Google search the name Hypatia and you’ll quickly find information about the fifth-century scholar who many claim to have been one of the first notable female mathematicians. Or you may find information about the upcoming film, Agora, directed by Alejandro Amenabar and starring Rachel Weisz. (For the New York Times review click here.) What you won’t easily find is the research company Hypatia.

For those of you who haven’t yet worked with Hypatia Research, LLC, it is a company that delivers customer intelligence research, industry benchmarking, best practices, technology vendor selection, ROI assessment, and consulting services that reduce cycle-time and influence customer management, product strategy and channel development goals, according to the Web site.

Leslie Ament, Vice President of Hypatia, is excited about the film release, and optimistic about what it might mean for her company’s Web traffic.

“We chose the name Hypatia because we calculate results as industry analysts,” Ament says. “We’re all very giddy and the whole team is going to go see the movie this Friday.”

I doubt I’ll see the film but I’m a fan of anything that may bring attention to our industry. So, tell your friends about the film and the company. Let me know what you think of both.

Doug Meyer has a new role at Sage. The formerly titled “president of Sage’s Small Business Division” is now wearing the badge of “Chief Customer Officer.” The role of chief customer officer (CCO?) has been cropping up in organizations– perhaps due to renewed goals of retaining customers during tough economic times. For Meyer, who has spent 19 years at Sage, the new gig means infusing the customer experience into culture at Sage. Inversely, Meyer says, a strong corporate culture can drive great customer experiences.

Doug Meyer, Sage Chief Customer Officer

(Need more proof? Stay tuned for an excerpt from the much-anticipated book Delivering Happiness by Zappos CEO Tony Tsieh in the June social media-themed issue of CRM.)

Sue Swenson, the president and chief executive officer of Sage North America, kicked off the “customer experience talk” during her Monday morning keynote address. “We are raising the bar on the customer experience,” Swenson said.

I know what you’re thinking: This sounds an awful lot like a RightNow conference.

Meyer clears it up, saying that Sage has no intention to attach the CX moniker to its branding and press releases. Sage, he says, is trying to figure out what it means to be a customer centric-organization. Meyer’s role at the company may be a start. A brand new partner workshop dedicated to the customer experience may be another step in that direction. Partners, after all, are crucial in delivering excellent experiences to customers. Read on… »

By Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal, Beagle Research Group

At Sage Insights, Sage North America’s annual partner conference being held this week in Denver, the company announced its first cloud-based CRM product. This is a significant event for the company for a couple of reasons.

First, until this point Sage did not have any cloud offerings.

Second, Sage sells through a partner channel which sometimes lags over adoption issues.

In this case, more than 50 partners are participating in a pilot program for Sage SalesLogix — an indication, perhaps, of the level of interest within the partner community.

[More on the offering after the jump...]

Read on… »

I twittered yesterday, prior to Colin Powell’s keynote, that I would not have been excited about his speech had he not endorsed Barack Obama.

I was serious about that.

There I was — about to listen to a retired four-star General, a former Secretary of State, a fellow New Yorker — and all I could think about was how frustrating it would be if the speech became Republicanish. Luckily for me, Powell endorsed Obama and my own prejudices were removed from the equation. Had he endorsed McCain my cynicism might have stopped me from enjoying what was ultimately a powerful speech from a charismatic figure.

Powell spoke about leadership and his journey from Harlem to the White House. Although the theme was serious, Powell spent much of the time joking about his age, his poor academic record, and (of course) his struggle with new technology. He was simultaneously personable and authoritarian. Jokes like, “At this stage in my life it’s a pleasure to be…anywhere!” make comments like, “The greatest strength America has to fight terrorism is its openness,” seem more honest and realistic than when candidates deliver similar comments in stump speeches.

He praised America enough to have made my patriotic father happy, and he was critical enough to satisfy the aspiring activist within me. He referenced the drop-out rate (one-third of white students, half of minorities) as a national problem, after explaining to a room of successful businessmen and women what it would take for them to motivate their employees.

Put your employees in the best possible position, and give them the best tools, to get the job done. If you inspire your employees you give them motivation. You have to convey passion, morals, and courage. Recognize good people. Promote. Give raises. Send thank-you cards.

He mentioned the typical leadership qualities one can hear in almost any speech like this one. But he also added:

“Good leaders face the reality of a problem and don’t pretend it isn’t there.”

That sentence embodies who Powell is to me: He’s a republican who endorses Obama. He’s a Reagan-admirer who isn’t afraid to admit that America may have shut out some of the brightest international minds with over-reaching national security initiatives.

He’s capable of being complex in a way that most public figures are afraid to be.

And he is complex in a way that I struggle to be (I’m upset that I might have written him off had he not voted the same way as me).

We all should admire that type of courage.

Lets hope some of the executives here at SAPPHIRE, who for the past two days have been preached to about global warming and sustainability, will have the courage to make controversial (and possibly costly) changes within their organizations in order to help end the climate problem.

By Denis Pombriant, founder and managing principal, Beagle Research Group

Sage Software North America convened its annual partner meeting, Insights, in Denver today. The meeting is Sage’s chance to speak directly with all of its partners and resellers about the business and its myriad product lines, to educate and to listen to their issues and concerns. It will also be the partners’ chance to receive recognition for sales performance in each of their markets.

Sage has always had a distinct business model, preferring to sell through a partner channel rather than direct — and the approach has worked well. For a company with so many enterprise resource planning (ERP) and CRM products aimed at the small-business and small-enterprise markets, it may be the only sensible approach.

This year, the third under the leadership of Susan Swenson, I expect to see many new approaches and changes to the business models that govern the relationships with partners.

[Editors' Note: For coverage by CRM magazine and destinationCRM.com of Swenson's keynotes at the previous two Insights events, see here (2008) and here (2009). Associate Editor Lauren McKay will have on-location coverage of this year's event as the week unfolds.]

I don’t expect fundamental changes — the company is not about to scrap the partner model at a time when competitors are discovering it. But I expect Sage will make good on strategies enumerated in its product roadmaps by more fully embracing cloud computing and other new ideas.

[For a sneak peek at what those ideas might be, see after the jump...]

Read on… »