Red Bank, N.J., May 16, 2013 – CoreMatrix^®, a leading cloud computing consulting company, today announced that after examining the storied history and current status of Customer Relationship Management, that the term CRM, the CRM business process, and CRM technology are very much alive and thriving.

CoreMatrix was motivated to study CRM given that CRM had a meteoric rise and then fall in the minds of customers, the media, the market, and vendors, which begged the question: What is the status of CRM today?

For a time in the mid-2000s CRM got a bad name. There were a number of high-profile and expensive mistakes of businesses implementing CRM software, and it led to vendors trying to distance themselves from the term CRM and inventing other terms.

CoreMatrix Co-Founder Paul Nix said, “Many failed implementations were due to poor adoption strategies and unrealistic expectations about what CRM can or should do, and that many of those mistakes have been addressed by vendors who specialize in helping companies successfully implement CRM and embrace CRM as a business strategy and company-wide culture, rather than simply a technology.”

“What hasn’t changed, and is probably one of the chief reasons that CRM has had such a resurgence, is the need to manage customer relationships and the fact that satisfied customers serve as the foundation of every successful company,” Nix added.

Nix also noted that new cloud-based CRM solutions such as those offered by cloud pioneer Salesforce.com have made CRM more affordable, easy to use, and integrated across key front office functions including sales, marketing and customer service.

To read more about CoreMatrix’s findings on CRM and why more and more organizations are eagerly adopting cloud CRM solutions, read the new CoreMatrix eBrief, ”CRM—Dead or Alive?”

About CoreMatrix Systems

CoreMatrix (www.corematrix.com) is a leading provider of cloud computing consulting, systems integration, custom application development, social strategy execution and managed services for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies. With experience gained from more than 1,800 cloud computing engagements, CoreMatrix is dedicated to helping customers achieve their objectives and obtain the greatest value from their investments. Customer examples include: American Express^® Travel Management Services, 20/20 Companies^®, PharmaNet/I3, Wells Real Estate Funds^®, Designer Show Warehouse^®, Transocean, GTECH^®, Bridgestone® and WebMD^®.

What does customer engagement actually mean? There are plenty of definitions out there. But let’s look at this from a customer point of view—because one thing we all have in common is we’re all customers. We want to be listened to, we want to be treated well, we want our needs met. It’s really that simple. The company that can do that is the company that wins our business.

It’s the same thing on the business side: listen to your customers, treat them well, meet their needs. The challenge is how to do this in an online era in which customers are in control: they are tech savvy and mobile, talking about your company and products on social networks, and more willing than ever to shed brand loyalty for another company that . . . listens to them better, treats them better, meets their needs better. The fact is, the Internet, along with social and mobile technologies, has leveled the playing field, making it easier than ever for you to lose a customer to a competitor. Which means the reverse is also true: it’s easier than ever to win a customer—if you engage with them properly.

Customer engagement today means implementing a strategy and tools that enable you to monitor what is being said about your brand, products and services on social networks. You may no longer be able to control the conversation the way you did in the era of push marketing, but you can participate in the social conversation and help to shape its direction by responding appropriately to mentions of your company.

You also need the ability to interact with customers on their terms, meaning they dictate the when and where. For example: offering special deals on Facebook, providing customer service via Twitter, hosting and moderating online discussion forums, and more. It’s all about getting close to customers where they are.

You also need the ability to know everything about your customers, and you need this across your organization. Sales, marketing, customer service, accounting—everyone needs access to a complete view of a customer. Today everyone has to be a customer emissary, and anyone in your organization might be called upon to serve a customer at any given moment. That’s why so many companies are deploying internal social collaboration tools such as Chatter, which allows your employees to seek expertise, information and help from each other when serving a customer.

Is customer engagement a buzzword? Certainly. But you only get to be a buzzword by having at your foundation an important and essential truth: your business will not survive without customers. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed, but how you engage with customers and keep them in the fold continues to shift.

Growth in public cloud services—including infrastructure, platform, software, and security services—continues to be robust. According to Gartner, end-user spending on public cloud services is expected to grow 18.6% in 2012 to $110.3 billion and is expected to record a compound annual growth rate of 17.7% from 2011 through 2016.[1]

This growth shouldn’t come as a surprise. It represents not just early adopters, but broad industry acceptance of the cloud. CoreMatrix has recently documented cloud computing trends in travel & hospitality, banking & financial services, and healthcare—industries that may not have been the first to cloud computing, but are now rapidly embracing cloud solutions.

The benefits are too powerful to ignore:

• On-demand computing resources that can rapidly scale up or down as needed
• Paying only for the computing resources you use
• Drastically reducing infrastructure and capital costs
• Quick implementation and automatic upgrading of applications
• Alleviating the pressure and demands on your internal IT resources
• Achieving security levels comparable to premise-based or private network solutions

As compelling as these benefits are, there is another reason that organizations everywhere are turning to the cloud: their customers. Because this is the era of customer control.

Customers today have more choices in virtually every product and service category. Customers today are tech savvy and can access a wealth of product information and peer reviews online and through social networks. And customers today take to social channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others to ask for and make product and service recommendations, to praise and critique their experiences as customers of your company, and to positively or negatively talk about your company.

What does this have to do with the cloud? All of this data about your brand is generated in the cloud. Which means you have an imperative to capture this information by listening on social channels and monitoring mentions of your organization. And you must respond appropriately—all in the name of engaging your customers and managing your brand. That’s probably why Gartner predicts CRM will continue to be the largest global market within software-as-a-service (SaaS), forecast to grow beyond $5B in 2012 to $9B in 2016, achieving a 16.3% CAGR through 2016. And the largest cloud CRM provider is Salesforce.com, a complete sales, marketing and customer service cloud solution.

In the end, so much of the business case for cloud computing comes down to what flows through the veins of every organization and keeps it alive: your customers. Your most precious asset. Who are now engaged in the cloud. Are you?

[1] Gartner: Forecast Overview: Public Cloud Services, Worldwide, 2011-2016, 4Q12 Update

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Red Bank, N.J., April 23, 2013 – CoreMatrix^®, a leading cloud computing consulting company, today announced that the healthcare industry is increasingly adopting cloud solutions to help meet many of the new IT challenges it faces in an era of healthcare transformation.

Government incentives and mandates are driving every healthcare provider organization—from the smallest medical practices to the largest healthcare systems—to use electronic health records (EHRs). This has created an urgent need for healthcare organizations to manage volumes of data and have at their disposal IT expertise. Both capabilities are signature attributes of cloud solutions.

In addition, the cloud is proving to be a cost effective and secure model for integrating disparate healthcare systems, allowing physicians to share patient data and coordinate care. And as it is in every industry, social media and mobile are having a big impact in healthcare, changing the nature and speed of interaction between consumers and healthcare organizations. Again, the cloud.

CoreMatrix Co-Founder, Paul Nix, said that concerns around data security and patient privacy are quickly going away with cloud solutions. “Many healthcare executives traditionally believed that keeping medical records behind the firewall was the safest choice, but this is no longer the case,” Nix said. “Cloud providers must conform to HIPAA regulations, and many cloud providers specialize in implementing cloud configurations to meet the needs of healthcare.”

Nix also pointed out that cloud benefits such as on-demand computing and scalable storage are extremely attractive to healthcare organizations whose existing IT resources can be quickly overwhelmed by the demands of their industry. He also said that as healthcare organizations continue to embrace social and mobile technologies to connect with consumers and enable provider/patient interaction, the cloud will play an even more prominent role in the healthcare sector.

For more information about how healthcare organizations are finding success with cloud computing, read the new CoreMatrix eBrief, “How Cloud Computing Can Help Healthcare Cure IT Challenges.”   »Read the CoreMatrix eBrief.

About CoreMatrix Systems
CoreMatrix (www.corematrix.com) is a leading provider of cloud computing consulting, systems integration, custom application development, social strategy execution and managed services for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies. With experience gained from more than 1,800 cloud computing engagements, CoreMatrix is dedicated to helping customers achieve their objectives and obtain the greatest value from their investments. Customer examples include: American Express^® Travel Management Services, 20/20 Companies^®, PharmaNet/I3, Wells Real Estate Funds^®, Designer Shoe Warehouse^®, Transocean, GTECH^®, Bridgestone® and WebMD^®.

— “The open development business model positively impacts the cloud ecosystem by fostering much-needed cloud standards and removing the fear of “lock-in” for cloud customers,” stated Joan Rothman, CMO at CoreMatrix Systems LLC, in this exclusive Q&A with Cloud Expo Conference Chair Jeremy Geelan. “The open model also creates a cross-cloud environment where innovative development can occur at a speed and cost that only a few companies can do on their own today.”

Cloud Computing Journal: The move to cloud isn’t about saving money, it’s about saving time – agree or disagree?

Joan Rothman: Disagree. The move to the cloud is about saving time and saving money – along with gaining an opportunity to immediately improve processes. We’ve helped companies in several industries move their systems to the cloud in just a few weeks. Of course, for complex and global implementations, it takes longer due to the number of requirements, different groups, disparate databases and existing systems involved in the design, build and deploy process. But the time and cost savings are there for organizations of any size…
Full Article »

View this to learn about the newest cloud in the Salesforce ecosystem: Marketing Cloud. Discover how this unified social marketing suite is transforming customer connections by empowering companies with an integrated platform for growth.

We explore the major Marketing Cloud products that are driving business results by turning customer connections and insights into actions. We share use cases of how other companies are benefiting from the Marketing Cloud and delve into the key considerations to put it to work for your company.

We also touch on Mobile, API and Extensions.

Who Should View?
Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud Users
Radian6 and Buddy Media Users

Don’t miss this informative, 45-minute webinar as we dive into the Marketing Cloud and how it’s helping companies succeed with powerful, in-sync, integrated marketing capabilities.

Wherever you look, people aren’t just watching the games, they’re watching the games with their smart phone or tablet in hand, posting comments real-time about that last three-pointer or foul, or about the hip/horrendous commercial they just saw for a cool/cringe-worthy product. Which, by the way, they just visited the company’s website to find out more.

What if that’s your company’s commercial being shown? You have to handle the sudden and explosive flood of data pouring in from social networks and websites: the comments (good and bad), the hits to your landing page, the re-tweets and shares.

The point is not that you need to advertise during March Madness, but that no matter what size company you are, you must account for Social. Your customers somewhere are saying something about your company, products, or services on a social channel. They love your product and recommend it to a friend. They had a bad experience with a customer service agent. They wish you would make a new . . .

What this means is that your customers are controlling the conversation, no matter how much marketing and messaging effort you put forth. Part of marketing’s mandate today is to listen on social channels to discover what is being said about their company, and to participate to help shape and steer the social conversation.

To do this, you need a Social strategy that guides you on how to align Social with your business goals, listen and respond on social channels, and use the social data you collect to better serve customers, discover ways to innovate, and gain an advantage in the market.

There exists an extensive portfolio of Social tools on the market today to help meet the needs of organizations large and small. Tools to monitor social channels, respond appropriately, and even to collaborate internally on issues and opportunities that pop up via social networks. Cost-effective, cloud-based solutions such as Salesforce and Chatter, Radian 6, and marketing automation are being deployed regularly to achieve social success.

But before going further, make sure you have a solid social strategy in place. Start by reading the complimentary eBook: “Next Steps on Your Social Strategy.” Because without a smart approach to Social, it can be madness out there—and not just during March.

Red Bank, N.J., DATE, 2013 – CoreMatrix^®, a leading cloud computing consulting company, today announced that the banking and financial services industry is demonstrating increasing confidence in cloud computing solutions.

A common business driver motivating many banks to migrate to the cloud is the need for better customer relationships. Customer-focused applications such as cloud CRM solutions with Social capabilities are a natural fit for financial institutions. Consumers spend so much time using social media, which produces a wealth of data that banks can use to target their offerings and increase personalization.

These trends, along with the combination of cloud computing benefits such as pay-per-use environment, on-demand infrastructure and storage, and unprecedented agility and speed to launch new services are giving banks the advantages they need to compete and win business.

CoreMatrix Co-Founder, Paul Nix, also pointed out that concerns over data security and customer privacy are diminishing as leading cloud vendors continue to prove they can provide secure services that meet regulatory requirements.

“In any industry and in any computing environment, data security is always a concern,” Nix said. “But banks and other financial institutions are discovering that their data can be every bit as secure in the cloud as behind corporate firewalls. Cloud vendors are experts in security—their entire business model depends on it.”

Nix also said that advances in cloud technology are giving customers the option of implementing solutions in private or hybrid cloud environments. In addition, banks are integrating customer-focused cloud applications with other systems they use, including Jack Henry SilverLake® Financial Systems.

For more information about how banks and financial institutions are finding success with cloud computing, read the new CoreMatrix eBrief, “Cloud Solutions Help Banks and Financial Institutions Connect with Customers.”

About CoreMatrix Systems

CoreMatrix (www.corematrix.com) is a leading provider of cloud computing consulting, systems integration, custom application development, social strategy execution and managed services for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies. With experience gained from more than 1,800 cloud computing engagements, CoreMatrix is dedicated to helping customers achieve their objectives and obtain the greatest value from their investments. Customer examples include: American Express^® Travel Management Services, 20/20 Companies^®, PharmaNet/I3, Wells Real Estate Funds^®, Designer Shoe Warehouse^®, Transocean, GTECH^®, Bridgestone® and WebMD^®.

Salesforce Service & Support Dashboard
There’s no need to start from scratch when establishing your Call/Contact Center’s dashboards to measure performance.  Salesforce offers a FREE dashboard to get started.

Tip #1

Go to the appexchange and search “Service & Support Dashboards”.  Salesforce Labs offers a free dashboard that can be configured to report on your organization’s Call/Contact Center performance.

Tip #2

The dashboard is a starting point for your organization.  It is configured for standard, out-of-the box fields.  To optimize for your organization, you may have to modify picklists, add your custom fields, and perhaps integrate it into your other systems (e.g., CTI).

Share Knowledge with your Customers via the Web and FaceBook
Salesforce Knowledge is a template that enables you to share knowledge on a public website.  It helps your customer service agents and your customers find the correct answers fast to questions and problems.

Tip#1

Get started fast by visiting the appexchange and searching for “public knowledge”.  Salesforce Labs offers a free download of the “Public Knowledge Base”.  See the public knowledge base in action here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEum_Mt_4fg

Tip#2

Share your Knowledge! Customize the knowledge template to fit your business and then Salesforce site technology enables you to easily share everything publicly where Google or any other search engine indexes your information.