Month: February 2005

Scott Jones of SalesBuilders has an excellent and very succinct critique of CRM “solutions”. [here]
Scott nails it: a CRM is just another application. It’s usefuleness is completely reliant on people knowing how to use it, and actually using it to help isolate and identify the links and opportunities which will allow them to grow their business within existing customers and obtain new business from prospect.
At my former company, a large CRM solution was implemented. Took over a year, involved at least one full-time consultant and 3 staff members. And when it was complete, nothing. It was slow, clunky and difficult to maintain. People avoided it. And it showed.
Are there any honest stories out there — not originating from CRM vendors — of how a CRM solution allowed companies to more quickly identify and isolate new opportunities that would have been overlooked without such a solution? How did it help you gain new business and grow revenues from existing customers?
Are they out there?

Paul Lavallee adds more to the conversation here.

This comment on the British DIY giant B&Q’s sponsorship of Ellen MacArthur’s solo round-the-world sail cracked me up.
Ouch.

Site-9 has more comments on the faux Ogilvy + Mather email that he received. [here]
Apparently, mine was one of the 30 blogs that linked in to his article. [here]
The quote at the end of the new posting, as seen in Fortuune, leads one to see how O+M will talk their way out of this debacle.

Read this commentary.
Could be an interesting mix.

Then again, someone else says that HP should by Gateway. [here]
This idea has the smell of doom about it.

Received my order of LiveStrong Yellow bracelets on Friday. I am wearing mine right now, despite something that Samantha found. She flipped it over, and said “Oh look, Made in China“.
My heart sank. I m a firm believer in the global economy, but you woulda thunk that Lance Armstrong could have supported some US firm, somewhere. A firm out there somewhere in the US or Canada would have been happy to donate some time or resources for this cause.
Just disappointed, that’s all. Will still wear the bracelet.

I was offline for about 4.5 hours this morning while Comcast “upgraded” part of their infrastructure. Sorry about that.

I am sorry, but this disgusts me. She fires 15,000 people, brings down HP, gets fired, and gets a windfall! Everyone else I know who gets fired or “asked to step down” gets squat. [More here]
These positions entail a high-degree of risk — C-Level execs better start accepting risk as a component of their packages. Why should I join your company and take a chance myself, if you (Mr. CEO, Ms. CFO, etc.) aren’t taking one yourself?
I am already exposed enough, being an “enemy” alien in the US (I know I’m Canadian, but they sure don’t treat me like a neighbour), so what makes me motivated to join a company where I will lose everything and get kicked out of the country, and the CEO makes millions, if the company fails.

Russell Beattie has 400 pending Email messages. [here]
I have heard other bloggers complain of this as well. [here and here and here]
I can’t remember a time when I have received more than 5 Emails in a single day. Most of those are automated server messages telling me when backups are complete, etc.
I’m not complaining. I remember when I worked in Tech Support (before the Ticketing System was installed) that my inbox was always full. But I learned quickly how to delegate, reply succinctly, and be verbose when the situation demanded it.
I know I don’t get 100,000+ visits a day, and have adoring fans and vitriolic enemies, but to have an Email backlog like that is truly astounding.

Hakon Lie, CEO of Opera, nails Bill Gates to the wall using his own claim to support interoperability. [here]
This is a brilliant rant on Microsoft and they’re lack of support (or half-baked attempt to support) Web Standards initiatives. MSIE is a six-year old engine, groaning under the weight of it’s own bloated code. Lightweight “skin” browsers using the MSIE engine can’t, and shouldn’t, save it.
I can’t wait to see MSIE 7, because no one is going to wait for Longhorn. By Longhorn MSIE’s market-share will have dropped below 50%.
Collaborate or die.

Hakon Lie Apparently said the same thing directly to Scoble. [here]
A more complete commentary here.