can gear up to tackle the lower end market is yet to be seen - previous forays have crashed and burned. At the same time, you have the Salesforce.coms and indeed the Microsofts of the world reaching up to prove that they are enterprise-fit. All told, 2008 will be an interesting battle between giants and challengers for the hearts and minds of the SMEs.
....that whatever anyone may think of the conclusions of the report - and I have my own thoughts on that! - this article is by no means a 'sponsored article'. MyCustomer.com deals in independent editorial. This is a report on the publication of a report from a respected analyst firm. Other CRM firms were invited to contribute their views - to date, only Microsoft has responded.
....it's entirely likely that your emails were spam-filtered by my systems. I receive upwards of 100-150 emails a day from vendors/PR firms/marketing people/business development people all wanting us to write about their products/services. There simply isn't enough time in the day to go through them all let along reply to them all and get work done as well. There is so much 'noise' out there that you need to raise your voice above the crowd to get off-diary attention I'm afraid. Sorry - not trying to put you off, but those are just the facts of media/PR life I'm afraid.
You are of course quite correct - citizen marketing is a far-reaching concept and one which we will be returning to periodically over the next few months. This was intended as an introduction to the idea in its most obvious manifestation and starting point - marketing. As we come back to the subject, we'll be looking at more sophisticated and wide-ranging forms. Watch this space...
...I can assure you that the editorial content of CMC is totally detached from any sales activities - as my often frustrated sales colleagues will also tell you - sorry chaps:-). They exercise no control over the editorial and news content any more than the editors exercise control over the sales/advertising.
As for the so called 'press releases disguised as CMC news articles', it's a weekly newswire which is a diary of record of events. As such it is inevitably partly driven by announcements from major vendors. But off diary events and activities also account for a large proportion of editorial. For example, the above report is nothing to do with SF.com's PR and marketing activities.
Well, for starters, a world in which I wouldn't be so ill mannered as to post a truculent comment like that just because I didn't agree with an opinion that someone else made in a community forum.
The basic theory - and one of the major selling points - of the on demand model is that you can switch provider very easily. And I've spoken to a number of end users who have done just that, the majority of them on a 'big bang' overnight basis with several thousand strong client databases.
Come and visit our world - it's kinda cool!
My first editor told me all those years ago: "Never take a pop at Apple - the Macintosh Fundamentalists will come after you." She was right judging by some of the intemperant comments we've received. Fascinating how so many of the outraged hide behind spurious false names on a mac.com account rather than having the courage of Steve Jobs convictions though...
To 'Steve' - I'd be more inclined to take your advice if you'd managed to complete your abusive comment with the correct spelling :-) It's 'off' not 'Not'.
As to John Dooee - yeah I knew how long telephone support lasted on a working machine. This machine was defective and crashed fatally within the three month period. When it was returned it was not in the condition that it was in when its defective components failed. As such I think I'm more than entitled to expect it to be put back in the condition that it was in. INdeed the Apple repair outlet told me it was Apple policy to return it "like for like" (ie no operating system upgrades etc). That works both ways, surely? Oh and "bully pulpit"? It's nice to know I have a regular reader, but perhaps you might find a new phrase to attack me with next time you disagree with me (which by my reckoning is every Thursday).
John B - why do you assume I haven't contacted Steve?
Frances - Apple has indeed been in touch. We're now talking. I'll let you know how it proceeds next week.
Ok, well to address some of these points:
This was not the lead article in an international CRM magazine. It was the leader article which is an entirely opinion-based piece of writing, the so-called 'why oh why' section. As such it is entirely 'proper journalism' as the rules and etiquette of such articles is entirely different from, for example, a news analysis piece. However as I have only been writing about the IT industry on both sides of the pond for 17 years, I am of course always grateful for any advice, tips and guidance on what constitutes 'proper journalism'.
Swiss Air, you may be interested to know,has responded to the article and in a relatively positive way - or negative perhaps if you are the two employees who were responsible for this mess in the first place. I'll keep you updated how that progresses. It's a shame that those without access to a 'bully pulpit' are less likely to get a similar form of response. My calls to the Swiss customer service department delivered nothing; an opinion piece on a public domain forum did.
As it happens, I entirely agree with you that these sort of 'CRM [***]-up/experience' pieces could have a wider impact and a more didactic purpose. Watch this space is all I can say on that one, we have some naughty little plans to address just such requirements relatively soon.