Tasos Christidis

A lot of discussion is being done about CRM. It’s been going on for quite some time now. These days, with the blooming of social networks and the millions of users that they attract, a new discussion has been opened, about Social CRM. Don’t get me wrong, but I believe that some of the aspects of SCRM are somehow “exotic” for the average SMB. Let’s not forget that some of them don’t even know what CRM is or they have placed it low on their priorities! I know this because I have conducted my own research on the matter. Don’t get me wrong: I could go on and on about the benefits of CRM and SCRM, even for the SMB (let alone the big enterprises), as a large number of other bloggers have already done, but this is not my purpose today. If we accept the basic definition that “CRM is a tool and a methodology to help the Business create and further grow relationships with its Customers” , I would like to propose another way of doing this (building and growing). I want to tell you right from the ...

In this 2nd post which is dedicated to Personalization, I shall continue to list some features that I think are interesting and welcome by all users. I am sure that you will find “yourselves” in there (if you are web developers) or that you will see a wish-list (if you are internet users). Remember, the object of Personalization is to make the web system more attractive and more usable at the same time. After all, with all these systems and sites out there, you have to make a difference if you want the users to stick to your system, instead of the next guy’s. Save Searches All web systems provide some kind of search facility, be it a generic search engine that looks inside the web site and returns relevant documents or be it a search facility for the supported entities of that web system, such as “invoice search”, “loan search”, “customer search” etc. I would bet that a user friendly search offers a whole bunch of search criteria. I would also bet that having an exhaustive list of sea...

In this era of “www” domination, more and more software vendors turn their sights to web application development. You can see traditional client/server (or even COBOL!) developers, turn to modern development tools, such as Microsoft-based, IBM-based, Open Source, you name it. All of them are willing to invest on re-building their traditional applications and re-launching them either with the same name (“web version now available”) or as a whole new product offering. Web technology, HTML, Javascript etc. offer new possibilities and functionality to building modern applications with “sharp” user interface and new tools for the end-user to exploit. In this post, I would like to focus on the issue of “personalization”. This is a term that did not exist when the ERP’s of the 80’s were dominant. So, what does “personalization” mean in a modern day web application? What are the features and what are the benefits that you get from these features? Don´t get me wrong; I am not aiming in presenti...

Amidst an environment of Economic Crisis (global or Greek!), the modern Enterprise faces a number of challenges. It also faces some pressing questions about its mission and objectives: should it turn its sights to new ventures? How is its mission statement affected by the crisis? What are the alternative revenue sources that can be used to enhance the financial position of it? In this post I shall not deal with such issues (which are mainly in the agenda of the CEO or the President). Instead, I shall focus on “trivial” problems that the Enterprise faces in its everyday operation (ones that are amplified, though, in an Economic Crisis situation) and how Information Technology can assist in tackling them . In the end, I intend to show that I.T. must be utilized (“mobilized”, if you will) in a time of Crisis and that I.T. is a valuable ally in the “war against the Crisis” . I will approach this goal by identifying some of the problems that are enhanced during an Economic Crisis Situation....

In this post I would like to tackle an issue that has often become a point of dispute between different “schools of thought”: Do you need your CRM module, integrated with your core-business-function software, or not? How does an integrated CRM module help you (better) than a separate system? First, we need to remember that (most will agree) CRM is not “this” or “that”. Every operation or enterprise has its own needs and requirements. Everybody is looking at their customers in a different way: Somebody may be particularly interested in the accounting balances and early warning on high ones. Another may be interested in Ticket/Problem handling. A services company might be interested in keeping time records per customer per project. The examples are endless. For that, I will try to provide general answers that have (I hope!) global applicability. Firstly, I will acknowledge that separate CRM products will often offer more functionality (since that software vendor specializes in the CRM ar...

In the previous posts we unveiled a number of different pricing models for SaaS applications. In this turn I’d like to explore the reasons why similar products, priced with similar models, can vary so much, in terms of final price. Let’s just remember that the two basic elements of costing are: a) Initial Fee (or start-up cost – this can even go down to zero) b) Periodical costs per “unit” (whatever this is…) Multitenant vs single tenant It is obvious that if you board a single-tenant solution, you will be provided with your own server (physical or virtual), your own database instance and your own application instance (executables or whatever this is). All of these require additional effort to support and maintain from the Vendor’s side. And this will obviously reflect on your costs. In addition, initial setup will require additional effort that simple does not exist in case of multi-tenant solutions. Level of application parameterization If the application supports extensive parameter...

In this post we shall continue with the discussion on several Pricing Methods of SaaS that started in the previous one. Here we go: Pricing per Transaction : This is an entirely different model. In this model, we are not counting users, time or modules. A business application is offered as a whole (in most cases a core-business-function type of application). The pricing is done on the basis of transactions done by any number of users in any time unit. Of course, then main thing here is to define what a transaction actually is. For example, in banking applications a “transaction” could be one complete loan application (of course, technically speaking, this is not ONE transaction, but business-wise it is). It could also be a cashier transaction from the bank teller. If this is an outsourced Credit Scoring function, then a transaction would be one score result (regardless of the number of loan co-applicants). Another example is this of an accounting application: A transaction could be on...