PGreenblog

Tools to Talk & Do Anything But Converse By - Mobile Social Media

There's a mindset and level of effort that's necessary when you're writing a long book with a short deadline that can only be defined as "obsessive." As I'm writing CRM at the Speed of Light's 4th edition (does anyone mind if from time to time in posts in the future I refer to it as either CRMSOL4 or "the book."?), I'm finding that I'm getting immersed into a 24 hour, 7 day a week sticky cloud that allows me to do things other than the book but only when I'm thinking about the book during that time. In other words, I'm writing, writing, writing, writing, getting a haircut (thinking about writing something in particular, or someone who I need to get involved in the book - just thought of someone actually....back...I had to put his name on my To Do list), writing, writing, driving (thinking about something CRMSOL4....), writing, doing a blog entry (thinking about "the book" related stuff)....

What I'm also finding is that in order to be mobile for the writing of this book and to engage resources and to hang out with friends at least the digital ones during this obsessive, immersive period (to end August 10), I'm relying more and more on tools that are actually voice-related to do my work and to be more effective. They are translation tools for the most part that involve speech to text and they allow me to take care of tasks both book related and "necessary to let people know I'm alive related" - most are mobile and are favorited on my iPhone (and will be on my new 3G iPhone come July 11).

Here's what I'm using and for what. Links will get you to them. They aren't all just iPhone apps. They are universal. They happen to work on the iPhone among others.

Cha Cha - This is an amazing service. Phone a number that you get after you register and you have a search engine that runs with human beings. Here's how it works. You call the specific number you get - a local number - ask a question of an automated response thingee. A human agent then researches it. You then - in a few minutes to an hour or so - get an answer via SMS to your question. For example, I was out with someone and told them that my wife and I are going to walk the Great Wall of China next summer. She asked how long the Great Wall was. Good question. I called up Cha Cha, asked them that, and within minutes had a text message saying it was 6400 km (4000 miles) long. Just-like-THAT. They've only failed to answer one question - though it was kind of important. It was "Are there any tornado warnings out in Fairfax County, VA now?" They didn't answer it. Kind of important since I was driving through it. Turned out there was. Maybe it was better I didn't know at the time....

Twitterfone - This one works better than expected. I simply hit my favorited number - it dials up to some location - I leave a short message. It shows up on Twitter. Thus I can query my Tweet-buds or simply vent or do whatever it is I do on Twitter. Works great for that.

Utterz - This one is new to me but works like a charm. I used to do Audioblogs but the service I used kind of went away. Now I can do it again. I can audio blog for free with Utterz and post text and video that will associate with the blog's audio entry if I do it within 10 minutes of the time I recorded and "published." Again, I call a phone number and I go for it. Works great and there are multiple ways to use this one - and multiple channels to access it.

Jott - This site translates my voice into email to particular people or groups or to messages to social sites friends. In a Twitter exchange between uber editor of CRM Magazine Josh Weinberger and social customer king of dudes Chris Carfi, Chris suggested using Jott to do rough emails that you send to yourself to edit when you get home. Hat tip (as Mr. Carfi would say) to Chris on this. Again, a very useful function.

All of this is usable while driving, though of course only if you're hand's free. Safe driving. Ahem.

I'm now thinking of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred to help me with some of the book too. That's on premise but hell, anything to capture random thoughts in a way that makes this easier. Not sure of that one yet, but use the tools above. They are genuinely awesome and totally cool. Impressive in how accurate they are. Now if only I could be that accurate when I write this damned book.....

Technorati : CRM 2.0, Cha Cha, Jott, Twitter, Twitterfone, Utterz, mobile, productivity, social media

Oracle? Oracle? ORACLE?

Yes Oracle. I was on a call today with Oracle. And while I can't reveal the content of the call until March 11, 2008 at some unknown AM time, nobody said that I couldn't talk about the form of the call. So I will. It was a call run by Anthony Lye, SVP of Oracle CRM. It was a bloggers-only call. Yes, only bloggers were on it. It was run as if it were a journalist call or even to some extent an analyst call. I don't know how many bloggers were on it but it was, to my knowledge, the first time a major CRM vendor (or for that matter, any CRM vendor, large or small) treated bloggers the way they should be treating them - as influencers who might have an impact on the vendor's products, services, and company. So, once again, I'm stunned by a good move by Oracle (though not particularly stunned that its a good move by Anthony Lye - he seems to be making a lot of them) - that's two in the last 4 months (which totals two in the last 4 years) and on March 11, I'll be, I think, making that three.

Ha! Betcha Can't Top THAT, A-Rod!! CRM Blog of the Year

My great buddy and soon to be co host of "The CRM Playaz" (check out the Experience on the Edge postings for a time and date coming soon!!), Brent Leary, pointed out to me that InsideCRM had done its top 20 CRM blogs for 2007 and I won!!! That is awesome. I'd like to thank my wife, my mom and dad, my brother, my three cats, and....oh wait, you know who I can't leave out and is first in my heart....wait a minute. Where's the podium? Why aren't they playing "You Light Up My Life?" Sigh. While I may not have a bronze statue, I DO have a JPG file and I really am pleased about this. I'm pleased to be in the company of others in the top 20, like Denis Pombriant (#2), Brent Leary (#3), and Chris Carfi (#5), Dick Lee (#9) and Graham Hill (#12).

Here's the top 5 winners, the InsideCRM descriptions and the links to all 20 (thanks to Chris Carfi for suggesting this approach)

1. PGreenblog: Paul Greenberg literally wrote the book on CRM (CRM at the Speed of Light, which he's currently revamping for its fourth edition), and his blog is heavy on posts about the potential of technology - especially Web 2.0 technology - to revolutionize the way companies relate to their customers. Greenberg's blog has enough readership that he can tap into a wealth of expertise for topics such as his "iPhone CRM Bake-Off," in which he analyzed CRM applications on the Apple Inc. gadget based on the experience of actual users - the best lab setting you could hope for. Greenberg is also an entertaining writer, and he lightens up the blog with posts about music or the New York Yankees every so often.
2. Beagle Research Group: Dennis Pombriant's blog is strong on insight into the CRM industry and has a solid technological background, but it never becomes so technical that the average salesperson couldn't benefit from it. He's adept at spotting trends before they hit the radar; a good example is his recent series of posts about governance, risk and compliance software and its inexorable slide from the back office into CRM. He also maintains a market researcher's insane trade-show schedule, so the blog serves as a great source for nuggets that shake loose at the industry's big events.
3. Brent's Blog: A consultant in real life, Brent Leary is committed to working with small businesses to help them harness the power of CRM. His blog not only dwells on the latest trends and which of them SMBs should pay attention to, but it serves as a clearinghouse for his many guest appearances on Webcasts, podcasts and other blogs. If it's Web 2.0 and collaboration ideas you're looking for, it might be smart to listen to a blogger who's enthusiastically engaged in using his ideas to build his business. Leary is that blogger.
4. Philip Richardson: Microsoft Corp. Lead CRM Program Manager Philip Richardson certainly has his biases (as should all good bloggers), but he comes about them honestly. In addition to supplying a host of tricks for tweaking Dynamics and access to all manner of useful materials for anyone who works with or is considering the Microsoft solution, this erudite Australian also uses his CRM-motivated travel schedule to maintain a virtual guidebook to the upscale coffeehouses of the world.
5. The Social Customer Manifesto: There's not a lot of technological how-to here, but there's plenty of smarts on display about the art of connecting with customers in the era of Web 2.0. Christopher Carfi thinks his way nimbly around emerging trends - lately, he's been exploring VRM (vendor relationship management), a reciprocal concept to CRM that puts customers in charge of how business is done. This is a blog that you need to read if you want to know how you'll be selling in 18 months.

1. 6. Project VRM Blog
   7. Etelos Blog
   8. Enterprise Web 2.0
   9. Customer Alignment Blog
   10. The CRM Consultant
   11. Jim Berkowitz's E-Journal
   12. Customer Insider
   13. Aplicor Blog
   14. The 1-To-1 Blog
   15. First Coffee
   16. Fred Chong's WebBlog
   17. Software as Services
   18. IVR Blog
   19. Wireless CRM Blog of John Carini
   20. CRM Views
   
   

Thanks again to InsideCRM and all my fellow bloggers. You've made my holiday!!!

Technorati : CRM, InsideCRM, PGreenblog, blogging

Gartner CRM: A Kinder, Gentler Assessment Part I, Day 1

I love seeing old friends. I get to hang with them and do stuff with them and have a drink and exchange family and business notes and see what the latest things they are doing are and all in all, having been around CRM a pretty long time at this point, I gots lots of people to see and hang out with.

That said, I don't like old knowledge or long time (already run through a good burr grinder) information. When I came to Gartner this year (which started today), I was wary about whether or not I was going to hear knowledge from the ancien regime or.....

I am happy to say, that while I recognized a fair chunk of the face, the clothes were nicer, the limbs and bodies were toned and the selection is considerably better than last year. Which means not only has Gartner apparently done its work, but they are starting to GET it.

First some numbers and a little bit of color. About 550 plus people, ranging from of course vendors to customers to analysts to people of unknown interests. Only salesforce.com and Netsuite don't seem to be here at least as far as the majors go - salesforce.com because Dreamforce is going on simultaneously and NetSuite, well, I'm not sure why they aren't here - though I'm sorry not to see them. Love those folks. But RightNow, Microsoft, SAP, Aplicor, Oracle, Neocase, SugarCRM and a myriad of others are well represented by booths and attendance and there is an exhibit hall, which is doubling as the place to chow down, a clever use of space in this lovely hotel - The Westin Diplomat in Hollywood FL.

The venue is gorgeous and convenient and right nearby are restaurants of serious quality and other ones that are great for football - Rivals the latter, and Nikki's Marina the former.

Interestingly the mood is low key but optimistic around here. I can't say its bursting with excitement or flair but the crowd is pretty much interested in furthering the CRM cause and also figuring out both how to use it and where to go. Coupled with that is a number of surrounding events related to the conference though not OF the conference such as the official launch of MyCRMCareer.com today - which I am thrilled to say - went off without a hitch. Gartner has been generous in working with MyCRMCareer to help the launch along and all the conference attendees are going to be able to become members and vendors can participate for the most part for free until the end of the year.

But enough on that for now. While much of what I heard, I've heard Gartner speak of before, there were a seriously interesting number of new kinds of presentations that not only acknowledged the changes in the world of business and itscustomers, but at least began to establish a methodology to both define a customer experience or establish the terms of the new business ecosystem. So for example, there were presentations on "Selling in a Web 2.0 World" and "Using Consumer Technology in Your Business." In fact, in the latter, the Gartner analyst, Isher Kaila clearly stated that the customers control the business environment, a very important concept that isn't often recognized by the analysts out there.

The attendees so far in conversation seem to be pretty happy with the content. One, a customer from a company who's name I had a hard time reading so don't remember, said that they had been taking copious notes on particularly how to deal with senior management when dealing with a CRM initiative.

One point, however, I heard twice during the day in two different presentations was an emphasis on using CRM to as a cost controller. While one of the analysts who said that indicated that this was something to basically tell the boss but not to really drive with because it would actually provide revenue benefit, the other seemed to think that this was some sort of driver for CRM - which I disagree with wholeheartedly. I don't even agree with setting a false expectation with the boss to get the project accepted, frankly. CRM is NEVER driven for any reason by its ability to save money. It can, but it may not. Its a costly ongoing programmatic initiative that benefits because it provides value to customers and in return receives value (in the form you hopefully are looking for) from customers.

Period.

In any case, that wasn't the primary focus of the conference. The trend toward customer experience and customer control of the ecosystem is really important here and that is day one in a nutshell.

I'm speaking this morning (day 2) at 7:30am and its 6:00am now so I've got to get ready. More later tonight and more detail. Unfortunately, I left a lot of my notes in a suite that Microsoft had after a meeting by Brad Wilson, so there are some details about yesterday I'm sure I"m forgetting. But I'll retrieve it later today and then if I did, let you know tonight.

Wish me luck.

Technorati : CRM, CRM 2.0, Customer Experience, Gartner Group

The New Influencers: A Proper Review

Ya know what? I don't do enough book reviews with this blog. I don't know why I don't. I can read. I swear I can. I can write. I write books. I love books. I think ebooks are okay but the thought of falling asleep with a laptop on my chest doesn't appeal to me much. My metaphors are clear as are my nasal passages and the neurons, synapses and segments of my brain which give me my cognitive capabilities, as limited as they might be.

So I have no excuse to not review books and I'm going to start today with one written by someone I highly respect, Paul Gillin and his "The New Influencers: A Marketers Guide to the New Social Media." This is something I should have done awhile back.

The good news is that the book is going into its second printing already and its only been out a few months. Shows what a great writer Paul is and what an important place this fills in the pantheon of marketing books.

Let's start by me making a blanket statement.

This is a terrific business book - not just a marketing book. Paul is both ahead of the pack and on the money (almost literally) in his intro:

"What's captivated me about social media is the extent to which new centers of influence have emerged in communities that have no rules, no governing structures, no standards and no hierarchies....Common sense says that a medium with so little structure should degenerate into chaos. But remarkably, exactly the opposite is happening. Complex patterns of governance are already emerging, driven by a set of shared values that are codified but just understood.....Powerful voices are emerging: people and groups who have the capacity to move markets and challenge institutions.....As each new voice is added, the community gets stronger."

This lesson shouldn't and can't be lost on either marketers or CRM professionals. The complexity of CRM 1.0 is being superseded but not eliminated by CRM 2.0 which is being driven by the social media and the democratization of voice that has been enhanced by the easy availability of both new tools and new channels for peer-to-peer and customer-to-company communications. It is powerful and while under attack from doubters and skeptics, pretty much unassailable at this point.

What Paul does just so damned well is make it clear what those channels are, how they influence, who they influence and who drives and/or participates in the channel. He takes a coherent and comprehensive look into not just what blogs, podcasts, social networks et al. are all about (especially the prior two) but also who the leaders are, what the standards and behaviors and value systems that are emerging as their the social media increases its impact and complexity, how the influence works and what marketers can do - including an all too brief look at the actual tools - to make this a part of their portfolio.

One thing he cautions marketers (or marketeers - or mouseketeers?) and PR people about though is that blogging and podcasting are tools in an arsenal that provide some exciting possibilities for those selfsame marketers and PR folks. But they are TOOLS, not substitutes for high caliber creativity and thinking.

He also has a few predictions that I think I'm going to reproduce right here with my comments on them right after so you can hold him to them (but not me to mine):

Predictions

1. The trend is unstoppable. "All the demographics are lined up to support that assumption." (While I think demographics can be lined up to support almost any assumption, I agree with Paul here)
2. Media institutions will matter less and less. "With the cost of entry so low, the need for institutions has diminished." (I'm not 100% in agreement here. I think that there will be new institutions that will be substantial, not just a few either. We're seeing that trend now with the dominance of the Facebooks beginning to take hold and the power of TechCrunch for being the market maker that Paul talks about earlier)
3. Very few traditional media will make the shift. "They are addicted to a business model that is increasingly irrelevant and they don't have the time or investor latitude to make the shift." (I agree for the most part, but I think a significant amount of the traditional media - the more recent variety like CNN or Gannett will be flexible enough in the long run - not the short - to make the transition. So will the NY Times... But on the whole, he's right.

This book is a must go get and read right now if you know what's good for you and your marketing (or CRM) career. Paul is not just a really smart dude and excellent writer, but he is an accomplished guy who was the chieftain of SearchCRM before he went to different climes and became both an independent consultant and the lead (or at least best) columnist for BtoB Magazine. He doesn't make mistakes so I think you need to read this (actually, now that I think of it, he did once make a mistake. He introduced me when he was emceeing a SearchCRM conference that I was speaking at - for free, if you can believe that - as "a pioneer in CRM." But otherwise, he hardly ever is wrong).

This is a FIVE STAR BOOK or 10/10 or whatever. I don't have a rating system. This book is a great experience. How about THAT as a review rating?

Just go get it.

Right now.

Technorati : CRM 2.0, Marketing, Paul Gillin, Web 2.0, blogs, podcasts, social media, social networks, user generated content, wikis

Ho Ho - Zoho....Uh....Notebook

I'm heading out to the Microsoft World Wide Partner event to see what's up in the world of CRM, Environments and Ecosystems. This is taking place in Denver, a city I know little about except that the Broncos are there and the Nuggets too. I was at the airport once and in the city for about an hour once and that's it. So it could be very cool just for another city notch on the belt. The Microsoft PR team has about 10 meetings set up for me with both Microsoft CRM leadership, some Microsoft Surface honchos and a couple of partners too. I'm going to get a good look at Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 - the first of the on demand versions and I'll send you a good, bad, or indifferent report once I get a good enough look at it.

So this will be my last blog entry until I arrive at the conference (BTW, they are expecting more than the 7000 partners who showed up last year). I'm also one of the participants in a webcast coming up at 2:00pm EDT on Tuesday, July 10 run by my buds over at RWD. Here's the link if you want to hear me and them about the customer experience - three questions answered on the spot. by me, Michael Thomas, CRM Association president and Gerhard Friedrich, customer-centered organizational change management star extraordinaire.

In the meantime, I'm starting something new. I know by now that you all know I'm going to write the 4th edition of CRM of the Speed of Light. I'm totally excited.

But in the spirit of the Enterprise 2.0 from the customer's view that the book will represent, I'm going to use the social media vehicles I have to do some things related to the book that I couldn't do in the past.

This is the first of them.

You might notice two things here:

1. There is a new category called "CRM at the Speed of Light, 4th Edition."
2. There is an embedded video below.

I'm going to preview some of my book technology and business selections on the site prior to publication ( tentatively, August 2008) so that you can see videos and hear audio that enriches your experience with them. They will be somewhat random, because I can't organize them by chapter yet. However, when I can, I'll add new categories that allow you to view the selections by chapter. But what you will be able to do is to go to the CRM at the Speed of Light 4th edition category on the blog and queue up the content that will add to the "reading experience" of the book. I may at some point aggregate it myself and move it to Vox and set up a site for readers to see premium content in addition to this multimedia extravaganza.

("We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band...We hope you will enjoy the show....")

In the meantime, I'm going to select technologies and businesses that will appear in the book - though they have no previous knowledge they are going to.

The first selection that's made it into the book so far is Zoho, if you remember one of my Steppin' Out Award finalists. What I have here is an explanation and demonstration of Zoho Notebook, done by Raju Vegesna, the Technology Evangelist of Zoho on Robert Scoble, blogger superstar's show, the ScobleShow last May. If not a game changer (and who's to say it isn't?) its at least an incredibly exciting tool for collaboration and communication. I'll defer to the book for a longer review, but one other thing - its also free!! Watch the demo, read the book, but here's the preview.

Technorati : CRM at the Speed of Light, Zoho, Zoho Notebook, collaboration

And On the 1st Day, He (Or She) Created A Social Network

A few weeks ago I wrote something on the social network aggregator sites, or the profile aggregators. I think that now that they have their "stuff" fixed, they had some problems, Profilactic is probably my favorite for the moment, including, of course, the name. But that's not why I'm doing this entry. I'm now going to look at the sites that do the "create your own social network" thang.

What's particularly interesting about these sites is that each of them, as DIY as they are, are each organized around a different paradigm. For example, Vox is "build your own social network around a rich media blog"; while Wikia is "build your own community around a wiki." Where, Ning and Tribe.net (acquired by Cisco) are build your own community around your....ummm (or as they say in the UK, "erm"), your community.

Lessons for the CRMer in You

Okay, once again, I'm going back to where I have to explain myself because I'm honestly not 100% sure that those who have read my stuff know why I'm driven to make the point squared about the Web 2.0 technologies. I've spent many a year (since 2003) saying CRM isn't a technology it is a "philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a system and a technology, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment."

Okay, the skeptics amongst you say, what's that got to do with the Web 2.0 technologies?

Well, buds and buddesses, here's the scoop. Web 2.0 provides the enabling technologies for CRM to to continue to improve human interactions in the current business environment - one in which the customer dominates the ecosystem. That means the technologies that CRM utilizes are no longer just the historically operational creatures they once were (remember the late, lamented META Group's "operational, collaborative, analytic" definition of CRM?), but now have to provide the means for customers to engage. That means that CRM is not just the way businesses manage their relationships with customers and make them good, but CRM must also provide the tools to help the customers engage with them - especially since the customers are using similar tools already for personal productivity and for the improvement in the quality of their personal value chains a.k.a. their lives. Enterprise 2.0 thus becomes businesses providing the means to capture what the customers are already doing on the outside. If they can provide the appropriate tools from their internal coffers, the businesses stand to gain the advocacy of their customers.

Yes, they do.

Now On With The Show

Okay, the original topic.....

The sites I have below are the ones that, at least at this point, have some real chops and provide you with an easy means to create a community/social network, though not with all the enterprise functions that say a Neighborhood America (customer to company enterprise-level social network) and Communispace (facilitated user community) provide. But these are for you if you're a consumer or as a small business (Brent Leary and Michael Thomas, take note, for Business for Technology Sake) - as long as you can get used to their approach, which differs in each case. I'm going to provide a 10 point simple rating based on simple criteria - some subjective (do I like the look and feel), some based on what I think are benchmark requirements for a social network - e.g. comments, ability to add friends (in business lingo, colleagues, partners, customers, prospects, etc.); some way to show presence (e.g. Twitter like or IM like features); ability to upload and display rich content; provision of social media tools like blogging, wikis, for participants; and several others). The other criterion will be business feasibility, whether or not they have been built for that or not. Sorry. Tough luck. It can be small business though which is almost like a person, right?

Wikia

This one has a lot of buzz. Founded by Jimmy Wales, creator of Wikipedia (see "Jimmy Wales, God or Man? If You Don't Know, check Wikipedia." Don't REALLY go there. I made that up.). Its framework is the one that's familiar to Mr. Wales. The wiki. Which makes a lot of sense and its why Wikia is doing pretty well at last count - apparently (according to their stats machine) about 30,000 plus contributors per day and a steady growth month over month of between 5% and 10% since the beginning of the year. The value here is that wikis are a great collaborative tool to develop increasingly deep knowledge of a subject, or to solve problems. Plus they provide some of the standard features that you would expect of a social network - ability to comment, ability to share rich media, etc. But the interface doesn't truly meet the standard for true interactivity in real time. Though all told, its not bad. But these are communities of interest, nonetheless, organized around topics and unlike most social networks, you can edit what other members are saying/writing/doing. So for a start, this is not the worst place to go.

PGreenblog Rating: 6/10

Ning

This is arguably the standard. Not only do you have what seems to be an Ajax-enabled or Flex-enabled drag and drop capability for this that makes the steps to setting up a social network easily, but it provides you with all the features you could conceivably want (or not) that range from RSS feeds to all kinds of rich media and whatever else you could conceive of, including community forums. You can even import your favorite widgets and all the associated functionality. You can entirely customize the look and feel. Because it really is easy to set up a "professional" looking social network, there are now 70,000 Ning-created social networks and counting since October 2004, when Gina Bianchini, their CEO, founded the company. This ain't a lightweight operation. Mosaic, Netscape and V.C. type and now Ning funder, Marc Andreessen is another mysterious - not figure behind the venture. The model for capitalist yumminess here is pretty conventional - they'll make money through advertising and premium services. Pretty much everyone in this space's model. But with 70,000 social networks, likely to succeed. Its-just-so-cool - even for someone who's 57 (me) and into CRM (me) and who can't beat anyone under 30 at a video game (me). If I were a small business....as Christopher Walken says in SNL's More Cowbell, I'd "explore the studio space."

PGreenblog Rating: 9.5/10

Best thing...check out this video on how to create a Ning social network, done by their CEO Gina Bianchini, and posted on The Scoble Show on February 27, 2007. It's worth spending the 12 plus minutes. Really.

Tribe.net and Five Across

What's interesting about this is who bought them. Cisco. In a manner of speaking, they are now part of Cisco's "human network" or more precisely their social media and web 2.0 strategic offering. (Incidentally, have you noticed how much "The Who" are being used for commercials and TV shows? The Cisco Human Network commercials AND CSI-NY use the same Who song "Baba O'Reilly." Check it out for Cisco's The Human Anthem and for CSI: NY - just watch the opening credits.). While they are very much a Netgen offering, they may or may not be bolstered for the enterprise by the other Cisco acquisition - Five Across which is a considerably more "robust" (I actually hate that word, but I'm being lazy right now) social networking platform (Connect 1.8 Community Builder is their most recent version). The issue is whether or not the integration of the two will be successful. On their own, neither of them is particularly spectacular, though they aren't bad either. Together, I'm guessing neither of them is spectacular, though I'm going to give them a "who in hell knows" for the moment. Its just so hard to see Cisco as a leader in social networking, isn't it? And its hard to see how a set of platforms built on different premises will integrate well. But what do I know? I'm just a Jewish guy from Long Island.

One interesting subfeature: when you set up your community, apparently you're given a geographic URL. So mine would start with "washington.tribe.net." Not sure how much that really means but its interesting. Isn't it? No?

PGreenblog Rating:INCOMPLETE

Vox

You'll note the URL for this blog. Its http://the56group.typepad.com. You see "typepad." That is the hosted version of Moveable Type (more or less), which along with Wordpress is probably the most comprehensive and best of the blogging software out there. The company that does this is SixApart. SixApart is a play-uh in the social media world. Vox is SixApart's venture into a blog-centered social networking platform that has very strong privacy controls. If you want limit the members of the community according to the your preferences and owner of the community - pretty easy to do. So if you want your friends to view X and your other friends to view Y and your family to view both X and Y, you can do that. Vox's approach is centered around blogging, but provides a rich media capability and easy "auto-linking" (more or less) for your favorite books, movies, restaurants, etc. In fact they encourage a "favorites" style by the way that they are set up. There is room (as in a blog) for comments, the interactivity is powerful and controllable. It is AJAX enabled so the creation of content is simple and fun actually. The business model? All free. They can do this because Typepad's premium services and ads generate their revenues as does the enterprise strength licenses for Moveable Type. The primary caveat is that this is blog-focused and you have to like that. I do. You might or might not. There are zillions of templates etc. to customize this thing with. All in all, very worthwhile, though if I were going to be a serious blogger who wanted a public to be reading my blog, Vox is usable, but might be overkill. The whole raison d'etre of Vox is blog-centered community, not blog per se. Here is a very good review from PC Magazine last October.

PGREENBLOG RATING: 8/10

Of course, you can do these things within the ever popular Facebook, and MySpace too, and soon to be LinkedIn but they have been covered so much, I didn't particularly want to reproduce more of that. Facebook has an ecosystem of its own - coming to these pages soon. The key here is that for all the CRM readers - these are idea for small business and customer engagement. While they don't have the security features needed in large scale enterprises nor the administrative controls - that would be in the realm of Neighborhood America and clones of them to do - these are adequate for smaller businesses that are looking to somehow involve their customers in a low cost but useful alternative. Do NOT underestimate the value of a social network to a customer base that already probably has a Facebook or MySpace individual friends network.

But also, one warning. Despite the low costs of entry, maintenance costs, mostly labor time can be pretty damned high.

Technorati : Ning, Tribe.net, Vox, Wikia, blogs, social media, social network, wikis

Why Is The Sky Blue, I Mean the Customer Empowered, Daddy?

I'm just back from Bogota, Colombia where I was one of the keynotes at a remarkable CRM conference with an amazing crowd that I'm going to run down to you in my next blog entry. But before I do that, I want to throw something atcha.

Here's the deal. I got to wondering the other day: Has anyone done a study or even written on what made the social psychological conditions change so that consumers want to generate content, want to blog, want to participate in social networks and work on wikis with their fellow human. In other words, we all know that these new content distribution and communication channels are being embraced by the consumers out there but why? Why now? What's changed?

As I often do when I ponder the big pitcher (I KNOW its big picture. I'm kidding), I turn to my friend and a fellow CustomerThink guru and blogger, Graham Hill, who, as I've said before, is the only person I know who can show the coherent relationship between CRM and neurobiology without there being some academic punchline at the end of a joke. Here's Grahams answer, and, if you like what you read, he has a blog over at CustomerThink you should be a devotee of. Just click on this sentence to go there.

Tough question. A quick look at Pew Internet, Social Technograpics, social networking blogs and other information sources shows that the number of people engaged in Web2.0 activities is large and growing, particularly in younger age groups. Most of the research into why this is so identifies any number of reasons, e.g. the following paper - http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jpd/classes/ics234cw04/nardi.pdf- on why people blog. As Social Media2.0 are used more and more, Social Media1.0 are used less and less. Witness the fall of in TV watching, radio listening and newspaper reading. My own belief is that as humans are both self-actualising (we like to achieve difficult things) and social animals (we like to do it together), Web2.0 applications allow those of us with enough resources to do this more easily and more publicly. Obviously it doesn't apply to people living on 1 US$ a day, or trying to survive in war-torn Iraq, or even those who aren't Internet savvy, but it does to the rest of us. Indeed, looking at the number of communities typical young MySpacers belong to (), it may even be multipliying the behaviour. I don't think that our basic hierarchy of needs has changed (why would it in such a short period of time when human evolution takes generations), just that they can be more easily fulfilled through Web2.0. Why settle for talking with your friends about Arsenal football club down at the pub when you can talk to millions about it on the Internet too. And sitting in your undies in your bedroom at home too. As the famous New Yorker cartoon says, "On the Internet, no-one knows you're a dog!". The interesting effects will come when Web2.0 social applications are really available on mobile telephones. The most personal of personal devices. This will free social media from the tyranny of the fixed-location computer. Mobile telecoms penetration in W. Europe is expected to reach 100% this year (vs. US 65% this year). 70% is considered full penetration of the addressable market. Italy's penetration is 140%, i.e. everyone in the market for a mobile phone has one SIM card, 50% have two and 20% have three! Our family of four has six SIM cards!. And who knows what will happen when Web3.0 applications become available to mine web data and provide answers to natural language, context-senstitive questions and to manage the flow of transactions enabled by the semantic web but on the customer's own terms. I can just see intelligent bots scouring the web to put together that family holiday you always wanted but couldn't find easily in Web2.0. Or the same bots resident on mobile phones managing the flow of offers (information) the customer has enabled marketing companies to send them based upon their real-time location. The implications of the Semantic Web on Customer Business is something I am already starting to think about. It is somewhat mind-stretching to put it mildly. It won't be the web we know today that's for sure.

Thanks, Graham.

DIRECTV's Ellen Filipiak Takes The Floor

If you've been reading this blog at all you know that me and DirecTV have been at war for quite awhile - not just because they done me wrong, but because they have been a mess of broken promises, processes, bad policies, poor culture and a myriad of other "bads" that make for what for me (and many others) a miserable customer experience. Well, about two months ago (less than that, really) they hired Ellen Filipiak as the Senior VP of Customer Care to fix all of this. Starting today, and repeating every two months on the first of the month, Ms. Filipiak graciously consented to let us know how much progress and what progress they are making to transform DirecTV from its very broken state to a customer-centric company. So, take it away, Ellen Filipiak and readers, feel free to drop comments in if you think it merits it or send me an email and let me know what you're thinking if you care to be more private about it.

Ellen Filipiak

First of all, I want to thank Paul for his invitation to blog here over the next few months. As he recognized, I joined DIRECTV in April specifically because it is experiencing unprecedented change and its resulting challenges.This change presents so many opportunities - both for customers and the organization - to benefit from service excellence, and I am moving forward quickly to make that happen.

DIRECTV is positioned to be the market leader for HD programming this fall. One out of every four households has an HD-capable set, and they want HD programming. DIRECTV is best positioned to meet that demand. Honoring our commitment has taken a tremendous amount of preparation to get customers installed and ready to go when more HD channels arrive this fall. As a company, we could have managed customer expectations better earlier in the year.

By example, some months ago, customer demand for HD receivers put our service systems to the test. We managed available supply of receivers to meet the tremendous demand. Some customers experienced delays and frustration getting installed and that can have a cascading effect on service for those affected.

Also in the last year, we moved to a lease program for our receivers, rather than the owned model. This is a change, particularly for our longer term customers, from past practice. Our senior executive team regularly reads e-mails, forums and blog postings regarding this, and has challenged us all to respond better to questions customers have about leasing versus owning.

As Paul and others know, enjoying HDTV requires an investment by the consumer, in a television set, receiver and programming, and by us, in developing more advanced receivers, broadcasting equipment and programming content. Although customers do have the option of owning their DIRECTV equipment, leasing makes the receiver part of this equation more affordable for customers. Since we are sharing in that investment, we feel it's fair for us to ask for a service commitment, even from our long-term, loyal customers who choose to upgrade to HD. However, we do need to improve our communication with customers who obtain DIRECTV equipment from a retail location, to make sure they understand that the they are still operating under the lease model and do not own the equipment.

The good news is we have plenty of receivers in stock and with these new receivers, we have the ability to provide HD programming upgrades to customers' homes on a national level through our satellites. What this means for customers are fewer phone calls to make, fewer appointments to wait for, and new features to enjoy - such as new HD channels like the recently announced HD Discovery Channels, History Channel and Starz channels. DIRECTV also provides customers with access to interactive services such as NASCAR HotPass, and MLB Extra Innings SuperFan package as well as updates to the program guide or CallerID features at the flip of a switch. In fact, in recent weeks we have rolled out many updates to these receivers and that has significantly reduced calls and complaints - it's truly exciting to watch this happen so quickly.

I also recognize from talking with customers and employees that we have many opportunities to enhance the customer service we provide. With this potential in mind, I have identified several key priorities to address including:

• Resolving a customer's issue on the first call
• Ensuring our representatives have the training and systems they need to successfully assist our customers
• Make it easy for customers to get to the representative who can best respond to the reason they are calling
• Informing customers that there are many ways to get information and service from DIRECTV, including directv.com, for transactions such as paying their bill, viewing recent account transactions and ordering pay per view.

To accomplish these objectives, I am touring our call centers around the country in June to seek out the best of what this organization has to offer. Innovation is found on the frontline where customers reach out to a company - and this is where we will find our best answers.

Overall, I would like to see us continue to leverage the technology we are rolling out to simply the television viewing experiencing so that our customers can best enjoy the increasing variety of advanced television choices that DIRECTV offers.

I look forward to posting future installments here.

Thanks again for the welcome and we can all look forward to an exciting fall, a season of change for DIRECTV.

Ellen Filipiak

Senior Vice President, Customer Care

DIRECTV, Inc.

Ellen.Filipiak@directv.com

Technorati : Customer Service, DirecTV

Salesforce + Google = And Only God Can Make A Tree

The rumors are flying everywhere about a Google and salesforce.com's pending nuptials. They are going to merge, salesforce is going to be acquired by Google, they are partnering, they are having sex in multiple locations (don't have the link to that)- in public. They are pursued by paparazzi, they are harassed as they eat at Indigo Landing, they are....I can't say THAT!! In fact, the rumor will be put to bed on June 5 at a luncheon with Marc Benioff in SF that I'm invited to, desperately want to attend and can't because we have the CustomerThink formerly known as CRMGuru retreat on June 4-5-6 in Santa Clara - an annual event I look forward to every year. But, my prediction is straight up. Salesforce.com and Google announce a partnership that is aimed squarely at seizing the platform space from Microsoft - though they may not put it that way, given Google's dissembling propensity to say that they aren't competing with Microsoft. Something like Seinfeld's "and there's nothing wrong with that." If you want to read the straight scoop, check out Denis Pombriant's blog and his "annus mirabilis entry. As always, the best take on it all.

But the war is over platform dominance and the victor's spoils are dominance in the realm of what is more or less a composite applications platform. Most of the serious vendors have figured this out and are in pitched battles that are galactic in scope to win that one.

Huh? What's Platform Dominance?

The reason is that big bucks come to those whose platform rules. That means that whatever applications, services, and user interfaces you want, you can get it - on the platform you chose. All of a sudden it is not an SFA application, it is whatever you want it to be. It is not a social networking site, it is whatever you want it to be. It is not an enterprise application, it is whatever you want it to be. It is not a personal productivity suite or a search engine or a.... it is whatever you want it to be.

That means a BIG market, and LOTS of reach, and OODLES of dollars and TONS of customers (in the obese US market TONS means 10 customers - Ha Ha. Yuk. Yuk.).

Think about it, salesforce, SAP and Microsoft have long pushed the platform as a strategy. Companies like Above All have always been smart, out in the forefront of the composite applications space. Last week at Software 2007, Steve Ballmer took the world's leading personal productivity suite (guess....) and magically transformed it into the Microsoft Office platform. Office became as the front end for Office Business Applications e.g. ERP as the back end. In fact, this platform play too was described as a platform for composite applications which I've written extensively on.

These are wise attempts because he who rules the platform, rules the technology world. And the dollars associated with it.

Which made some of the other announcements of the last two or three days more important but less melodramatic than the Googleforce (or salesoogle, which I like better) buzz.

First, salesforce.com announced SOA as a Service.

Second Facebook announced the release of a "social utility" platform that has enormous possibilities and makes me finally understand why they turned down a billion dollars.

SOA As A Service

When I first heard the term, I thought, hmmm, service oriented architecture as a service. Now what does that mean? I had no idea how you offered a web-services based, business-rules directed architecture as an on demand offering. But...

Well, the more I read, the more I observed and the more I thought about it, I realized that what salesforce.com is actually offering is a composite applications toolkit using Apex, their programming language - meaning that Apex and APIs and other pieces will allow you to link the business rules and the data you have to multiple applications - either new or legacy.

Whatever it is, it is an important step for salesforce and another proof that the war ain't over. I'll do more down the road on this once I see what it actually can do. Right now, see the strategy, the big pitcher, the large kahuna and you'll see how SOA as a service fits into the Grand Schema of Thingsa.

Facebook Platform

Facebook's platform is essentially a set of tools to build services inside the Facebook "social utility" (for some reason, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, doesn't like being called a "social network." Don't know why....). That could be pretty much anything. That means that they could build a restaurant recommendation engine and peer review site that would link to the outside restaurants or they could build a. ummm, uhhh, how about, oooohhh, lesseee, mmmmm....here's what they have so far:

Not exactly a sterling collection of enteprise-strength apps, but I guess its a start. The important thing here is that while this is a nascent platform, it is a transition toward a similar direction that we see Google, salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft, Rearden Commerce, Above All, and a dozen other companies moving in - a drive for platform-dominance and agnostic services/applications provision on that platform. Sometimes the business value isn't apparent to the customer but it sure is a revenue generator to the platform provider.

Another baby industry trend brought to you by PGreenblog.

See ya.

Much more later...NetSuite Goes Mobile....

Technorati : Facebook, Google, composite applications, platform, salesforce.com