More news from Seattle this week. Microsoft has annouced that they will offer their third hosted service in the next year. Seems to me that Microsoft has found their way back in certain parts of their business, their hosted services is one of them. The writing has been on the wall for a number of years with Microsoft acquiring Remote Desktop software from companies like Citrix. Now that they have abundant experience it appears that they are going to release all of their current product offerings on a hosted basis. It will be interesting to see how they are received.

Microsoft Corp.’s Dynamics CRM product will become the company’s third Live hosted service next year, following in the footsteps of its Windows Live and Office Live software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Microsoft plans to introduce CRM Live in the second quarter of 2007, initially only in North America, said Brad Wilson, general manager for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The company won’t limit the number of users CRM Live can support, although at first it will be aimed at small businesses — typically those with eight to 10 seats. The service initially will be operated and managed from within Microsoft’s own data centers. Going forward, customers will have three deployment options: They can choose CRM Live hosted by Microsoft, CRM hosted by Microsoft partners, or run the software themselves in their own premises. All three versions of CRM will have the same code base, so customers will be able to switch between different deployment models depending on their needs, Wilson said. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, was expected to highlight Dynamics CRM Live in a speech at the start of the company’s Worldwide Partner Conference in Boston, which runs through Thursday. “There is still a fairly large, untapped - more available

Microsoft, Hosted+Software, CRM, CRM+Live

tags: crm, crm+live, hosted+software, microsoft

Looking back on the past year, I have realized that there are a number of things that I have neglected around this place. While we did manage to redesign the site and give it a much more modern look and feel, we did not really make it around to doing any sort of improvements when it comes to the content of the site. One of the things I would like to start on is our customer service tips page. This is one of the first things that we put together for the Support Sentry site, and I think we have moved away from the things that have brought us the most success. So, I am appealing to you, our visitors, to let us know what you would like to see more of on this website. We are listening.

Customer+Service, Tips, Support

tags: customer+service, support, tips

Looking back on the past year, I have realized that there are a number of things that I have neglected around this place. While we did manage to redesign the site and give it a much more modern look and feel, we did not really make it around to doing any sort of improvements when it comes to the content of the site. One of the things I would like to start on is our customer service tips page. This is one of the first things that we put together for the Support Sentry site, and I think we have moved away from the things that have brought us the most success. So, I am appealing to you, our visitors, to let us know what you would like to see more of on this website. We are listening.

Customer+Service, Tips, Support

tags: customer+service, support, tips

Microsoft and Cisco have updated their joint CRM software recently and that is great news for large companies that are using their CRM Connector and Microsoft Dynamics CRM products.

Cisco’s Unified CRM Connector works with Microsoft Dynamics CRM to streamline contact-center functions for users making and receiving calls. The software creates automatic screen pop ups with caller information, provides click-to-dial capability, captures call information and creates customer records. It delivers these features on a PC through integration with Cisco IP (Internet Protocol) phones. The latest version, Unified CRM Connector 3.0, is integrated with the recently announced Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. In addition to taking advantage of improvements in Microsoft’s software, the new CRM Connector can deliver to any Cisco IP phone a subset of the information it currently puts up on a PC screen. Small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are interested in IP telephony but want to see more capabilities than they have with conventional phones, according to Yankee Group SME analyst Gary Chen. “Integration with CRM is one of the killer apps with VoIP,” because customer information is so closely involved with phone calls, Chen said. Many SMEs use CRM software, and Microsoft’s product has done well among them, he added. The prospect of using CRM Connector persuaded GreenStone Farm Credit Services, in East Lansing, Mich., to adopt IP telephony.

Microsoft, Cisco, Help+Desk, CRM, Customer+Service, Help+Desk+Software

tags: cisco, crm, customer+service, help+desk, help+desk+software, microsoft

[IMAGE1]IT outsourcing grows 15% in China
It is pretty amazing there is all of this talk about legalizing 11million people who are not citizens without batting an eyelash. This on the heels of daily news reporting massive job outsourcing to countries like China and India, with more every day. I don’t buy the line of, “these are jobs Americans don’t want” anymore. How does anyone claim to know that is the case anyway? I guess it will take a company like Yahoo or Google to send thousands of jobs overseas before it becomes cool to talk about it.

According to the research report “China IT Outsourcing Market Report 2005-2006″ recently released by Analysys International, in China’s IT outsourcing market, the IT operations and maintenance market reached 2.63 billion yuan, accounting for 84 percent of the total market. The IT application and management market size reached 380 million yuan, accounting for 12 percent; and the Help Desk market size reached 120 million yuan, accounting for 4 percent.

Yahoo, Help+Desk, CRM, Customer+Service, Help+Desk+Software

tags: crm, customer+service, help+desk, help+desk+software, yahoo

We actually get quite a few people emailing us asking about help desk jobs. I was thinking that maybe we will put up a bulletin board or classified section here for people to post and respond to job listings. Anyone have anything to say about this? It would be free of course, and we would do it simply because we can and because it seems that many of our visitors are looking for some kind of help desk employment opportunities.

Help+Desk, Jobs, CRM

tags: crm, help+desk, jobs

[IMAGE3]Sometimes I wonder. I can understand that as your company grows, the task of keeping all of your customers happy grows exponentially. This is the unfortunate side of success, but one that I know just about any company would gladly sacrifice to grow to the level that Yahoo! has. But, one of the things that I have become pretty familiar with is the discontent that many of Yahoo!’s customers feel recently when they try and get some help from Yahoo’s help desk. It seems to me that since we have put up our Yahoo! customer service and complain forum, in an effort to try and help people, the numbers of people complaining about the same thing has grown. I am not really sure why it is that Yahoo! has decided to bury their customer service and contact information unless they are simply not equipped to help them…which is what I have to assume at this point. I am not sure why one of the biggest technology companies and software development outfits in California can’t build or buy a system that will help them to keep these people happy…or at least respond to them. Maybe I will figure this out some day.

Help+Desk, Yahoo, Customer+Service

tags: customer+service, help+desk, yahoo

[IMAGE5]Don’t you wish there was an “Easy Button” for help desk software? I do. We have build our own help desk software suite out of necessity over the past 10 years conducting business online. But, no matter how good your systems are, there are some days when you simply wish you could press a button and all of your troubles would go away. Our WebSupport PRO software is, in my humble opinion, some of the best software on the market today in its category. So, if you are looking for a solid email ticketing, FAQ management and support system, then you should check it out.

Help+Desk, CRM, Customer+Service, Help+Desk+Software

tags: crm, customer+service, help+desk, help+desk+software

Just got done with an interesting read over at Information Week. The Mustang Engineering LP, an engineering design and project management company, IT people had sort of an epiphany last year. They realized that something like 25% of the help desk calls they received were for things they could not explain, given the software that they officially installed. They hypothesized that spyware or other 3rd party software being installed on their network’s machines might be partially to blame. After installing a proxy system from Blue Coat Systems Inc their help desk calls relating to sypware. An added bonus was that they did not have to install anything at the client level. I just sent and email to my friend who develops a spyware removal application…as I just reminded myself I don’t trust mine.

Newest Release of Siebel CRM Professional Edition Builds on Siebel’s Momentum in SMB Market; Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 Available Now

SAN MATEO, Calif.-October 3, 2005 - Siebel Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: SEBL), a leading provider of customer-facing solutions, today announced the availability of Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8. The newest release of Siebel’s on premise offerings for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) delivers customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities specifically designed to support the unique business requirements of SMBs. This new release helps improve end user adoption through seamless integration with familiar desktop and Web applications. Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 also provides cost-effective access to advanced call center functionality through integration with Siebel’s hosted contact center and delivers built-in best practices to increase sales, service, and marketing effectiveness.

“The release of Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 underscores Siebel’s continued leadership in providing CRM solutions for small and medium-sized businesses,” said Mark Engebretson, Director of IT Applications at Plumtree Software. “It expands the frontiers of what is possible for an SMB-specific CRM solution to deliver and does so in a manner that is affordable and appropriate for our IT capabilities. We are particularly excited about the new Siebel integration to Microsoft Outlook as it will allow us to increase the speed with which our employees can access important customer data and improve the quality of their decisions and interactions with customers.”

Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 is the latest release of Siebel Systems’ leading on premise CRM solution for SMBs. New features include:

• Siebel Connectors to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook-Siebel users are able to directly access and manage Siebel contacts, appointments, and tasks from Microsoft Outlook. Additionally, changes that are made to shared customer data in one application will be automatically synchronized with the other application. This high degree of integration increases the end user benefits of both Siebel and Outlook and ensures that employees have consistent information regardless of the system they use.
• Integration with Microsoft SharePoint-Siebel users can use Microsoft’s portal technology to develop personalized microsites that include key sales and service information from Siebel. These sites can be used to improve employee productivity through more effective project management and team collaboration.
• Integration with Siebel Contact OnDemand-Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 integrates with Siebel Contact OnDemand, a hosted contact center that provides telephone infrastructure and automated call routing. Now SMBs can access industry-leading contact center functionality without deploying additional hardware or software.
• Leading Help Desk Capabilities-Siebel CRM Professional Edition delivers a full solution for managing and administering internal IT support that adheres to IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards.

“Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 is designed for rapid end user adoption and can be deployed by SMBs that face budgetary and resource constraints,” said Rob Reid, Group Vice President, SMB, Siebel Systems. “However, we’ve also been able to provide the deeper functionality that midsized businesses need to address more sophisticated sales, service, and marketing challenges. With Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 we’re combining the best that Siebel has to offer with other leading productivity tools such as Microsoft Outlook, Exchange, and SharePoint.”

Siebel CRM Professional Edition continues to gain momentum in the marketplace-growing by 178 percent annually and gaining industry awards and recognition. Most recently, Siebel Systems was awarded a Midsize Enterprise Innovation Award by attendees at this year’s Midsize Enterprise Summit, an event produced by Vision Events®, a Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB) company. Siebel Systems also recently won CRM Magazine’s 2005 Market Leaders Award for the Midmarket Suite CRM category.

Siebel CRM Professional Edition 7.8 is available now. For additional information, please visit www.siebel.com/smb.

About Siebel CRM Solutions for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

Siebel Systems offers world-class solutions for midsized organizations, including both hosted and on premise offerings that embed best practices garnered from Siebel’s experience working with the world’s leading companies. For growing organizations seeking a complete, fast-to-deploy CRM offering, Siebel CRM OnDemand provides a hosted solution that requires no up-front investments in hardware or software and no additional maintenance, upgrade, or support costs. Siebel CRM OnDemand delivers unique capabilities such as powerful real-time and historical analytics, prebuilt contact center capabilities, and prebuilt industry-specific solutions. For midsized organizations that prefer to maintain control of their hardware and applications on-site, Siebel CRM Professional Edition delivers a leading software solution that provides extended CRM functionality with powerful customization and integration tools.

About Siebel Systems

Siebel Systems is a leading provider of customer-facing solutions that deliver demonstrable business results and long-term competitive advantage. Siebel’s multichannel offerings allow organizations to intelligently manage and coordinate all customer interactions across the Web, contact center, field sales/service force, branch/retail network, and indirect and partner distribution channels. Siebel solutions draw upon the company’s best-in-class capabilities in customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence, and customer data integration and can be deployed as licensed software or as a hosted service. Siebel solutions are tailored to the unique needs of 23 industries and incorporate industry-specific business processes, best practices, and business insight. They are the product of more than $2 billion in R&D investments and reflect over 11 years of experience with more than 4,000 organizations. Together with its extensive global network of alliance partners, Siebel provides the people, process, and technology expertise critical in driving business value from the deployment of customer-facing solutions. Over 3.4 million users worldwide in organizations of all sizes depend on Siebel solutions to deliver dramatic improvements in how they identify, acquire, retain, and serve customers. For more information, visit www.siebel.com.

Media Contact:

Shabana Khan
Siebel Systems, Inc.
650-477-1180
shabana.khan@siebel.com