By Brian Vellmure, FreeCRMstrategies, @CRMstrategies on Twitter

February 12, 2010

One of the worst snowstorms in the history of our Nation’s capital, the most flight cancellations since 9/11 (almost 6,000), and the closure and inaccessibility of a pre-booked venue were the circumstances surrounding BPT Partners’ Social CRM Certification Training, better known to the Twittersphere as #SCRMsummit.

Despite the obstacles, a little publicized event at a brand new Westin Hotel in Herndon, VA brought together a mix of customers, vendors, and a large majority of the world’s thought leaders on the subject of Social CRM. In all, participants not only descended on the blustery white winterland from all regions of the United States, but also from Canada, Mexico, Columbia, France, The Netherlands, and India. It truly was a global event.

The #scrm Accidental Community was almost completely represented with one largely apparent omission, Esteban Kolsky, who was grounded before he could leave his hometown due to flight cancellations. Esteban made his presence felt during the event and after by assembling the tweets which you can download here to get a sense of the flow of the event. Here are the links from Day 1 and Day 2, and I have more on my take after the jump.

Influentials from major enterprise stalwarts such as SAP, Oracle, and Sage mixed among the ranks of social darlings Radian6, Lithium, and Jive Software. Marketing automation leader Eloqua was represented. Open-source leader SugarCRM, Aplicor, RightNow Technologies, and NetSuite were also among the participants — as was the largest CRM company you may have never heard of: Sword Ciboodle. (I’ve probably forgotten someone, so please let me know and I’ll be sure and add it to this post.)

[Editors' Note: Sword Ciboodle was named one of the industry's Rising Stars in the 2009 CRM Service Awards that appeared in CRM magazine's April 2009 issue.]

Forrester and IDC sent some of their best in Dr. Natalie Petouhoff and Mike Fauscette, respectively. Of course, you had #scrm creator Brent Leary.

CRM magazine, THE information source for the CRM industry, sent its very own editorial director, David Myron, to participate, and Michael Krigsman was there to remind everyone that the fundamental core dangers of enterprise I.T. failure remain in play. In addition, there were a ton of other leaders and intellectuals in the room – too many for me to hope to mention them all, but you get the idea.

As official and impressive as all that sounds, the simple truth was that it was a room full of incredibly seasoned, creative, talented, and intelligent people united by a passion and desire to understand and shape the future of business, and refine both their individual and collective brain trust of the rapidly growing segment called Social CRM.

Without another word, let it be said that there is only one person in the world that could have assembled a crowd like that in a period of just a few weeks – Paul Greenberg. Let it also be said that Paul clearly is far ahead of most everyone in his knowledge, vision, and understanding of the societal transformation happening around us, AND its implication on the world of CRM and business in general. Finally, and most importantly, let it be said that I have rarely met a gentleman so genuine and authentic in his desire to help others, coupled with his capability to do so.

Two scheduled days turned into three, due to flight delays for most everyone, and even four or five days for others who are, even as I write this, still holing up in the fortuitous Westin Dulles Airport hotel.

There were several individual highlights over the past few days — and I’m sure others (including some of the people mentioned above) will expand on them — but below are 6 key takeaways from my experience:

1. Social CRM influentials are practicing what they preach. The culture of this new and evolving community rapidly lends itself to learning, sharing, improving, and constructively challenging each other. In short, the community is thriving, and is providing a real-time experiment, that someday may ultimately serve as a model for the next-generation enterprise. It’s a privilege for me to be part of it.

2. A company MUST align its entire existence around helping its customers accomplish what they are trying to do. The debates about Enterprise 2.0, Social CRM, Social Business, and corresponding terms and definitions are largely irrelevant. In short, an organization must know its customers (based upon more than simple transactional data), partner with its customers, and align its ENTIRE value-delivery chain around helping those customers meet their needs as quickly and effectively as possible. This is my charge to the C-Suite.

3. Customer experience trumps everything. Map your customer experience. Focus your attention on accentuating your strengths while improving your troubled spots. Your customers will pay more, evangelize more, and stay longer if you are able to execute.

4. There is a great battle for business platforms brewing. Those that own the platform and the data will be well positioned. Previously unrelated vendors will suddenly find themselves in fierce competition. A silent race is under way. Look around for the potential platform owners, and position your business to be able to leverage the platform(s) and data regardless of who ultimately wins that battle.

5. The Social Web is on a collision course with the enterprise. Those companies that understand the coming changes and are positioned to harness the data and translate real-time information into effective action will be those that experience the largest success over the coming decade.

6. Social CRM is still in its infancy. We understand just a smidge of where this will ultimately end up. The #SCRMsummit training was based on Paul’s book, CRM at the Speed of Light (4th Edition) — an amazing comprehensive “Bible” on Social CRM with numerous case studies of organizations that are doing things right, contrasted with some that aren’t. Buy it now. Read the nearly 700 pages, and then download the five online chapters.

[Editors' Note: You can whet your appetite with the exclusive excerpt from Greenberg's book that ran in this month's issue of CRM.]

Then sign up for BPT’s second training event, scheduled for May 24–25, in Atlanta. Once you’ve done that, you’ll likely be with me. There are hundreds of questions yet to be answered, and thousands of problems yet to be solved.

I would love to hear your feedback, questions, and thoughts. The adventure continues.

[Editors' Note: This blogpost first appeared on Brian Vellmure's own CRM Strategies Blog earlier today. The editors appreciate his generosity in allowing us to mirror it here.]

Related articles by Zemanta

• Social CRM: Building and Extending Customer Loyalty in an Increasingly Competitive World (slideshare.net)
• Finding: Social CRM Vendors Don’t Walk The Talk (web-strategist.com)
• Something’s Gotta Give (socialmediatoday.com)
• List of Companies Providing Social CRM Offerings (web-strategist.com)