The thrill of seeing something new and be careful with your data!

by James White 3/27/2008 2:11:00 PM

I am a very happy man today as we (CRM) have just launched our revised website. There is no doubt that I love seeing new projects being delivered. There is nothing to beat the excitement (in the business world anyway!!) of something you have seen being worked on for a number of months go live. We think that the new site looks fresh and is simple to navigate. We want to provide current customers a clear way to use the help resources we have for InTouch but also provide new customers with the chance to see what we do! Hopefully many of you will like what we have added and also the new Video Blog which provides some interactive help and suggestions on how to grow your business.

I read with interest the article below on the BBC website which highlights the concern that many consumers have with how organisations treat their personal data http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7304455.stm

The governments recent data blunders have made many consumers anxious as to what information is held by organisations about them. Whilst the concern has been targeted at financial organisations, I believe that this is a warning for any organisation which sells products and services into a consumer environment (its a concern in business but less so). How do you look after customer data? What do you do with it when it comes into your organisation? Do leads and or contact details just sit on pieces of paper throughout your office that could allow people to steal or take this information to mis use it?

I hope that in time, the Information Commissioner does start to indicate to all companies that they need to hold customer information securely and ensure its not being accessed by people who would wish to mis use it. Why? Because it will make a lot of consumers happier than their address, phone numbers and in some cases birthdates are not being thrown around by companies as if they are confetti!

Store it securely and then ensure that you have the users permission to hold it and use it for communication is the way forward and I for one fully endorse that!

Category: Company News | Development & Technology | SMB Marketing
Tags: data, secure data, new website

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Our Blog

by James White 1/28/2008 8:50:00 PM

Thanks for taking a look at our CRM Blog. This site will be where we post our news, thoughts and viewpoint on the email, sms and CRM marketplace in general. It will also be where we post thoughts about the direction CRM is taking.

So what are CRM's plans then for 2008? Well, we believe that 2008 is going to be a key year for hosted systems. With high speed internet access growing in the workplace, the home and on the road (through the deployment of new high speed 3G modems that Vodafone and 3 are pushing) we believe that getting access to your customer information, documentation and key data at anytime in anyplace will be key. Therefore, we will be looking to make InTouch your 'one stop shop' for key customer information, documentation and communication information. We will be looking to ensure that from wherever you access InTouch and on whatever device you access it, the system remains as simple and easy friendly to use as it does now. Within our new release of InTouch (V4.20) we will be allowing all Pay Monthly customers to share documents and files between each user, so making InTouch a go to place for users to access files and contact information.

During the course of the next few months, we will also be looking to

• Enhance our communications functionality (with continued improvements made within SMS and Email)
• Enhance our sales and prospect information to allow all InTouch users to record information on where leads came from and how these can be assigned to key users
• Ensure that InTouch can be accessed from mobile platforms (such as Windows Mobile 6)
• Interface InTouch with telephony systems to ensure that the application grows as IP Telephony system usage grows
• Interface InTouch with other key business applications such as Google and Accounts Packages

These are just some of our future plans but we want to know what other functionality our customers want. We hope that the introduction of our 'User Community Group' at the start of April will allow InTouch users to share thoughts and ideas on what InTouch offers and what additional features would add further value into the system.

So, keep an eye out for new releases and also an eye out for my thoughts on why Hosted Platforms are going to be the Small Businesses friend over the months to come!

Nuture your customers and watch them grow!

James

Category: Company News | InTouch
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