[2003-10-22] How to Overcome the Call Center Conundrum
Master Time Management Each day customer service representatives at BancTec Computer and Network Services field roughly 5,000 telephone calls that average 14 minutes and may go as long as an hour--and need to. So when company executives put on the pressure to cut costs and realize efficiencies, Jackson had to be creative.

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[2003-10-22] Information Architecture: Webpage Mental Maps Emerge
When people come to your website they have a mental map of how their 'ideal' webpage should be. They expect to see certain things in certain places. They expect to read certain killer words in your classification and content. The more you meet their mental map, the more successful your website will be.

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[2003-10-10] Stripping Down CRM to Pint-Size Simplicity
Over the past decade, companies have spent untold millions on the promise of CRM-that a single, shared view of the customer offers value to the organization, including field support. Yet acceptance of CRM systems by the frontline in the field-the sales representatives-can prove to be a considerable challenge. Low sales representative compliance compromises data quality; and a CRM system with incomplete data is of minimal use.

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[2003-10-10] From Strategic Planning to Competitive Planning©
The annual strategic planning review frequently amounts to little more than a stage on which senior executives and presidents of business units present warmed-over updates of last year's presentations, take few risks in broaching new ideas, and strive above all to avoid confrontation. Rather than preparing the company to deal with the strategic uncertainties ahead or serving as the focal point for creative thinking about a company's vision and direction, the planning process, "is like some primitive tribal ritual," as one executive was quoted saying in a magazine article. "There is a lot of dancing, waving of feathers, and beating of drums. No one is exactly sure why we do it, but there is an almost mystical hope that something good will come out of it," the executive added.

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[2003-10-08] Siebel Takes (Another) Shot at ASP Model
After a good bit of speculation, IBM and Siebel have finally embraced the software-as-service model with the announcement of an on-demand, hosted CRM offering. "Siebel coming back into the ASP marketplace, after previously launching and then killing Sales.com, is clearly a defensive response to the success that other vendors, specifically salesForce.com are enjoying," says Jim Dickie, partner, CSO Insights. "I doubt that this will have a major impact on their enterprise-Fortune 500 account business, as the majority of those firms want to manage their CRM applications internally for a variety of reasons."

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[2003-10-08] CTOs: Think Like An Archaeologist
If you'd like your IT projects and department to run more efficiently and effectively, you probably need to develop a keen appreciation of the work of archeologists. That's right, real archeologists. I'm not talking about the Indiana Jones variety of adventurous grave-robbers, but of those men and women who spend their summers patiently digging in the dirt with trowels, dental picks and paint brushes looking for sticks, stones and bones.

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[2003-10-06] Vendor Managed Supply : The Win, Win Relationship
A more collaborative relationship with our customers and suppliers will benefit all concerned. Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) is one way to develop a more collaborative relationship and many companies have tried it. Some have even had success in achieving both financial and operational benefits. But often it is only the customer who benefits from VMI. Vendor Managed Supply, (VMS) is a truly collaborative relationship that delivers what has long been expected of VMI and more. Leading companies are going beyond VMI to adopt Vendor Managed Supply because they recognise that it is vital that key suppliers also benefit.

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[2003-10-01] Navigating Vendor Choice – A Guide For Purchasing Agents
Purchasing agents have one of the most political positions in a business setting: they must help their users define all of the criteria surrounding their requirement, bring the technical people on board to accept a new piece of software, and then find the right vendor to suit the requirements.

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