Enterprise Software Executive

Enterprise Social Networking - A Great Place to Start

Recently, there has been a lot of press covering the Enterprise Social Networking industry.  I have my own definition, but I have included the Wikipedia definition below:

Enterprise social software, also known as Enterprise 2.0, is a term describing social software used in "enterprise" (business) contexts. It includes social and networked modifications to company intranets and other classic software platforms used by large companies to organize their communication. In contrast to traditional enterprise software, which imposes structure prior to use, enterprise social software tends to encourage use prior to providing structure.

The Association for Information and Image Management(AIIM) defines Enterprise 2.0 as "a system of web-based technologies that provide rapid and agile collaboration, information sharing, emergence and integration capabilities in the extended enterprise".

Regardless of your specific definition, it is clear that today's companies need a clear and targeted Enterprise Social Networking strategy.  For some companies, it is part of their DNA and has never been formerly defined.  For example, I work for an open source provider of CRM software that quickly grew from an idea in 2004 to one of the most successful startups in this decade.  EnterpriseSocial Networking was never a formal strategy for the company, but it was critical to the growth and success.  The company started with three dedicated and focused founders who began creating and developing their vision for next generation CRM software that leveraged thoughts and ideas from around the world.  To harvest these thoughts, ideas, and contributions, they build a "community" to help them share in their goal and achieve their objective.  The community was leveraged for product ideas/features, product roadmap feedback (ranking ideas/voting), submitting ideas/code/extensions, and quality assurance testing of the product during development.  In many cases, the community became so dedicated to their mission that they even helped debug and fix areas of the product for the founders.  The community forum quickly grew from a source of information and sharing between the founders and developers into a larger community that supported a variety of purposes ranging from consultants for hire/career/jobs to client - to - client discussions sharing the best practices for implementation and customization of the software.  Over time, the community became equally important to software company and resulted in the founders becoming another peer in the community rather than driving the community.  Each release was driven by the product ideas, product feedback, and assistance from the overall community.  However, there is no stated Enterprise Social Networking strategy at the company, rather it is a critical part of the company culture.  It is hard to quantify the value of the community because without the community, there really is no company.  The community today has over 100,000 members with over 12,000 specifically focused to developing and assisting with technical details.  Through the community, there have been over 5 million downloads of the software which has helped to drive more than 5,000 commercial clients using the commercial/fee based edition.  Those numbers are proof that there is a huge ROI behind Enterprise Social Networking.  However, the common question I receive from client is really simple.  "How do I start?"

Step 1: Define your target audience.  Does you company want to improve client interactions or harvest employee knowledge, or both?  Research topics on the "voice of the customer" to make sure that you are "listening" to all the relevant clients, community members, partners, and stakeholders in your business.

Step 2: Review currently deployed tools and review your strategy with a holistic approach that incorporates existing communication channels such as your corporate website, demand generation programs, affiliate marketing, support portals, intranets, email campaigns, and forums.  Very few companies are starting from a complete "green field" scenario, so it is important to incorporate and refine existing interaction channels.

Step 3: Deploy, test, and refine.  Start with a phased approach, but move quickly enough to make an impact on your business.  Start small, but grow quickly.

Step 4: Encourage your employees to adopt "social networking" tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to get them thinking along the lines of new Web 2.0 communication tools.  While I noted a great example for how my company leveraged the community and forums for growth, I have a similar example where marketing failed to leverage Web 2.0 tools.  At a recent user conference, the company announced a Twitter feed for news related to the user conference.  The company posted only one single tweet, and that was on the topic of announcing the new Twitter feed.  The lesson for all is to make sure your employees embrace, understand, and become comfortable with using these new Social Networking tools before they take them into the "Enterprise" where your company often doesn't get a second chance if they fail with communication. 

In summary, many of the same concepts which drive intelligent use and adoption of social networking tools can be applied to Enterprise Social Networking.  Encourage your company to begin reviewing their strategy and interacting with clients, partners, and employees using these revolutionary new tools and strategies to improve your business.

Twitter for Business, really?

  There has been a lot written about the use of Twitter for business and marketing in the enterprise recently, and I think most of the blogs / articles highlight key concepts and ideas.  However, sometimes companies need to look outside their industry to really learn best practices.  When enterprises today are looking for new and interesting ways to interact with their clients, look no further than the cycling community and Lance Armstrong and friends.  So far, Lance Armstrong known as @lancearmstrong has almost one hundred thousand "followers".   For fans of Lance Armstrong's products (i.e. Trek Bicycles, Lance Armstrong Foundation, Team Astana, etc...) there are thousands of devoted followers who follow everything from product release info to product previews to cross promotional offers/news.  There is no reason why every company shouldn't take a page out of Mr. Armstrong's Twitter strategy to provide exciting and relevant "sneak preview" news and updates prior to them hitting the "newswire".  I would suggest that the VP Strategy, CTO, or CEO is the perfect person to begin Tweeting to all those customers who really do care about your products and love your company.

Webconferencing's Impact on Enterprise Software Sales in 2009

In a recent article from Selling Power Magazine's website, there is an interesting observation on the impact of web conferencing on general sales across all industries.  However, there has not been an industry more impacted from web conferencing than the enterprise software industry.  To take things a step further, I will review some of the common benefits and pitfalls that this generally accepted sales tool has created in the enterprise software industry. 

Business Travel

Web conferencing has created the biggest impact on business travel since the adoption of airplane travel.  While the majority of strategic business meetings (and less strategic in many cases) have historically required air travel, web conferencing has created the ability to second guess common reasons for face to face meetings.  Specifically, enterprise software can leverage web conferencing to deliver the all to important "software demo" without physically being in the same room.  The cost and time savings are massive for both the buyer and seller, but the opportunity to connect and form relationships that are critical to project success are often lost.  So, where is the balance? 

Resources

In most sales presentations, there are a variety of resources required to effectively present a given solution.  In the case of enterprise software sales, supporting resources are even more critical as unique technical and industry knowledge is often required from resources within the organization.  It is obvious that a web conference allows greater participation as conflicts are easily addressed with a 1 - 2 hr commitment.

Bottom Line

Web conferencing is not a one size fits all solution for all enterprise software sales meetings, but it is a viable option for at least 25 - 40% of meetings.  I would suggest looking into this medium and potentially leveraging wherever possible without losing the human touch when it comes to customer/client management.

On Demand - Analytics Too?

After a few months off from the blog, I have New Year's goal to post at least once a week so please keep checking back in for new posts and feel free to submit topics.  I have the pleasure and good fortune to be a board member for the Technology Association of Georgia.  Last week, we had an excellent panel of speakers which I'll recap in my next post.  After the event, I met Amit Kesarwani of Decipher Tech (www.deciphertech.com).  Amit described his new start-up and their ability to integrate into Salesforce.com, Microsoft CRM, and several other large players in the industry.   More importantly, Amit described his company as a SaaS analytics company.  I have heard of most of the players in the market such as LucidEra and other similar companies, but I didn't know that Atlanta had its very own on-demand analytics vendor. 

So, how does Decipher Tech stack up against the other players in the industry.  Stay tuned, and I'll have a review of them all next week! 

CRM + Social Media Tools - July 11th - 7:30am - La Madeleine - Atlanta Perimeter

Everyone is looking forward to reuniting on July 11th at 7:30am for the Atlanta SugarCRM Meetup at La Madeleine - Perimeter. A recent addition to the SugarCRM team and a well known member of the Atlanta software community is Josh Sweeney. Josh will present on two hot topics which seem to be on everyone's mind today.

Meeting Topic:

#1: CRM for Social Media - Josh will explore the ability to leverage new social media tools like Twitter for customer service and support usage while demonstrating his demo integration of SugarCRM and Twitter.

#2: Building New CRM Modules without Code - Josh will demonstrate how business users can easily use SugarCRM's Module Builder feature to build custom modules such as HR, Inventory, Time/Attendance, or any other type of custom module desired in SugarCRM.

The meeting will start promptly at 7:30am at La Madeleine located at:
1165 Perimeter Center West, Suite 330, Atlanta 30346
La Madeleine Perimeter Location

Please come join us for complimentary coffee, pastries, and thought provoking discussions and presentations at the Atlanta SugarCRM Meetup.

Lead Generation - It's Science, Not Art

Anyone leading a sales team these days needs to be part sales management and part marketing guru.  It isn't enough for a sales VP to understand the basics of pipeline management, opportunity management, and the most popular sales methodology of moment.  Everyone knows that a strong sales funnel is a direct result of an optimized marketing lead generation program.  It is fine to allow marketing to own the lead generation piece of the puzzle, but it is critical that sales takes an active role in the building and management of that program.  Why?  Mainly, it is due to the fact that sales is the customer facing part of the organization.  As a result, Sales will typically receive direct feedback from clients and prospects with regard to what type of questions and solutions are important to them.  By harvesting this insight and building marketing lead generation programs around the prospect/client interests, it is possible to more efficiently deliver this information to prospects.  More importantly, marketing can begin the "dialog" prior to the start of the sales process which ultimately increases the success of the sales team when they finally engage in a buying process or sales cycle.  This is commonly known as "lead nurturing" and Jon Miller's company, Marketo, has developed software to management of this process between sales and marketing.  I would suggest reviewing Marketo's blog on lead nurturing along with linked info on Brian Carroll's thoughts on lead nurturing to quickly enhance your lead generation efforts.

SugarCRM Presents at Atlanta PHP User Group

On November 1st, Steve Kasinetz - WW Director of Sales Engineering and David Gearhart - RVP Southeast & Latin America for SugarCRM presented to the Atlanta PHP User Group.  The Atlanta PHP group connects and unites PHP users across the Southeast, provides world-class support and resources to the community, and advocates the adoption of PHP to local, national, and international businesses.  Steve Kasinetz presented the new SugarCRM 5.0 release and answered questions from the audience for 90 minutes.   Ben Ramsey is the experienced PHP developer who founded and leads the PHP User Group's monthly meetings at the Canadian Consulate in mid-town Atlanta.  If interested, please consider attending the next PHP meeting on December 6th at 7pm which will cover a presentation on Zend Framework 101 featuring speaker Cal Evans, Editor of Zend Developer Zone.  Cal will present a beginner's introduction to the Zend Framework.

E.T. Phone Home....Or At Least Call The Client Back

We all are experienced and professional enough to follow-up on our leads and client requests.  However, with everyday travel, it is sometimes easier said than done.  Although the Blackberry and Treo line of PDA's have greatly increased the sales executive's ability to access email and calendars on the move, they have done very little to assist with lead management and management management.  Sure, some organizations have proactive inside sales reps who will take the time to cut/paste details of high quality leads into an email and shoot it to you, but without quick access to your CRM solution, you are somewhat limited in your ability to do anything more than place a quick call without a full background of info.  More importantly, sales managers often get excuses from field reps who claim that they couldn't get their pipeline submissions emailed because they were "traveling". 

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of viewing a demo of iEnterprises Mobile Edge for Blackberry product.  This post isn't about pushing some software for a partner, my goal is to relay my experience with this revolutionary product that I confidently feel will increase the sales of any sales person in enterprise software.  Unlike other mobile solutions that have mini browsers, this solution includes a small database of records based on the assigned user field.  The solution can be easily extended to include new modules such as contracts or cases, so you can quickly reference a clients SLA agreement, support level, or open cases during the actual sales call. 

I think that every sales executive remembers the first time they received a question in the middle of sales call that they couldn't answer on the spot.  At some point in time all executives learn that they can't possibly know every answer, and they learn the skill of action item follow-up.  Then, there was the first time you used your Blackberry during a meeting or during a break to ask an engineer a question and get a return answer while still at the meeting.  At that point, you realized that wireless technology can reduce sales cycles. 

In a similar way, Blackberry wireless apps like iEnterprises Mobile Edge can revolutionize your access to lead, opportunity, and support data.  You will be better prepared before, during, and after sales meetings.  More importantly, your team will begin to use your CRM solution during the sales process rather than using it as an afterthought on Friday afternoon updates.   

Sales & Marketing Executives Leveraging Buzz Marketing in their Region?

Tonight, I attended a great Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs Meetup event which had an interesting panel of speakers focusing on different ways to promote web businesses.  I attend the group because a lot of the 70+ attendees are future users of SugarCRM(software I sell), so it is a great way to increase awareness in the local market.  However, tonight's discussion around buzz and marketing got me thinking about different ways that the Enterprise Software Executive can increase leads and demand generation with Buzz.  As a software executive, you really need to analyze your target region to determine the primary industries, target accounts, and target prospects.  Once you determine your target industry, companies, and prospects (i.e. individuals within your target companies, you are ready to start the buzz.  The key to buzz marketing at the national or regional level for a software company is to create a pull within your target market.  If you sell HR software to the VP of Human Resources, then you need to create a buzz within the local or regional HR community.  It is important to focus on the VP of Human Resources, but creating an outstanding buzz within HR alone will deliver huge dividends.  Great, how do we do that?  In software, there are so many different approaches that the sky is the limit.  If we take the HR example to the next level, I would suggest that an HR software company should think about using new media + old media to create the buzz.  For example, the old media tactics would include traditional activities that align well with HR/people events --> Run/Cycling/Triathlon Race Sponsorship, newsletters with health/lifestyle info, HR organization sponsorship, etc...the list goes on and on, and we have seen them all.  On the new media side, there are the typical websites, blogs, etc...but when was the last time you saw a youtube presentation online that really cuts through the typical marketing talk and gets straight to the point.  I would suggest creating some podcasts with your local clients interviewed, video's with your clients talking about their benefits, clients guest blogging on your corporate blog, etc....  However, buzz marketing is so much more than traditional marketing events or generic websites and blogs.  True buzz marketing for the software sales and marketing executive involves anything and EVERYTHING.....that is the key, keep working, keep adding, keep building, keep buzzing.

Sales Training - Not Just Dinners and Drinks Anymore

Sales training has been one of the most dreaded annual events for every software sales and marketing exec for the past thirty years.  However, sales training can be productive if approached from the right perspective.  There is not denying that some companies are pulling revenue producing people from the field to do what sometimes amounts to nothing more than a large pub crawl.  Last week, I participated in a sales training that actually included sales info and sales training.  It is a novel idea that most companies fail to understand.  The event was a two day sales training that required all sales and marketing employees to come prepared to learn.  The training was a success mainly due to the expectation setting that occurred the prior week when the agenda was sent out with a prerequisite test.  By requiring everyone to study and test, it got us into the right frame of mind for the training.  For the first time, I arrived at a sales training with my head in learning mode instead of selling mode.  Did some prospecting suffer during the day leading to the event, yes, but I would suggest that the training was effective as a result of the prerequisite activities.  So, lesson learned, make sure that you assign some type of prerequisite learning with a test prior to your next sales training to get everyone's head in the game for the upcoming event. 

Web 2.0 Sites Mirror Dot Com Hype, Will They Crash Too?

With all the recent news about the new players in the Web 2.0 market, I felt the need to go a little off topic with this post and comment on what looks like the second coming of the dot com bust.  Now, I am not talking about some of the larger success stories we all know and love like YouTube, LinkedIn, etc....  I am not a big user of the recent Web 2.0 success stories providing spin-off apps like Facebook and MySpace, but I would agree that they provide a need for a large segment of internet users.  On the other hand, I am somewhat concerned with the feeding frenzy taking place in venture capital over the new entrants looking to launch applications on the back of those Web 2.0 success stories.  I understand the concept of launching a new application on the back of an existing platform like Facebook or MySpace, but many of these applications have questionable value and functionality.  It is hard not to feel like we are experiencing a small scale dot com boom again with all these Web 2.0 companies riding the wave of success created by Facebook and MySpace.  If anyone has any thoughts or insight into why this new wave of Facebook and MySpace application start-ups will perform better than many of the dot com flame outs of the past, please provide your thoughts and/or comments.  Is this just Dot Com Type Hype Part II?