Michael Maoz

A member of the Gartner Blog Network

Entries Categorized as 'SFA'


Far from diminishing the CIO, Cloud ensures a bright future.

by Michael Maoz  |  April 26, 2013  |  1 Comment

The complexity of the the “No Software” challenge is overwhelming the line of business buyers in Sales, Marketing and Customer Support. The idea of subscribing to a cool new software package and building a complex sales force or customer service team on your own, with your own budget, and then Oliver-style coming to CIO and [...]

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Category: Applications CIO Cloud CRM Innovation and Customer Experience Leadership SaaS and Cloud Computing Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Social Networking Social Software Strategic Planning     Tags:

Global CRM Buyers Begin to See the Limits of Cloud Hype

by Michael Maoz  |  February 22, 2013  |  2 Comments

CRM SaaS business applications began with a wimper back in 1999 reminiscent of a litter of hungry puppies. Over 90 percent of the vendor products, and often the vendor them self, then called Application Service Providers, disappeared. Salesforce.com and RightNow Technologies were two that made the transition. It was the same time that the Distance [...]

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Category: Applications CIO Cloud CRM Leadership SaaS and Cloud Computing Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Social Networking Social Software Strategic Planning Vendor Contracts     Tags:

Is it such an Open World when good Social and CRM data are so rare?

by Michael Maoz  |  October 2, 2012  |  1 Comment

Oracle OpenWorld (http://www.oracle.com/openworld/index.html) is happening right now. Wednesday through Friday are the big days for CRM practitioners, when the Oracle Customer Experience Summit will get going over at the St. Francis. Oracle also has the Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service Knowledge Zone for partners working on their systems.   The Dynamics CRM User Group (http://www.crmug.com/) is meeting [...]

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Category: Applications CIO Cloud Contact Center CRM Innovation and Customer Experience Leadership SaaS and Cloud Computing Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Social Software Strategic Planning Uncategorized     Tags:

Will you get the ax when the Social and Cloud CRM projects are called out as sham?

by Michael Maoz  |  May 30, 2012  |  1 Comment

On a call with a client today I heard a refrain that is all too common of late - the SaaS/Cloud solution that the company is about to sign on for is ridiculously expensive in their minds, but they are likely going forward anyway, without challenging the price tag all that much. Why not, inquiring minds [...]

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Category: Applications CIO Cloud Contact Center CRM Innovation and Customer Experience Leadership SaaS and Cloud Computing SFA Social CRM Social Networking Social Software Strategic Planning Twitter     Tags:

Cloud or not, purchasing CRM business SaaS apps is not for the line of business manager alone.

by Michael Maoz  |  May 3, 2012  |  Comments Off

The common thinking was that Software as a Service, or applications procured as a subscription in a Cloud Model, were going to be faster, better, and less expansive than their primitive on premise analog. The operating word here is ‘analog’ as in ‘apples to apples’ – the same depth of functionality, the same disciplined development [...]

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Category: Applications CIO Cloud CRM Innovation and Customer Experience Leadership SaaS and Cloud Computing Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Social Networking Strategic Planning Vendor Contracts     Tags:

Learning to love CRM Technologies, in just the right measure.

by Michael Maoz  |  December 11, 2011  |  Comments Off

The role of a technology analyst is an interesting one in that it is equal parts technologist, process consultant, and psychologist. The closest match in psychology would have to be Alfred Adler, thefin de siècle Austrian who looked at how our early social exposures, choices of work, and love experiences form our world view. He [...]

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Category: Analytics for Social CRM Applications Cloud CRM Gamification Gartner Customer 360 Summit Innovation and Customer Experience SaaS and Cloud Computing Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Social Networking Social Software Strategic Planning     Tags:

Is the sales force irrelevant to the customer relationship?

by Michael Maoz  |  November 13, 2011  |  2 Comments

In talking to businesses that sell to consumers (B2C), a theme that recurs often in conversations with customer service leaders, marketing professionals, and Customer Experience managers is the marginal role of the sales force in the customer relationship. The sentiment is not dissimilar in businesses that sell to other businesses (B2B). Sales people, in the minds [...]

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Category: CRM Leadership Sales Force Automation SFA Strategic Planning     Tags:

An enterprise-class CRM application suite is yet to emerge.

by Michael Maoz  |  October 31, 2011  |  Comments Off

Clients complain often and understandably about the lack of a CRM application suite. Certainly more than 25 years after the founding of Brock Control Systems, the forerunner of all CRM systems, we should have a suite. But that has been the mistake made over and over again: believing that a business process (CRM) is a [...]

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Category: Analytics for Social CRM Applications Cloud CRM Innovation and Customer Experience iPad IT Governance Leadership SaaS and Cloud Computing Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Strategic Planning     Tags:

SaaS for CRM: Success is unevenly distributed.

by Michael Maoz  |  July 31, 2011  |  Comments Off

Customer service and support software has never been easy to design, build, configure, integrate and maintain. Companies have come and gone over the past 15 years of trying to build a sustainable application with mass applicability: Quintus, BayStone, Scopus, Vantive, Clarify, Versatility, Siebel, Silknet, Onyx, IMA, and Point are just a few of the dozens [...]

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Category: Applications Cloud Contact Center CRM SaaS and Cloud Computing Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Social Software Strategic Planning     Tags:

iPad meets business applications – consumers (and your customer initiatives) will benefit.

by Michael Maoz  |  June 20, 2011  |  Comments Off

My colleague Scott Nelson is a major iPad maven. He’s gotten a lot of us to delve into the implications of the convergence of the consumerization of technology and the emergence of tablets. These low cost and highly seductive devices are attracting the interest of consumers, salespeople, field technicians and marketers. Can CRM and Social [...]

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Category: Applications CRM Innovation and Customer Experience iPad IT Governance Leadership Sales Force Automation SFA Social CRM Social Networking Strategic Planning     Tags: