I had a conversation recently with a friend and former colleague on the state of IT. A common theme was that for all the advances in technology, projects still fail at an alarming rate. This got me to think about two clients of mine. Both were large enterprise software companies…
Enterprise computing channels
The reality of enterprise computing today is not just the migration to the cloud. Rather, it is a range of IT options: First is within the enterprise’s data center, second is in a partner hosting data center, and third is in the cloud. What option is best? Not to sound…
Integration requirements for CRM, Challenges and opportunities
Challenges and opportunities Integration outside the enterprise firewall needs to encompass the capabilities of the organization. Larger enterprises have investments in SOA and ESB providing them with new capabilities that can be utilized. Many organizations without these capabilities will find that standard point to point integration will more than meet…
Discovery Park Service Project
REI has adopted a plot of Discovery Park in Seattle and held a volunteer day today to help restore the habitat. As a frequent park user, I was glad to help plant snowberry bushes and mahonia. Felt good to get out an turn some earth on a windy and cool…
Integration requirements for CRM, CRM to BI
From CRM to Business Intelligence/Analytics While the two previous requirements focused on the sales force automation areas of CRM, integration with business intelligence and analytics tools could and often cover the spectrum of CRM applications: Sales, marketing, customer service, etc. Each department has their own tools and key performance indicators….
Integration requirements for CRM, ERP to CRM
From ERP to CRM Product and Price List data from ERP to CRM is always a complex integration. Technical configurations can be complex. The volume and frequency of updated data can also be complex. Most large contracts are negotiated with customer specific pricing, terms and conditions. For many organizations negotiated…
Integration requirements for CRM, CRM to ERP
From CRM to ERP Pipeline and Forecast data are the most common and most important data from CRM into an ERP system. Business process determines the complexity of the integration. Examples of complex integration requirements can be found with just in time manufacturers (e.g., Dell). These organizations will integrate forecast…
Integration requirements for CRM, intro
Anyone who knows me professionally, knows that I am a CRM guy. Most of my career has been implementing and making CRM systems usable and actually show real ROI. One of the biggest challenges that CRM systems have is integration with back end systems. In the cloud with hosted CRM,…
Thoughts on the enterprise cloud
Computing is moving to the cloud. The names may change and the technology may be different; however, this idea is not new. See Martin Greenberger’s Essay dated 1964. Recall mainframe timeshares, application service providers, “on demand” or more recently the “as a Service” marketing tags. The current iteration, Cloud Computing…