Welcome to our first issue of 2007. We have been a bit busy with our client work (which comes first) and heavy travel schedules; we apologize for our delay.
In this issue we cover a few topics:
Stop! Read This Before Inviting a Consultant In
At TSI, some of us have been in consulting for over two decades and others have been in industry, including being a CIO or GM for years. While taking different career paths and sitting on both sides of the executive or consulting desk, we have been exposed to quite a few practices over the years.
In this article, we strive to highlight good and poor practices with respect to using consultants while also hoping to debunk a few myths. Listed within the article are keys to follow when considering using consultants.
A Blended Approach to B2B eCommerce and CRM
End Users are demanding more and more from B2B eCommerce systems. These users are now also users of products Amazon.com, eBay, etc. and expect the same degree of personalization, and self-serve capabilities to be present in their B2B interactions. Integrating eCommerce functionality into CRM processes and systems is necessary for providing customers and channel partners with the tools and information needed for optimized transactions and interactions. Historically, the implementation of these systems often resulted in unintended operational and integration obstacles due to the lack of innate integration between the two platforms. While the transaction-driven nature of eCommerce demanded tight integration with supporting enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, CRM systems typically operated off of disparate databases supporting either sales or customer support activities. This lack of integration has limited the extent to which B2B eCommerce sites can offer a full breadth of self-serve capabilities and features. True integration provides external users and buyers the highly immersive user environments that make the online purchase experience practical and, in many ways, superior to offline transactions. NOTE – this content is provided from one of our “partners” – EDL Consulting
For more information please email Dan Feely, Managing Partner, or call him at 847-705-0960 ext 202.
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