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SaaS Gets REALLY Serious - BTW, That's A GOOD Thing

SaaS finally hit the mainstream. That's the "software as a service" SaaS not sass, as in Marc Benioff is sassy or The Devil Wears Prada sass. There is now a SaaS Executive Council that is heaven sent in its mission for defining metrics and process/practice standards for the ondemand world - and that is hellbent on making sure that you know about it and getting the word out. That job falls to the newly named chairman of the SaaS Executive Council, Nick Blozan, who is also the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at OpSource - and definitely the right man for the job.

I have to admit, when I heard about the Council I was excited, because something like this is important to the acceptance of the on demand model for the mainstream - who ultimately have to be appeased and appealed to for anything to work - regardless of rebellious guerilla activity with the new business models. That's always been the irony of a rebel - of which I'm one and always have been. We're really looking to become the new mainstream - not stay on the fringes of the universe. Unless being a fringe player is appealing to your personal psyche - the idea is to put forth something that makes you a leading thinker/actor in the play before the play is entirely cast - or even written.

A SaaS Executive Council indicates a level of maturity that says okay, the rebels have seized the capital, now its time to form the government and create the new democratic institutions - at least in my metaphorical fantasy. The SaaSEC (I'm going to use this acronym because I can't keep writing the whole thing out. I toyed with calling it the SEC but that got scary) has some seriously heavy hitters working with it including IBM, salesforce.com, WebEx, Oracle, OpSource and about 45 some odd others.

What it's done so far is to define the beginnings of standards for business and pricing models, service level agreements, code architecture, infrastructure delivery, and a delivery model for the channel which is particularly interesting since the SaaS community views their channels very differently. For example, salesforce.com's channel is the AppExchange community and is more of an "ecosystem:" than a channel - very much in the mold (I know that salesforce isn't going to like this one) of Microsoft's approach - which, to both Microsoft's and salesforce's credit is very successful so far. NetSuite has a more traditional partner network as does RightNow. So what channel "best practices" and models are offered should be very interesting, given the dramatically different approaches and cultures that are involved.

Curiously, both NetSuite and RightNow have been only fringe participants in this council and I think they need to get their butts in gear here and fully participate. The SaaSEC needs them and they need it. Both of them are critical to the future of on demand and this council might not succeed without them, nor will they benefit by avoiding it.

There are other concerns that some have. One good article on this new bunch is visible at ZDNet by Phil Wainewright, who is generally supportive but has a few concerns. I'll let you go and find out what they are. Its a worthy and fast read.

Personally, I think this is a great move that all the on demand interested companies and leaders need to get onboard with. I suppose I have two concerns - both of which I addressed with Nick and both of which he answered well. One of which I'm not going to talk about the answer.

A Not So Insignificant Side Rant

First, the surprising fact that th SaaSEC is under the aegis of the Software Industry Information Association (SIIA). That was a bit of a shocker. I am not particularly impressed by the SIIA -ever since my stint in 2005 as a Codie Award judge for the CRM category. For those of you who don't follow this junk, the Codies are the ESPYs of the CRM world. For those of you who aren't sports fans and are geeks, the ESPYs are the Codies of the sports world - just kidding. The ESPYs are the Oscars for the sports world run through ESPN. The Codies are the same for the software world - or are supposed ot be.

My SIIA disillusionment came when my fellow judges and I had 27 or thereabouts entries to judge in the CRM category, of which, around 20 of them, by NO stretch of the imagination, had much to do with CRM. Not that they weren't cool products. Some were ultra-rad. But, all of us are pretty busy people. We were volunteers with little real upside doing it other than talking to the companies themselves and again, most of them weren't CRM related, and yet we in fairness gave them all time for demos - at least to see if we could find some CRMness in them. I suppose that this jives with the way the Oscars are chosen too, given some of the current and historic nominee choices.

Our job as judges was to pick 7 of them to go to the finals which would then be voted on by the membership of the SIIA - who are hardly particularly qualified to vote in all categories. So the consistent winner has been salesforce.com for the last two or three years. No surprise. Probably the most visible to the SIIA membership. The criteria to get into the category - pay, I think it was, $250, and say you're CRM.

Worse, when I was asked to do it again, I raised my objections and told the SIIA that I would be happy to work with them to establish standards for the CRM category. They gave it professional lip gloss and never got back to me - though they insisted they would.

So, all that said, imagine my surprise when I found that the SIIA was the umbrella for the SaaS Executive Council. Nick and I spoke on that subject and without going any further, he answered it well. So I'm now comfortable with that - though I still think they need to make the Codies more than a joke or forget them altogether.

More Of A Suggestion Than A Concern - Honest

My other concern was that there was no forward thinking group that would deal with the trends in the on demand world - at the point where that world is dramatically changing - and some of the trends could have huge impact on the best practices programs and approaches that the Council was trying to create and standardize. For example, as far as I'm concerned, there is a significant transformation going in on demand - SaaS is beginning, in places, to move toward SaaP. That means "software as a service" is morphing in some respects, to "services as a platform." Salesforce.com makes it clear that their mantra is exactly that - to be the ubiquitous platform for what Marc Benioff insists on calling the "Business Web." With players like SAP (who don't seem to be all that involved in the SaaSEC either - yet) and Rearden Commerce on the horizon of SaaP, this could significantly affect the processes, practices, technology architectures and distribution and deployment channels. Thus my question to Nick was, "where are the thought leaders?"

He was very animated (in a good way) about the idea of bringing thought leaders into the group to discuss the trends etc. I, of course, volunteered to be part of this organization. He and I are going to continue the discussion and I'll keep you posted on the final result.

I'm excited. Frankly, I think this is one of the better ideas for an organization that I've seen for awhile.

Its about time that the on demand cowboys buy a ranch and settle down to herd their cattle. The saloons will still be there for some, but hey, they've got a multitenant family to raise.

Technorati : CRM, SaaS, on demand, technology
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They Shoulda Waited

I promised on my latest podcast that I would report back to everyone on my "experience" at the Washington National's "Grand Reopening" of RFK Stadium this past weekend in a game on Sunday between the Cubs and the Nationals. The reason for this was that, in their zeal for improving the fan experience, for a last place team, they hired what is apparently a well-respected "customer experience management" firm (I HATE CEM as a term, though I admittedly use it in lieu of anything better at times), LRA Worldwide, though one that is unbeknownst to me, to train the Nats' stadium personnel in improving the "fan experience" at the ballpark.

For those of you who have been to RFK Stadium in recent years, "reopening" the ballpark is reopening the rift to hell - the ballpark is old, decrepit and has little charm beyond the team that's playing there - a team with little charm except for Alfonso Soriano, the astoundingly talented left fielding All Star for the Nationals - on his way to what may be the first 50-50 season in history - that's 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a single season, for those of you who aren't baseball cognoscenti.

Thing is, there is a new management. The Nationals, formerly the Montreal Expos, were owned until yesterday (or so) by Major League Baseball, but a management team headed up by real estate mogul Ted Lerner and Atlanta zillionaire (and Hawks NBA team owner), Stan Kasten, bought them and transferred $450 million in MLB coffers this week. So, in celebration of that, the Nationals, trying to get fans to the stadium despite their last place positioning in their division, decided to "reopen" the RFK sinkhole and at least they powerwashed it.

I'll give them credit. They tried very hard. Between outs they had constant giveaways and fan promotions, a new area for local cuisines and they did the aforementioned powerwashing. The announcer was funny with his pronouncements like "fans running on the field will be prosecuted and besides, how will it look when you tell your cellmate that you're in for running onto a baseball field?"

Not bad and he did a lot of that. Kind of the highlight of the thing.

The work of LRA Worldwide might have gone on - apparently they trained everyone for a single day in being attuned to the fans "thinking" and improving the customer ambiance via customer service training. But they get a C- at best, for any visible changes in stadium personnel. The only thing I can think about that might have represented their work was one of the staff who pointed us to our seat - remembered as an afterthought to say "enjoy the game."

Which I did, primarily because ex-Yankee Soriano hit a double and mammoth home run during the game. Otherwise, the experience was non-descript. Chances are if they needed such a vivid experience, even a CEM firm wouldn't help much because the state of the stadium doesn't encourage a new beginning or feeling of "new ownership" or renewal or anything but an old, old stadium with a last place team and fans who are lukewarm.

LRA either did a great invisible job or there wasn't much they could do. It was sad, because teams like the Philadelphia Flyers or the Yankees or the Red Sox or the Dallas Cowboys or the Packers generate a great deal of excitement when they are good or bad because they have the fans engaged in the experience and proud of the passion and commitments. They do what has to be done to make the fan part of the program. This was just a lot of marketing and polite behaviors (which was still welcome. The stadium staff were very nice) in a ballpark that will be replaced with a new one in 2009 in Washington D.C.

Maybe they shoulda waited until then to "open" rather than "reopen." Reopening the door to the bathroom doesn't mean it isn't a bathroom anymore.

Technorati : CRM, baseball, customer experience

Marketing Rules Are So....Unwritten - Get Used To It, Madison Ave. Mavens

I'm following up on my last blog entry because the more I thought about it and the more encouragement I got (thank you, Denis Pombriant), the more I thought about how unutterably clueless marketers can be sometimes when it comes to doing something out of the box.

Or even understanding what out of the box thinking is.

What makes that particularly funny (ironic funny, not ha-ha funny) is that the people in advertising - who are marketing people when it boils down to the ultra tar-like essence of it all - have a category of employees they call "creatives" and yet, the advertising world, which was the toast of Manhattan in the 50s and 60s - e.g. desire was created on "Madison Avenue" home of the major advertising agencies back then, is currently nearly helpless when it comes to identifying what the new customers are looking for.

Why Might That Be, Squire?

Well, other than the obvious one - that time passes us all by at some point in our earthly existences, I really can't answer that....
Okay, maybe I can.
First, big is no longer beautiful (I say that as a newly skinnified person, but mean it as in "big companies have a lot of bureaucracy and investment in "typical" practices a.k.a. "the way we do things around here," and that is exceptionally dangerous in an age where the empowered and young customers know what they want for themselves.

Also, ad agencies and marketing entities including some public relations firms, are used to the idea of creating demand, not capturing and aggregating it nor collaborating with their customers to create it. They are very oddly and yet, sort of comfortably, old school about their thinking.

Want Some Proof To Think About It?

If you're in the CRM industry (THAT I am), and you have some influence (I am told I do), you get bombarded by press releases and requests for meetings. It is the same formula for EVERY SINGLE PRESS RELEASE THAT I EVER SEE. It fits what I learned in Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism so long ago (in 1967-71 to be exact). "Who, what, when, where and why" have to be in the early part of every article/release -preferably in the first paragraph if possible. Don't believe me? Wait here a sec. I'm going out to Google press releases and will randomly pull down 2 or 3 of interest to you guys and highlight a few things. Hold on.................................................................................................Here's one that came up in a Google search of "CRM Press Releases July."

Microsoft Reports Fourth Quarter Results and Announces Share Repurchase Program REDMOND, Wash (WHERE). - July 20, 2006 - Microsoft Corp (WHO). today(WHEN)announced record fourth quarter revenue of $11.80 billion for the period ended June 30, 2006, a 16% increase over the same quarter of the prior year (WHAT). Operating income for the quarter was $3.88 billion, a 30% increase compared with $2.99 billion in the prior year period. Operating income for the fourth quarter included certain legal charges of $351 million, compared with $756 million in the prior year period. Net income for the fourth quarter was $2.83 billion and diluted earnings per share were $0.28, which included $0.03 of certain legal charges. For the same quarter of the previous year, net income was $3.70 billion and diluted earnings per s

Another random one......

First Rate Financial Locks In with Entellium

SEATTLE(WHERE) - July 18, 2006 - Entellium (www.entellium.com)(WHO) today(WHEN)  announced that First Rate Financial LLC (www.gofirstrate.com) has selected Entellium's hosted CRM suite(WHAT) following an intensive evaluation that included a head-to-head usability shootout involving Entellium and alternative hosted CRM offerings(WHY). Based in Bellevue, Wash., First Rate represents banks and lenders in six states.

Enough Already, What Do You Want Them To Do?

The first thing for a marketing expert to do is understand that while there will always be some traditional means of marketing like campaigns, analyzing the customer, segmenting and targeting specific customer groups, etc. the new customer has no interest in being appealed to as part of a social organization. They want what they perceive to be an authentic truthful relationship with a company that is providing them with personalized experiences that use, among other things, the products and services that the company that the customer is dealing with might provide to the customer's personal value chain/ecosystem.

Beyond that, I'm going to let you marketers out there listen to the wisdom of two other entities.

First Up, Business Week

In the July 24 Business Week, an article appeared as if by magic, "Your Attention Please" which needs exactly that. Here is what is perhaps the critical paragraph:

It's not just that media is splintering, as it has been for decades. The difference is that the Internet is thrusting that trend into overdrive. WIth every qick click, millions of people...are slicking and dicing media into ever-tinier little bits, just the nuggets they want and nothing more. And by the millions, they're reassembling them into personalized digital channels of their own choosing - all too often, minus the advertisements that sustain nearly all media today."

The article goes on to point out that most agencies and other media have no clue how to reach the "folks who don't sit still long enough to see or hear ads - and who use their iPods and TiVos to vaporize them instantly."

This, of course, as BW is so right to point out, is also an opportunity if you engage the one person micromarket that has its own personal value chain. The Long Tail approach to what constitutes markets. Thousands and thousands of niche markets that are aimed at creating an optimal experience that also provides the "marketplace" with the ecosystem it needs of goods and services to optimize tha personal experience. There are incredible numbers of examples out there. For a view of dozens of them, check out one of my favorites - Springwise, a group of 8000 dedicated "springspotters" who find the "long tail" trends out there and report on them weekly.

Second Up, Briefly, Me

I will tell you this, marketers. Who, what, when, where and why press releases, and mundane ads and appeals to an impersonal subcategory of some group of customers divided by income, geography or any demographic piece of info you care to throw up, just doesn't cut it anymore. I may be 56, with a college degree, living in Virginia, born in NY, with a good income, and married with no kids, but I'm also not interested in the same things that the rest of the 56 year old married college graduate professionals in the South who don't pronounce "R" are (or "ah"). The sooner you remember that, the sooner who can forget about who, what, when, why and where in paragraph one and remember that someone is going to read what you say or not if it addresses what they want addressed.

With that, our final expert is someone that some might know....

Introducing Marketing Guru: Natalie Bedingfield - Author of Classic New Media Text - Unwritten

Okay, so she's actually a pop star - but her song, Unwritten appealed to a lot of people and hit the charts pretty quick earlier this year. Aside from being talented, I think that you might want to LISTEN TO (not just hear) the lyrics both as a view into the head of a younger consumer and some really good advice on how you marketing pros can think out of the box. A few samples of the corpus of Natalie Bedingfield's marketing wisdom:

1. "I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined. I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned." (translation: Thinking out of the box means that you start with an "unwritten" page. Plus, this is how the creative, connected consumer thinks these days. Willing to be open and ready to try new and cool things)
2. "Staring at the blank page before you, open up the dirty window; let the sun illuminate the words you could not find." (translation: Shake out the cobwebs and free yourself up to be creative. Any reason that who, what, when, where, why have to be answered in the beginning?)
3. "I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines. We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way." (Translation: Good for her. Natalie Bedingfield, live like her!)
4. "Feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you; Only you can let it in; no one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips; drench yourself in words unspoken, live your life with arms wide open; today is where your book begins; The rest is still unwritten." (Translation, its up to you to think out of the box and not be afraid of it, you marketing mavens. Frankly, you have no choice, so welcome the chance to figure out the new opportunities and the new world that we're living in. They're worth a shot and even if you're not the pioneer of much so far, there's still a lot unwritten - so have a go at it. The customers are demanding that you do.)

As hokey as you might think that all is - it isn't. The lyrics aren't just those of a good song, but really are what its going to take in the marketing world. The universe of tradtional marketing is dead. The personalized requirements of those long tail micromarkets also known as individual customers are a great opportunity for those marketing leaders willing to admit that traditional marketing, advertising and public relations are, let's say, a lot less valuable than they were. Bult because, as Business Week makes clear, the new media approaches are still largely unwritten, opportunity abounds. A marketing company or person who lives with arms wide open will have a helluva chance to do something dramatic and hot. That's what marketing is when its exciting anyway, isn't it?

Sorry But There's So MUCH To Love Out There, Despite The Glitches

I'm sooooo sorry, I am. But I have an excuse for not posting for 5 days. My system crashed during a system restore. Nothing like good ol' reliable Windows XP Pro. A system restore that corrupted my system files which forced me to do an image restore (something I'm constantly working on in my day to day business too) that rejuvenated my system so that it appeared as pristine as the day I pulled it out of the box (Polywell - really good company though not flashy systems). Unfortunately, it didn't make me as pristine as the day as I came out of the box so to speak but one can't have everything, can one?

So forgive me. I know that nobody really thought twice about my missing cogent, pointed commentary but me, but I'll make it up to you, I swear. I got a plan in the works that I'm going to announce in a few days. Watch for a survey on this blog that I really beg you to take when its up.

The Empty Whitecoat Fills It Up Just Right

Chris Lawer, founder of the OMC Group, a company that seems to have some serious customer experience smarts, also has a blog - The Empty Whitecoat. This global citizen is a UK based insightful dude with a distinctly classy set of insights on marketing initiatives in the customer ecosystem (though he doesn't call it that. I'm still holding onto that one being mine). In his great July 15 blog entry, "Greatest Danger in Times of Turbulence" he quotes Peter Drucker: "The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday's logic." That, of course is the entire premise of Shoshanna Zuboff's book "The Support Economy," one that I highly recommend even if I still think the experience economy is a better term for it. The old business logic is broken; there is a need, nay, sirrahs and ladies of the court, a requirement to either fix it or replace it entirely. Given my leftist tendencies, I lean to the latter, but so do some of my more conservative buds in the industry -analysts or practitioners, doesn't matter a'tall which side of the spectrum you fall on or which job you have. The world we are living in when it comes to business life as a subset of living, the changes are critical - and need to be done now.

Lawer does a cool chart on the the differences between the old marketing logic - a product centered logic that's pretty much based on the world famed 4Ps. No, that doesn't mean People, Process, Pechnology and Powerpoint. Nor does it mean Practice, Practice, Practice +1. Its a classic marketing truism for the old schoolers amongst you - those who actually read the marketing texts in college -

1. Product


2. Price


3. Place


4. Promotion

The very fact that these 4Ps still have some credence in the 21st century indicates how broken the business logic is. The customers, in the 4P world, are the objects of a sale, rather than the subjects of a relationship and experience. The difference is enormous when it comes to generating customer love. Value creation, as Lawer rightfully states, in this old school or more accurately, out of school thinking is at the point of delivery. Meaning the central point of value is the product or service. Product attributes are the centerpiece of both tangible value (the product driven or even customer driven corporate ecosystem) and of the communications of that value to customers -which is where marketers come in. Their approach around the 4Ps suggests Walmart, not Proctor and Gamble (see my entry on Proctor and Gamble here), and Walmart, my friends, would be a bad role model for anyone in the universe - regardless of planetary origin.

So what are some of the differences that Lawer sees in the metaverse that we now are ensconced in?

What Lawer recognizes clearly is that value now resides with the customer and that this customer value is something that is personal in each case so that the offerings that marketing devises generates experiences that provide personalized (or in UK English "personalised") value. He also recgonizes that the customer's advocacy is dependent on what he calls "value-in-use" which is how marketing assists the customer in deriving value from ongoing and multiple interactions with the company and whatever it is that the company provides. Marketing becomes, in this customer ecosystem, the front end in the creation of this customer valued experience.

Lawer's thinking is in line with a contemporary model of marketing that has been gaining some ground recently called "service-dominant logic," apparently developed or at least championed by Robert F. Lusch, University of Arizona and Stephen L. Vargo, University of Hawaii at Manoa, and in a somewhat more obvious (to me anyway) overlap, also supported by Mohanbir Sawhny, a Northwestern University (my alma mater) professor known for his CRM writings in at least the academic world.

The basic concept is that all companies are services companies. Customers buy offerings that create services.

"In the service-dominant logic of marketing the focus is on processes and continuous flows. This view of marketing embraces collaboration and co-creation of value. Rather than firms marketing to customers they market with customers and all partners in the firms value network." (Vargo & Lusch, 2004)

Further, they think that the experiences and services need to be co-created by the customers, though that may not be entirely the way they see things. Actually, it is more that the customer is involved in the creation of appropriate services for themselves and that the customers can maintain their own service offerings to a large extent.

None of this has not been said or rather, all of this has been said before, but this is the first time I'm seeing it applied to marketing per se. Lawer hits on the fundamentals here. The customer is the center of value and valued experiences are how advocates are created. The 4Ps are dead. Long live the 3Cs - creativity, content, co-development.

Technorati : CRM, customer experience

On Demand Means Right This Second, Even for Microsoft

SearchCRM today covered Microsoft's announcement that they'll offer on demand services in the second quarter of 2007.

This isn't a particularly surprising announcement. They've mentioned that their multitenant architecture, code named Titan, was due out in 2007. Apparently, they confirmed that they are offering the on demand version of their CRM 3.0 product by second quarter of 2007 at the worldwide partner conference, which confirms the next year release date of Titan. They also announced they would continue to offer the on premise version, and partner hosted services.

Liz Herbert, a Forrester analyst who I normally agree with - well, most of the time - said,

"I certainly think it's going to shake up the landscape... Most vendors have already moved into this market, but for Microsoft, an advantage of coming in now is they can learn from the other vendors out there."

Under normal circumstances, I'd agree with this, but this isn't normal circumstances, nor is it a normal time. First, I thought, along with many others, Microsoft's entry into the CRM marketplace would "shake up the landscape" when they entered the market. And while they have been successful, wtih 7000 customers and 180,000 users, they didn't come anywhere close to shaking up the marketplace - though I'm glad for their success. Their product is a high quality and comfortably familiar in look and feel - if you find Outlook comfy - but shake, rattle and roll, they didn't. The release glitches that led them to go from version 1.2 to 3.0, skipping 2.0 along the way (probably for the better, given the use of 2.0 as a metaphrase these days to mean anything forward-thinking at all) didn't help and their slowness to respond to salesforce.com and others who competed in their sweet spot space, didn't help.

That's also why Liz Herbert's comment about "learning from other vendors" is so puzzling. That used to work back when the browser was Netscape, the word processing program was Wordperfect and the spreadsheet was Quattro Pro (or whatever it was) and PS/2 was an operating system, not a soon-to-be-obsolete game console. But the Light Speed that so often gets associated with Einstein and my book is not just a phrase anymore. Google, Yahoo, salesforce.com and a billion dollars in research expenditure by "Singin' in the Rain" elephant dancing SAP, have sped up the need for speed a lot. Learning from the other vendors isn't a viable strategy in the on demand, "do it now and first" world that Forrester's world of "ubiquitous technology" (they see it in 2008; I see it now) requires. That's because:

1. The financial cost of a mistake is less than it used to be.
2. The williingness of a customer to wait for what they need is a lot shorter a time than it used to be - because they CAN get it elsewhere very conveniently.
3. By the time that they release their services in 2007, the other on demand vendors will have expanded considerably. For example, look at the growth of saleforce.com's AppExchange or the release of NetSuite's Ajax enabled Version 11.0 or the acquisition of SalesNet by RightNow who is repositioning around the customer experience. And THAT is all just since April. Do you think they're going to wait around while Microsoft catches up and learns from them? Don't think so. That ain't the way to have fun, son.

So Liz Herbert's comment reflects what was, but not what is. I'd love for Microsoft to succeed. I'm a fan of their products and of Bill and Melinda Gates' great humanitarian efforts. But, I would be concerned, very concerned if I were Microsoft. While the three offerings are important to their future, their future is going to be determined in their present - not sometime in 2007.

Wired For Wireless Failure - Again

CRM Today reported, interestingly enough, today, that Jupiter Research did some, interestingly enough, research, and found that mobile communities are emerging as a strategy for wireless carriers to drive data usage. The widely covered press release (I saw it in about 30 other locations from June 29 through now), says that "consumers experience mobile communities on their computers for free and expect the same on their cell phones. A focus on consumer experience, not revenue will assist adoption of mobile community services in the near term." Julie Ask Research Director of Jupiter (the company, not the planet - she'd be the Empress of Research if it were the planet), said "Shifting familiar online experiences to the cell phone and enhancing them with location, messaging, personalization and presence has emerged as a popular though unproven streategy for wireless carriers to drive data usage."

Very interesting, a bit disturbing though, since the wireless carriers problems exist far beyond their inability to drive data usage. The idea of an improved customer experience in their case should be driven not by the increased data usage it modestly promises, but by the fact that most people HATE them.

They tend to be remarkably dense on this issue.

Wonderful CSRs + 9 = I Hate Cingular

A couple of years ago, KANA sponsored a webinar I did on "Knowledge Management and Contact Centers" that was "attended" by 210 people. It was a wonderfully successful event. I spoke for 20 plus minutes on the subject as a thought leader (which I think really translates to "they think I'm a leader...little do they know...) and it was good. During that webinar, I outlined this experience I had with Cingular when I migrated from AT&T Wireless to Cingular (who, of course, owned them) so I could get a Windows Mobile Smartphone (since replaced by a Blackberry). I thought the migration, since it was the same company, would take about 10 minutes and $18. It took 9 hours, 7 customer service representatives and somehow cost me $175.00. My point in that particular part of the webinar was that all seven customer service reps were unfailingly polite nice people and every last one of them was wrong about what they told me. I told the phantom crowd online,"so the formula was, 7 unfailingly polite representatives = I HATE CINGULAR!"

The next day a VP of Customer Relations who's name escapes me called me to say that she had heard that I had trashed Cingular on the webinar and what could they do about it to make it up to me?

My response was "fix the way your company works with its customers." I offered my CRM Consulting services to them as a FREE OFFER and she was, like, "Oh, that would be great. I'll get back to you soon." and I was, like, "yeah, okay, sure." And she was, like, "no really." And I was like, "okay, I'll be waiting. Bye."

I still am.

The point here is that mobile communities to drive data usage are a pretty short sighted way to view the customer base. They are a lot more than just another revenue squeeze. Here is an industry that is worried sick about the churn rate, but they forget that they're churning customers, not butter. If the way they see mobile communities is strictly as a revenue strategy, then I still hate Cingular and all those mobile companies that think that way - even if they are unfailingly polite in the way they grind our expectations as customers into the dust.

Happy Holiday - Signs of the Customer Ecosystem (SOCE)

This one is a quickie. Got some random thoughts to throw atcha.

SOCE #1 - If You Need Stamps, Go Online To www.usps.gov., To Your Local Post Office Or To Yankee Stadium

The Post Office, of all places, has had an excellent both marketing and CRM program for a long time. They recognized that they had to be competitive with Fedex and UPS among others or they would fail to please or compete and the taxpayers would be hit with the charges. They have done everything within their power to propagate CRM - and they do it quite well. They send out customer feedback surveys, they have a CRM related magazine that identifies the value of CRM and postage - and they do a damned good job of it too. But the winner of all winners is going to be on July 15, 2006. That day, they've announced that they are going to release a new baseball stamp issue that features the Yankees baby boomer total hero and my childhood GOD Mickey Mantle (okay, okay, STILL...), Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella, of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Hank Greenberg, HOFer, Detroit Tiger, raised in the Bronx, greatest Jewish player ever (my uncle - don't I wish?) and Mel Ott, NY Giant HOFer and slugger. (Note the NY theme in this?).

What makes this totally cool and a SOCE (sign of the customer ecosystem) is that the first 18,000 people who attend the Yankees- White Sox game at Yankee Stadium that day will receive one of the first day issue stamps - I'm assuming Mickey Mantle. I mean, they are releasing a stamp issue at Yankee Stadium. As Mel Allen, great Yankees HOF announcer used to say, "How 'bout that?"

SOCE #2 - Springwise & YOUNIVERSAL Branding

My buddies who I never met at Springwise/Trendwatching have come up with another intriguing idea they call YOUNIVERSAL branding, which is a trend toward personalization of cyberspace, that can manifest itself through corporate branding inside of games. So for example, in NBA 2K6, over two hundred of the NBA stars wear their specific and real looking Nikes on the court, swoosh and all. The idea is that if you're going to spend some time "living" in cyber-reality, why not advertise in both subtle and overt ways?

But this extends even further into clothing stores for avatars, those "I wish I could REALLY be like this but this is an okay substitute if I'm online I guess" creatures that you customize to your fantastic imaginations. Think that's weird? Well, American Apparel opened a store online at Second Life to sell clothing to avatars and will sell 20 different "avatarian" (my word) outfits for the stylish byte in you. The cost will be about a buck U.S. per outfit (though in Second Life currency, one must presume, musn't one?).

The value is clearly not monetary, though there is a buck to be made. Literally. The value is in product awareness.

My favorite company, Proctor & Gamble, did it with a game called London Taxi Rush Hour, where you could run your taxi (no tipping necessary though I would) through a Proctor & Gamble-branded carwash called Flash. According to GameDailyBiz (and trendwatching) "P&G (got) a 60 percent increase in product awareness."

So there is value in the fantastic.

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Lessee...Roxio CD Creator 8.0, Norton Internet Security 2006, Logitech V400 Notebook Mouse and Oh Just Throw In Netsuite CRM+ And Maybe That ERP Thingy

I was reading Denis Pombriant's blog t'other day and came across his thinking on the NetSuite - CompUSA deal. which, to sum up in a word, he called "shrewd." I not only think he's right, but that he might even be underestimating it. While probably not in the realm of a "disruptive innovation," the term that Clayton Christensen, author of "The Innovators Dilemma" and "The Innovator's Solution", two of the more important books that don't appear on the left side of this blog and should, used to identify those technologies that overturn the existing market technologies, I would classify it as a "very very smart (and creative) move" and certainly is the first of its kind.

When I first heard it, I thought, how in the world.....? Certainly, software has been sold in retail outlets forever from Quickbooks to ACT to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. But how do you sell service on a retail shelf? Do you create a NetSuite box with a picture of a hot woman smiling pointing to a dashboard and leave it empty and give it shelf space? Its not like selling Norton Internet Security 2006 or something which is software that has a subscription attached. You can't really sell the browser - I mean you can, but Microsoft or Mozilla might get mad. So what are you providing at retail? Air?

Then I found out the deal. NetSuite, a former client, didn't brief me on this (though I think they tried and I didn't pick up the signal being oblivious to things like this), which was oddly depressing in an "I don't get depressed actually by not getting industry briefing" sort of way. So I'm relying on secondary sources and their press release to get this info. But I have to admit, I really admire this one. Its a great experiment with a certain amount of real risk attached AND a smidgen of panache, They are taking a chance with something that could be fabulous for them - or slap them right in the face - real hard. I think it will succeed and probably has salesforce.com and Right Now chomping at the bit at the moment. Though, of course there's no reason those guys can't do it too. Best Buy is still showng off its six pack abs - though some flab is appearing. But the appeal isn't gone yet and no one locked them up as far as I know

The Deal

So here's the deal.

1. NetSuite and CompUSA will roll out at 10 stores in Connecticut & NY July 27 with a pilot.
2. All of CompUSA's 1100 SMB sales reps will be able to sell NetSuite tout de suite. That's "immediately" for those of you who are just not as erudite as I is. You're just so crudite.
3. Post-trial (after Connecticut and NY closing arguments), the deal will be done at all 220 CompUSA stores that have business centers, which will highlight and demo NetSuite in the stores.

NetSuite business partners - a network they have been aggressively expanding over the last few months, don't suffer here either. The partners will both get residual money from the sale of NetSuite at CompUSA and typically will be the solution providers for the CompUSA-purchased "implementation." So this seems to be a win-win for all involved.

What makes this particularly shrewd is that NetSuite just extended its sales team by 1100 members making it easily the largest in the on demand world. Granted, this sales team won't only be selling NetSuite products but who cares about that? They WILL be selling NetSuite products, where they weren't before and NetSuite comes up smelling really good here.

My only question is a little nitpicky I think and in the grander scheme of things, not critical.

When I attended the launch of their groundbreaking version 11.0 (AJAX enabled) which I wrote about here, I thought they made it clear that their strategy was to go after the upper end of the midmarket - which, as far as I can tell, is hardly the people and businesses that would use CompUSA for their IT needs. But that said, who am I to say that? I don't know that. I'm just speculating. I'm not Nostradamus except in my approach to generalities and forecasting, so I don't know - maybe $500 million companies do use CompUSA - but imagine the size of the shopping cart. "That'll be 2100 copies of Norton Internet Security, 1450 copies of MS Office, and a copy of Halo 2 for the Xbox 360." Its not a big deal, but I'm assuming the focus of this deal (as I've read) is on small and mid-sized businesses (I presume the smaller end), which is not what they said. But that is only a curious fact. Frankly, if I was faced with an opportunity like this, I'd do exactly what they did. Make it happen. That means that they are doing something that is as Denis said, shrewd and I think of breakthrough potential for their market share.

I'll tell ya. While there is some risk here - simply because its never been done before, it is also a great move - because its never been done before. Thinkin' big, NetSuite. Very shrewd, very cool. I'm definitely gonna be watching.