At the Microsoft Convergence show, representatives from Cold Stone Creamery, Roland DGA and WellMark Blue Cross Blue Shield shared their advice and best practices in implementing CRM. The three practitioners represent different sides of CRM. Cold Stone Creamery’s Heather Dorr is a senior manager for marketing. Bob McMahon is a senior business systems manager for Roland DGA and Jeff Beelman is a group leader for customer service at WellMark BlueCross BlueShield.

 

 Standard Podcast [12:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ed Abbo, Oracle’s vice president of CRM products, discusses in this podcast what’s to come in Siebel 8.0 and integrating Siebel with Oracle’s other CRM applications.

Abbo also shares his thoughts on the emergence of hosted call centers and where innovation will come from in the CRM market.

 

 Standard Podcast [29:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

John Ragsdale is the vice president of research with the Service & Support Professionals Association, a longtime industry analyst and call center manager.

In this podcast he discusses the future of customer self-service technology, its evolution from a tactical to a strategic imperative and how vendors in the self-service market are innovating. He also shares his take on highly customized “microsites” that allow companies to create personalized pages for customer e-service and the growing importance of “click-to-call” customer service technology.

 

 Standard Podcast [13:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Scott Nelson is a managing vice president with Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner, focused on CRM and its relation to other applications within the enterprise such as ERP and supply chain management, as well as CRM strategy.

He has been researching CRM for the past seven years at Gartner and focuses particularly on CRM strategy and vision.

 

 Standard Podcast [13:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download