Syndicate content Subscribe to the RSS feed
Home › PRODUCTIVITY
 › 
Productivity

CRM solutions - avoid the pitfalls; reap the rewards

James Simpson's picture
Fri, 06/06/2008 - 09:07 — James Simpson

For the midmarket, integrated CRM solution improves business productivity at a low total cost of ownership.

Building and maintaining strong, solid relationships with customers is essential to the success of any business. According to Adam Sarner, an analyst with Gartner who focuses on the customer relationship management (CRM) industry, obtaining a new customer is 10 times more expensive than retaining an existing one.

It's no secret that automating and integrating processes and procedures previously confined to paper and incompatible, disparate applications is proving to be a  cornerstone for effectively managing customer relationships.

Until recently though, affordable technology designed specifically to meet the customer CRM needs of midmarket businesses, was not available to these organisations. That's all changed - and for the better.

When it comes to customers, sales and service are fundamental to an organisation's success. If salespeople can't manage leads and opportunities, sales will doubtlessly be lost. And the service they do deliver is likely to be inconsistent.

Responding to the skills shortage

Thu, 22/05/2008 - 13:15 — Glenn Withers

Glenn Withers

No matter how you look at it, our future will be built on a skilled workforce.

At a time when employers are finding it increasingly difficult to source the skills they need to get the economy moving, it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to invest in the dramatic upskilling of our workforce to defend ourselves against, and benefit from, the emerging economic giants to our north.

We have the advantage of being first movers, we already have the tertiary eduction structures in place, but our neighbours are investing massively in improving their education market, and we should be looking at moving further up the value chain to retain competitive advantage.

What is very important is that the prosperity we are enjoying now was built on the educational achievements of our predecessors. For the economy to prosper we need to ensure that those who are going into the workforce have first had access to excellent schooling, so they are ready to take on the challenges and learn throughout their lives.

IBM Global CEO Study: CEOs Battle to Keep Up With the Pace of Change

Mon, 12/05/2008 - 09:10 — matt english

The globally integrated economy requires fresh thinking and innovative approaches to managing change. 

In today's globally integrated economy, CEOs are bombarded by change -- can they handle it? According to IBM's 2008 Global CEO Study of 1,130 CEOs, which was conducted face-to-face in 40 countries, CEOs are battling to keep up with the pace of change.

CEOs reported a surprising level of optimism about change as an opportunity to build new competitive advantage. In fact, 83 percent of surveyed CEOs expect substantial change in the future, an increase of 28 percent in just two years.

Yet, while CEOs see change ahead, their ability to effectively manage change is increasing at a far slower pace. CEOs rate their ability to manage change 22 percentage points lower than their expected need for it, a ‘change gap' that has nearly tripled since 2006. The study reveals that CEOs were specific about where the most important change will occur - within their own customer base as two classes of customers emerged: the ‘information omnivore' and the ‘socially-minded' customer.

Realising the Adaptable Workforce

Fri, 09/05/2008 - 09:48 — gapadmin

Justyn SturrockBy Justyn Sturrock

The latest report from IBM highlights how ‘cracking the code for Talent' can help companies take their workforce performance to the next level.

Today, more than ever, organisations worldwide are focusing their time and attention on maximising the value of their workforces.

As organisations become more globally integrated, and as traditional geographic and competitive boundaries disappear, the need to identify, develop and connect talent has never been more critical.

Every two years IBM conducts a global CEO Study where we go out and talk to over 1,000 CEOs, and each time we do this, the people agenda is always top of mind.

In 2004, when we asked CEOs what their greatest concern was for their organisation, three primary themes emerged: growth, responsiveness and agility.

And CEOs were almost unanimous in their belief that the greatest hurdle to addressing these themes was the capability within their organisations.

A national information policy?

Wed, 16/04/2008 - 11:33 — Nicholas Gruen

Dr Nicholas Gruen

Sometimes a little leadership is all it takes to nudge market forces along. 

150 years after Adam Smith first expounded the miraculous way the market's ‘invisible hand' transforms private self interest into social prosperity, some economists argued that we could achieve the same result with sufficiently sophisticated government planning.

Enter the Austrian émigré Friedrich Hayek . . . who showed that markets achieve their efficiency by utilising information which is distributed throughout the economy and so often unavailable to government. 

Traders and entrepreneurs become aware of new information constantly.  In seeking only his own advantage a trader who is hoarding grain as a result of some impending local crop failure, contributes to the common good because his hoarding drives up grain prices and this broadcasts the increasing scarcity of grain to all in the market.

Market participants need not know why grain has become scarcer, only that it now costs more, to build that information into their own decisions.  Hayek showed how deeply dysfunctional an economy robbed of this intelligence would be, an insight ultimately vindicated by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Mentors and role models

Mon, 29/09/2008 - 10:36 — Kate Rimer

Kate RimerFlexibility is not just a women's issue, but the lack of support and outright antagonism from some senior women does not help the cause for change and continues to be a great disappointment.

In my last two blogs on Open Forum I talked about some of the challenges and support I received as I navigated the straights of a challenging career and motherhood.

In this last piece, I would like to talk briefly about the roles of mentors in managing work/life issues and flexibility, which we will come back to later. I have managed to combine work and family through the support of some key people, especially the mentors I have had along the way.

The week I returned to work after having my first child, I had a visit from Prue, a senior legal counsel in my client group, who took time to connect with me about being a working mum (she also promised to let me know if I came to work with puke on my shoulder). Prue was always talking about her kids and showed me that it was OK to bring "the whole person to work" and seek out support from those who had traveled the path before me.

I also got great advice from my friend Debra, a mother of 3 and senior executive with a major industrial company, told me early on: "It is really hard making it all work. Each of us do it in different ways. You don't have to justify your way to anyone else. But when you work part-time you've got to be organised so you have to have Plan A, B and C to cover all eventualities with the kids".

I see mentors such as these as hugely powerful enablers to successful flexible work. They help provide the emotional resilience. They show how to minimise the road blocks and are the sounding board on the realities of childcare, chicken pox, homework, cakes stalls and vacation care.

Unfortunately, there are also some women; "the queen bees" who still don't get the need to support other women around work/life issues. Flexibility is not just a women's issue, but the lack of support, in fact outright antagonism from some senior women does not help the cause for change and continues to be a great disappointment. Perhaps I am just an old fashioned feminist and expect more.

12next ›last »