Rodent Regatta

what is meant by CRM in the context of this type of article. The notion that IBM and Siebel are going to create an on-line CRM service for small or medium companies skips some really important steps.

First, what is ”customer relationship management?” Second, where does the information that populates a CRM system come from? Think about it. A good customer relationship managment system puts every piece of information about every transaction, inquiry or interaction with a customer at the disposal of any employee responsible for the next interaction with the customer.

Most of those transactions reside in the accounting and business management system of the business!

IBM and Siebel must believe that the application and data integration project (required to make CRM-by-subscription work) will be paid for by the small business. Not a chance.

Small and medium companies are very protective of their data. They also prefer an integrated solution using off-the-shelf software when possible. They’d be far happier if someone said, here’s a module of your existing software that can reach into every other module and present everything related to customer interactions.

Anything else or any other approach, well, I just don’t get it.