Interesting read @ CNet by Ina Fried, Ray Ozzie’s cloud hangs over the Valley.

And yes, it only rains in Seattle. It is never sunny. Ever. You would not want to visit. Especially in July or August. We all grow gills.

Joke: “Why did it take God 7 days to create the Earth?”

Answer: “Because He did not have the install base.”

Google Wave has captured a lot of attention since it’s announcement, but it is not production ready and will likely have a “beta” tag on it for years. And years. Microsoft’s BPOS offering is here today. The name does not exactly roll off the tongue; however, it is in production.

Google and Microsoft will battle over the cloud application space. Google’s challenge will be to penetrate the enterprise. Microsoft already has a huge base of enterprise partners and resellers with established relationships. At the end of the day it will be about value, but it is a lot easier if you are the incumbent. Expect Microsoft to leverage its huge base of enterprise partners and get a big footprint for BPOS.

Solid read on Microsoft’s cloud application services at Tom’s Hardware. Check Microsoft’s BPOS: Cloud Computing’s Silver Lining?.

Site: Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite

Happy Friday to my 2 readers.

For all the talk of Social Media and CRM, it would be wise to take a look at a company that is already “social”. Spiceworks offers free IT management software and the primary users are SMB IT shops. Their model is media advertising around this targeted audience. In effect, they have built a social community around IT from the ground up. This has allowed them to “crowd source” product management, IT best practices, marketing and even support.

When you think of how social media may impact your business and CRM strategy, think about your client community. Do they “crowd source”? Think about how you can take a page from Spiceworks and build from the ground up.

I have been kicking the tires of Gist and I am very impressed. Gist has recently made some headlines as they scored $6.75M in funding. See here and here. Gist allows you to keep up with your contacts. Twitter, blog postings and even email. Armed with the right information, you can get “personal” that much faster for a more fruitful relationship. This is a sales dream. If you are client-facing, check it out.

Thanks to Robert Pease for setting up my account. Congrats to Gist on funding in a tough market.

Ray Ozzie Asserts Microsoft’s Position In The Cloud

Some interesting predictions and comments over at TechCrunch. Most of them centering on Amazon AWS vs. Microsoft. My opinion is that people are trying to define cloud as a something very specific when a more general definition is appropriate. Think “Transportation” rather than “Planes, boats, trains and/or automobiles.” Microsoft is in a good position as well as Amazon. No reason that both approaches will not be successful.

60% of Twitter Users Quit Within the First Month and this should surprise nobody. Social Media takes effort. Your client contacting you for support — and they are unhappy — takes effort. Your sales team takes time and effort to find the right people and relationships in an organization. There maybe opportunities for social media in these examples; however, social media will have a place in the enterprise when it proves value.

My CRM mantra: Keep it simple. Know your customers. Show them the love.

It is interesting how offhand conversations can turn to business. I was asked what I would do first in a CRM service deployment over the weekend. My answer was easy. I would learn what I already know about my customers behind my four walls then I would put it in the hands of the CSRs. No self-service, no social media or any other flavor of the month. Before the deployment, I can calculate cost per call (the $ metric). By giving the CSRs all the data, I have a direct correlation for cost per call improvement. That delta of cost per call metric is my ROI. From there I can build upon success and continue to improve.

Simple and measurable. Build off the success. Sounds too easy…

Happy Monday.

User adoption is always a challenge for any CRM related project. I had a conversation last night that turned to a CRM project. A lot of very good work had been done on the metrics to measure a new self-service capability. The problem was that next to nothing was done to drive user adoption. Now this group had excellent metrics that no users were adopting the new self-service tools. This happens all the time.

The ROI is always in the adoption. Get people to use the tools. It is an internal marketing effort. Well executed, it can be very effective. Poorly done, it will incent the wrong behaviors. The process will be worse than before. I have seen both. Get it right the first time and get the ROI.

Xangati Helps Employees Visually Explain Trouble Tickets Through DVR Feature

Interesting read over at TechCrunch. Will be interesting to see how this technology evolves.

Social Media has value. The value is in the network effect. It is hard to accept the idea that you need to be into Social Media because the upcoming generation over uses these tools. From Gartner (see CRM & Social Media, with featured Gartner Analyst, Ed Thompson) to venture capital (see What is the Next Big Thing?) expert opinions are fawning over the youngsters and their use of Social Media. They say you will need Social Media because the highest users of these tools are entering the workforce and are going to demand these tools. I find this hard to believe. When Social Media tools prove value, an enterprise will adopt them.

Keep it simple. Know your customers. Show them the love. They will let you know if Social Media has a place in your business.