By Mike Fauscette, Software Business Solutions Group, IDC

CRM magazine, June 2009, cover

[EDITORS' NOTE: This is part of a series of posts that began here, dissecting a two-page chart that appeared in CRM magazine's June 2009 issue on social media. The digital edition of that issue can be found here, and a standalone image of the chart itself can be seen here. (Click on the “View Full Size” button at the top right of that page.) To view all posts in the series, please add this RSS feed to your RSS reader.]

JUNE 2, 2009 — First I’d like to thank Josh, the editors of CRM magazine and the destinationCRMblog readers for facilitating this “experiment.” In the spirit shared yesterday by Josh in the introductory post on the Social Media Maturity Model: 30 Posts, 30 People, 30 Days, I’ve agreed to kick this “conversation” off. I’ve had the benefit of chatting about the Model quite a bit and living with it in some form for a few weeks. From that experience I have several observations that I’ll share in no particular order.

Sales: I agree in principal with the Model but there’s something nagging me in the five-year view. Maybe it’s the word “buyer” — I guess I think the end state is more trusted partner, which in fact changes the dynamic into a conversation and a real interactive relationship. The salesperson reaches the level of trusted advisor through the trust relationship created by the shift to social media.

I also think social analytics plays a part here (see my comments on social analytics below). Why doesn’t selling turn into predictive selling at a new level? Because there is a trust relationship between customer and salesperson, and because new tools evolve to help the sales team predict what would be of value and interest to the customer, the conversation changes to one of “I see you have this issue, here’s a solution that fits what you’ve said you like and need.”

[More after the jump...]

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As a bit of historical reference to complement Baseline Consulting partner and cofounder Jill Dyché’s guest-blogpost yesterday, we thought it might be useful to dig up an old Q+A with Siebel Systems founder Tom Siebel, conducted by our forebears here at CRM, way back in 2002.

It’s also worth remembering the days before cloud computing, software-as-a-service, and on-demand CRM — and the fact that they relied on now-disposed-of terms such as hosting, ASP (application service provider), and “the integrated enterprise.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same…

One key excerpt:

CRM: Do you believe the hosting model for CRM like the one promoted by Salesforce.com is a threat to vendors like Siebel?

Siebel: They’re not in my consideration as a competitor. I believe I have never encountered them competitively in nine years. And I am absolutely satisfied that they do not have a viable business model.

[More after the jump....]

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Some quick updates on some open-source vendors and companies we have recently covered in the pages — both paper and Web — of CRM:

• Open-source software company xTuple recently announced that, despite the economic recession, the company realized record revenue growth in 2008. Sales were up 250 percent year-over-year compared with 2007, according to information provided by xTuple. A leader in last year’s Open-Source CRM category for CRM’s Market Awards issue, the company looks to continue growing with its latest product release loaded with more CRM features and other improvements.

• Technical support provider Geeks on the Way (GOTW) was recently named the winner of the CRM Implementation & User Adoption Program category in the third annual 2009 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Profiled in our December issue of CRM, the company utilized open-source pioneer SugarCRM to keep pace and scale effectively to its ever-growing business. Stay tuned to find out if GOTW can continue its ambitious growth plans with the help of SugarCRM.

Epicor Software is one of those companies that, in hindsight, we probably haven’t covered often enough—we certainly don’t play favorites around here, but it’s not always clear why some firms make it onto the radar screen more often than others do.

Yesterday, though, Epicor publicly—and, to be honest, a little coldly—confirmed receipt of a $9.50-per-share offer from Elliott Associates, a roughly 20 percent premium over its previous closing price. So I’m reminded that there’s a massive, healthy, robust CRM industry out there, and we have to be vigilant in keeping tabs on it.

Irvine, Calif.–based Epicor has certainly paid its dues—founded in 1984, it’s been around longer than the CRM industry itself. (Click here to download the PDF of Epicor’s Fact Sheet from the company Web site.) According to the company’s press materials, Epicor was named one of Fortune magazine’s 100 Fastest-Growing Companies in 2006, and serves over 20,000 customers in more than 140 countries—but it isn’t simply a CRM provider; in fact, Epicor boasts of its “integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM) and professional service automation (PSA) software solutions,” and there’s no immediate sign of what share of its customer base is utilizing CRM.

But where has it been hiding? Eight years ago, for example, our longtime friend Chris Selland (who was at Yankee Group at the time) was quoted in our magazine [before my time; I'm just accessing archives] as saying that Epicor was one of the best-kept secrets in the CRM industry: “If it can get its marketing act together, the company has a great integrated front/back office offering for the mid-market and could finally present a real challenge to Pivotal and Onyx.” [More after the break.]

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