Stories by Paul Krill

Consolidation predicted for CRM market

An overcrowded market, current economics, flat spending, and a yearning for suites instead of point solutions will contribute to consolidation in the CRM software industry, analyst reports detailed this week said.

Jupiter: Customer service crucial for e-tailers

An overcrowded market, current economics, flat spending, and a yearning for suites instead of point solutions will contribute to consolidation in the CRM software industry, analyst reports detailed this week said.

J.D Edwards integrates CRM, ERP packages

J.D. Edwards & Co. plans to detail a new version of its collaborative customer relationship management offering, CRM version 1.1, that links to the company's ERP applications.

PeopleSoft to release Customer Behavior Modeling

PeopleSoft Inc. on Monday plans to announce the ity of its Customer Behavior Modeling tool as part of an upgrade to its Enterprise Performance Management suite.

IBM to make CRM outsourcing call

IBM Global Services on Wednesday plans to launch a hosted service for customer relationship management, with an offering intended to help enterprises get a CRM application up and running faster than an in-house deployment.

Companies partner on automation and compensation

Online customer relationship management and sales force automation vendor Salesforce.com and Callidus Software on Monday plan to detail an arrangement to link sales data to the Callidus enterprise information management system, with a goal of enabling enterprises to meet sales objectives.

FrontRange links GoldMine to Microsoft offering

FrontRange Solutions on Monday plans to announce GoldMine Business Contact Manager, a contact management system that features enhanced data integration with the Microsoft Corp. Outlook contact manager.

Siebel to ship industry-specific versions of CRM platform

Having shipped its generic Siebel 7 CRM (customer relationship management) and e-business platform in November, Siebel Systems this month plans to ship 20 versions of the software tailored to specific vertical industries.

Blue Martini details CRM manufacturing offering

Blue Martini Software Inc. this week detailed Blue Martini Manufacturing, a suite of CRM (customer relationship management) applications that enables manufacturers to automate business processes and deploy customer and partner self-service portals.

ThinkFree readies MS-compatible office suite

ThinkFree.com Corp. on Monday plans to unveil ThinkFree Offfice 2.0, a server-based office productivity suite featuring Microsoft Office-compatible word processing, spreadsheet and presentation graphics programs.

CRM market projected at $13.5 billion

The market for CRM is expected to increase from US$13.5 billion in 2001 to roughly $27.8 billion in 2005, according to a report from Aberdeen Group Inc.

XTech making hosted CRM push

Looking to compete with Salesforce.com Inc. in the hosted CRM space, professional services firm XTech in December plans to offer a hosted CRM platform based on Worldtrak's CRM product.

Wheelhouse to put spin on CRM data integration

CRM (customer relationship management) infrastructure vendor Wheelhouse Corp. in early 2002 plans to offer a tool intended to integrate disparate data sources to present a unified view of customers.

Embracing the other CRM

A different kind of CRM is emerging for professional services companies -- such as law and accounting firms -- that do not necessarily deal with customers calling in on 800 numbers with product-support questions.

SAP eyes Sun Liberty Alliance security camp

SAP AG is leaning toward backing the Sun Microsystems Inc.-led Liberty Alliance for online authentication services and will make an announcement about security plans some time this month, said SAP officials today at the SAP TechEd conference.