An interesting article came up on CRM Buyer about how CRM Bloggers are actually people too. I have to agree. :-) Here's what it said.

Bloggers -- especially those whose traffic volumes can rival a minor newspaper's -- are getting used to the royal treatment. Consumer electronic vendors, hotels, auto manufacturers -- heck, even politicians -- are reaching out to the people who have made it their avocation to blog about them. Everywhere, it would seem, except in the CRM industry.

Vendors have typically ignored the bloggers who cover the CRM space -- at least in the run-up to a product release. That changed a few weeks ago, though, when Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) gave a group prebriefing to CRM bloggers about its On Demand version 15.

The bloggers who attended should be commended for not breaking Oracle's embargo. So far, it seems that none did. What they did do, though, was talk about their amazement at being included in the first round of briefings.

It was something that simply never happened before -- at least, not to him, said Brent Leary, cofounder and partner of CRM Essentials and author of Brent's CRM Blog.

"They treated the bloggers almost like we were analysts," he told CRM Buyer.

You can read the rest of the article here.

Nothing is more important and critical to the success of a business than their customers. Maintaining satisfied, loyal customers has proven essential to success.

This is an even more critical element in the small business sector as they battle with their larger counterparts to succeed.

For this reason, making good use of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution becomes vital for small businesses.

When small businesses utilize the information provided by CRM software and combine it with an electronic resource planning (ERP) systems, they are able to optimize on productivity and increase sales.

Database integratio of sales and customer information make it possible to optimize sales opportunities for the small business.

By giving users a one stop location for all needed information including, sales and marketing information about customers it becomes easier to make better, more informed business decisions.

This winning combination also helps strengthen sales for a company and as Jami J. Rodgers, VendorGuru.com Columnist points out an article, "Taking the Next Step: Your CRM Helping Build Your Small Business," "Most CRM tools are integrated into company-wide ERPs as part of a universal data repository that allows customer database and sales database information to be analyzed simultaneously. By factoring in a number of variables, the small business owner is easily able to identify sales trends and opportunities for future growth."

Rodgers also notes that this integration offers a chance to tweak needed areas and makes it possible to simplify the maintenance and use of systems within the business, as there is not a need for a number of stand alone systems to track and learn. Instead, businesses can pay closer attention to the matters of their business to further their growth and success.

Author: Stefania Viscusi
Article Source

After weeks of development, the new CRM Blog site has officially launched! If you normally access this site via http://www.crm-guru.com, then you will automatically be directed to the new site. If you have http://crm.blogs.com bookmarked, then you will need to update your bookmark.

Many thanks to the entire design and development team for getting this launch done flawlessly! Here is a picture of the new CRM Blog site: