NetFort warns organisations: Don’t let Content Delivery Networks impair network insight

NetFort, the software company that shows what users are doing on the network, is today warning organisations to beware of the network visibility problems which Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) can pose. Although CDNs can be a valuable asset – in particular, ensuring the fast delivery of web content during global events such as Barack Obama’s presidential campaign – they can also create visibility problems for network managers. With CDNs delivering global content cached locally, network managers may struggle to understand the source of the traffic and consequently how to handle it when it hits their network.

"We no longer have a ‘one-speed’ web, where emails and website traffic is tolerant to delays and there is no real need for speed," says Darragh Delaney, technical director, NetFort. "Certain types of traffic can be very sensitive to lag and vital to the day-to-day functioning of an organisation. Although CDNs can speed up web requests by caching bandwidth-heavy content locally, this also means that when network managers are inspecting traffic, they may simply see ‘17775g.akamai.net’ or the name of the CDN provider, rather than the actual source itself, for example Netflix or Salesforce.com, which should influence how this traffic is handled."

NetFort recommends that organisations use tools and techniques to overcome this challenge, matching the time and date of the download to proxy server log details. Alternatively, the use of deep packet analysis tools can check the type of traffic as it travels around the network. NetFort advises companies to use port mirroring to ensure that network traffic is not interrupted and the day-to-day operations of the company are not disrupted.

"Network blindness can cost the IT team many hours of valuable time and may eventually result in the slowdown of business critical applications such as CRM and ERP," continues Delaney. "Once organisations have visibility of their network traffic, they can even correlate this to authentication logs and find out the heaviest users of bandwidth within the organisation. It is only by having clear visibility of what users are doing on the network that network teams can prioritise traffic, and making sure that business proceeds as usual, rather than non-essential traffic clogging up valuable bandwidth."

This content is based on a blog from Darragh’s column on Computerworld. For more information please see blogs.computerworld.com, http://www.netfort.com/ or contact NetFort on support@netfort.com or via the support forum: http://forum.netfort.com/netfort

About NetFort

NetFort provides software to monitor activity on virtual and physical networks. Using NetFort’s LANGuardian network managers gain complete visibility of user and network activity from an overall insight to high-definition detail.

Headquartered in Galway, Ireland, NetFort Technologies was established in 2002 and has built up a global customer base in the enterprise, education, and government sectors

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

"Google Gmail Emerges as a Significant Threat to Microsoft in the Enterprise" is the title and the conclusion of a recent Gartner report  on the topic as it has become a reliable alternative to Microsoft in the Enterprise Email Market.

After 5 years, Google’s enterprise Gmail has gained cloud with clients who are commercial organizations of 5,000 employees.  Gmail presents a viable alternative to Microsoft Exchange Online and other cloud email services:

"The road to its enterprise enlightenment has been long and bumpy, but Gmail should now be considered a mainstream cloud email supplier. While Gmail’s enterprise email market share currently hovers around 1 percent, it has close to half of the market for enterprise cloud email. While cloud email is still in its infancy, at 3 percent to 4 percent of the overall enterprise email market, we expect it to be a growth industry, reaching 20 percent of the market by year-end 2016, and 55 percent by year-end 2020." says Matthew Cain, Research VP at Gartner.

 
Google Gmail is the only email system that, besides Microsoft Exchange, has prospered in the enterprise space over the past several years. Meanwhile, other enterprise email providers including Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes/Domino haven’t managed to gain the same level of interest, while Cisco discontinued its pursuit of cloud email. VMware’s Zimbra is only now refocusing on the enterprise space.

Meanwhile, Google’s services are not 100% focused on the enterprise segment. Instead, the web giant pursues features that will have the broadest market uptake. Large organizations with complex email requirements, such as financial institutions, report that Google is resistant to feature requests that would be applicable to only a small segment of its customers. Banks, for example, may require surveillance capabilities that Google is unlikely to build into Gmail given the limited appeal.

While Google is good at taking direction and input on front-end features, it is more resistant to the back-end feature requests that are important to larger enterprises. Large system integrators and enterprises report that Google’s lack of transparency in areas such as continuity, security and compliance can thwart deeper relationships.

"Email is not a commodity, and cloud email is still maturing," Mr. Cain said. "We believe that, for most organizations, performing one more on-premises upgrade, which will take an organization through 2014, is the most prudent approach. A less-risky approach to cloud email is via a hybrid deployment, where some mailboxes live in the cloud and some are located on premises. This hybrid model plays to Microsoft’s strengths given its vast dominance of the on-premises email market."

"The intense competition between Microsoft and Google will make both vendors stronger and enable them to apply cloud expertise to other enterprise cloud endeavors," Mr. Cain said. "The rivalry will make it difficult for other suppliers to compete directly in the cloud email and collaboration space."

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

Social Enterprise is taking on a NEW meaning…..: women no longer waiting around, but taking action.

How about a marriage proposal during a public online interview just before the Keynote Speech of Dreamforce 11, Salesforce.com’s annual tech conference that has a record attendance this year?  

This lady did some serious planning: brought the rings along, and all… Right on front of say… 50,000 people who are watching this life/online… she popped the question.

Here’s her lucky guy embracing her, after he said ‘yes’!

Get the picture: social enterprise,

Congrads to this happy couple.

Will You Marry Me?

Hawaiian Love Song

The proposal was responded to by the Hawaiian shaman team with a love song.

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

A life audience of 46,000 people just finished listening to #keynote11 of the Dreamforce ‘’11 Conference with their heads in status ‘data overload’.  Lots to digest and integrate into the new futures of a many an enterprise.

I thought to share with you some take-always:

Dreamforce11

META-VIEW:

**  It’s audience of 46,000 is even one 1000 more life attendants to the conference than previously expected.

The last Dreamforce, which was less than a year ago was only 35,000. It has move to a whole other level, and there is no going back.

Clear message for us all is: BETTER PAY ATTENTION to what’s happening at Salesforce.com as your industry surely is watching and wanting it.

**  The emphasis of the keynote was directed to marketing and customer service.  So should your emphasis be to any technology adoption.

** Being  hip, beyond traditional business, is now big business: Dreamforce 11 started off with traditional Hawaiian prayer and chant. Lucky for them!

DreamForce 11

EYE-LEVEL

The keynote, delivered as usual by Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Salesforce.com was inspiring as per usual.

A lot of the keynote was focused on all their acquisitions and how Salesforce.com is going to incorporate them to their product line. 

Growth through acquisition has been a clear growth strategy for Salesforce.com, as it’s the only way to buy technology development time and shorten time-to-market into either new segments or when delivering new technology. 

Mind-shifting Perspectives

Benioff, CEO Salesforce.com: “Are customers and employees social with each other? How do we bridge the social divide?”

Angela Ahrendts, CEO of the luxury Burberry brand which is 3 months into being a social enterprise: “If you don’t build a social enterprise now, I don’t know what your business model is in 5 years”.

How it can be done: Watch the KLM Surprise video from YouTube. Go find it. Good video about how they’re using social to surprise customers. (see video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqHWAE8GDEk )

Social Enterprise

Overall, at the conference, Salesforce.com will be introducing and championing the concept of ‘social enterprises’, as the type of companies that revolutionize their interaction with customer and employees through social, mobile and open cloud technologies.

Salesforce.com considers itself a key-to-success in your company’s delivery on this:

1.  Salesforce.com has lots of Social aspects to its offering now: – Chatter Now, Chatter Customer Groups, Chatter Approvals, Chatter Service and Data.com.  All these technologies can speed up the social app adoption across an entire enterprise.

*** important aspect of developing a social enterprise: how to scale it. ***

2. Salesforce.com highlighted how it’s tuned into Mobile access. It referred to its Touch.salesforce.com which taps into the power of HTML5 to optimize Salesforce apps for mobile devices including the iPad, iPhone, Android and others.

3. Salesforce.com is Open Source – minded.  I wrote about Heroku a few days ago, and that Heroku is now working with Java.  Salesforce.com’s Chatter Connect and Database.com is to provide the most open, flexible and social enterprise platform in the industry…

Salesforce.com talked  a lot about its acquisitions and how they each fit into their big picture strategic pursuit.

About Dreamforce 2011

Dreamforce 2011 organized by Salesforce.com in San Francisco. There is a record in-person attendance with 46,000 people present. Yes, it’s crowded here.

A big aha: 

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

Social enterprises revolutionize their level of customer and employee engagement through the use of social, mobile and open cloud technologies

Salesforce is Social – Chatter Now, Chatter Customer Groups, Chatter Approvals, Chatter Service and Data.com will accelerate social app adoption across the entire enterprise

Salesforce is Mobile – Touch.salesforce.com taps into the power of HTML5 to optimize Salesforce apps for mobile devices including the iPad, iPhone, Android and more

Salesforce is Open – Heroku for Java, Chatter Connect and Database.com will provide the most open, flexible and social enterprise platform in the industry

SAN FRANCISCO — DREAMFORCE 2011 — Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM), the enterprise cloud computing (http://www.salesforce.com/cloudcomputing/) company, today unveiled the social enterprise, leveraging social, mobile and open cloud technologies to revolutionize companies’ relationships with their customers. Salesforce.com announced new innovations Chatter Now, Chatter Customer Groups, Chatter Approvals, Chatter Service and Data.com, which will accelerate social app adoption in the enterprise. Bringing mobile apps to the social enterprise, touch.salesforce.com will leverage HTML5 to deliver an optimized experience on touch devices for all Salesforce and native Force.com apps. And finally, Heroku for Java, Chatter Connect and Database.com will deliver the most open, flexible and social enterprise platform in the industry. Salesforce.com is helping companies transform themselves into social enterprises, all powered by salesforce.com’s trusted cloud platform.

Welcome to the Social Enterprise

A social revolution is taking place today. The number of social networking users has surpassed email users. Nearly a quarter of all time spent online is spent on social networks like Facebook. And people access the Internet more from mobile devices than from desktops.

Salesforce.com is helping companies meet the challenge of today’s social revolution with the social enterprise, all powered by salesforce.com’s trusted cloud platform. Today at Dreamforce, salesforce.com will introduce the social enterprise and demonstrate how companies can transform their relationships with customers.

Salesforce.com is the only company that can deliver the social enterprise because of its fast, easy and open cloud computing technologies. Any company can become a social enterprise with salesforce.com by: 

• Developing Social Customer Profiles: Customers today expect that the companies they work with know what they "like" on Facebook, what they are saying on Twitter, who they are connected to on LinkedIn and more. The social customer profile captures all of this publicly available information, empowering every employee to delight customers by knowing who they are and delivering an entirely new level of service, only possible in today’s social world.
• Creating Employee Social Networks: Many companies struggle to connect their employees with the best information and experts within their own company. Similar to Facebook, employee social networks deliver information directly to users, rather than making them search for it themselves. The Salesforce Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Chatter, Data.com and Force.com help companies build the private employee social networks that help people at work rapidly collaborate across their company so they can engage, sell and service their customers more effectively.
• Building Customer Social Networks and Product Social Networks: Customer and product social networks allow companies to build stronger relationships with their customers in an entirely new way on today’s most popular social channels like Facebook and Twitter. With Salesforce Radian6, Heroku and Database.com, companies can listen to, engage with and analyze what people are saying about them and create apps where customers can interact with their brand. These apps leverage cutting edge social and mobile technology, can be location-aware, and can be accessed on any device. And companies can also bring their products into social networks so they can be part of the conversation, allowing consumers to not just "fan" a product, but become its "friend."

Unveiling New Social Innovations for the Social Enterprise

Salesforce.com is helping companies transform into social enterprises by introducing new social innovations across Salesforce’s apps and platform, including:

• Chatter Now: Chatter Now will deliver real-time collaboration by enabling users to see when their colleagues are online, instantly chat with them in context and share their screen without leaving Chatter.
• Chatter Customer Groups: For the first time, Chatter users will be able to invite people outside of their organization into their Chatter network to collaborate. Chatter users can invite customers and partners to collaborate in private, secure groups, which will extend enterprise collaboration beyond the four walls of a company.
• Chatter Approvals: With Chatter Approvals, users will be able to take action on any approval process from directly within their Chatter feed. Sales discounts, hiring decisions, vacation requests and more can all be approved without having to leave Chatter. Approval processes will now have context, including comments and documents, to help increase productivity and help users make informed decisions.
• Chatter Service: Salesforce Service Cloud is creating the ultimate self-service destination for the social enterprise with Chatter Service. With Chatter Service, customers will be able to ask their question once in a familiar social feed, and have the answer come to them in an instant — whether it’s from the knowledge base, the community of experts or a service agent. Chatter Service will also connect to public social networks, such as Facebook, extending the community far beyond the boundaries of a traditional self-service portal. Customers have gone social and the Service Cloud, with Chatter Service, is the way that companies can create a social, self-service community to delight their customers.
• Data.com: Launching at Dreamforce, Data.com gives sales and marketing professionals the information they need to effectively plan, target and execute sales and marketing campaigns — all within Salesforce. Data.com will unify socially-crowd sourced contact information from Jigsaw and company information from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) in one place to help customers build and maintain social customer profiles.

Bringing the Power of Mobile to the Social Enterprise with Touch.salesforce.com

The social enterprise is not just about connecting companies and employees with their customers through social technologies, but also through mobile devices. Touch.salesforce.com will deliver an optimized experience of Salesforce apps and customizations for touch devices. Leveraging the open standard HTML5 technology, touch.salesforce.com will allow users to access salesforce.com from the most popular smart phones, tablet devices and operating systems.

Touch.salesforce.com will also enhance the Force.com platform to become the destination for developing trusted, enterprise mobile apps. Not only will Force.com developers be able to mobilize existing Force.com apps, they will also be able to build new, secure mobile apps quickly and easily.

Delivering the Social Enterprise Platform with Force.com, Heroku and Database.com

With Force.com, Heroku and Database.com, developers now have the social enterprise platform to create social, mobile and open cloud apps that improve the way companies collaborate, communicate and share information with customers and employees.

At Dreamforce 2011, salesforce.com will unveil a number of new innovations including:

• Heroku for Java: Heroku now gives more than 6 million enterprise Java developers a clear path to build social, mobile and open cloud apps. Enterprises and developers have made significant investments in Java skills. Now, those skills and investments can be applied to creating the social enterprise by developing customer and product social networks. Java joins Ruby on Rails, Clojure and Node.js as the fourth language for the Heroku platform. For more information and technical details about Java on Heroku, visit http://www.heroku.com/java
• Chatter Connect: Chatter Connect makes other applications social by extending Chatter to custom and third-party applications. The Chatter REST API makes it easy for developers to integrate Chatter into other applications, such as intranets and portals, custom mobile apps and other enterprise apps. In addition, Chatter for SharePoint allows companies to make SharePoint social — companies will be able to embed Chatter feeds in a Sharepoint MySite or TeamSite and share documents from Sharepoint to Chatter.
• Database.com is GA: Database.com, the underlying cloud database already serving the company’s 100,000+ customers, is now generally available to all enterprises. Database.com is a proven multi-tenant database, managing more than 36 billion transactions and 13 billion custom objects in the second quarter alone. It is open, massively scalable, automatically elastic and built from the ground up to power this new generation of social and mobile cloud applications.
• Database.com Data Residency Option: The new Database.com Data Residency Option will be for companies that want to take full advantage of the cloud, but have requirements, policies or perceptions that may prevent them from gaining the strategic benefits that cloud computing has to offer. With Database.com Data Residency Option, companies will have the option of keeping readable versions of sensitive data where they want, allowing them to take full use of salesforce.com’s trusted cloud computing model.

Making the Social Enterprise a Reality with the Social Enterprise License Agreement

Salesforce.com’s new Social Enterprise License Agreement includes enterprise-wide access to Salesforce Sales Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, Salesforce Chatter, Salesforce Radian6, Force.com, Heroku and Database.com — giving customers predictable pricing. With the Social Enterprise License Agreement customers get everything they need to transform themselves into a social enterprise.

Pricing and Availability

• Chatter Now: Chatter presence and chat are currently scheduled to be generally available in late 2011. Both features will be included for free across every edition of Chatter — including Chatter.com. Chatter screen sharing is currently scheduled to be generally available in 2012. Chatter screen sharing will be generally available to users for an additional charge.
• Chatter Customer Groups: Chatter Customer Groups is currently scheduled to be generally available in late 2011. Chatter Customer Groups will be included for free across every edition of Chatter — including Chatter.com.  
• Chatter Approvals: Chatter Approvals is currently scheduled to be generally available in late 2011. Chatter Approvals will be included for free across every edition of Chatter.
• Chatter Service: Chatter Service is currently scheduled to be generally available in early 2012 along with pricing.
• Data.com: Data.com is available today with contact information from Jigsaw. Company information from D&B is currently scheduled to be generally available later this fall with pricing and packaging announced at that time. Data.com is available to both companies and individuals who are looking for a proven solution with best-of-breed data capabilities.
• Touch.salesforce.com: Touch.salesforce.com is currently scheduled to be generally available in early 2012.
• Heroku for Java: Heroku for Java is available in public beta today and free to get started. Visit Heroku for more information: http://www.heroku.com.
• Chatter Connect: Chatter Connect is generally available today free of charge. The Chatter REST API is available today in developer preview and is currently scheduled to be generally available in late 2011. Chatter Connect is available in every Chatter edition.
• Chatter for SharePoint: Chatter for SharePoint is currently scheduled to be generally available later in 2011. Chatter for SharePoint is a free, open-source component from Force.com Labs.
• Database.com: Database.com is generally available today and is free to get started. Visit http://www.database.com today to sign up for a free account, which includes 100,000 records, 50,000 transactions per month and support for three enterprise users. Additional capacity, transactions and users can be purchased a la carte.
• Database.com Data Residency Option: Database.com Data Residency Option is currently scheduled to be generally available in 2012. Pricing will be announced when it is generally available.
• Social Enterprise License Agreement: The Social Enterprise License Agreement is available today. Pricing varies by customer.

About Salesforce.com

With more than 100,000 customers, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company that is leading the shift to the social enterprise. Social enterprises leverage social, mobile and open cloud technologies to put customers at the heart of their business. Based on salesforce.com‘s real-time, multitenant architecture, the company’s platform and application services include:

• Salesforce Chatter, a secure, private social network for your business
• Salesforce Sales Cloud, for sales force automation and contact management
• Salesforce Service Cloud, for customer service and support solutions
• Salesforce Radian6, for social media monitoring and engagement
• Salesforce Data.com, for the most complete source of accurate business data
• AppExchange, the leading marketplace for enterprise cloud computing applications
• Force.com, for custom application development
• Heroku, for building social and mobile customer apps
• Database.com, the world’s first enterprise cloud database

Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements are not currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase salesforce.com applications should make their purchase decisions based upon features that are currently available. Salesforce.com has headquarters in San Francisco, with offices in Europe and Asia, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "CRM." For more information please visit http://salesforce.com, or call 1-800-NO-SOFTWARE.

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

Highly Secure and Mobile Access to Virtual Desktops and Enterprise Applications

• Further extending its comprehensive desktop virtualization portfolio,Oracle today announced Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App for iPad is now available on the App Store.
• Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App enables users secure access to virtual desktops managed by Oracle’s Sun Ray Software and Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure.
• This innovative app allows iPad users support through Oracle desktop virtualization, bringing full "session mobility."
• Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App supports a broad range of enterprise applications, including network-intensive applications and those requiring full desktop browsers. For example, Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App provides high performance, mobile computing environment for users of Oracle’s Siebel CRM.
• The app is part of Oracle’s complete desktop-to-datacenter virtualization portfolio that allows customers to efficiently and easily virtualize and manage their full software and hardware stack,from applications to disk.
• The Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App is available for free from the www.itunes.com/appstore/ and restrictions apply       

New Application Delivers Highly Secure Access to Mobile Users

• Delivering highly secure access, the new Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App offers simple, intuitive, and accurate gesture based and multitouch operation with rich virtual keyboard support, including CTRL, ALT, ESC, Insert, Delete, Tab, Home, End, Function, Paging, and cursor keys.
• The app contains a fast and responsive interface which allows multi-tasking and seamless switching between other iOS apps. Oracle Virtual Desktop Client leverages Oracle’s ALP protocol to provide a high quality user experience.
• With its high security and support of built-in VPN functionality of iOS, users can experience worry-free access to corporate desktops and applications.
• User sessions are protected, even over public Wi-Fi connections, through 256-bit AES encryption and features auto discovery of available Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure or Sun Ray Software servers.   

Supporting Quotes

• "With the introduction of Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App for iPad, we continue to offer customers innovative ways to access a broad range of virtual desktop environments and enterprise applications," said Wim Coekaerts, SVP, Linux and Virtualization Engineering, Oracle. "When used in conjunction with Oracle’s Sun Ray Software and Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, customers benefit from enhanced security, centralized administration, lower cost, and better access to their corporate data from iPad."
• "Oracle provides the world’s most complete customer relationship management solution with Oracle’s Siebel CRM," said Anthony Lye, SVP of Oracle CRM. "When combined with Oracle Virtual Desktop Client App for iPad, customers can now access Siebel CRM on the go without any modifications. The user’s desktop environment, including any web-based Siebel CRM application, is hosted in the data center and rendered accurately over the network on the iPad, increasing speed and ensuring that no local data is stored on the device, which increases security."      

Supporting Resources

• Oracle Desktop Virtualization
• Oracle Virtual Desktop Client for iPad, available on the App Store
• Oracle’s Sun Ray Software
• Oracle Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
• Oracle Virtualization home page, blog, Twitter, Facebook
• Wim Coekaerts’ Blog       

About Oracle

Oracle is the world’s most complete, open, and integrated business software and hardware systems company. For more information about Oracle, please visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com .

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

40% BPM Initiatives use Cloud Computing for 10+% of BPM Business Processes
Recent surveys by analyst firm Gartner revealed that cloud computing is now a firm component in business process management (BPM) initiatives. The data shows however that cloud computing is not used in the same way within these initiatives.

Specifically, one of the research studies, the 2010 BPM-end-user adoption survey, found that 40% of organizations with BPM initiatives were using public or private cloud services to support at least 10% of their business processes within those BPM projects.

“Many business process improvement (BPI) leaders are looking to understand how cloud services and cloud platforms can help them improve business processes within their organizations, as well as inter-enterprise processes that touch partners, suppliers and customers,” said Michele Cantara, VP of Research at Gartner. “Managers of shared-service centers who are tasked with standardizing business processes are investigating cloud-enabled BPM technology platforms as a foundation for business process services in a private cloud. External service providers (ESPs), particularly business process outsourcing providers who want to improve their margins, are also interested in using cloud-enabled BPM technology platforms to deliver one-to-many business process services in a cloud-enabled outsourcing delivery model.”

Ms. Cantara explained that BPM platform as a service (PaaS) and cloud-enabled BPM platforms are often confused. ‘BPM PaaS’ refers to the delivery of a BPM technology as a service by a cloud service provider while ‘cloud-enabled BPM platform’ refers to a BPM platform product that supports cloud services.

Seen from the demand side, the growth in public business process services and the increasing availability of BPM PaaS for constructing those business process services is fueling increased demand for BPM cloud-enabled platform capabilities. In addition, buyers are using BPM PaaS in pilot projects to build a business case for on-premises BPM solutions; in development and test environments to avoid additional capital expenditures on software and hardware; and as an elastic deployment option to address spiky and unpredictable demand.

Buyers are using cloud-enabled BPM platforms (BPM CEAPs) to support shared business process service centers in their own private clouds. This trend is spurred by a desire not only to consolidate applications and standardize business processes to reduce costs, but also to better control and manage the work of the organization.

The 2010 Gartner BPM end-user adoption survey showed that 13 percent of organizations that were doing BPM viewed BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP as one of the top five BPM technology capabilities critical to the success of their BPM efforts. Compared with North American and European organizations, significantly more Latin American and Asia/Pacific organizations considered BPM PaaS/BPM CEAPs to be among the top five most important BPM capabilities. These findings are consistent with other Gartner user surveys, which show Latin America and Asia/Pacific with the highest investments in public and private cloud services.

In all regions, more respondents in IT roles view BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP as one of the top five most important BPM capabilities. However, in North America and Latin America, a nearly equal percentage of both business and IT respondents within those regions viewed BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP as important to their BPM success. This suggests that business leaders in these regions are becoming increasingly aware of BPM PaaS/BPM CEAP.

The survey also showed that two-thirds of organizations fund BPM efforts out of a line-of-business (LOB) budget, and 47 percent fund BPM out of IT. Multiple responses were allowed, and 7 percent of organizations use dual business and IT funding streams for BPM. The preponderance of LOB funding means that business process leaders are more empowered to seek out solutions that may not involve IT. BPM PaaS, combined with consulting and system integration services, and managed services from an ESP to support the entire solution on an ongoing basis, is not uncommon.

From a vendor point of view, the 2010 Gartner survey of BPM PaaS and cloud-enabled platform vendors revealed that a vendor that offers BPM cloud-enabled platform products is also likely to offer BPM PaaS. In fact, only 8 percent of vendors offered only their BPM platforms as a product while 59 percent of vendors surveyed offered the same capability both as a service and as a platform product.

A third of the vendors surveyed only offer BPM platform capabilities as cloud services. These ‘BPM PaaS only’ vendors tended to be newer and smaller entrants to the BPM market, underscoring that cloud reduces barriers to entry for new vendors. Nearly 75 percent of these BPM cloud-related services offered by these vendors are available worldwide, demonstrating that cloud services are an effective mechanism for enabling a worldwide reach, even for smaller vendors.

Notes to Editors:

* Note 1: 2010 BPM adoption survey: August 2010 through September 2010, Gartner conducted a worldwide primary research survey of 593 end-user organizations using Web-based and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) methods. The objective of the survey was to understand their preferences, practices and investment plans related to BPM.

* Note 2: BPM PaaS and cloud-enabled platform vendor survey methodology: In July 2010, Gartner compiled a list of software and service vendors who were known to offer cloud software or services. More than 90 software and service vendors participated in two studies:

APaaS capabilities
Cloud-enabled BPM platform and BPM PaaS capabilities
Separate questionnaires were developed for each study, and the studies were conducted July 2010 through September 2010.

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

“CRM Software Spending Is Expected to See the Largest Increase of all Application Software Markets.” This is the core finding of the recent Gartner survey.

Spending on customer relationship management (CRM) software is expected to see the largest increase of all the application software markets worldwide in 2011, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. 31 % of its survey respondents foresaw an increase in application software spending in 2011.

In comparing their 2011 fiscal budgets with 2010, 42 % of survey respondents indicated that they expect to increase spending on CRM in 2011, compared to 39 percent on office suites and 36 percent on enterprise resource planning (ERP), which ranked second and third, respectively.

Gartner conducted an expansive primary research survey of more than 1,500 IT leaders of organizations in 40 countries, which concluded in July 2010. The goal was to determine software spending allocations for IT budgets in 2010 and predictions for 2011.

“We’re expecting the CRM market to recover gradually as buyer confidence returns and as businesses begin refocusing on growing revenue as opposed to just reducing costs,” said Hai Hong Swinehart, research analyst at Gartner. “Areas of investment are expected to include the online channel; software as a service (SaaS) -based deployments; and technologies enabling customer loyalty management, cross-sell/upsell opportunities, and more-targeted levels of customer service. Along the way we can expect market shifts as acquisition activity escalates, adoption of SaaS grows, and service providers become a more visible force in the market.”

Ms. Swineheart added that buyers of CRM continue to focus on investments that promote customer retention and enhance the customer experience, and they are increasingly interested in technologies that encourage development of customer communities and social networks. SaaS adoption continues to be a key driver. SaaS within the CRM industry is expected to exceed $4 billion in total software revenue in 2014, representing more than 32 percent of the overall CRM market. Marketing automation remains the market segment with the strongest growth, with the greatest demand coming from campaign and lead management and analytics.

Worldwide application software spending is expected to increase 31 percent in 2011, up 9 percent from last year, and emerging markets are planning for higher budget growth. Asia/Pacific is expected to have the largest increase, at 37 percent in 2011, up from 14 percent growth last year, followed by Latin America and EMEA showing an increase of 35 and 27 percent in 2011, respectively.

“Overall, the survey indicates a healthy investment trend for application software. Software application vendors should continue to build, fund and invest in software sales and marketing programs as the market is recovering, to maintain customers and expand revenue opportunities,” said Ms. Swineheart. “A market downturn and its aftermath are disrupters that create great marketing and sales opportunities for organisations prepared to take advantage with the right products, market programs and funding.”

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

Latest version Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 for on-premises and partner-hosted deployments released today. And with this, Microsoft now covers all options.

With this current Microsoft Dynamics CRM release, client companies can choose: hosted online (aka cloud computing), hosted on their own corporate premises, or hosted by a partner.

Benefits & Features of new Microsoft Dynamics CRM version

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 benefits & features include point-and-click configurability, enterprise scalability, and easy interoperability to existing applications and databases. It aims to increase user productivity of companies small & large by offering, as Microsoft explains:

• ” Familiar experiences through a next-generation native Microsoft Outlook client, browser-based and mobile access, RoleTailored design, and advanced user personalization, improving user adoption and giving users easy access to the information they need to be successful.
• Intelligent experiences through guided process dialogs, inline business intelligence for performance and goal management, and real-time dashboards, providing the most up-to-date information critical to enabling sales, service and marketing professionals to do their jobs effectively.
• Connected experiences through flexible cloud development, Windows Azure interoperability, contextual Microsoft SharePoint capabilities and the new Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace, making it easy for customers and partners to configure and customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM to meet specific business needs. “

Short ‘n’ sweet: this new version adds new reporting capabilities, and ties in better with the company’s Outlook product.

In addition, Microsoft explained that its new Dynamics CRM release scaled to 150,000 concurrent users in a single instance, while delivering response times of less than a second. It aims to offer a benchmark performance and scalability in the CRM industry. A Microsoft Dynamics CRM performance and scalability white paper that will be delivered in the coming weeks.

Existing customers with active Microsoft Software Assurance agreements can access the new version immediately at the Microsoft Download Center.

Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace

Integrated within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the Microsoft Dynamics Marketplace is available today in 20 markets. At present it has 1,400+ partner offerings for solutions and services. This online catalog is an easy way for partners to market and distribute solutions to Microsoft Dynamics customers, whether online, on-premises or partner-hosted. The marketplace enables customers to quickly search, discover and apply industry-specific applications and solution extensions from Microsoft and its partners to help them accelerate and extend their CRM and ERP implementations.

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.

There’s enough chatter about Chatter these days.

In the future, you can expect to see Chatter morphing in features.  A good example is the acquisition of DimDim with its teleconferencing and desktop sharing features.

Let’s face it, the way we do business is different than 5 years ago, and enterprise software will certainly be different 5 years from now.  It just hasn’t been invented yet.

But with CRM, Social Media and Content Collaboration all on the same page (or should I say, on the same mobile device?), we can now be more effective and productive, which means better value from your employees.

I’ll give a brief overview of some of the feature I like about Chatter, and one Christmas Wish List that could potentially add more sales to a mid-sized or large company.  Remember, CRM is all about about knowing thy customer and every bit of personal details can turn a cold call into a warm lead.

On 6 features, I would give Chatter a 5 out of 6, because there is one feature I think they should or could expand on.  Luckily, there’s an add-on that comes to the rescue.  (I am purposely leaving out teleconferencing and the possible DimDim features, because we know it’s coming)

1. Know your Strengths
   
   Don’t you love it when you can ask one question, and get multiple feedback from trusted sources?  That’s the beauty of Facebook, LinkedIn, and of course Chatter.  For example, let’s say you are going to San Diego for the weekend and wanted a restaurant recommendation?  Or you wanted to review the slide deck of an existing customer for a prospect in the same industry?  By tapping into your trusted sources (in this case, your employees) you will have reliable and up to date information.
2. Know your Weaknesses

   With every compliment, you must be able to take criticism.  You can participate in a lively Facebook or Chatter debate about weaknesses in a competitor (but be nice!) or even critique your own products.  You can even go as far as why you hate the New York Yankees in October, but that should be saved for Facebook.

3. Real Time

   Gone are the days of sending out an email to 20 people with another 20 people CC’ed (I always hated those emails, especially if they weren’t relevant).  Unless you have a threaded email interface (like Gmail’s conversation mode), your results aren’t real time.  By glancing at a feed, you can scan quickly to see if the information is relevant to your needs, and jump in if you have something to add of value.

4. Everyone is Equal

   You have to love some corporate cultures where the CEO and Maintenance guy are all wearing the same uniform, even if it’s a white lab coat.  Or an open space environment where everyone has a cubicle.  No secrets here.  By creating a level playing field, and open door policy, everyone can participate and join in the discussion.  I used to work in a startup where once a month you had a paid lunch as long as the other person was not in your department, or someone you knew.  This way you get to know your whole company.

5. Content Collaboration

   I’ve advocated that Chatter could be the death of Microsoft SharePoint (and I’ve had enough SharePoint implementation expertise to make this statement).  For every dollar you spend on SharePoint license, you have to spend up to 10 times more to support it.  Today, we are seeing a trend in business with an increase in collaboration, and decrease in emails.   But let’s not forget human phone calls, SMS, emails, Instant messaging, and social media, as they all have their place in the workforce.

6. Six Degrees of Separation with CRM 
   
   Everyone is talking Social Media and Social CRM (SCRM) but we’re missing the bigger point of “social”.

   It’s not about pushing feeds or data.  It’s who you know.  Or who you didn’t know who knows who.

   Of course, Chatter is integrated with Salesforce’s flagship CRM product. But one missing element in my opinion is a true relational CRM.  True relational business intelligence.  In Facebook or LinkedIn, you can see your friend’s friends, if they allow access.  Imagine if you had the power to tap into your colleagues personal contact list. (In this example, I’m referring to companies using Exchange and Outlook)

   Let’s imagine you have a potential opportunity with Company XYZ.  But your CRM turns up empty because it’s a cold call.

   With Chatter, you could start a feed and ask, "Hey, anyone have a contact at Company XYZ?”.  Wouldn’t it be nice if this could be automated?

   In the world of people, it’s the hidden gems that go missing.  What if your employee actually has a personal friend from Company XYZ that he plays tennis with every week?

   BranchIT has those capabilities, both as a standalone product as well as an add-on for Chatter.  But you’ll need a fairly substantial employee number to untap its full potential.  Branchit for Chatter was the winner of the 2010 Salesforce AppQuest Competition and also won the AppExchange App of the Week for the week of Jan 7, 2011.

   BranchIt’s initial strengths are for Sales and Marketing but I can see this being used for HR and Recruiting.  The familiarity is similar to LinkedIn with the number of degrees of separation, but LinkedIn is lacking on the strength, relevance or influence of that connection. Anybody can connect to Marc Benioff or Bill Gates on Facebook or LinkedIn, but how many emails or phone calls have you actually corresponded on a monthly basis?

   Speaking of which, another problem with traditional CRM is a large number of contacts never make it to the CRM.   Over 80%.  There are too many methods of communication such as phone calls, SMS, emails, Instant messaging, and social media that don’t get entered in the CRM.  Thus there is a need for CRM to go beyond the tradition relationships, either as a feature or add-on for Chatter.

   With the law of six degrees of separation, cold calls may be a thing of the past.  Just looking at my LinkedIn stats, I have 261 connections 1st hand, 147,000 2nd degrees, and almost 7 million 3 degrees away.  That’s a lot of people.  By truly knowing who knows who, that will be the ultimate CRM model.  Because it’s really is a small world after all. 

Copyright ® 2011 by CRM HELP DESK Software .com. All Rights Reserved.