Three industry observers share their predictions for the CRM market in the coming year.

Rob Bois, analyst with Boston-based AMR discusses SAP’s latest release, the outlook for CRM suites and spending in the year ahead.

He’s joined by Elana Anderson, independent analyst with NxtERA Marketing, who shares her thoughts on marketing technology in 2008, including behavioral targeting, getting past the hype of Web 2.0, mobile marketing and the role of the CMO.

John Ragsdale, research vice president with the Service and Support Professionals Association, also joins the conversation. John gives his predictions for Web self-service and its effects on customer service, leveraging user communities, wikis and the job outlook for customer service.

Program guide:

• (00:01) Rob Bois
• (20:14) Elana Anderson
• (32:29) John Ragsdale

 

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 After SAP introduced its revamped CRM system, SAP CRM 2007 at its annual Influencer Event in Boston, executives say SAP is now “a CRM company.” Michael de la Cruz, senior vice president for SAP CRM solutions, and Bob Stutz, president and general manager CRM global strategy product development discuss the new interface, usability and SAP’s development plans.

 

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Saj Usman, a senior executive with Accenture, shares how to best determine whether the time is right for an upgrade of your CRM system based on your people, business and system requirements.

Preparing people and testing systems is a vital step for an upgrade of any CRM application.

 

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Brad Tsai is the vice president and head of USA delivery for HiSoft Corporation, a company that has been providing consulting help for Siebel upgrades since Siebel’s 6.0 version. Tsai offers advice and best practices on upgrading Siebel CRM software in this podcast.

Tsai discusses Siebel upgrade planning and implementation, including what to look for in upgraded software, systems integration, upgrade functionality and support and how to gauge the return on investment (ROI) of an upgrade.

 

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In this podcast, Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft CRM, spoke from Convergence, Microsoft’s main CRM-related conference, on Microsoft and on-demand CRM.

Wilson, whose background includes stints at PeopleSoft, Epiphany and a number of start-ups, shared his experiences in the CRM market over the past 12 years and what to expect in the future, both from Microsoft and the market, including on-demand CRM. Wilson also discusses what he sees as “the next killer app in CRM.”

 

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