My Little Voice

I have just come off the phone from a potential client and he passed on a comment, made to him by a competitor (well not really, but it makes them feel good), which made me smile.

“What you going for a hosted solution, OH, you know they don’t work like everyone thinks they do, you need to have a cloud account with Amazon before you can use them, and you need an account for each user”…..

Now I know that this could just be a ‘newbie salesperson’ who doesn’t know his A from his elbow, it sure sounds like that, but are there really people out there, that don’t A) understand what SaaS is all about and B) so desperate for business that they are trying to mislead potential CRMers into believing this trash?

I guess this is a beware post, the world is full of stupid people (yes, I even count myself in this group at times as well), so check with an adult before you believe what your told, or read up on the Electrical InterWeb, there is a load of good solid reference to SaaS and the benefits.

I will, of course, post a link to our own SaaS benefits document, just as a blatant Sales Pitch for OpenCRM, but it did make me smile :0)

On the 31st of December at 12:00 all OpenCRM systems will start to update automatically.

This will be complete by 9:00 1st January.

This change will affect all OpenCRM users.

The main update will set the default level of VAT to 17.5%. The current level of 15% VAT will still be available as an option. Existing records will not be effected, thier rates will remain as originally set.

As part of this update, we will be streamlining the way that VAT is managed across all versions of OpenCRM, in particular vertical or bespoke solutions.

If users are using line level VAT the table that manages the VAT selection is being rationalised also.

This is the second phase of development that sees a full merge of all versions and add-ons for OpenCRM, including muti currency support for SageLink for OpenCRM.

I thought this article and more particularly the comments were interesting.

If your in the Software Biz this will be something that has crossed your desk, for sure.

http://bit.ly/8aVhRO

Just to paraphrase a little …… Developers and Bosses comments….

Music always helps me ‘tune out’ the distracting noise! This noise is always a distraction and cant in anyway be seen as helpful and team building! I am a developer and I have an opinion, well yes, of course!

I am a boss and therefore I do not know anything about what  developers might want! I am a boss and don’t care if my decisions effect the team and their productivity! I am a boss and therefore …… !

You are a developer and therefore by definition you know everything that there is to know about everything (really?) “what is this thing called bug!”

On a serious note :

In my experience music is very useful if used correctly, as a genuine balance to the distraction of a modern open planned environment.

One of the best comments was the quote about the boss who looks at the developer and sees him in true ‘chill out mode’, hands behind his head, feet on desk, and asks why he is paying the developer for what he is doing at that moment and the manager comments that this is exactly ‘what’ you are paying for, all the rest can be got for $4 an hour off shore… this is the bit that counts… Unfortunately most bosses would just focus on the “$4 an hour” bit of the comment….

Well the iPhone speculation has started and the buzz is (can’t say the info is 100% reliable, more intelligent guessing me thinks), the next iPhone will be 4G enabled (no damm good in the UK then for sometime but with US networks already gearing up (2011 & 2012) we can’t be so far behind [or can we]), have multi tasking, have 32&64gb as standard (could even be a 64gb starting point), battery much improved which may even be removable (nice idea but I will hold off jumping in the air until I see the design, if this has any truth), have better camera, on the screen side (well probably on both sides :0), so will be video chat enabled, with a flash! (Hmmm not sure about that – battery had better be a chunk better don’t you think).

Could be launched for July 2010 (pure speculation, but perhaps Market competition will bring this forward), also real GPS built in, OLED screen, smoother more vibrant, better for video chat, IM enabled with a message light (now we are just inventing stuff :0) …..

Anyway, the speculation has started !

Additional comment : I guess the big thing that I gloss over is the name implying a true 4G product! Obviously this relies on the networks. In the states the most common contenders, Sprint and T-mobile use, or are developing a high speed, 3.5G network which is currently incompatible with the iPhone hardware. Probably a better chance that Apple add the hardware (frequency) capability, than the networks change thier frequency range to accomodate Apple.

Although it’s rumoured that Verizon are looking at signing a deal with iPhone this looks less likely next year. But as the US number one (89 million user -v-AT&T 86 million) expect a great courtship!

AT&T are rumored to have an end point to thier Apple iPhone agreement during summer 2010, that’s going to be a hot spot to watch.

I guess two of the huge growth areas are going to be Data Integration and Open Source, as companies are forced to consider these strategies, either due to technology change constraints or budget.

Obviously this begs a question, how are these two areas relevant to each other, is this a particularly strong growth area?

Data Integration tools are becoming indispensable in the Enterprise. As companies merge, acquire and grow, their systems need ways to share data. Cost can be a challenge, budgets do not always stretch to the IT change over, or if they do, it’s a planned migration sometimes over years. Sometime technology just does not have an answer, one product, working well for a business with a user adoption because of the familiarity of the application, needs to be retained, and giving rise to the technology challenge of a data migration solution.

To help qualify what we mean by data integration, I recently read this definition: The process of combining data residing in different data sources and providing the user with a unified view of this data.

I guess, because of the economic constraints outlined above, Open Source is becoming a more compelling argument.

When we talk about Data Integration we traditionally mean Extract, Transform and Load, commonly referred to as the ETL process. This commonly suits two types of Projects, the Data Migration solutions, moving data from one system to another and the Data Sharing Projects, making the data available to be processed by other systems or as a view in other applications.

At OpenCRM (http://opencrm.co.uk) we have been working on a number of projects that require these ETL processes, and the big question is how best to generic’ise and provide the solutions. Obviously, using Open Source tools to assist with the core migration or transformation tool helps all round. This keeps the cost down for the client and can (in some cases) speed up delivery, utilising tried and tested components, as a building block in the development cycle.

Are these building blocks useful for IT depts? I would suggest that yes, lots of IT depts that we work with are similar in structure to smaller Software Development companies, with their own development resource in-house and a management structure looking at the commercial relationship with finance depts. I would argue that these IT depts benefit enormously from Open Source code, partly because it allows them to focus on the end point of a project and not get too bogged down with the nitty gritty, which as we know can eat up valuable resources and take considerable time, letting them use the code as a building block, so that they can progress their deliverable’s quicker and (dare I say it) more visibly to their management team.

Should these IT Depts contribute something back to the Open Source communities that developed these building blocks, well yes frankly, that’s the whole point of Open Source, especially if they are going to be distributing the code to other parties within their group or sister companies.

So, Open Source Data Migration tools, a good thing to be involved with over the coming years? Yes, I think they are…. I know that OpenCRM has already embarked on a number of integration modules, using community led tools that have benefited from the commitment of resources from Software Add-ons.

If you’re interested in hearing more about Software Add-ons – The Home of OpenCRM, please click here, we would love to hear from you.

Just a quick update on some testing of our hard ‘opt in’ and soft ‘opt in’ eCampaign.

Just to qualify what I mean by these terms;

Hard – the person has been asked specifically if they would like to receive details by email, and have elected to do so by ‘ticking’ a box. This list is also cleaned on a regular basis, with the person being asked either, “do you want to remain on the list”, or at worst “here are your subscription details, do this thing if you want to be removed”. So in principle a high level of “buy in”.

Soft – these are the ones where the “box is already ticked” and they need to untick it, or the data comes from ‘other advertised’ sources, with contact details soliciting contact.

Now, I guess my initial instinct was that the Hard opt in details would get a higher delivery rate, as these are actively checked, and that was the case. But there has been a percentage of these addresses that were undeliverable, which is odd if the address was checked within the last 8 weeks (as the case with the list we purchased), and some of the Out of Office Replies indicate that the address has been retired for some time – I got one, from a small business, that said they were closed as the owner had literally retired, so no emails would be read on this address, Hmmm so could that really have been checked in the last 8 weeks, perhaps, but seems odd!

Of course there will be address details that have just “gone away”, are incorrect (human error), or just got sick of receiving emails and turned the address off, but if what you are paying for is clean data, and this is being ‘sold’ to you as a service to maintain the cleanness of the data (8 weeks check period), then I might have expect less problem records.

The other big thing for me was the ‘click through’ rate.

We track, through OpenCRM the click throughs from the email, and the specific links that get clicked. We track this right down to the specific contact that was sent this email. Incidentially, we track each click through, so if you click on three different links, we receive the activity report of each click, from where (campaign, mail piece and link in mail piece), when and context in terms of the campaign, and because we run a live statistics component on our site, we can see who enters the site (in real time, not just Google analytics), which pages you view, in which order, and can invite you to a Live Chat to help answer any immediate questions. Now this is all a bit Big Brother, but a great marketing tool.

Back to the plot …….

One interesting point relating to click throughs, we received 40% more from the Soft Opt In list, than the Hard list. Which given logic, we thought was odd.

We actually received a higher number of enquiry from the Soft list, and incidentially, they spent more time online.

Part of our sales process is to make it very easy for prospective clients to see the product ((OpenCRM Demo) so the ability to see browsers who start at the OpenCRM website, go to the online demo and see what they view and how long they are online, gives us a wealth of information to help profile our approach.

So, upshot at this stage, ‘Hard’ did not give us anything more except a higher bill to procure the data, and ‘Soft’ is easier to come by so gives us a larger marketing opportunity.

We will do the next batch of 20,000 pieces and keep you updated.

Note : just a point, one thing that does need highlighting, when we relay emails we need to be aware of any potential high rate of undeliverable’s, this can have an impact on the mail cluster and any black marks against the IP addresses. So ‘Hard’ (with a lower % failure rate) does have an advantage in lower human resource costs, in short we don’t need to check as often or as deep when sending to the Hard Opt In list, as generally the data is more accurate and therefore undeliverable’s are less.

One of the things that we refer to regularly in our office is ‘Good NETiquette’ which includes email correspondence as well as on-line communication.

Just to get one of those little irritations off my chest straight away, is it just me, or do you get royally frustrated when someone who you send an email to, does not reply, at all! not even with a quick “thanks for that I will come back to you as soon as possible….”  to acknowledge receipt?

I find this very irritating and something that just smacks of rudeness…. Oh and there’s one of those Netiquette rules, ‘keep any flame wars under control – they will rage on for a lot longer on the web, as people will have the option of re reading and returning to the original posts, even after you have ‘emotionally moved on’ :0)

Another of those ‘things we should all do’ is to “adhere to the same standards that you would apply in face to face contact” – its easy for ‘a certain’ type of person to act in an ‘inappropriate’ way when on-line (or in email), so regardless of the medium used, act in a sensible and reasonable manner. I know, its sometimes easier said than done, but WE always apply the ‘reasonableness’ rule. Just wait a few minutes, re read and then ask yourself “does this sound reasonable”…. ? If it does not, then say no more, but if it does, then send and be dammed (sorry, no that last bit is just my policy :0)

One of the biggie’s for me is “respecting other peoples privacy”, I really dislike it when someone sends out an email and it has MY details on it, distributed to everyone on their Contacts List, I guess most business users would agree (given the number and frequency of SPAM these days), but occasionally we deal with domestic users and they can be the worst…

Oh and that leads me onto my last point for this post, “be forgiving of other peoples mistakes”… I guess even if someone does do a ‘silly action’ then at least allow them to change and not penalise them too much..

OK, that last one is important, but just to go back to the first point made, if someone keeps ignoring my emails, when they do reply they publish my details to everyone they know and their response is inappropriate, I guess that would give me the justification to start a flame war and turn up the heat :0)

Just thinking out loud.

This post is a real ‘credit where credit is due’ comment.

I have long been an admirer of Salesforce.com and and their leadership under Marc Benioff, which covers a multitude of great business ideas and strategies that have carved out new markets. However, one area that I am really impressed with is the Salesforce Foundation and the good work that they do.

Their model is labelled a 1% model, which depicts the values that are dedicated to the different areas of foundation support (1/1/1/1), these are

• 1% Equity – Grants
• 1% Time – Volunteer
• 1% Product – CRM Donations
• 1% 1 with the Earth – Carbon offsets

There is a lot that Salesforce has done, to promote and grow the SaaS market, in fact it would be fair to say establish the SaaS model, and as I have said on many occasions, OpenCRM fills a gap that we believe Salesforce no longer occupy, but when it comes to good causes and helping to develop and build communities, then “I take my hat off to them”.

So what are we doing about it?

In response, Software Add-ons and OpenCRM have been actively supporting community based charities and projects, in the UK and also in Peru. The latest initiative is that we are offering Not For Profit organisations FREE Business Level hosting, so along with the FREE Client License approach, this makes OpenCRM a real alternative.

There are a lot of areas that I feel, as a more modest business, we strive to emulate Salesforce.com, the Foundation and its work is definitely one of them.

So, here we are starting the new multi channel campaign today, focusing on the “Plate Spinners of the Business World” theme, trying to get people to buy into the idea that better procedures will lead to consistency and allow business Principles (that’s Directors, Owners and Senior Managers) to ‘Spin more Plates’.

I will keep you informed of the key points that are being raised in the eShot campaign, the telemarketing effort and the live seminars that we are conducting around the UK.

Ooops… better rush, I’ve a got a plate (or two) to keep spinning :0)

Graham

With the economic climate as it is, everyone is looking for ways to reduce the costs associated with Software and the associated services. If managed properly this can be a great way to make an impact on the bottom line!

In our market space, just as it is in many others, vendors charge an ongoing license fee for their software, as a maintenance charge, either this or when you need to upgrade (Hey – “what’s that coming over the hill is it a Monster” – well no actually, its Windows 7), which is going to be a decision that many of us will have to take in the very near future. Read the rest of this entry »