CRM Tiger

I'm Back! Honestly it's been way too long, but when you read something like this  it is finally time to stop being silent and make a few comments. Before I start with a rant, let's disclose a few fun facts from my life.  SAP Products are not relevant in my current day to day work.  In fact without going into details, I don't see myself involved in the SAP ecosystem at all in the next several years. Wait,  you posted a link about SAP talking about CRM, why do you even care?  Honestly it's because I care about CRM, not SAP.   It's funny to think that five years ago in March 2013 I was standing in front of a poster promoting a SAP CRM book that was soon to be finished/published.   It was probably I would say at my peak SAP ecosystem involvement and then it was time for the long-goodbye. Honestly I knew that SAP had hit pretty much it's peak with CRM and remaining trip was basically a survival trip.  Honestly most on-premise SAP CRM folks were going to

In the last twelve months, I ran a half marathon and wrote 400+ page technical book on SAP CRM.  The race is over and the book is almost finished, so the question becomes what should I do next.  The reason why I ask this is that before writing the book I decided to step away from the SAP Mentor Program and SCN Moderator.   The issue is that I do want to return, but I don't want to do what I was doing before hand. Before I stepped away, I was serving a moderator for way too many area on SAP CRM on SCN.  There was way too much content to be an effective moderator.  I have decided that if I become an active moderator again, it's going to be for only one or two spaces related to SAP CRM period.  I'm also going to step aside from actively answering questions going forward.  It doesn't mean I won't answer question, but instead I'm going to save my answers for those questions that nobody else will answer or high-level design discussions. Now I know this looks like

Once again one of my newer favorite voices on SCN has caused me to launch the ultimate response to his question: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/20660 The post was about why have the number of active contributors measured by points dropped and do we care. My answer is I would love to see that number drop to zero. Whoa.. you mean no contributions on SCN? Actually what I mean is that points are no longer rewarded period. Y'all know if you are reading this how points evolved on SCN. The problem is that in order to move the community forward we need to grow beyond points for contributions. We must acknowledge to grow quality contributions we need to eliminate the point motivations. Now everyone is going to say points are a currency or points motivate people, or without points things would stop happening. Guess the sky won't fall if we got rid of the points and figured out a new system of exchange. What I propose is that you need to earn the right to ask b

For the last three weeks, it feels like I have gone into radio silence mode without much explanation. I thought I blog real quick what has been personally happening with me so those of you following me know what's happening. For a quick recap let's review my 2010 so far: January 2010 - My son Zachary(2nd child) was born on the 12th. It's been a busy household adjusting to two kids February 2010 - Calm before the storm. We finally get into a routine with Zachary and Emily and life is flowing with the new normal. Little did I know that things would change again in about two weeks March 2010 The first big issue is that Zachary has bad reflux and is not gaining a lot weight and has a ton of spit up. We find out after his two month appointment. I end up taking a half day off work to help my wife deal with the reflux issues after his doctor appointment. Good news now is that it seems to be under control now and he is finally showing more weight gain. The second piece is th

It feels like I need to build an ark with all the rain happening around here lately. It almost parallels what I have been up to lately, so let's do a recap - Future of SAP CRM webinar - ASUG Virtual Education Summit session recording - Vacation in San Diego - ASUG Virtual Education Summit chat session - SAP Teched Phoenix for the SAP Mentor Program - My daughter's 3rd birthday Yeah that is probably more than enough with everyday life. Which reminds me also I'm also helping my wife get ready for our second child due in January.

So eventually I'm going to blog on this topic on SCN. However until all my research is done, let's outline a few concepts: Drive to eBusiness Sales e-Commerce real time retail availability Prevent consumers from making unnecessary trips by providing up to date in store inventory. electronic mailing Send out all communications via electronic methods webinar based selling Conduct followup "sales visit" using web conferencing and reduce number of physical trips paperless discounts Eliminate all paper based discounts, including coupons and rebates. Marketing Communication preferences Keep customer preferences up to date and gear people towards electronic medium. Only use physical marketing materials when preference expressed electronic mailing Once again use electronic channel to reduce junk mail etc. Offer different types of e-goodies to replace traditional promo items given out improve targeting Reduce physical materials by better segmentation and analytics Service