It’s been just more than one year since we kicked off our blog in conjunction with last year’s conference, destinationCRM 2008. One of my first posts had to do with a keynote address at that time which talked about CRM and customer experience management (CEM). Namely, whether or not the CEM acronym would take over, as the customer experience was — and still is — becoming an essential goal for companies.

As I stated a year ago, and will again, we have no intentions of changing the name of our magazine anytime soon. But, in today’s keynote address here at CRM Evolution 2009 by Jeffrey Rayport, founder of Marketspace, LLC, he concluded by saying he felt in a couple of years we could expect to be talking about CMR — customer managed relationships — moreso than CRM.

“In a couple of years, it will not CRM Evolution, but CMR Evolution,” Rayport said. “Not customer relationship management alone, but how to put the tools and friendly interfaces — speech, voice, natural language — in the world where brands must play a new game. I’ll argue that’s CMR, for customer managed relationships, as [consumers] are at the center of everything we do.”

Are we just getting caught up in the details? Is it that important to coin another acronym to recognize that the customer is in fact crucial and essential to the business landscape today? I’m curious to know what those attending the conference, as well as our faithful readers back at home, think about this topic.

Open-source CRM continues to grow in popularity, and visibility, in large part to the reported success of Cupertino, Calif.-based SugarCRM, now disclosing that it supports 400,000 users on 50,000 installations in worldwide. Noting the growing trend, CRM magazine introduced the market as one of our Market Leader categories in this year’s Market Awards.

SugarCRM took the winner’s position, but not without intense competition from companies including Adempiere, Compiere, Concursive, vTiger, and xTuple.

The open-source pioneer just announced yesterday the general availability of Sugar 5.1, touting new capabilities in analytics, reporting, and wireless. At the company’s CRM Acceleration event last Thursday at The Westin New York, in the heart of Times Square, SugarCRM Senior Manager of Product Management Jennifer Yim gave a glimpse into the release update, as well as a look at the future roadmap through (tentatively) June 2009.

Speaking first about Sugar 5.1, Yim said “the focus is on deep CRM, and the analytics of the information in our system.” This is evident in the revamped reporting aspects, affectionately referred to as “Reports 2.0″–very Web 2.0-eriffic. Anyway, the new reporting capabilities include:

• user interface improvements;
• a report wizard that enables users to create various reports depending on business need;
• an ability to create more complex queries and filters by using the “and/or” rule;
• runtime filters; and
• grouping by matrix.

Sugar Wireless 2.0 is also compelling. In this updated functionality, SugarCRM Professional and Enterprise edition users can have browser-based, real-time access to their CRM on BlackBerry and iPhone devices. For these users, no separate installation is needed, according to Yim. She also insisted that mobile users will have the same functionality on their phones that they would using SugarCRM on desktops, including view, search, edit, and accessing any necessary records.

While this capability is browser-based, and not native to the actual phone like Research In Motion’s plans with SAP, its clear the next move in CRM is in the world of smartphones and being able to access CRM software anywhere, anytime, as fellow CRMer Lauren McKay pointed out a few days ago.

To conclude, Yim gave a quick look at plans for Versions 5.5 and 6.0, with tentative dates set for December 2008 and June 2009, respectively. That could especially change, given that last year when Sugar 5.0 hit the mainstream, the plan was to come out with 5.1 in December 2007 and 5.5 “in mid-year 2008″.

Yim stressed the roadmap could change, but still explained that release 5.5 will focus on enterprises, while 6.0 will delve even deeper into CRM.

Possible new features for 5.5 include:

• complex teams groups;
• sales territory management;
• social networking mashups; and
• platform enhancements that include full text search, calculated fields, and dependent drop downs.

Possible features for 6.0:

• calendar 2.0;
• Sugar wireless advanced mobility;
• advanced workflow;
• advanced studio and module builder;
• partner relationship management;
• extensibility platform; and
• Sugar Web services.

Keep a close eye on SugarCRM and its roadmap as other competitors continue to evolve and innovate in their own right and fight for supremacy on the open-source seas.

Yesterday I wrote a story for destinationCRM.com about Maximizer Software’s announcement of its Mobile CRM branding. Along with the press release, the folks at Maximizer passed along a YouTube video that demonstrates the need for accessing CRM, even on-the-go.

The video is pretty funny, and as Laurie McCabe (SMB analyst with AMI-Partners) points out, it’s a good attempt at viral marketing.

The topic of smartphones brings me back to Tim Bajarin’s keynote at the dCRM conference last week. Bajarin, who rubs elbows with Steve Jobs, says:

“These devices will represent 70 percent of all phones sold in the us by 2012. That is a huge change in thinking.”

Bajarin goes on, saying that generation Y will not even consider using a regular cell phone anymore. A phone without a text keyboard? Forget about it.

Mobile CRM makes sense. CRM is not an industry that ties its employees to desks. Sales and marketing people are often traveling and doing business whenever and wherever. Recently, I had the privilege to have dinner with a several CRM vendors, one of whom sells mobile CRM solutions for BlackBerry. At one point during the evening, the man next to him turned and said, “I need you.” He shared that all through the day at the destinationCRM exhibit hall, he was meeting people, making contacts, and taking business cards. He was frantically writing down information on the back of the business cards so that when he goes back and enters the contacts into his CRM system, he will hopefully be able to put a face to the name. However, as he told the mobile CRM guy, if he would have been able to pull up the CRM database on his BlackBerry, it could have been done in seconds.

I recently purchased a smartphone, mostly because I wanted to be able to check email on the road. I won’t share which kind of phone it is, but I will tell you that it’s not an iPhone or a BlackBerry. I have found myself, even after having the phone for about six months now, discovering new features and using it in new ways. Perhaps my favorite application is the quick access to Google Maps. [It means I don't have to bring my old fold-out map with me when trekking through new areas of the city. Basically, it allows me to still look "cool" in New York, even when I am incredibly lost and confused.]

Talks of mobile CRM has seemed to have taken conferences — and headlines — by storm. In the words of my dear colleague, Jessica Tsai, “Dude, I’m so relevant.”

In digesting all of the customer service tracks at our recently completed destinationCRM 2008 conference in Manhattan, there is one anecdote that continues to stick in my mind. In his keynote, Lior Arussy, president of customer experience consulting firm Strativity Group, told a story about Commerce Bank–fairly popular in New York City.

The branches of this bank will open 10 minutes before, and stay open 10 minutes after, its normal business hours. This caters to the busy people who desperately try to squeeze in much-needed banking amidst a hectic schedule.

It’s an excellent idea–and it doesn’t require gobs of money spent on advertisements and marketing. It conveys the message of, “We know you’re busy, and we’re here for you no matter what may get in your way of coming to our bank and doing business with us.”

In my own life, I wish I had a Commerce Bank near where I live in the Mid-Hudson Valley. While my paychecks are directly deposited, I’m one of those anomalies that like to manually take money out of my one bank account, drive the 15 minutes over to the Hudson Valley Credit Union (HVFCU), and literally hand a portion of my money to a real, breathing, human teller to deposit into my savings account.

I usually do this on Saturdays, and HVFCU is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Now, I’m an early riser and usually have other errands to run that have me out of the house well before that time. No matter what I try to do, I always find myself at HVFCU at approximately 8:45 a.m. It never fails that each Saturday I do this, there is a long line of customers waiting outside of the automatic doors at the entrance waiting to conduct transactions.

The Type A personality in me not wanting to lose even more ground and fall further behind in line, I bite my lip, step out of my car, and wait with everyone else. All the while, everyone waiting can see the bank tellers already sitting at their posts speaking to themselves, and management walking by the door staring through the glass door at us like we’re the latest attraction at the zoo.

It could be raining, snowing, or unbearably humid — it doesn’t matter. The branch supervisor will not unlock the doors until it is exactly 9 a.m., despite the fact that all of the employees have been sitting at their battle stations for quite some time already.

To me, it gives me the message of “We know you’re waiting, but we don’t care. You’ll have to wait until we open.”

Fair enough, but if you don’t want to open just a few minutes early, why not cater to your loyal customers willing to actually wait to do business with you. A small gesture, like offering coffee, tea, or water would at least show that you appreciate our business and patience. Maybe even some chairs so the handicapped or elderly can at least sit comfortably while waiting.

Instead, I feel like I am making their lives harder and that I should apologize. For what, I’m not sure. Wanting to do business with them?

Illustration aside, the point is HVFCU could be losing customers instead of creating an opportunity for increased business. Opening a few minutes early would be optimal, and reduce the barrage of unhappy customers lumbering to quickly make a transaction and leave. But if that’s not possible, any little things like offering respite or beverages would show me that they truly care and appreciate us. It doesn’t cost much, and the memory I would have instead would be a pleasant one.

Keith Dawson, principal analyst for contact centers at Frost & Sullivan, made a very interesting point during his session on empowering employees with the right tools and authority in order to deliver “exceptional customer experiences” at the destinationCRM 2008 Conference in the heart of Times Square.

Lior Arussy, president of Strativity Group, a customer experience consulting firm, just completed his keynote speech on preparing for the new customer, enhancing the customer experience in order to stay competitive in a shifting marketplace to kickoff the first day of destinationCRM 2008. Located at the New York Marriott Marquis a stone’s throw away from the heart of Times Square, and across the street from the New York outlet of the Church of Scientology. No Tom Cruise sightings … yet.

I won’t speak too much on Arussy’s speech here, because my colleague Lauren McKay will provide full coverage of his takeaways on CRM magazine’s Web site.

However, the whole question of customer experience, or even customer experience management (CEM) has been cropping up quite a bit lately. I spoke with an analyst a couple of months ago who wanted my take on whether or not customer relationship management, CRM, would soon shift into CEM. The term “customer experience” itself can be found in virtually any piece of marketing or press material that finds its way into my inbox.

While we don’t have any plans to change the name of our magazine, it is an interesting question to raise. Is this an entirely new paradigm shift, or just an evolution of CRM as we know it? Is this what CRM is supposed to be all about anyway? It is one thing to service our customer, but another to exceed expectations and go above-and-beyond the call of duty.

I have my own opinion in the CEM v. CRM question, but I want to hold off a bit. Judging by the tracks in the customer service session in the next two days, customer experience will be talked about at great length–five of the seven sessions have the term “Customer Experience” right in the title.

I hope to gain a bit more clarity on where the customer experience really stands by the end of the conference on Wednesday, and share those insights with you here — and hopefully get a sneak peek at Tom Cruise in the process.