Everyday Customer Experience (CX) Champion by Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

Everyday CX
Champion
A Revolutionary Journey
from CRM to CX World
Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*
Published by FastPencil

Copyright © 2014 Dinesh Chandrasekar
Published by FastPencil
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Printed in the United States of America.
Edition 1

I dedicate this book to my Family , Friends , Colleagues and Organizations
who made me what I am today. What would I do without you :)
Yours truly,
❧

Acknowledgments
My sincere gratitude to all the Authors for the reference content
from their CX research blogs, websites, online forums and other
digital media.
&
My special thanks to Hitachi Consulting CX Practice,Mr. Dave
Sheridan & Ms.Aubrey Chambers for their contribution to the CX
thought leadership community.

Contents
Preface .......................................................... xix
Chapter 1 Author ............................................................ 1
Chapter 2 CRM - The Tool for making better decisions ............. 3
Chapter 3 Role of a CRM Manager in Enterprise Success ........... 9
Chapter 4 Why CRM? The Business case for CRM ................. 15
Chapter 5 Everyday Customer Champions ........................... 21
Chapter 6 Customer Experience Mgt is the NexGen CRM ........ 25
Chapter 7 Three Angels for Better Fortune - CRM,MDM and
BI ................................................................ 27
Chapter 8 CRM Implementation - Before you Start ” Know the
Unknowns” .................................................... 29
Chapter 9 CRM Chronicles , Some Interesting CRM Stories. .... 33
Chapter 10 CRM is back with a Vigor ................................... 35
Chapter 11 Trust: A New Line of Business and CRM can Help .... 39
Chapter 12 CRM Isn’t a Zero-Sum Game .............................. 41
Chapter 13 CRM Baptized for Good .................................... 45
Chapter 14 Mobile CRM : When and Where You need it ........... 49
Chapter 15 Loyalty Management – The New Competitive
Advantage ...................................................... 51
Chapter 16 Google with Siebel ........................................... 57
Chapter 17 How SaaS-y are you ? ........................................ 61
Chapter 18 Just “Cannot” Do it: The Importance of
Organization Change Mgt in CRM Projects ............ 63
Chapter 19 Why Sandy got fired? The Real CRM Story ............. 71
Chapter 20 Top Ten CRM Project Killers ............................. 79
Chapter 21 What % of Your CRM goes Unused ? Out of the Box
& Right into your Shelf ...................................... 85
Chapter 22 Teaching Elephant to Tap Dance : CRM PSP’s time
to Change their CRM Practice Strategies ................ 89
Chapter 23 Wanted Dead or Alive : My Golden Record - The
MDM way ..................................................... 95

Chapter 24 The Best Kept Secrets of Successful CRM
Practitioners ................................................. 101
Chapter 25 The Pots of Gold at the end of the Desert Rainbow –
Thoughts on Truly Vibrant MiddleEast economy ... 109
Chapter 26 Befriend your CRM Work Force, Befriend your
Customers :Celebrating CRM Friendship Day ....... 111
Chapter 27 Is It Time to Stop “Delighting” Your Customers? .... 115
Chapter 28 New CRM ” E “nablers - Social Media for Unified
Communications ........................................... 119
Chapter 29 Making of your CRM “Rock Stars ” : Teaching your
Sales force the new tricks .................................. 123
Chapter 30 Everything on Cloud, But Future is not Cloudy ...... 127
Chapter 31 Empowering Government Departments with Public
Sector CRM : Long Live Citizen Relationship
Management ................................................ 129
Chapter 32 Magnificent 5 Social Networking Strategies for your
Company .................................................... 133
Chapter 33 Put your Thumbs Up for National ID Program :
Potential Beyond Imagination ........................... 137
Chapter 34 Digital Nirvana Made Easy with Social CRM and
Networking. ................................................. 145
Chapter 35 Are you MDM Aware ? .................................... 149
Chapter 36 DataQuality- NightMares and Horror Stories ........ 157
Chapter 37 Celebrate Success @ Work ............................... 161
Chapter 38 Tough and Good Times of CRM : CRM is a badge
that your company can wear with pride ................ 165
Chapter 39 Are You a “Stupid” ? : Make CRM your Career
Choice ........................................................ 171
Chapter 40 The Best Sign Of A Good CRM Is No Sign At All ... 175
Chapter 41 Cloud Relationship Management : The New CRM
Kid ............................................................ 177
Chapter 42 I am (Consumer)Good(s), But I will Get Better with
CRM .......................................................... 181
Chapter 43 When Quick is Never Quick Enough : Need for
Citizen Case Management System ...................... 185
Everyday CX Champion

Chapter 44 Vibrant MiddleEast: My Memorable Middleeast
Experience ................................................... 189
Chapter 45 Doing CRM Right : Phased Implementation
Approach .................................................... 193
Chapter 46 Innovation is Simple and out of the Box ................ 197
Chapter 47 Top 10 Marketing Processes for Next 5 Years ........ 201
Chapter 48 Hotties in the CRM Solutions “What makes them
Different” .................................................... 211
Chapter 49 Winning by Understanding: Competing on
Customer Experience ...................................... 215
Chapter 50 6 Six Sacred Laws of Customer Experience (CxP) ... 219
Chapter 51 Your 10 Steps towards meaningful CRM ROI ........ 223
Chapter 52 CRM Anatomy : How well your Hip Bone connect
to Your Thigh Bone ? ...................................... 229
Chapter 53 Customer Intelligence: Get your Customer Insight
Right .......................................................... 235
Chapter 54 Making your CRM “Live” Post “Go Live” ............. 239
Chapter 55 What’s New in Oracle Customer Hub 8.2 v? It’s time
to find Your Golden Customer – Part 1 ................ 243
Chapter 56 What’s New in Oracle Customer Hub 8.2 v? It’s time
to find Your Golden Customer – Part 2 ................ 249
Chapter 57 What’s New in Oracle Customer Hub 8.2 v? Part 3:
End to End Data Quality Enhancements ............... 255
Chapter 58 What’s New in Oracle Customer Hub 8.2 v? End to
End Integration Capabilities ............................. 261
Chapter 59 Picking a needle in the Haystack: Criteria to Reduce
your CRM Vendor Selection Risk ....................... 269
Chapter 60 5 Best Practices to Succeed in your CRM projects ... 275
Chapter 61 Customer Management Technologies: Which one
delivers the Most? .......................................... 279
Chapter 62 CRM Kills when your “CRM” is Customer Revenue
Maxim ........................................................ 283
Chapter 63 Your Business Made Simple with CRM ................ 287
Chapter 64 They Came, They Saw, They Failed : CRM
Implementation Pitfalls ................................... 291

Chapter 65 User Adoption, The “Most Important “thing in your
CRM Success. ............................................... 297
Chapter 66 Fulfilling the Promise of “Customer 360 Degree
view” - The Customer Hub Way. ........................ 305
Chapter 67 Demystifying Myths of CRM ............................ 311
Chapter 68 CRM Wedding: Your Bill is $$$$$$ .................... 317
Chapter 69 To BI or not to BI .......................................... 325
Chapter 70 Taking Your CRM beyond Geographical Borders ... 329
Chapter 71 Sneak Preview of Self Service CRM Realities .......... 333
Chapter 72 Cloud Computing - Be Aware of Cloud Bursts ....... 337
Chapter 73 How not to execute a Siebel CRM Project: You’r
Disaster Recovery Recipe (Part 1) ...................... 341
Chapter 74 How not to execute a Siebel CRM Project: You’r
Disaster Recovery Recipe (Part 2) ...................... 347
Chapter 75 The New Customer Relationship Therapy:
Doctoring Customer Dynamics ......................... 355
Chapter 76 NexGen Intelligence CRM ( I*CRM ) ................. 361
Chapter 77 Method in the Madness : Put Your Customers
Ahead of Your Capabilities ............................... 367
Chapter 78 CRM Projects: Odyssey of Fixed Bid executions ..... 373
Chapter 79 CRM Implementation “Quick” ees, Just Do it Faster
and Better .................................................... 377
Chapter 80 Dealing with Exceptions, The CRM Way to Salvage
Damaged Relationships. .................................. 381
Chapter 81 CRM Strategies that Backfires ........................... 387
Chapter 82 Orchestrating Your Customer Information: CRM
Symphony ................................................... 393
Chapter 83 CRM Success Chronicles: The Master Strokes ....... 397
Chapter 84 Business intelligence ROI, The Mind Game .......... 403
Chapter 85 Customer Analytics, the 3rd Eye View ................. 407
Chapter 86 Your Company is Unique & So is your CRM
application: Custom Development in CRM
Application .................................................. 411
Chapter 87 Social CRM: What’s so Unsocial about it. ............. 417

Chapter 88 Walk the Talk CRM: Keep Jargons aside .............. 421
Chapter 89 The MDM Building Blocks ............................... 425
Chapter 90 Why “CRM “Must Die ? .................................. 429
Chapter 91 CRM Project: Enabling Agility beyond Challenges .. 433
Chapter 92 Let the Cloud Debate not Cloud your CRM Vision . 439
Chapter 93 Art of CRM: Sun Tzu Way ............................... 443
Chapter 94 What Drives MDM Trends ? ............................. 447
Chapter 95 Proactive CRM & the Way CRM Champions do it .. 449
Chapter 96 Apps Cousins : ERP & CRM ............................. 459
Chapter 97 CRM Maturity Levels, Ensuring CRM Quality ....... 463
Chapter 98 Oracle Fusion CRM: Are you game for it .............. 469
Chapter 99 CRM Conscience: Keeping Face with Change,
Complexity and Change .................................. 473
Chapter 100 Breaking the Silver Bullet Stigma: CRM driven Call
Centers ....................................................... 477
Chapter 101 CRM Reflections , The ways and means for better
CRM now & in Future. .................................... 481
Chapter 102 Linked In CRM, Your Free CRM Cloud ............... 487
Chapter 103 Binding your CRM with Social Networks ............. 491
Chapter 104 New Age Partner of Retail CRM: Social Networking
and Mobility ................................................. 495
Chapter 105 CRM Assessment: Every Great Journey begins with
a Single Step ................................................. 501
Chapter 106 The People Factor in CRM ............................... 505
Chapter 107 CRM in the Next Decade ................................. 509
Chapter 108 Mastering Multichannel CRM ........................... 513
Chapter 109 Cart before the Horse: CRM Learnings Series ........ 517
Chapter 110 Are you socially challenged? No Social CRM is
better than bad Social CRM .............................. 521
Chapter 111 Survivors of Siebel Effect, Wisdom from Past CRM
Failures ....................................................... 525
Chapter 112 Raise of New Breed CRM Consultants & End of
Software is not the End of Consulting .................. 529

Chapter 113 Conversion Matters in Online CRM & Smart Ways
to do it. ....................................................... 539
Chapter 114 CRM Engineering , To Synergize your Techies &
Sales Force. .................................................. 549
Chapter 115 Unveiling the Chemistry of CRM and Sales
Organization ................................................ 555
Chapter 116 CRM Drives Instant Business: The Dawn of Real
Time Enterprise ( RTE) .................................. 563
Chapter 117 Words of wisdom drawn from decades of
disappointment - The Story of CRM ................... 569
Chapter 118 Get the CRM out of the Deception Circle -
Revitalize your CRM Initiative ........................... 573
Chapter 119 Art of Selecting the Right BI Tool - Part 1 ............. 577
Chapter 120 Art of Selecting the Right BI Tool - Part 2 ............. 583
Chapter 121 CRM Vigilance: Securing Customer Data ............. 587
Chapter 122 Taking on Goliath (Terrorism), CRM.GOV in
Action ........................................................ 591
Chapter 123 Think before you leap, CRM Incubator Series ........ 595
Chapter 124 Oracle Fusion CRM - Leads the Fusion League ...... 601
Chapter 125 CRM Web 2.0 , The new CRM Avatar ................. 605
Chapter 126 The CRM Desktop, the Workforce Empower Tool. . 609
Chapter 127 Oracle Fusion - Enterprise Solutions Reloaded –
Part 1 ......................................................... 613
Chapter 128 Oracle Fusion - Enterprise Solutions Reloaded –
Part 2 ......................................................... 619
Chapter 129 Oracle Fusion & Oracle Application Unlimited -
WIFM ( What’s in For Me ) .............................. 631
Chapter 130 CRM Coliseum- Battle of CRM Brotherhoods ....... 639
Chapter 131 Oracle MDM is Hi Definition (HD) MDM ........... 643
Chapter 132 Building a Business Case for CRM Upgrade .......... 647
Chapter 133 O ’ Cloud - Oracle Cloud Computing .................. 655
Chapter 134 Squeeze your CRM for More Value ..................... 659
Chapter 135 SaaS CRM Integration: Cloud Connection
Challenges “C3” ............................................ 663

Chapter 136 Match Made in Enterprise: CRM & BI Integration .. 669
Chapter 137 Inception : Planting the “CRM Vision” ................ 675
Chapter 138 Get together with CRM & Web Service Integration . 681
Chapter 139 CRM binds Mergers & Acquisitions-Financial
Industry Perspective ....................................... 687
Chapter 140 CRM for Roadies, Mobile CRM in Action ............ 693
Chapter 141 Facebook to Face off Today CRMs : Raise of The
“Black Box” CRM .......................................... 699
Chapter 142 CRM Warfare : Oracle CoD Vs Sales Force ........... 705
Chapter 143 CRM Prophesies & Predictions ......................... 709
Chapter 144 Top CRM Know Howz ................................... 715
Chapter 145 How is your MDM “DO” ing Now? ? Introspecting
MDM ......................................................... 719
Chapter 146 SaaS-y-CRM ................................................ 725
Chapter 147 BI Breaks Free, Revolution Ahead ....................... 729
Chapter 148 CRM, the True Companion for Wealth
Management Advisors ..................................... 733
Chapter 149 Predictive Analytics, the Next “BI” (G) Thing ........ 741
Chapter 150 CRM Nation, All about Public Sector CRM .......... 745
Chapter 151 Get Smarter with SaaS CRM on Demand Quality
Data ........................................................... 749
Chapter 152 What keeps Legacy Apps out of Cloud ? ............... 753
Chapter 153 Walking Over “Cloud” Bridge – SaaS/Cloud
Integration Options ........................................ 757
Chapter 154 Oracle Fusion Applications – To Fuse or Not to
Fuse ........................................................... 761
Chapter 155 Is your CRM SOO Compliance? ........................ 769
Chapter 156 Open Source CRM ......................................... 777
Chapter 157 CRM Signs of Trouble: Act or Be Acted Upon ....... 783
Chapter 158 Deception Point @ CRM ................................. 787
Chapter 159 KYBC – Know your Bad Customers .................... 791
Chapter 160 CRM Custodianship ....................................... 795
Chapter 161 Loyalty is Bilateral .......................................... 799

Chapter 162 Challenging the “CRM” ................................... 807
Chapter 163 MDM Made Easy .......................................... 811
Chapter 164 Brotherhood of Master Data - The MDM Cult
Series Part 1 ................................................. 833
Chapter 165 The MDM Cult Series-Part2 -MDM must be
process-Independent ...................................... 839
Chapter 166 The MDM Cult Series-Part 3-MDM Inception
Recipe ........................................................ 843
Chapter 167 MDM Cult Series-Part 4-MDM Implementation
Techniques .................................................. 847
Chapter 168 MDM is like United Nations & Importance of Data
Governance .................................................. 851
Chapter 169 MDM Guardian Angels: Data Governance and
Stewardship ................................................. 857
Chapter 170 Competing for Customer’s Wallet ...................... 863
Chapter 171 CRM Program Governance and Executive
Sponsorship – Part 1 ....................................... 867
Chapter 172 CRM Program Governance and Executive
Sponsorship – Part Deux .................................. 873
Chapter 173 Pulling the Plug on your CRM Project ................. 877
Chapter 174 “Enterprise Wave” of Collaboration .................... 883
Chapter 175 Customer- Value Creators and Destroyers ............ 887
Chapter 176 CRM’s Achilles Heel ....................................... 893
Chapter 177 Raising the Bar with Barcodes @ CRM ................ 899
Chapter 178 Oracle BI Solution Saga ................................... 905
Chapter 179 “Yes We Can” Powering Public Sector CRM – Part
1 ............................................................... 911
Chapter 180 “Yes We Can” Powering Public Sector CRM – Part
2 ............................................................... 917
Chapter 181 Yes We Can – Part 3 - Public Sector CRM
Manifesto .................................................... 921
Chapter 182 One Penny Saved is Two Pennies Earned: Optimize
your CRM Implementation Cost ........................ 929
Chapter 183 CIO’s agenda for Integrated Business, IT & CRM
Capability - Part 1 .......................................... 935

Capability – Part 2 ......................................... 941
Capability – Part 3 ......................................... 947
Chapter 186 B2B CRM, A Different Ball Game ....................... 957
Chapter 187 B2B CRM and Supply Chain Connection-
Connecting Customer Lives .............................. 965
Chapter 188 Generation “C” is next ..................................... 971
Chapter 189 Generation C, The Reality beyond Imagination ...... 977
Chapter 190 Apples , Oranges & CRM Software Selection ......... 987
Chapter 191 Telecom “CRM” Spectrum, A©rmed for Voice &
Data Battle ................................................... 999
Chapter 192 Consumer Goods VanSales CRM Solution .......... 1007
Chapter 193 CRM Design & Getting it Right ........................ 1013
Chapter 194 Empowering Consumer Goods Industry with Direct
Retail Distribution (DRD) CRM ....................... 1021
Chapter 195 SaaS OnDemand CRM, 6 umpteen Factors .......... 1027
Chapter 196 Saving your CRM Program with Successful
Technology Enablement Process (STEP) ............ 1031
Chapter 197 SaaS-ifying your CRM Application ..................... 1039
Chapter 198 CRM in Emerging Markets – Consumer Goods
Industry Focus ............................................. 1043
Chapter 199 Simplementation: Few Spoons of Sugar for CRM
Initiative ..................................................... 1047
Chapter 200 CROUCHING CUSTOMER and HIDDEN
INSIGHT ................................................... 1053
Chapter 201 CRM in the Bottle: The Pepsi Way .................... 1063
Chapter 202 CRM tools no panacea ................................... 1069
Chapter 203 CRM Power shift: Customer Information is No
more the “redheaded stepchild” ........................ 1073
Chapter 204 “Smart” CRM Strategies 4 Smart Customers. ........ 1079
Chapter 205 Brand Relationship Management (BRM) in the New
Decade ...................................................... 1085

Chapter 206 Building the “Customer Responsive” Company with
Responsive CRM .......................................... 1091
Chapter 207 MDM Recharge with Data Relationship
Management (DRM) ..................................... 1097
Chapter 208 Beyond Core CRM ....................................... 1107
Chapter 209 MDM Real Time - Think Globally and Act Locally . 1111
Chapter 210 Rewarding Right with Incentive Compensation
Management ............................................... 1117
Chapter 211 Move Move It, Move your CRM from Desktop to
Mobile ....................................................... 1123
Chapter 212 Customer Advocacy ...................................... 1127
Chapter 213 Master the Data Governance before Mastering the
Customer Hub ............................................. 1133
Chapter 214 Mastering the Mysteries of Customer Hub (MDM)
Projects ...................................................... 1139
Chapter 215 Oracle CRM on Demand Integration, the Cloud
Connection – Part 1 ...................................... 1145
Chapter 216 Oracle CRM on Demand Integration, the Cloud
Connection – Part 2 ...................................... 1151
Chapter 217 Oracle Fusion Whats the Story now ................... 1157
Chapter 218 Consumer goods CRM, Winning on the Shelves
with Mobile Retail Audit Solution ...................... 1161
Chapter 219 Making of Everyday CRM Champions : Super
Customer Service Agents ................................ 1165
Chapter 220 WIFM in CRM ............................................ 1173
Chapter 221 Future of Innovation, Is not in Future. It’s Now –
Consumer Goods Industry Technovations ........... 1179
Chapter 222 Vertical is Horizontal: Dynamics of Industry CRM
Solutions .................................................... 1185
Chapter 223 The Chicken & Egg Syndrome : Data Governance is
a Big Challenge ............................................ 1193
Chapter 224 Mastering the Politics to make your “MDM and
Data Governance program” a Success ................. 1199
Chapter 225 Predictive Analytics, The game Changer BI .......... 1205
Chapter 226 Getting Ahead in the SaaS Curve ....................... 1209

Chapter 227 Insight on Trade Promotion Management for
Consumer Goods Industry .............................. 1213
Chapter 228 In Pursuit of a Pursuit ..................................... 1219
Chapter 229 March Forward with Microsoft Dynamics CRM .... 1225
Chapter 230 Oracle Fusion CRM, the New CRM Avatar .......... 1233
Chapter 231 Oracle’s CRM Cloud Strategy .......................... 1241
Chapter 232 The 3rd Apple, Master of Innovation .................. 1245
Chapter 233 Relationship Quotient @ Work ......................... 1249
Chapter 234 Spin the Fortune wheel , The CRM Predictions ..... 1253
Chapter 235 Enterprise Mobility, the Game Changer .............. 1257
Chapter 236 My Journey so Far… ..................................... 1263
Chapter 237 CRM Checklist Manifesto ............................... 1267
Chapter 238 Deciphering the Enterprise Mobility Vision – Part
1 .............................................................. 1271
Chapter 239 Deciphering the Enterprise Mobility Vision – Part
2 .............................................................. 1275
Chapter 240 Give your CRM system the Elbow Grease to sustain
Change & Evolve .......................................... 1281
Chapter 241 The Leaves of Innovation ................................ 1287
Chapter 242 Master Data Management Data Governance
Leadership and Best Practices ........................... 1293
Chapter 243 Mid-Career Crisis Musings .............................. 1295
Chapter 244 Good to Great and then the End ....................... 1299
Chapter 245 Are you a Goliath waiting for your turn? .............. 1303
Chapter 246 About Customer Experiences and the Notion of the
Remembering self…. ..................................... 1307
Chapter 247 Latest Innovations for Oracle’s Siebel CRM -
Interesting Post ............................................ 1311
Chapter 248 CRM Market Share Update - Whats in For you ? .... 1317
Chapter 249 Practice Leadership ....................................... 1321
Chapter 250 Book Review : ” The Steve Jobs way, iLeadership for
the new generation” ....................................... 1325
Chapter 251 Moments of Truth in Personal Life .................... 1329
Chapter 252 What Inspires Us ? ........................................ 1333

Chapter 253 6 Pillars of Happiness & Success ........................ 1337
Chapter 254 “Quotes that will change your Life” .................... 1341
Chapter 255 Unlock the Leader in You ................................ 1345
Chapter 256 Aspire to Inspire Series - Chapter 1 .................... 1349
Chapter 257 Aspire to Inspire Series -Chapter 2 ..................... 1353
Chapter 258 Aspire to Inspire Series - Chapter 3 .................... 1355
Chapter 259 CRM caterpillar to Customer Experience CX
butterfly ..................................................... 1365
Chapter 260 Enjoy your Daily routine with Creative Mindset and
Habitual super productive ............................... 1375

Preface
Hearty Welcome to all the Customer Champions & Master
Minds
I believe ”Successful CRM or Customer Experience (CX)” is
about competing in the relationship dimension, not as an alterna-
tive to having a competitive product or reasonable price- but as a
differentiator. If your competitors are doing the same thing you are
(as they generally are), product and price won’t give you a long-
term, sustainable competitive advantage. But if you can get an edge
based on how customers feel about your company, it’s a much
stickier sustainable relationship over the long haul.
This book is a compilation of my blog articles from my
blog .The reason to publish this as a book is to share the knowl-
edge and experience derived from my 15+ years of service as a
CRM/CX Professional. This is no way to say all the content is my
own thoughts; in fact I reproduced the content from numerous
research articles, blogs and CRM portals. The idea is to guide the
young budding CX professionals and also to serve as reference
guide to many organizations which are in need for the right direc-
tion when making their CX investment decisions.
The book covers a variety of topics on CRM, BI, MDM, Cloud,
Predictive Analytics, Industry CX solutions and some great motiva-
tional articles. There is no sequence as such to read this book but

you may choose to read what would benefit you in the respective
career role.
Hope you will enjoy the content and Look forward to your feed-
back/comment -dinwin@gmail.com .
Wishing you Most & More
DC*
Dinesh Chandrasekar

1
Author
Dinesh Chandrasekar DC* has over 16 +
years of rich IT consulting experience
in CRM, MDM & BI implementations,
Management Consulting, IP Development
and Strategic Advisory services to CXOs.
He is currently heading the Hitachi Consulting’s Innova-
tion & IP Development practice. A quick preview of his
credentials
❋ Head of Hitachi Consulting, India Innovation & IP Develop-
ment practice
❋ Managed Global CRM & MDM Practice for 6+ years .
❋ Proven Delivery & Solution expertise in CRM and MDM
project executions.
❋ Actively Involved in Presales, Practice building, Delivery, Alli-
ance Relationship Management, Account Mining, and Business
Development.
❋ Avid blogger http://dineshknowledgeplanet.blogspot.com/
DC*
1

❋ Passionate about CRM, Digital Art & Coaching.
❋ Over 60+ projects engagement experience across the globe.
❋ Delivered over 20+ IP products and Lead the Hitachi Con-
sulting’s Innovation Council @ India Development Center.
❋ Author of the book “Everyday CX Champion - A Revolu-
tionary journey from CRM to CX World “
Dinesh is also an alumni of GE , Citigroup and a MBA graduate
from ICFAI Business School, India.
2 Everyday CX Champion

2
CRM - The Tool for
making better decisions
Today’s leading organizations are accelerating the pace
and enhancing the effectiveness of decision-making with
help from their information systems, resulting in
improved bottom line performance and a redefinition of
competitive landscapes across industries. CRM supports
strategic and tactical decision making by providing not
only an integrated, real-time view of customers, partners,
and employees and their interactions across marketing,
sales, and service functions, but also a deep, real-time
insight into customer-focused operations. CRM makes
this current, relevant information and insight available to
employees and partners throughout the organizational
ecosystem, from the front line to the executive office.
Increasingly, advanced CRM capabilities are also being
extended to small and medium-sized businesses, through
3

hosted offerings designed to enable rapid deployment to
smaller user groups.
Some of the universally applicable questions in the business world
❋ What should be my strategy for managing customer relation-
ships?
❋ How should I plan to deploy resources now and over the next
several years to meet the changing needs of my customers?
❋ Where should I focus to help meet this quarter’s revenue, opera-
tional, and profit goals?
❋ How do I better align production levels with product demand?
Information Requirements
❋ Actionable insight into employee, customer, and channel per-
formance data and long-term trends
❋ An accurate, real-time, organization-wide understanding of cur-
rent goal and target attainment
Benefits of Valuable Decisions
❋ Increase selling time by up to X percent due to reduced fore-
casting administration
❋ Reduce inventory carrying costs by up to Y percent
❋ Improve forecast accuracy by up to Z percent
❋ Reduce the frequency and risk of bad decisions, whose conse-
quences can prove to be catastrophic
The Cost of Bad Decisions
Recent business history provides many examples of the cost of
bad business decisions. One of the more remarkable examples of
this is the collapse of insurance and finance firm Conseco. Bur-
dened by $6.5 billion in debt resulting from an acquisition spree in
the late 1990s, Conseco filed bankruptcy in December of 2002, the
third largest in corporate bankruptcy history. Conseco’s failure was

precipitated largely by acquisitions such as that of Green Tree
Financial for $6.7 billion in 1998. Conseco’s acquisition strategy
incorrectly estimated the risks associated with assuming such a
large debt burden for a portfolio of high-risk loans, including those
made to low-income trailer home owners.
Indeed, recent research suggests that about half of all business
decisions end in failure, including a lack of implementation or later
reversal. Vast sums of money are spent to make decisions that
realize no ultimate value for the organization; Managers make the
same mistakes over and over again as they make decisions.
CRM’s Role in Better Decision Making
Accepted CRM principles and best practices provides the clear
understanding of current and past performance results required to
plan and manage business operations in support of an organiza-
tion’s defined strategies. Where to focus short-term selling activi-
ties, determining where and how much to invest in long-term pro-
duction capacity, or giving guidance to the financial community,
managers require accurate, real-time quantitative information on
actual performance versus targets and forecasts.
CRM offers the ability to track actual performance versus tar-
gets and assess root causes for variance over short- and long-term
time periods. In the short term, for example, CRM allows managers
to understand sales performance against forecasts by region, cus-
tomer, product, channel, and other variables. In the long term,
CRM enables decision makers to identify risk areas in time to
implement action plans to address changing market conditions,
customer preferences, competitive threats and widespread eco-
nomic cycles.
Specifically, organizations can employ CRM to make more
effective decisions in five primary areas:
• Strategy and planning—By facilitating the development and
maintenance of a comprehensive CRM strategy and planning and
CRM - The Tool for making better decisions… 5

managing overall business operations based on timely, accurate
forecasts of true market demand and risk
• Customers—By identifying the most valuable customers and
better understanding their wants, needs, and buying behavior
• Products and services—By evaluating and investing in new
products and services based on a detailed understanding of cus-
tomer preferences and behavior and improving the efficiency and
consistency of product and service delivery
• Channels—By matching investments in channels with the
needs and value of particular customer segments and managing
interactions across all channels based on a shared, holistic view of
customers and segments
• Employees—By aligning employee efforts with organizational
goals and proactively managing employee skills, training, and sup-
port needs
Business Case
Honeywell Aerospace, the $10 billion aerospace division of
Honeywell, was perceived by Customers as difficult and confusing
to conduct business. Customers viewed Honeywell as 16 discon-
nected businesses. Unable to see a “customer scorecard” of sales,
service, and satisfaction to drive improvements in operational pro-
cesses, executive management struggled with a lack of insight and
intelligence from customer data. Management analysis and
reporting required significant manual processing, which not only
demanded significant time and resources, but also produced deci-
sions based on stale, often irrelevant data. To increase planning
and decision-making effectiveness, Honeywell Aerospace
embarked on a program to enhance its CRM system with compre-
hensive analytics capabilities. The eventual goal was to provide
business intelligence to users at all levels in the organization—from
executive management and sales personnel to field services engi-
neers, program managers, development engineers, and call centers
agents. An immediate benefit of the CRM analytics implementa-

tion was the availability of real-time information allowing
employees to formulate and share new short- and long-term plan-
ning insights. Management was able not only to make long-term
strategic decisions based on facts rather than anecdotal evidence
and opinions, but also to respond rapidly to changing market con-
ditions. For instance, if sales management saw they were getting a
large percentage of wins on certain products with certain types of
customers, they were able to identify these high-value opportuni-
ties, understand key win factors, and apply those techniques or best
practices to customers in future sales. Analytics has also helped
Honeywell Aerospace realize measurable business benefits in other
areas, including modeling prices to stay in line with competition,
responding faster to customer issues, improving overall
customer satisfaction, and improving product performance. As
illustrated by Honeywell Aerospace, maximizing the value of CRM
through robust analytics capabilities can not only help ensure effec-
tive long-term strategic planning, but also keep the entire organiza-
tion focused on the pulse of the business to ensure the effective
execution of those strategies.
DC*
CRM - The Tool for making better decisions… 7

3
Role of a CRM Manager
in Enterprise Success
CRM has become one of the hottest areas in enterprise
and technology strategy. As a result, organizational roles,
such as CRM manager, have become vital for enterprise
success following an implementation. Companies are
investing heavily in supporting resources, partners and
principal functional groups within their organizations to
ensure that their CRM solutions are effectively managed,
steered and enhanced. Companies with successful CRM
project delivery are those that align the role of CRM
managers in the earliest phases of initiative planning and
analysis. The activities of a CRM manager do not simply
end with the successful implementation of a CRM
project. Instead, their responsibilities continue and are,
in many ways, a mirror of the work they completed
during a project implementation.
9

A CRM project manager’s full-time responsibilities fall into four
categories following the go-live of a CRM system. They include:
1) Functional management of the existing CRM solution
2) Operational management
3) Change management
4) Strategic partnership
The need for post-project stewardship across these functional
domains is vital to ensure the longer-term success of your CRM
implementations.
Functional Management
CRM managers should have visibility into all systems that inter-
face or subscribe to the core CRM solution. CRM managers should
document and understand how business transactions and work-
flow events map across external systems and application groups.
This is vital because it enables prompt and accurate assessments of
the effects of organic or acquired growth strategies. It also leaves
more time for better aligning stakeholders and undergoing due dili-
gence deep dives.
By maintaining the CRM manager as the single point of refer-
ence for the CRM systems, he or she can hasten time-to-market for
new initiatives. This insight and functional maintenance of the
company’s CRM presence enables the company to have a 360-
degree view of how its customers interact with it through various
channels, business units or transactions by understanding how core
business processes outside the CRM system are mapped end-to-
end with the new CRM system that has just been implemented.
Action Items
Ensure that CRM manager has a 360-degree view of in-flight tech-
nologies and process initiatives within your organization.
Assign CRM managers to business and IT competency domains.
Given the scale of your CRM architecture and processes, assign
multiple CRM managers by functional area.

Document end-to-end “as is” workflows and how your CRM road
map aligns to them.
Operational Management
CRM managers should be involved in all facets of the opera-
tional management of a CRM system following a go-live. This
includes activities such as ensuring service-level agreements
(SLAs) are met with relevant groups, including customers, and that
support is provided for the ongoing development and testing of
sandboxes and functional mappings to the as-is and any to-be func-
tional mappings, even after a go-live soak period. Maintenance and
modifications to the CRM system should also be maintained by
the CRM manager to leverage planned functional design, develop-
ment and testing schedules. SLAs for customer issue resolution,
trouble-tickets or responses to customer requests are metrics that
the CRM manager should have daily insight into through the
organizational groups (such as marketing, sales and customer
service) that use those metrics for operational planning. If these
service-levels are not being met, then the CRM manager needs to
partner with those relevant groups to determine the root cause of
those service degradations.
End-to-end transaction management of what comes into the
CRM system, at what interval and for which downstream applica-
tion must be detailed by the CRM manager. When those service-
levels are not being met for data or other elements that the CRM
system needs to function, then it is the job of the CRM manager to
interface with those external application groups, outsourced pro-
viders or managed service vendors to determine the best course of
action to ensure compliance. A CRM implementation without its
requisite informational data marginalizes itself.
Action Items
Assign SLA management of the CRM solution to CRM manager.
Role of a CRM Manager in Enterprise Success… 11

Have CRM manager generate a dependency matrix for upstream/
downstream integration points and data mappings for your CRM
solution.
Align incentives for CRM manager to SLA achievements.
Change Management
Ideas for improving the customer experience, enhancement
requests, further personalization of applications and other user
extensibility requests should be managed by the CRM manager.
Detailing requests, identifying potential impacts on the imple-
mented CRM solution, as well as prioritizing the business impact
or need for such an enhancement, is vital. A CRM manager is the
single point of maintenance for all CRM system change requests
and, in turn, would involve relevant application groups to further
investigate whether such an enhancement was warranted. Alterna-
tively, a CRM manager can create global templates based on his or
her functional insight of the system to identify the key application
groups and individuals who need to be consulted to validate
change enhancements for different kinds of activities (such as cam-
paign management, mobile sales or e-commerce).
Action Items
Impact assessments on new functionality should be led by CRM
manager.
Have CRM manager create a template for change requests and
publish the workflow steps for reviews and assessments.
Position CRM manager as the focal person for any change requests
to your CRM solution from various lines of business.
Strategic Management
Perhaps the most vital aspect of the CRM manager’s role fol-
lowing an implementation is the strategic role he or she plays
among key stakeholders within an organization. CRM managers
should closely align with application stakeholder groups and busi-
ness stakeholder groups in more-traditional definitions (such as
finance, sales, marketing, engineering and fulfillment) to help align

those groups to create value and benefits for them within the CRM
system. Similarly, where those key business stakeholder groups
require customized insight or value driven from the CRM system,
the CRM manager helps assess, coordinate, plan and implement
that insight or value.
Action Items
Involve CRM manager in strategic planning and big-picture goals
for your organization.
Scorecard your CRM solution regularly and have CRM manager
provide tracking on return on investment and trends in efficiency
using real-time executive dashboards or interval reporting.Assess
emerging trends and review best practices in CRM with CRM
manager to ensure your CRM solution remains relevant and agile.
Failure to address any of these roles will result in poor alignment
of CRM needs.
DC*
Role of a CRM Manager in Enterprise Success… 13

4
Why CRM? The Business
case for CRM
In virtually every industry and every global region, for-
ward-looking organizations are investing in customer
relationship management (CRM) technology to support
the adoption of more customer-centric strategies. Exam-
ples of leading, global companies with major CRM ini-
tiatives underway are shown below:
Automotive
GM, Ford, Daimler Chrysler
Chemicals
Dow, BASF, Dupont
Communications
TIM, Deutshe Telecom
Consumer Goods
Nestle, Maytag , Unilever
Energy
Schlumber, TXU
15

Financial Service
Citigroup, JP Morgan, Fleet Boston
Healthcare
Blue Cross, Blue Shield
High Tech
IBM, Oracle, Microsoft & SAP
Pharma
Bayer, Pfizer, Boehringer
Public Sector
New york 311, UK Post
Tourism
Marriott
Organizations are adopting CRM and related technologies
because they understand that having the technology to execute a
customer-centric strategy is a business imperative. Just as back-
office automation became critical for competitive success in the
last half of the twentieth century, the application of technology to
front-office processes—sales, marketing, customer service, and
partner and employee relationship management—is now an
imperative for success in the new century. Organizations that
understand the strategic value of CRM technology to achieve dra-
matic increases in revenue, productivity, and customer satisfaction
will have a significant lead on their competitors who lag in the
adoption of this technology.
THE CORE COMPONENTS OF CRM
Although CRM software can deliver a wealth of benefits, many
companies fail to appreciate that technology is just one component
of a successful CRM initiative. With the addition of Siebel CRM,
Oracle’s experience with more than 5,000 CRM initiatives has
shown that the most successful companies approach CRM as a
complete business strategy, focused on improving the way a com-
pany markets to, sells to, and provides service to customers. When
implemented effectively, a CRM strategy results in greater

employee, partner, and customer satisfaction and an improvement
in an organization’s financial performance.
The following components are vital to any CRM initiative:
• Effective customer segmentation
• Integrated multichannel strategy
• Well-defined business processes
• The right skill sets and mindsets
• The right technology
Effective Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation—the process of dividing a market into
discrete customer groups that share similar characteristics—is a
critical component of a CRM strategy. Customer segmentation
allows an organization to understand which customers are most
profitable and how to most effectively market to, sell to, and pro-
vide service to these customers. With this knowledge, a company
can determine which investments will drive the greatest returns.
Segmentation begins with the development of the customer
profile.The customer profile encodes, for example, observations
about which offers appeal most to the customer, which channel(s)
the customer prefers, which product attributes the customer values
most, how much the customer has spent in the past and is likely to
spend in the future, and other issues of strategic relevance.
Integrated Multichannel Strategy
Companies today can no longer compete effectively with only
one channel. Not so long ago, most organizations had one primary
distribution channel. Today, however, market forces and new tech-
nologies are dramatically changing traditional channel structures.
Whether through the click of a mouse, a toll-free call, or a visit to a
store down the street, today’s customers can defect to a competitor
with unprecedented ease. In this climate, a single channel simply
cannot serve customers effectively. Complicating the marketplace
even further, customers traverse channels in varied patterns—from
the Web to the call center, back to the Web, and so on—while
Why CRM? The Business case for CRM 17

expecting to be recognized every step of the way in an ongoing dia-
logue with the organization. As a result, organizations need a
clearly stated, integrated, multichannel strategy that satisfies the
following requirements:
• Aligns the right products to the right channels
• Balances customer needs and channel costs
• Enhances the customer experience
Well-Defined Business Processes
Automating an inefficient business process will only accelerate
the pace at which an organization achieves poor results. A CRM
strategy, therefore, must focus on redesigning customer-facing pro-
cesses based on the perspectives and needs of the customer. Table
lists several processes that should be examined when developing
CRM strategy:
❋ Marketing
❋ Sales
❋ Service
❋ Customer Segmentation
❋ Opportunity Management
❋ Customer Enquiries
❋ Demand Generation
❋ Territory Management
❋ Service dispatch
❋ Campaign Development
❋ Customer Management
❋ Problem Resolution
❋ Campaign Execution
❋ Activity Management
❋ Service Tracking
❋ Customer Development & Retention
❋ Cross and Up selling ,Lead Closure and Sales team empower-
ment

Each of these processes needs to be examined—not in isolation,
but in terms of the way they are linked to other processes.
The Right Skill and Mindset
Because a CRM strategy requires a company’s various depart-
ments to work more closely together, it changes the dynamics of
how people interact and how a company makes decisions. While
CRM technology facilitates collaborative decision-making, this
very virtue can create tension in fragmented organizations whose
members take proprietary attitudes toward data ownership. Man-
aging change is thus critical when implementing a CRM strategy.
The change management required by CRM entails the
realigning of skill sets and mindsets. Teaching technical skills
without changing attitudes will lead to poor user adoption—one of
the recurrent hallmarks of failed implementations. To support the
culture change that CRM requires, many companies have found it
necessary to realign their reward systems. At Cisco Systems, for
example, salespeople receive commissions for repeat orders that
come in over the Web or through the call center, because Cisco
Systems wants its sales force to drive as much business as possible
through these lower-cost channels.
The Right Technology
The right technology is the final linchpin in a CRM strategy
because it enables an organization to track every customer interac-
tion, regardless of where, when, or how the interaction occurs. The
right technology will satisfy the criteria listed below.
Multichannel Support
A CRM solution must provide an integrated family of sales, mar-
keting, and customer service software applications across all chan-
nels, including field sales and service, call centers, resellers, and the
internet.
Industry-Specific Functionality
Regardless of the amount of pre-built functionality a CRM applica-
tion offers, enterprises typically develop supplemental functionality
Why CRM? The Business case for CRM 19

so that their CRM solution fits their unique business processes and
needs.
Global Support
CRM applications must also provide multilingual, multicurrency
support as well as support for multiple time zones. With this sup-
port, global organizations can implement the applications in mul-
tiple languages while maintaining a single, unified repository of
customer data across the different languages. This allows organiza-
tions, for example, to consolidate sales forecasting information
across different global regions and to analyze data regardless of the
language of the underlying customer interactions.
Flexible Deployment Options
Companies of all sizes utilize CRM technology to better meet the
needs of their customers. As CRM initiatives expand across
regions, functions, channels and markets, CRM vendors have
introduced a variety of deployment options including web hosted,
private hosted, on premise and combinations thereof. The selec-
tion of the correct deployment option is critical to the success of
CRM within an organization.
DC*

5
Everyday Customer
Champions
“Service to Humanity is Service to God “, you may feel
that I sound too philosophical today. The truth is dif-
ferent; the Soul of our service is very deep roots to this
saying. Everyday Customer Champions are the people
who inspire you to go back to an establishment again
and again—whether B2B or B2C. Often they are the
unsung customer heroes at the front lines or big
renowned corporate houses who ensure that provides a
great experience or that your problem is solved—even if
it means going out of their way.
Providing customers with a flawless and memorable experience
that gives them what they want – and brings them back – is the
goal of any company. Those that get “customer experience” right
say that the key is to focus on relationships with buyers at so-called
“touch points” along the way, from long before until long after a
21

sale takes place. At the end of the day customer want relationship
more than anything else.
Wal-Mart Makes a Difference
Wal-Mart made a major shift in its marketing focus in 2009/10
— and the buzzword became “value.” Television ads touted the
company’s Great Value line of foods, telling the story of how
parents could feed their families for $2 per meal. Part of the “Save
Money, Live Better” campaign also included a branded web site
with videos, free classified ads and a message board where shoppers
swap tips on stretching paychecks. In the bottom-left corner of that
site is a constantly updated ticker — currently just over a quarter of
a trillion dollars — that shows “the amount of money Wal-Mart
has saved American families since January 1, 2009.”
CRM Professionals Commitment
CRM is such a powerful thought that makes a great difference to
everyone’s life. Take an extreme example of helping the citizen of
War Torn country like Iraq helping the citizens to share their
thoughts about the rebuilding their country and work in cognizant
with US forces to make them help better. The entire CRM concept
could be deployed in such scenario and what is required is some
humane effort to take such step. We the IT Professionals see our
job more as a way to exhibit our talent and intelligence beyond this
there is great value add by making someone’s life better be it a
employee of your customer or customer of your customer. The
great organization are great for a reason that they have the
everyday customer champions who knowingly or unknowingly
putting a great effort in building great relationship with customer.
So, who is your Everyday Customer Champion? Is it a employee
@Starbucks outlet or a salesperson at your Super Market or per-
haps your local dry cleaner or gas station attendant, or maybe it’s a
B2B sales or service rep at a supplier’s firm? Take a moment to rec-
ognize him or her below.
You’ll be glad you did.

DC*
Everyday Customer Champions 23

6
Customer Experience
Mgt is the NexGen CRM
At the Gartner Customer 360 conference, Ed
Thompson, Gartner’s VP and distinguished analyst, pro-
vided a compelling presentation entitled How to Boost
Customer Experience. This is one of the hot topics that
has the CRM community all abuzz. But what exactly
does Ed mean by “customer experience”? If you were to
ask five different people in your organization to define
“customer experience”, you would in all likelihood get
five different interpretations.
Luckily, Ed and a team of Gartner analyst spent 4+
months of their highly billable time deriving Gartner’s
official definitions of “customer experience” and “cus-
tomer experience management” (CEM). And better yet,
they encourage those who don’t have definitions to lev-
25

erage theirs as a starting point. Very generous! Thank
you Gartner.
So without further adieu, here are their crisp, clean, and
concise definitions:
Gartner defines customer experience as:
❋ “The customer’s perceptions and related feelings caused by the
one-off and cumulative effect of interactions with a supplier’s
employees, channels, systems or products.”
❋ “The practice of designing and reacting to customer interactions
in order to meet or exceed customer expectations and so
increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy.”
DC*

7
Three Angels for Better
Fortune - CRM,MDM and
BI
Dears,
If you’re like many companies that have invested in a customer
relationship management (CRM) initiative, you have integrated
information, applications and services to drive customer-focused
behaviors across the enterprise.However, if you’re among the 65 to
80 percent of companies who feel your CRM investment hasn’t
delivered on its promised potential, you’re likely missing a critical
piece of the solution: a business intelligence process that drives
behavioral change.Each day, business decisions increase in number
and complexity. Customers demand higher levels of service while
interacting with companies through multiple channels, posing
technical and business challenges throughout the enterprise. As a
result, analytics and business intelligence (BI) play a pivotal role in
a comprehensive CRM strategy. What more we need is the simple
BI solution on top of your customer data and unified Master Data
27

Management to show you the single golden record of your cus-
tomer and related entities like products, activities and suppliers.
In my past and current interaction with our customer what we
understand is that they want to CRM deliver their business prom-
ises.CRM has the capability to deliver provided you see CRM as
your strategic partner to success and not just another system. On
top of every information we require intelligence and when the
information is dispersed across system how we say our information
is correct that’s where we need MDM solution.
Technology doesn’t always mean a packaged solution its always
people, process and technical solution. When get our processes
and people right we are almost 50% near to the solution and tech-
nical solution will enable us to implement the processes and get
people acceptance to drive Organizational goals.
CRM ,BI and MDM are your three angels and when you have all
three in the organization what more we can ask for. Good Luck and
Happy to help in you in the progressive journey toward wealth cre-
ation.
DC*

8
CRM Implementation -
Before you Start ” Know
the Unknowns”
Dears,
I wanna share with some vital knowns and unknowns about a
CRM implementation project and before we get into know abouts
of an implementation its important to know the unknowns. Here
we go…..Regardless of your company’s size and the requirements
for your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution,
the goal remains the same: learn more about your customers and
leverage that knowledge into increased customer loyalty and
improved sales.
However, too often companies jump into their CRM initiatives
without the proper thought and planning. The result? A CRM
system that does not meet critical organizational needs and fails to
provide the proper insights into their customer base. Or perhaps
worse—a CRM system that is not used at all. The key to success
for your CRM implementation is not just the technology driving
your solution, but in the strategy itself.
29

To achieve CRM success, there are 3 steps every company must
follow before starting to consider CRM technology:
1. Establish a commitment to organizational change. If your
company already understands why it is essential to improve cus-
tomer loyalty and agrees that a CRM initiative is a high priority,
congratulations! If not, you’ll need to do the legwork necessary to
achieve consensus with all teams. Don’t be overwhelmed. Use this
as an opportunity to put the pieces of your CRM puzzle together—
discovering where customer touch points interact, what informa-
tion is important to whom and why, and to identify what current
business processes seem inefficient to those tasked with executing
them. Once each team feels heard, and their grievances docu-
mented, they will likely agree that change is a good thing. Then you
not only have much of the critical information you need for your
next step, you also have the capital to return to these folks for their
buy-off when your CRM strategy is completed. Your next step?
2. Define specific adjustments to operations. This seems like
a tall order, but it is the logical next step towards building a solid
strategy that your entire organization can get behind and evange-
lize. We suggest creating a matrix of all the problems identified in
the first step and the solutions that were discussed. Use this matrix
to compare the challenges across departments and identify poten-
tial operational changes that would solve these issues. Do not think
about how technology can support these solutions, just concen-
trate on the operational changes necessary—who needs to know
what and when, what workflow will share critical information
between departments, and what critical customer-facing actions
should occur at the completion of each task. TIP: The biggest
factor to building a solid CRM strategy is developing a standar-
dized sales process that is based on best practices, can be imple-
mented across your sales organization, and integrates tightly with
marketing and operations. Armed with this information, you are
ready to rock.

3. Document your CRM Strategy. Your strategy should iden-
tify the specific business problems that need to be addressed
(based on your information gathering and prioritization exercises
from the first 2 steps), define objectives whose results can be meas-
ured (to demonstrate the ROI of your implementation), and out-
line solid insight into how CRM will impact the company, current
operations, and your customers. To ensure organizational buy-off,
boil down your CRM strategy into these critical points: How will
CRM improve the lives of its users? How will it increase produc-
tivity? How will it impact sales? It is this strategy you then take
back to the key stakeholders for final buy-off. It is this strategy that
you will arm yourself with when researching and evaluating all pos-
sible CRM solutions available to you.
Understanding what business problems you need to solve and how
they impact your operations—while demonstrating company sup-
port for this initiative—will ensure a successful implementation of
your CRM solution. Not only will you better understand the trade-
offs that you will need to make with the technology you choose,
you will be able to better evaluate customization requirements and
recommendations made by your CRM partner. The time you
spend planning and documenting your strategy will be well worth
the results!
DC*
CRM Implementation - Before you Start… 31

9
CRM Chronicles , Some
Interesting CRM Stories.
Dave Carroll’s story depicts the value of great customer
experience and illustrates that spending a little can save
millions when it comes to your brand’s reputation. In
2008, Dave was flying United Airlines with his band
Sons of Maxwell when a passenger sitting next to the
window exclaimed that the baggage handlers were
“throwing guitars out there.” Carroll’s guitar was broken.
He spent the next nine months in a service maze pur-
suing compensation. Eventually, customer service at
United Airlines told him they were closing the incident
and would not respond to any further emails. Carroll
vowed to write three songs about the experience and
post them on YouTube, hoping to achieve a million
views with all three combined. But he did much better.
He hit one million on the first song within one week, and
33

is at six and a half million views at last count. A media
frenzy ensued and United’s market capitalization
dropped $180 million over the next three weeks. There’s
no better way to understand how powerful the voice of
the consumer has become .
DC*

10
CRM is back with a
Vigor
Dears,
The year 2009 the world economy plunged into a severe reces-
sion from which it is now slowly recovering. However, the funda-
mental business needs that drive the requirement for effective and
efficient customer interaction management have not changed:
acquiring new customers, building tighter bonds of loyalty, and
reducing the costs of marketing, selling, and servicing. Although
many CRM technology projects were deferred or cancelled in
2009, as per Forrester wave 2010 organizations of all sizes are now
investing again to improve the customer management capabilities
they’ve neglected during the past 18 months. If you are a business
process leader in a large organization, you’re challenged to pick the
best CRM solutions to enable your company to capitalize on the
upturn.
The B2B and B2C enterprises spotlight improved customer loy-
alty as their top goal. But B2B companies are also intent on cap-
35

turing new customers, while B2C companies obsess about
improving the customer experience
Forrester says
“To support achievement of these important priorities, CRM tech-
nology solutions are widely used by organizations of all sizes. Fifty-
six percent of the 455 large organizations we recently surveyed in
North America and Europe have already implemented a CRM sol-
ution — and many of these are investing more to upgrade their
tool set. And an additional 17% have plans to adopt a CRM solu-
tion within the next 12 to 24 months”
To make savvy CRM solution investment decisions, you must
understand and navigate a number of important trends:
CRM evolves into the extended CRM application eco-
system. Mature organizations understand that optimizing end-to-
end customer-facing business processes means integrating solu-
tions that extend beyond “traditional CRM”. In addition to mar-
keting, sales, and service functionalities, you need to think about
incorporating closely related capabilities like billing, order manage-
ment, or contract management. Forrester calls this the “extended
CRM application ecosystem,” supporting customer-facing cross-
functional processes.
Customer service embraces real-time methods. We are
seeing a rising number of inquiries from companies about how to
improve their customer service capabilities. In 2010, contact center
customer support needs to evolve to better serve customers who
no longer rely on one venue for receiving information but instead
engage multiple sources. In addition to checking a company’s Web
site and its brochures, many customers research information on
products and services from social networking sources such as blogs
and online user ratings. With customers now requiring more real-
time support, it’s essential to keep pace with their expectations and
to respond to them in new ways.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) for CRM becomes the default
choice. Forrester surveys show that
nearly half of apps professionals are actively engaged with SaaS
assessments or deployment. And almost one-third of these those
are using SaaS applications for CRM. Forrester observes that CRM
technology buyers now look first at SaaS solutions to see if this
approach can meet their needs before seriously considering an on-
premises solution. And buyers with a large installed base of on-
premises CRM solutions are re-evaluating where they should, and
can, switch to a SaaS version.
CRM and business process management (BPM) solutions
converge. Traditional enterprise applications tend to be mono-
lithic in nature. Purchasers of these applications have become
increasingly frustrated with the cost and complexity involved in
customizing them to the needs of the organization. Moreover, they
experience problems when upgrading, effectively setting the IT
infrastructure in concrete as the business continues to evolve.
Enter pure-play BPM vendors such as Pegasystems and Sword
Ciboodle into the customer management space. These types of sol-
utions have for some time offered integration capabilities to access
enterprise apps at the component level, allowing the organization
to model its processes and call relevant application elements at
runtime. Forrester is now beginning to see expensive, complex,
monolithic enterprise applications being broken into component
pieces, with BPM suite engines sitting on top, orchestrating the
appropriate elements needed to deliver highly customized solu-
tions.
Interest in social CRM continues to build, but projects
remain in pilot mode. Social technology adoption has increased
tremendously during the past 12 months. Four in five US online
adults now use social tools to connect with each other, compared
with just 56% in 2007.As a consequence, technology vendors and
some industry observers have jumped on to this bandwagon,
CRM is back with a Vigor 37

offering an easy path to the promised land of more deeply engaged
customers using Social Computing solutions. However, the proof-
point use cases for leveraging social media are still emerging, and
the business value of social media is still an unanswered question.
10
Price/value trumps functionality in purchase decisions. Bat-
tered by two years of recession, buyers of customer management
solutions have become extremely value-conscious. With major ven-
dors like Oracle and SAP touting new releases of their CRM prod-
ucts, enterprises running older versions of CRM apps are mulling
over whether to take the upgrade plunge.Business process profes-
sionals wonder if the benefits of upgrading their CRM solution will
outweigh the costs. In addition, organizations looking at ways to
escape hefty (and perceived low-value) vendor maintenance fees
altogether will seriously consider not renewing their vendor main-
tenance agreement and moving to third parties. In a continuing dif-
ficult economy, first-time buyers are in a stronger position to push
vendors to demonstrate value through pilot demonstrations and
demand more flexible contract arrangements than in the past.
DC*

11
Trust: A New Line of
Business and CRM can
Help
What do you think are the key factors in building and
maintaining your company’s reputation… Innovation?
Price?
Surprisingly, according to the recent survey respondents (Busi-
ness Executives ) across globe valued transparency of business
practices as well as company trustworthiness as the two most
important factors influencing corporate reputation.
What is trust? It’s the confidence in a company’s ability to do
what is right for all its stakeholders — shareholders, cus-
tomers, employees, and the broader society at large — and not
just shareholders.
Trust is an increasingly important component to maintaining your
company’s reputation and brand, and many countries have seen
the consumers valuing trust more than any of other brand attrib-
utes. Whether this uptick represents the start of a new trend or a
39

mere blip in the barometer remains to be seen. As people expect
companies to return to “business as usual” after the economy
rebounds. This warning underscores the need for companies to
continue engaging in open and frequent communications and busi-
ness practices with its stakeholders across multiple channels and
view trust as a “new line of business” to cultivate.
Now…what the heck does any of this have to do with CRM?
CRM is all about maximizing the effectiveness of customer rela-
tionships. Yes, technology is important, but let’s not overlook the
importance of the PEOPLE dimension. So what’s the mindset
you’ll take in approaching your sales, marketing and service inter-
actions? The answer to this is transparency and What you will gain
is Trust of your consumers. The social crm enables you to accept
the criticism with open hands and act on it to improve your service.
Marketing Exaggeration is required sometimes but taking the right
information to your consumer and be little responsible for the bet-
terment of society will ena ble you to improve the trust factor. Your
CRM team can help you in framing the right message to the con-
sumer and improve the trust factor at every point of customer
interactions. I believe “Your NewCRM” will have the Trust dimen-
sion .
DC*

12
CRM Isn’t a Zero-Sum
Game
Can customer service be more efficient, but still
facilitate an excellent customer experience?
The question is pertinent because consolidation—an
old service story—is more relevant now than ever. In
fact, a number of our clients are consolidating their
service or contact centers. For example, An organization,
which has undergone multiple mergers, to reduce its
seven call centers to three. Meanwhile, major European
consulting firms combine the group that serves business-
people with the one that serves consumers. The over-
riding goal for both projects has been to increase opera-
tional efficiency.
Contrast this with five years ago, when our clients’ top contact
and call center goals were to improve call resolution, customer sat-
isfaction and cross-selling. Whereas today, thanks to the downturn,
41

the mantra I most hear from call center managers is, “We need to
reduce our cost per call.” Of course, organizations still want to keep
their customers satisfied. But increased efficiency is more impor-
tant than ever, as witnessed by so many contact center representa-
tives’ primary responsibility: to resolve customers’ queries more
quickly.
The Multi-Talented Contact Center Specialist
These efficiency concerns have rightly led to a sharp rise in the
number of integrated contact centers, meaning they field not only
phone calls, but also email and web queries. The goal here is to
optimize call center resource utilization, because it’s hard to pre-
dict when calls will peak, and thus how many people you should
have in the call center at any given time. By mixing phone and chat
responsibilities—which must be handled immediately—with
email and Web responses, to which consumers do not expect an
instant response, organizations can better balance their use of call
center personnel.
Web 2.0 Portals: Are We There Yet?
Another potent strategy for increasing operational efficiency is
to invest in a Web 2.0 portal. Are you thinking, “Wait, aren’t self-
service portals so five years ago?” As a breakthrough topic, perhaps.
But I’m struck by how many companies discuss self-service portals,
and in particular adding Web 2.0—browser-launched service chats,
drag-and-drop document uploads, pop-up template previews, and
so on—versus how few companies actually do it. From an effi-
ciency standpoint, this means lost opportunities. From a customer
experience standpoint, it means your website probably looks circa
2005.
Furthermore, Web 2.0 is becoming commonplace. We’re onto
social media now. Companies are even using Twitter for customer
service purposes. It’s chaos out there. What’s your plan?
Target Customers’ Portal Adoption

In the old days, you built a portal and encouraged customers—
via emails, mass mailings and gentle exhortations while on hold—
to use it. But just as we use techniques to get salespeople to adopt
CRM, why not entice customers to use self-service portals?
In fact, the new self-service portal regime is all about targeted
adoption. Here’s how it works: Say you’re a healthcare provider. If
a member calls in with a concern—such as needing to submit fur-
ther documentation to resolve a claim—that could have been com-
pleted by using the portal, the member service representative says,
“I have an idea—are you online? Let’s resolve this on our portal,”
and guides the customer all the way through to submitting their
claim resolution. And voila: Who would that customer ever go
back to phone queues? It’s customer service and efficiency, without
one coming at the expense of the other.
CRM Isn’t a Zero-Sum Game
We say this a lot at SierraAtlantic, but when you’re looking at being
more efficient, it can’t just be about efficiency. Because thankfully,
CRM isn’t a zero-sum game. In fact, you want to be more efficient
and raise customer satisfaction at the same time. For example, by
giving customers a top-notch self-service portal, customers are hap-
pier because they don’t have to wait on hold or have a half-hour
conversation with a customer representative. But portals also lower
service costs for the provider, and—at least for health insurers—let
them more quickly resolve claims, which by the way means having
to keep less cash around to settle the balance sheets.
In other words, by all means consolidate service operations
where appropriate, but don’t neglect customer satisfaction. If you
address both, and do it well, then you not only reduce costs by
becoming more efficient, but you also keep your customers too.
On the portal front, clients have an opportunity to create more
advanced member-service portals that increase efficiency, capture
more members and help maintain high levels of customer satisfac-
tion.
CRM Isn’t a Zero-Sum Game 43

DC*

13
CRM Baptized for Good
The year 2009 was not as easy as some. Gone are the
heady days of CRM news, like in 2005 when all this took
was throwing acquisitions, such as Oracle-Siebel deals
on a list, on a list with innovations, like CDI and Micro-
soft CRM 3.0. Even the top CRM stories of 2008 were
easier to define.
But while the year was light on major acquisitions and suddenly-
hot technologies, it was not without its shake-ups and develop-
ments. With the dust slowly settling on the market leaders and the
major suite vendors firmly in place, 2009 became a time for
everyone, including users, to regroup and map out where they’re
headed. We start with the vendors:
Microsoft grows up
The year saw Microsoft CRM add its one millionth user and
take Microsoft Online international. With the recession looming
over 2009, Microsoft also took the opportunity to target Sales-
force.com and Oracle CRM On Demand users with a special price
promotion. It wasn’t alone either. Obviously sensing that price was
45

a competitive differentiator, Microsoft and SugarCRM both took
steps to make CRM cheaper, simpler and cloudier.
SAP heads for the clouds
Meanwhile, SAP’s roadmap took a familiar turn. The applications
heavyweight announced plans to not only roll out its full SaaS-
based business suite Business By Design to full production, but to
add multiple business applications on-demand including sales
automation, travel and expense and services management. How-
ever, for all its commitment to on-demand, SAP had very little to
say about its existing on-demand CRM product. Neither did
anyone else.It may not matter. Some customers are obviously
happy with SAP’s existing CRM applications. Coca-Cola is using
SAP CRM to roll out the ordering system for its new beverage dis-
penser.
Oracle straightens out its CRM roadmap
Oracle, tied up for years bringing together the spoils of its
acquisition spree under the Fusion Applications umbrella, made
some headway in 2009, announcing that the first set of Fusion
Applications will be released this year, including sales and mar-
keting modules. Oracle’s CRM roadmap includes a heavy dose of
social CRM as well as long-awaited features such as running Siebel
in Outlook. Paul Greenberg shared his take on the CRM roadmap
and Siemens seemed to be happy with Oracle’s CRM direction.
Siemens dumped a number of SAP projects in hopes of standard-
izing its CRM systems on Oracle.
Salesforce makes a platform push
Cisco for a contact center in the cloud and pushing its Service
Cloud, which features Twitter integration. CEO Marc Benioff
spared no expense on marketing it, buying up a huge booth and
staging a presentation at Oracle’s own conference.
But it wasn’t all just about the vendors.
“Cloud” gets a little cloudier

Confused about the difference between hosted, on-demand,
SaaS and cloud applications? Direct your frustration to the man
cited above (who is now calling Salesforce.com a “cloud com-
pany”). But it’s not just Benioff. Sage and Consona announced
plans this year that will add a little more to the cloud CRM confu-
sion. With the emergence of offerings from Amazon, Microsoft and
others, it’s now possible to own the software but rent the infra-
structure. It’s only getting more complicated.
Users test out their social CRM strategies
Clearly, the term of the year goes to “Social CRM,” thanks
largely to the vendor and analyst community (more below) that
have helped push the term beyond the early, simpler days when it
was called CRM and Web 2.0 or social networks. For all the hype
and confusion, 2009 marked a year when businesses started lis-
tening and formulating a strategy around social CRM. For
example, Xerox embarked on a social media monitoring program
and JellyVision Labs has begun leveraging social networks to help
it sales force. All CRM.com sites also managed to add a couple col-
umnists to help readers sort through the noise. Allen Bonde has
been writing about social CRM from the marketing perspective
while Paul Greenberg is tackling real world examples of social
CRM and the strategy behind them.
CRM software sellers get social medicine
If 2009 was a year in which businesses began experimenting
with social CRM, it was also the year the vendors in the market
jumped in with both feet. RightNow bought HiveLive to round out
its social offering, NetSuite partnered with InsideView to get social
with its CRM and ERP suite. Salesforce.com, not only added inte-
gration to social networks via the Service Cloud, it promised to
deliver a collaboration platform with Chatter.
Finally the Message ….Saving money
Remember “doing more with less,” that trite little term that
meant management still wanted you to work as hard, get as much
CRM Baptized for Good 47

accomplished, and bring in as much revenue, only with less
resources? Well that had CRM practitioners focused on…
Saving money
There was no shortage of advice on how to save. Gartner offered
both five low cost contact center infrastructure projects and five
low-cost CRM strategies. Forrester suggested ways to mine more
value from existing CRM implementations while others started to
see CRM outsourcing as more attractive. Marketing got in on the
action as well. Forrester analyst Suresh Vittal suggested the reces-
sion could reshape MRM and marketing while Gartner suggested
now might be a good time to buy MRM.
2010 is a little easier and a lot more profitable and Lets look
forward to great finish this year
DC*
*Thanks and Courtesy to Berney Beal, Tech Target Enterprise
for this article and a snapshot given above*

14
Mobile CRM : When and
Where You need it
You’re away from the office and minutes away from a
meeting with a prospective customer. You need to
review details about the opportunity and customer, but
you can’t access the CRM data you need because you
don’t have connection to the Internet. Do you panic?.
Not anymore if you have invested in Mobile CRM ? Whether
it’s quickly associating a phone call you’ve just made or an email
you’ve just sent to a prospect with an opportunity record in CRM
or just accessing basic sales information, Mobile CRMs works the
way you do — with or without network coverage. It’s task-ori-
ented, easy to use, and optimized for a Sales and Marketing profes-
sionals .Given that an ever increasing amount of a salesperson’s
time is spent on the go, it’s critical that a mobile solution be part of
one’s CRM equation. The leading vendors like Oracle, SAP , Sales-
force have their own mobile assistant tool kit for Mobile CRMs.
Take for example Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant, which works
49

seamlessly with Oracle CRM On Demand to provide sales users
with a powerful yet easy to use task-based application for con-
ducting the most common activities while on the road.
Check this link http://www.slideshare.net/tbOracleCRM/
crmoracle-oracle-mobile-sales-assistant to know more about this
mobile tool. And with Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant for Blackberry
Version 2.0 released last month, you can fully leverage the touch
screen capaiblities of the Blackberry Storm.Oracle Mobile Sales
Assistant is compatible with both Oracle CRM On Demand and
Siebel CRM.
So what you need to do next
❋ Plan, implement, and deploy a mobile CRM strategy
❋ Enable your sales force to achieve new levels of productivity and
provide improved customer service
❋ Team up with solution providers that have the business and
technical expertise to make your project successful
Live case for your reference
Scottish Widows is part of the Lloyds Banking Group with more
than 6 million life, pension and investment customers. They imple-
mented Oracle CRM On Demand to manage relationships with
over 18,500 independent financial advisers and to improve their
market penetration. After a head-to-head comparison with sales-
force.com, Scottish Widows deployed Oracle CRM On Demand in
two months and are taking advantage of CRM On Demand’s pow-
erful analytics. In addition, their mobile sales force is more produc-
tive with Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant.
Have a great mobile Day
DC*

15
Loyalty Management –
The New Competitive
Advantage
Customer loyalty might be the only sustainable competi-
tive advantage, especially in challenging economic times.
Yet, only few businesses understand how to create cus-
tomer loyalty. Customer loyalty depends on providing
satisfaction not simply to customers—although this is
critical—but also to those employees and partners who
can positively (or negatively) influence the customer
relationship. For a company to sustain customer loyalty,
it must identify “loyalty drivers”—the key business
attributes that have the greatest impact on the satisfac-
tion of customers, employees, and partners.
What is Customer Loyalty?
51

Customer loyalty can be defined as a customer’s sus-
tained commitment to a company as demonstrated by
repeat purchases, increased wallet share, and positive
word-of-mouth referrals. Research indicates that when a
company can command such loyalty, the benefits
include, but go considerably beyond, incremental rev-
enue. Loyal customers purchase more, they will pay
higher prices, they are easier to service (thus reducing
operating costs), and they help expand the customer
base by giving positive referrals.
Three Critical Relationships
The key to customer loyalty is customer satisfaction.
That much is obvious, but the means of achieving cus-
tomer satisfaction are not so obvious. Customer satisfac-
tion begins with providing customers with superior
service, but cannot stop there. Customer loyalty comes
from satisfying not just customers themselves, but also
from satisfying the employees and partners who interact
with them. It is only by effectively managing these three
critical relationships that the benefits of customer loyalty
can be achieved.
The logic of this observation is clear: employees and
partners provide the touch points at which customers
everywhere interact with companies. If at those touch
points customers meet individuals who are in any way
dissatisfied with the company, that dissatisfaction will

become evident in the interaction—and the opportunity
for increasing customer loyalty will be lost. On the other
hand, satisfied employees and partners will be likely to
increase customer loyalty, because they will be more
ready and willing to provide the superior service that is a
fundamental contributor to customer satisfaction.
Virtuous Circles of Satisfaction
The satisfaction level of employee constituents is
directly related to their ability—as they perceive it—to
provide the superior service that customers demand of
them.
Companies that invest in employee & partners service
capability will see a typical virtuous circle.
• Employees who are given the appropriate information,
resources, and tools to serve customers better will be
more likely to succeed at their jobs, and thus remain
there.
• Through increased customer contact and ongoing
training, these longer-tenured employees will further
improve their ability to serve customers.
• That improved ability will increase customer satisfac-
tion and customer loyalty, and will increase customer
appreciation for the employees themselves.
• By tracking these results, loyalty-driven companies will
continue to invest in training, reward their most effective
Loyalty Management – The New Competitive… 53

customer-facing employees, and further strengthen the
virtuous circle of employee-customer satisfaction.
For partners, a similar virtuous circle ensues. When part-
ners are given the tools and resources they need to
deliver superior customer service, their satisfaction level
rises, and they are better equipped to improve the satis-
faction level of customers. Moreover, companies that
support their partners in this way typically realize addi-
tional important benefits.
• Satisfied partners demonstrate allegiance to the part-
nering company and are more likely to report their satis-
faction to other business associates.
• Satisfied partners are more willing to commit matching
resources to joint projects than are partners who feel
they have been shortchanged in the business relation-
ship.
• Satisfied partners are far less likely to form alliances
with competing firms.
In an economy in which employee productivity and
global alliances are essential to success, a customer loy-
alty strategy must embrace all three constituents: cus-
tomers, partners, and employees. Only by measuring the
satisfaction and performance of all three can companies
understand which business attributes really drive cus-
tomer loyalty. And only by interactively managing all
three relationships can they ensure the appropriate allo-

cation of resources for the greatest customer retention.
In operational terms, this is accomplished by adopting a
loyalty-based satisfaction measurement system. Such a
system is built on four sequential steps:
1. Identify loyalty drivers—those key service or other
business attributes that have a substantial impact on cus-
tomer loyalty, employee retention, and partner alle-
giance.
2. Allocate the necessary people and other resources to
ensure superior performance against these loyalty
drivers.
3. Measure and track performance results against these
key attributes.
4. Periodically readjust allocations as performance meas-
ures indicate, and as customers’ perceptions of delivered
value change.
Managers who implement such a system must begin by
recognizing the three interlocking constituents and by
understanding that an attribute that is indispensable to
one constituent might not be critically important for
another. Each has its own loyalty drivers.
For example, customer loyalty can be driven by such
standard service dimensions as reliability, responsive-
ness, and empathy. It can also be affected by a com-
pany’s performance on “tangibles” such as physical facili-
ties, equipment, and the professional appearance of cus-
Loyalty Management – The New Competitive… 55

tomer-facing personnel. Employee loyalty is likely to be
affected by financial benefits, on-site working condi-
tions, training, management style, and performance
appraisals. For partners, loyalty is more likely to be
driven by how easily and productively the partners can
engage the company’s sales, service, marketing, and alli-
ance personnel.
A good customer loyalty program must manage all of
these disparate value perceptions simultaneously.
DC*

16
Google with Siebel
Google Maps is a web mapping service application and
technology provided by Google, free (for non-commer-
cial use), that powers many map-based services, which
offers street maps, a route planner for traveling by foot,
car, or public transport and an urban business locator for
numerous countries around the world.
Business Case
Siebel users would have frequent travel to meet their customers,
partners, dealers, etc on their day to day business. Now a day’s
most of the people are using Google Maps or other service similar
to that for their route map to customer location. This is a simple
step towards integrating Siebel with Google Maps, so that user can
get the route map with just one single click, avoiding manual activi-
ties.
Imagine a case of automotive industry, when a customer wants to
give his vehicle for servicing or want to check the new models,
prices, etc, Customer can use the Siebel Dealer Locator utility to
find the list of dealers located near by region to him with the details
57

of the dealer. With this customer can contact the dealer/ service
provider and would get served. But what happens, if the customer
is new to the city or not clear how to locate/ reach the address?
In the case of sales, the marketing people get leads from various
sources and they need to follow-up them to get them converted to
opportunities. For this marketing people would need to travel to
customer location. In the case of service, the executive may need to
reach a customer for service or collecting RMAs.
In all the above case, usually people uses Google maps to find the
route map. They opens the browser, Google maps portal and then
enters destination address collecting from Siebel.
How about if, the Siebel is integrated with Google Maps and the
user is able to get the directions with just one click of mouse?
This blog article describes how Siebel can be integrated with
Google maps to get directions to reach customer place. Siebel takes
logged in user address as source and selected customer/ dealer/
company address as destination.
What you need
❋ The solution is built on Siebel 8.0 or higher version.
❋ User should have the access to internet and Google maps site
Siebel Setup
The following section defines the required steps users must per-
form to use the custom feature as designed:
User should setup his address details correctly under contacts à
Address screen
Query for logged in user’s contact record using Last Name, First
Name, etc in top form applet
In the bottom form applet create/ update primary address with
correct data.
User should enter complete address details for the selected entity
(Accounts/ contacts/ Dealers, etc)
How it works

User selects the customer/ contact/ dealer/ partner record in
respective screen
User clicks on icon in directions field(Or) User clicks on Google
Map View tab
Siebel shows route map/ directions to selected customer/ contact,
etc address from user’s address User can change the commutation
choice to car/ Walk/ Public Transport to get the route map/ direc-
tions accordingly.
Siebel integration with Google Maps provides a simple and
seamless connected interface to Google Maps server for getting the
directions/ route maps to reach customer/ Dealers address. This
interface refreshes the directions automatically, when the user navi-
gates across the records
Try this in your Siebel Application, You will enjoy the ride
DC*
Google with Siebel 59

17
How SaaS-y are you ?
Cloud Computing has existed, in one guise or another,
for almost 10 years. Despite this, there remains signifi-
cant hype around the cloud as well as confusion as to
exactly what it involves. While there isn’t a universally
agreed definition of Cloud Computing, at its most basic
level the cloud simply consists of servers attached to a
network, delivering storage, applications and hardware
as services over the internet. These servers may sit inside
an organization’s firewall and operate as a ‘private
Cloud’ or they may run on networks within an external
environment, in what’s known as a ‘public Cloud’.
There are different schools of thought on what makes a true
SaaS provider. Some believe that the first level of multi-tenancy
where all the customers reside on a single instance down to the
database schema level is the real SaaS provider. Others believe in a
more hybrid approach that allows the customer to choose whether
they want to reside in the same instance as other customers or
61

prefer to have their own instance. At the end of the day, if I am a
customer do I really care which SaaS model is implemented by the
provider as long as the provider secures my data and ensures
system uptime and performance that my business demands. Of
course, there might be exceptions where for privacy reasons a cus-
tomer might want his own instance.
This leads to the other point, which is if I am starting a SaaS com-
pany, what would be my strategy. Should I take a top down
approach and build the applications to SaaS standards or should I
take a bottoms-up approach and design my SaaS foundation/infra-
structure first and then design my apps to run on this foundation. I
would think the latter would be more beneficial since once you lay
your foundation, it’s more difficult to change. The level of abstrac-
tion as one move up the stack to the applications makes it easier to
change.
So, then the real debate about who is a true SaaS provider should
not be about the level of multi-tenancy but more about which pro-
vider can give me the uptime, performance, security and applica-
tion functionality . Not that the multi-tenancy debate is less inter-
esting or compelling but all it does is make for a good discussion.
That brings us to the core of SaaS which is the foundation as I call
it. The foundation constitutes not just the infrastructure but also
the shared components that are built on top of the infrastructure
which the applications can consume.
Be safe, Be SaaS-y.
DC*

18
Just “Cannot” Do it: The
Importance of
Organization Change
Mgt in CRM Projects
Dears,
“CRM projects are all about culture, ownership, control and
resistance, direction, management, vision, communications,
structure, process and people… people… people.”
Today every organization understands the need of an efficient
CRM system and processes in place to take them to the next level.
They cannot just do it with CRM and what they need most is the
organization change to adopt the new crm system and this article
will guide to better organizational change management (OCM)
program.
Natural reaction to change: Resist
“This is a waste of time.”
“Why change if it was working just fine before?”
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
63

Everyday Customer Experience (CX) Champion by Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

Everyday Customer Experience (CX) Champion by Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*

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