Salesnet launches on-demand CRM for vertical industries
The online CRM software provider, Salesnet, has announced a range of industry-specific, on-demand CRM applications for telecommunications services, commercial lending, and advertising and media sales organisations.
The company's first out-of-the-box vertical editions of its CRM product have been preconfigured with industry-specific processes to help define, guide, and track sales success.
"Using our Configuration-as-a-Service platform, our vertical strategy is based on the premise that industry-specific editions must have industry-specific processes," explained Dan Starr, chief marketing officer for Salesnet.
Salesnet first announced the platform in February 2004 as part of its overall Guided Performance Selling strategy. The firm's first pre-configured sales methodology application, the Salesnet CustomerCentric Selling edition, was originally announced in April 2004, and more additions to the industry-specific editions are expected in September 2004.
Jump-starting CRM "Pre-configured solutions can cost-effectively jump-start a CRM deployment by tailoring to the company's - and the industry's - unique ways of doing business, bringing closer the promise of competitive advantage," said Joe Outlaw, president of Outlaw Research. "In evaluating vertical applications, businesses must look beyond the easily-added cosmetic changes (such as industry templates and terminology) to the fundamental ability of the applications to support industry-specific data structures and customer-focused business processes."
According to Outlaw, preconfigured workflows, based on flexible and easily modifiable workflow technology such as that offered by Salesnet, are key to successful vertical applications.
Industry challenges For telecommunications services companies, after slowly recovering from recently adverse economic conditions, many are now beginning to invest in new technologies that deliver a relatively fast return on investment as they start to focus on rebuilding growth and momentum.
According to Salesnet, financial services companies are also developing large budgets for enterprise business application spending, and the industry is also a traditionally early adopter of innovative technologies. Business objectives in the commercial lending edition of Salesnet's CRM application include aligning business processes across the enterprise and better management of cross-selling and up-selling opportunities.
The advertising/media sales edition is expected to be popular because businesses in the industry often seek ways to streamline business activities, and especially to enable easier communication between remote and global employees. Specifically for advertising and media sales, these companies also need to effectively manage low-margin business coupled with high staff turnover.
Salesnet is now offering these three vertical industry editions of its system, with subscription-based licenses starting at US$99 per month, per user.
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