Zwakke economie deert Salesforce.com nog niet

Wat tegenstrijdige berichtgeving over Salesforce.com. AG meldt dat Salesforce.com de economische recessie goed doorstaat, alsof dat effect al merkbaar zou zijn. Begrijp me niet verkeerd, ik hoop voor ons allemaal dat het overwaait, maar deze voorbarige conclusies zijn ook niet echt nieuws.

Anyway, AG meldt:

… Salesforce.com lijkt de economische recessie tot nu toe goed te doorstaan. De Amerikaanse online-aanbieder van software voor klantenrelatiebeheer (CRM) wist de omzet in het derde kwartaal van zijn gebroken boekjaar met 43 procent op te vijzelen naar 276 miljoen dollar. ….

Source: Zwakke economie deert Salesforce.com nog niet

Dit terwijl de analisten zich juist erge zorgen maken over het instorten van de operating cashflow :

… Salesforce.com Inc. shares declined Friday after the Web-based software provider's fiscal fourth-quarter outlook essentially met Wall Street expectations, but some analysts expressed concerns about a drop in its third-quarter cash flow and increasing competition.

Salesforce's stock fell 51 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $22.32, and hit a 52-week low of $20.82 earlier in the session.

Late Thursday, the company said its fiscal third-quarter profit jumped 55 percent on an increase in customers and forecast fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of 6 cents to 7 cents per share on $284 million to $285 million in revenue.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect a profit of 7 cents per share on $289.4 million in sales.

Salesforce also said its operating cash flow for the quarter totaled $17.1 million, which compares with $52 million in the year-ago quarter. The company said a change in its invoicing seasonality, strength in the dollar, an increase in prepaid expenses related mostly to payments for some Dreamforce vendors and a tax expense led to the drop.

In a client note, Piper Jaffray analyst Mark Murphy called Salesforce's third-quarter results "a mixed bag" since revenue and earnings-per-share beat expectations and billings met expectations, but the company's cash flow missed his expectation for $63 million. …

Source: MSN Money

Microsoft Delivers First Service Update to Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online (CRM hosted by Microsoft) is not yet available outside US and Canada. However it’s good to keep track of its developments …

… Microsoft Corp. today released the first service update for Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, just four months after it was first made generally available this year. The release includes new features that will enable businesses to create, monitor and optimize Internet marketing campaigns quickly and efficiently, all from within their existing CRM environment. The September 2008 Service Update is available to customers at no charge.

“Today’s release underscores our commitment to rapid innovation,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Microsoft. “Our first service update is significant for its new functionality, scale and additional value it provides our customers at no additional cost.”

The Internet marketing capabilities allow businesses to utilize the Internet as a revenue-generating marketing channel and an integral part of their CRM strategy, especially in conducting search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns. The new Internet marketing functionality will enable organizations to do the following:

• Create and manage online and search engine campaigns
• Research and bid on key words using search engine optimization
• Gain insight into marketing return on investment according to click-through and conversion rates
• Capture sales leads from the Web using pages hosted by Microsoft or the organization’s own Web site
• Unify search engine intelligence with CRM analytics to optimize campaign performance

“This update will help customers maximize marketing returns from online advertising spending by allowing them to monitor and measure the effectiveness of online ad campaigns,” said David J. Buggy, vice president of Beringer Associates Inc., a Gold Certified Microsoft Partner. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online’s automatic update means we’re able to take advantage of advances like this on a far quicker cycle, so we don’t have to worry about being left flat-footed by changes in business.” …

Source : Microsoft PressPass

"SaaS" visie op CRM erg eenzijdig

Afgelopen week stond er een goed stuk over CRM oplossingen op de Computable Saas Opinie pagina :

... SaaS verandert het CRM-toneel

Met de komst van SaaS is de crm-markt zijn er nieuwe kansen en mogelijkheden voor eindgebruikers ontstaan. Peter van Tilburg, manager crm service line bij Accenture in Amsterdam, legt uit wat de strerke en zwakke punten van de verschillende SaaS-crm-vormen zijn. ...

Het artikel is goed, maar erg zwart wit; er is SaaS - alleen Salesforce.com als we naar de voorbeelden kijken- en er in 'on premise' - de "oude" wereld zoals het vaak wordt afgezet.

Met het grootste gemak worden de oplossingen in een van deze 2 categoerieen ingedeeld:

... Wat we momenteel zien, is dat de markt voor crm-software in twee groepen is verdeeld: softwareleveranciers die SaaS-crm-oplossingen aanbieden naast hun bestaande crm-oplossingen in huis of on-premise (zoals Oracle/Siebel, SAP en Microsoft) en leveranciers die zuivere SaaS-crm-diensten aanbieden (bijvoorbeeld Salesforce.com, RightNow en Digiprize) ...

Het artikel deelt Microsoft voor het gemak maar in bij de 'on premise' CRM oplossingen, een achterhaalde indeling. Microsoft's partners bieden namelijk al geruime tijd CRM als een hosted oplossing aan. Organisaties hebben keuze uit verschillende business / infra modellen als het aankomt op Microsoft Dynamics CRM :

The power of choice

Microsoft Dynamics CRM provides you with the Power of Choice so you can evolve your business unencumbered by technology limitations. Multiple deployment options are available to suit your business current and future business needs:

On-premise. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is deployed easily in the IT environment of any company, from small business to enterprise. It provides a full suite of marketing, sales, service functionality with a native Microsoft Outlook user experience, and it can quickly be tailored to meet your business needs. Because Microsoft Dynamics CRM products run on the same code base, you can easily switch from an on-premise model to a software-plus-services environment.

Partner-hosted. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is offered as a software-plus-services solution by our partners around the world. They deliver fast, flexible CRM solutions hosted in their own data centers and tailored to fit the needs of various markets or industries. And since all Microsoft Dynamics CRM products run the same code base, you can easily move from partner-hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM to an on-premise environment or even Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. View hosted CRM partners.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is delivers a fast, flexible software-plus-services solution that is operated within Microsoft data centers. It offers an outstanding user experience through Microsoft Outlook or a Web browser, with rich configuration and customization capabilities. Because its built on the same code base as other Microsoft Dynamics CRM offerings, you can easily move to a partner-hosted or on-premise environment.

(CRM Online is momentaal in beta in de VS en nog niet internationaal beschikbaar)

De visie van Microsoft is er een van Software + Services, organsiaties willen een keuze in de vorm waarin zij software / fucntionaliteit implementeren / licenceren. Dit is voor organsiaties die CRM implementeren niet anders ...

Forrester's SaaS Maturity Model

Maturity models are everywhere these days. Back in the 90’s when I worked at EDS we already used a Desktop Management Maturity Model which was derived from teh Capability Maturity Model. In 2000, when I worked at Emeritor a Procurement consulting and eProcurement vendor, we developed the Procurement Maturity Model. Now at Microsoft we use the Infrastructure Optimization Model. I’m sure there are 100’s more out there. In itsself maybe not rocket science, they do provide a good context to the specific topic as to what good and what needs improvement or who’s leading and why.

Now Forrester has its SaaS Maturity Model focused on CRM solutions …

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the hottest trend in both CRM and the small and midsize business (SMB) market in general. While SaaS appears to be a threat to software vendors with traditional perpetual-license models, it is also an opportunity for competitive advantage. The question is how independent software vendors and service providers can capitalize on this opportunity. Forrester's SaaS maturity model provides an assessment of the solutions and underpins our guidance on realistic strategy transformation for those software vendors and services providers considering a SaaS business model. Targeting the highest maturity level is not necessarily the best fit for every vendor.

Source: Forrester's SaaS Maturity Model

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is there ...

.... Microsoft Corp. today announced the general availability of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, an on-demand customer relationship management service hosted and managed by Microsoft. The new Internet service delivers a full suite of marketing, sales and service capabilities through a Web browser or directly into Microsoft Office and Outlook.

It provides “instant-on” access to businesses that want a full-featured CRM solution with no IT infrastructure investment or setup required. Businesses can learn more about Microsoft’s strategy for delivering next-generation CRM solutions from a new webcast being launched today at http://crmchoice.com, featuring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Martha Rogers from the Peppers and Rogers Group.

“At Microsoft, we’re revolutionizing how companies deploy marketing, sales and service solutions to users within their organization,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM at Microsoft. “Microsoft Dynamics CRM delivers the power of choice to customers, with a familiar and productive user experience and a multitenant platform that enables fast on-premise implementations or ‘instant-on’ deployments over the Internet.”

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online reinforces Microsoft’s broad software plus services strategy for delivering integrated business solutions over the Internet, and it is a part of Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment in global datacenters. In addition to full access through a zero-footprint browser client, the new service delivers marketing, sales and service information within a native Microsoft Office experience, integrated with the desktop tools that employees already use every day, enabling businesses to ramp up end-user adoption and productivity rapidly.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online is initially packaged in two service offerings:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional delivers a full suite of CRM capabilities with extensive configurability and extensibility options. Businesses get 5 GB of data storage, 100 configurable workflows and 100 custom entities. The Professional edition is priced at $44 per user per month, with an introductory offer of $39 per user, per month.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Professional Plus delivers all the capabilities of the Professional version plus offline data synchronization with expanded data storage, workflow and customization options that give businesses 20 GB of data storage, 200 configurable workflows and 200 custom entities. The Professional Plus edition is priced at $59 per user per month. ....

Source : Microsoft PressPass