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The Customer Experience – Combining E-Commerce and Self-Service with Work 365

January 2, 2020 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Businesses often treat e-commerce and self-service as separate solutions to two distinct business needs. As a result, each solution only solves one issue and customer data is not synchronized between all systems that touch a customer. For example, if a customer purchases an incident tracking solution that solution won’t have a market place and vice versa.

Now let’s look at how we can enable an end customer scenario with an E-commerce site.

Work 365 with the Self-service and e-commerce solution automates these steps and create a better experience while enabling the additional for sales.

Work 365 creates a back-and-forth relationship between self-service and e-commerce systems that helps businesses expand self-service beyond support ticket submissions to support the following:

Services and subscription management
Usage consumption reporting
Billing, invoicing, and payment support

Adopting this holistic self-service mindset allows organizations to realize the following benefits:

Increase in quantities and densities of products purchased
Better customer retention and renewal rates
Growth of customers from referral business

While also decreasing the following:

Customer attrition or turnover

Cost of new customer acquisition

Cost of service

Time and effort spent on dealing with account changes and billing

Watch our webinar related to Ecommerce and Self-Service with Work 365, click here.

Thinking about how you can get self-service set up at your CSP? Learn more about e-commerce and self-service with Work 365, click here.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

The Customer Experience – Self-Service and E-Commerce with Work 365

December 25, 2019 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Some estimates show that up to 80 percent of customer interactions will happen through self-service as early as 2020. Customers are looking to place orders, submit tickets, get billing information and receive various other services on their own terms. These services are enabled through technology investments which can be challenging to implement for smaller businesses. In this article we will examine the three questions in the golden circle around Self-service – Why, What and How?

Why do you need Self-Service portals for IT Services companies?

The first and most important reason is that even if your customers are not explicitly asking you, they are expecting it from you. Secondly, this investment is the only way you can scale your business in the world of recurring cloud-services. Self Service and customer-facing Microsoft CRM portals create better customer experiences and allow Technology Services companies to scale at a fixed and predictable cost. As a service provider if you are not thinking about Scale and Customer experience your opportunities are going to erode.

Self-Service delivers and creates better Customer Experience, and Customer Experience is one of the main reasons why customers chose to work with a service provider. For an IT services company, the customer experience journey starts from the initial contact and as shown below, the path is not linear and is littered with an infinite number of interactions.

To provide an exceptional customer experience at every step along this journey, Microsoft Partners and Technology Services companies need to have the infrastructure and tools in place to manage these interactions.

What can you do with Self-Service for your customers?
Self-service is about enabling scenarios for your customers at every stage of the journey shown above. Some example of the things customers want to do:

Register for a training event
Update their personal and company information
Create and receive a Quote
Update Payment Information
Place an Order for new services
Review and Manage their existing services
Request help for an issue
Review and update their agreements
Review their invoices.

Most often the only self-service scenario that is enabled is ticketing and case management and the primary reason is that the data and processes are initiated and enabled in different systems. The challenge for Service providers is how do you enable these various scenarios when the data is actually scattered in multiple systems?

How can you achieve these great experiences and outcomes?

Self-service creates better customer experiences and allows technology service providers to scale their business. Customer data and business processes are stored in various systems.

Accounting Systems have Billing Information and Payment Data
Ticketing Systems have incidents and Service Data
Providers like Microsoft or Distributors have the Subscription and Service Data
PSA systems have Time and Project Information and
CRM Systems like Salesforce, Dynamics 365 have Customer Relationship data

Self-service can become very hard to deliver when the data is in so many different systems. Work 365 delivers a unified solution for all the applications with Billing Automation, Service Management on the Dynamics 365 platform.

Built on Dynamics 365, Work 365 creates opportunities for us to transform services and deliver better outcomes while also reducing the following:

Customer attrition or turnover
Cost of new customer acquisition
Cost of service
Time and effort spent on dealing with account changes and billing

Thinking about how you can get self-service set up at your CSP? Learn more about e-commerce and self-service with Work 365, Click here.

I am a Dynamics 365 enthusiast. I enjoy building systems and working with cross-functional teams to solve problems and build processes from lead generation to cash collection. Work 365 is a global developer of the Billing Automation and subscription application for Dynamics. Helping companies to streamline business processes and scale their recurring revenue.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

The Customer Experience – Self-Service and E-Commerce with Work 365

December 25, 2019 Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Why do you need Self-Service portals for IT Services companies?

Register for a training event
Update their personal and company information
Create and receive a Quote
Update Payment Information
Place an Order for new services
Review and Manage their existing services
Request help for an issue
Review and update their agreements
Review their invoices.

How can you achieve these great experiences and outcomes?

Self-service creates better customer experiences and allows technology service providers to scale their business. Customer data and business processes are stored in various systems.

Accounting Systems have Billing Information and Payment Data
Ticketing Systems have incidents and Service Data
Providers like Microsoft or Distributors have the Subscription and Service Data
PSA systems have Time and Project Information and
CRM Systems like Salesforce, Dynamics 365 have Customer Relationship data

Built on Dynamics 365, Work 365 creates opportunities for us to transform services and deliver better outcomes while also reducing the following:

Customer attrition or turnover
Cost of new customer acquisition
Cost of service
Time and effort spent on dealing with account changes and billing

Thinking about how you can get self-service set up at your CSP? Learn more about e-commerce and self-service with Work 365, Click here.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

Scaling Enterprise Analytics: TIBCO Spotfire Rated #1 for Self-Service

June 9, 2019 TIBCO Spotfire

With more citizen data scientists and non-technical knowledge workers needing to make sense of data, the demand for guided insight discovery has never been greater. This has been a trend across the analytics landscape for quite some time and is often categorized as “Decentralized Analytics” or self-service analytics.

Gartner defines Decentralized Analytics¹ as supporting “a workflow from data to self-service analytics, and includes analytics for individual business units and users.” In the most recent Critical Capabilities report for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, TIBCO Spotfire^® was recognized by Gartner, again, as the number one platform for the Decentralized Analytics use case.

We believe, the key factors driving TIBCO’s placement in the Decentralized Analytics use case were performance across each of the following highly-weighted capabilities: ease of use, visual appeal, workflow, data storage and loading, interactive visual exploration, analytics dashboards, and data preparation.

Analytics for Everyone

Line-of-business knowledge workers (often the internal “customer” of the data scientist) create a constant flow of ad-hoc reporting requests from all corners of an organization. Especially when all corners of the organization are requesting highly formatted exports or customized dashboards, this can be a waste of an organization’s valuable data science resources. As an asset, data science talent is capable of driving far greater value back to the business through deeper analysis.

Spotfire^® has proven to maximize efficiency on both sides of this challenge in how it:

Enables line-of-business workers and citizen data scientists to self-serve quickly and build simple dashboards.
Empowers data scientists by not only liberating them from basic reporting requests but also providing a powerful underlying engine for the deeper dives into modeling advanced analytics applications.

Data Connectivity and Preparation

With a range of connectivity across disparate sources including relational databases, Hadoop, AWS, and other cloud apps like Salesforce, Spotfire^®’s data connectivity (with the highest score possible, 5 out of 5) enables knowledge workers to connect and self-serve on analysis of a variety of sources.

As noted, this also frees up data scientists from the arduous manual tasks of data preparation. It’s hard to fathom that in 2019 we’re still spending about 80 percent of our collective analytics time preparing data for analysis. So, while data is widely viewed as the “new oil”, it remains a raw material in need of much refining. That refinery is Spotfire^®, recognized for simplifying data preparation by opening up new avenues for deeper exploration across varied datasets. A full data lineage may be leveraged entirely by anyone across an organization with automatically captured dataflows, recording all workflow steps in-sequence on a fully editable canvas.

Suitable for Any Use Case in the Enterprise

In addition to its top ranking score for Decentralized Analytics, TIBCO also placed in the top two for each of the following use cases: Agile Centralized BI Provisioning, OEM or Embedded BI, Governed Data Discovery, and Extranet Deployment.

An adaptable platform for both simple and advanced use cases, Spotfire^® is recognized for scaling across the continuum to serve a wide breadth of enterprise software users from frontline operations to analysts to citizen data scientists to data scientists.

For more on Spotfire^®’s placement in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence platforms, read the full report.

Gartner, 2019 Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, Cindi Howson, James Richardson, Rita Sallam, Austin Kronz, 11 February 2019

Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, James Richardson, Rita Sallam, Austin Kronz, 14 May 2019

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

¹“Decentralized Analytics” as defined in 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms

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The TIBCO Blog

Pitney Bowes Launches Self-Service Tool to Drive Post-Buy Revenue

March 11, 2019 CRM News and Info

By Jack M. Germain

Mar 6, 2019 10:07 AM PT

Pitney Bowes on Monday unveiled Consumer Connect, a self-service post-purchase marketing solution for retailers and brands.

Pitney Bowes provides commerce solutions in the areas of shipping and mailing, data and e-commerce. The Consumer Connect service helps retailers drive new revenue after shoppers press the buy button. It enables retailers to create a branded tracking and post-purchase experience.

“Retail marketers spend a tremendous amount of time and money attracting consumers and getting them to click the buy button only to leave them in the hands of third-party shipping partners for tracking and notifications until the package is delivered,” said Lila Snyder, executive vice president and president of commerce services at Pitney Bowes.

That shift of control to third-party shippers created an opportunity for a solution like Consumer Connect. For the first time, Pitney Bowes has placed control of the post-purchase experience fully in the hands of retail marketers, she said.

Industry data shows that a package will receive an average of eight tracking requests between shipment and delivery. In most cases, that experience is basic, boring and off-brand, Snyder noted.

“Consumer Connect addresses this issue, transforming shipment tracking into a dynamic extension of a retailer’s brand experience, ultimately driving more meaningful consumer engagement and new revenue opportunities,” she said.

Supports Key Trend

With this new offering, Pitney Bowes aims to support a key trend. It recognizes that customer relationships are continuous and evolve over time, through every interaction, according to Nicole France, principal analyst at Constellation Research.

“Successful companies are using their customer understanding and insights to design experiences at every point in their customer relationships, including post-purchase,” she told CRM Buyer.

Consumer Connect makes it easier for retailers to build and integrate consistent, branded customer experiences from the point of purchase through shipping, delivery and possible returns, France added.

“This is another useful tool in the customer experience toolbox that provides a seamless flow through part of the purchase cycle that is typically managed by third parties,” she said.

What It Does

The Consumer Connect service allows customers to track their shipments and stay informed by email and text updates. It lets retailers conveniently send them relevant promotions and product offers.

The service enables customers to initiate product returns with ease, and to engage in meaningful ways when the retail brand promise matters most.

Retailers benefit from Consumer Connect by converting tracking moments to merchandising moments. The service also provides a channel to improve on-brand tracking experiences. In addition, it provides targeted post-purchase consumer engagement and seamless returns.

The new service helps retailers take advantage of touchpoints along the customer’s journey that previously were underutilized and not recognized as engagement opportunities. It transforms post-purchase interactions from Order Tracking to an extension of the brand experience, according to Pitney Bowes.

Around the Clock Engagement

Another benefit to retailers is the Publisher feature — a 24/7 self-service content management system that allows retailers to customize their branded post-purchase experience in minutes.

Consumers will be attracted to Consumer Connect for its brand-consistent immersive experience, according to Pitney Bowes’ Snyder. It will help drive sales, decrease call center volumes, and increase customer loyalty.

That attraction may defeat the practice of online shoppers venting their frustrations on social media about a bad customer experience. Those negative reactions can hurt a retailer’s brand.

Post-Purchase Matters Have Consequences

About 90 percent of online shoppers in the U.S. will take potentially damaging action if they have an unsatisfactory post-purchase experience, according to Pitney Bowes’
2018 Global Ecommerce Study. Their reactions range from sharing frustrations on social media to never again purchasing from the offending site.

Among millennials, 30 percent will go public about their poor experience, complaining in an online review or social media post, potentially affecting the buying decisions of others in their social networks.

Successful high-growth retailers — 25 percent or greater year-on-year revenue growth — place a greater emphasis on the post-purchase consumer experience than their slower-growth competitors, according to the study.

This includes providing services like free returns and day-definite guaranteed delivery. The study revealed that 92 percent of consumers will buy again from a brand if returns are easy.

Validating Strategy

The Pitney Bowes study validated the need for an after-purchase follow-up service such as Consumer Connect. For instance, 54 percent of high-growth retailers offer two-to-three day free shipping. Yet 60 percent of low-growth retailers, defined as 10 percent or less year-on-year, offer four-to-seven day free shipping.

High-growth retailers tend to meet or exceed consumer demands for accurate, real-time tracking, free and fast shipping, easy returns with preprinted labels, prompt refunds, and even attractive branded packaging.

“Successful high-growth retailers and brands not only exceed their customers’ expectations on the post-purchase experience, but they leverage every consumer touchpoint to build brand awareness, further strengthening customer loyalty,” said Snyder.

Ups and Downs

On the plus side, Consumer Connect hits most of the marketing high points spot-on.

Retail is an increasingly fraught and difficult way to make a living due to aggressive competition and cutthroat pricing, according to Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

“Given those factors, fulfillment and delivery services can be a minefield for retailers, so offering them ways to add branded, consumer-centric transparency to the process should be welcome,” he told CRM Buyer.

The most problematic issue for Pitney Bowes is that the company is attempting to insert Consumer Connect into processes where effective tracking services already are provided by major delivery organizations, like the USPS, UPS and FedEx, King added.

Pitney Bowes’ situation is problematic in that its profile remains connected — at least in most people’s minds — with the company’s once dominant position in postage scales/sales/fulfillment. That business has cratered, and the company’s shares have dropped from about $ 28.00 to just over $ 7.00 during the past five years.

“The company obviously needs to branch out into new markets, but ones where it can leverage its experience and demonstrate its continuing value and relevance. Pitney Bowes’ Consumer Connect looks like a valid way to do just that,” said King.

Comparing Options

Consumer Connect targets independent shipping and fulfillment SMBs looking for ways to differentiate themselves in markets increasingly dominated by major carriers, King noted. They stand to gain a way to affordably promote their services and improve the value they offer to the e-commerce businesses they serve.

“Consumer Connect is also designed to help smaller companies compete against large retailers’ branded fulfillment and delivery services,” he said. “It seems fine on the surface, but it will take a while to see whether, or to what degree, its target customers respond.”

Other Players

Companies such as
Narvar and
ShipStation provide similar services, noted Constellation’s France. However, Pitney Bowes has the advantage of combining its service with a range of related services, including customer data analytics.

The combination of execution services with analytics that help to provide context and insights into customer preferences is powerful, she said. It is what helps companies evolve everything from what they sell to the ways they engage their customers.

“Getting more of these capabilities from one place can be a real advantage for retailers,” France said, that are “juggling an ever-expanding set of tools and services to support their customer relationships.”

Jack%20M.%20Germain Pitney Bowes Launches Self Service Tool to Drive Post Buy Revenue
Jack M. Germain has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His main areas of focus are enterprise IT, Linux and open source technologies. He has written numerous reviews of Linux distros and other open source software.
Email Jack.

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CRM Buyer

A different use for Power BI: Self-service refreshes and extracts to Excel while managing security in Power BI

November 21, 2018 Self-Service BI

Have you ever needed to get data out to an internal customer quickly to meet an urgent business need, in an easy to access, updateable format?

Of course!

There are lots of ways to do this, and I’ve tried various routes at different times. Some were even successful, but I’ve never been entirely satisfied with meeting the combined requirements of security, control, and automation as well as customer satisfaction.

If I get the security aspect wrong, am I inadvertently giving the wrong person access to my database and the data it holds? If the control isn’t tight enough, are they going to be able to make changes or slow the performance of a system? To achieve sufficient control and security, am I sacrificing my ability to automate the data extract, leaving myself with a regular manual task to perform. If I tighten up all of these things, is the end result usable…or even recognizable…to the customer?

I know that in theory, an urgent task like this shouldn’t be repeatable without becoming a planned change or development, but think about the amount of time it takes to convert a request to a solution in production. Can I tell my Director that the requested data isn’t available on a regular basis until we’ve been through project management/ITIL/change control/any other relevant control systems? Then add in the development time needed, assuming my workload is already full to capacity.

This isn’t a show-stopping Problem-with-a-capital-P, it is more of an irritation, but it can be a recurring and persistent one. I’ve become more aware of it recently as I am in the middle of implementing a data warehouse to feed Power BI reports. Our team is combining data from different sources for the first time and making much more sophisticated information available, all of which takes time. In the meantime, the business has become aware of our progress, and they want to be included – every team needs something immediately.

While trying to meet an urgent need recently, it occurred to me that Power BI offers a simple solution. I can draw data from my new data warehouse, use views to combine the different sources, add filter criteria by entering a SQL query in the Power BI data source and present a simple data table for the end user. The resulting report can be published as a Power BI App, and the underlying dataset refreshed to a schedule.

My user then has straight-forward access to the data they want, in a recognizable format, refreshed as agreed. They can easily export to Excel for further analysis, and so they are happy. Security is set up during the App Workspace creation and the App publication, so as long as I add a member of my immediate team to the App Workspace Admin role, the whole process can easily be supported by someone other than me if I’m not around. The user can see their data and export it but does not have a direct connection to the data warehouse. Once the interim solution is in place, it doesn’t need my intervention.

There is a risk that these short-term solutions will never be replaced with properly scoped reports, but the plan is that all such solutions will be reviewed, as part of our on-going BI project. There are a few cases where extracting data in this way may even be the answer – an operations manager isn’t just looking for “how many of our properties need a survey within the next 60 days”, they need to know “which properties need a survey within the next 60 days”.

It is a simple solution to a problem that isn’t a big deal, but one I have found satisfying.

How do I do it?

Firstly, get the right data into the data warehouse (SQL Server in Azure in this instance) and create a view over it. The view should include enough data (columns and rows) to cover all related requests if possible. To demonstrate, I’m using a football World Cup data source I set up for a team sweepstake.

Create a new Power BI report with a SQL Server data source. In this example, the underlying tables and the view include all teams, whether or not they qualified. Those who qualified for the tournament have been assigned to a Group, so to restrict the view for this specific report I’m using a SQL statement in my data source.

Once the data is loaded into Power BI, I set up a very simple table which shows the requested details. As the point of the report isn’t a presentation, I’m not spending time on layout, format, labels or titles. As long as the table makes sense to the person or people making the request, it is good enough.

Now I save the report and publish it to a Power BI app workspace. I’m using new app workspaces, which are currently in preview, as they don’t create an entire Office365 group.

I set up a refresh schedule, if required, using an on-prem data gateway and add at least one other team member to the app workspace as with admin permissions.

Now the report is ready to publish as an app, giving the original requestor access to the app along the way.

When the user opens the report, they can see the data on the screen to check the content, then using the ellipsis on the corner of the table, export to Excel.

More Options

The user cannot edit the report, download the report file to see the SQL Server connection or access the original data, and no-one else can see it unless given permission.

My internal customer is happy as they can easily get to the data they need. My boss is happy because this is quick and easy to set up and frees up my time for the long-term projects he’d prefer me to focus on. The wider business need is satisfied until a more formal solution is available. And I’m happy to tick all of those boxes and be able to focus on the interesting, challenging big picture work I enjoy.

We “give away” business-value-creating and escape-the-box-inspiring content like this article in part to show you that we’re not your average “tools” consulting firm. We’re sharp on the toolset for sure, but also on what makes businesses AND human beings “go.”

In three days’ time imagine what we can do for your bottom line. You should seriously consider finding out 🙂

* – unless, of course, you have two turntables and a microphone. We hear a lot of things are also located there.

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Power BI expands self-service prep for big data, unifies modern and enterprise BI

July 13, 2018 Self-Service BI

More organizations are embracing a data culture that unifies information from many sources to drive business decisions. For a data-centric culture to thrive, it requires everyone to work from the same data platform, and intuitive tools that let them leverage vast quantities of data quickly to reach insights.

The Power BI updates we’re announcing today help organizations unify their enterprise BI needs on one platform and empower business analysts to leverage data more easily. Starting in July, these capabilities will begin to appear in Power BI in preview.

Accelerating data prep and unifying access to data across roles

I recently discussed the challenges associated with analyzing large volumes of data – specifically ingesting, integrating and analyzing disparate data. Data preparation and modeling are key components of the data journey, and our customers tell us that these activities often account for the majority of the time users spend working with data.

We’re investing in capabilities that reduce the time it takes for business analysts working with data to get insights.

Self-service prep for big data – We’re expanding self-service data prep in Power BI by introducing new capabilities to help business analysts extract insights from big data. Using the Power Query experience familiar to millions of Power BI Desktop and Excel users, business analysts can ingest, transform, integrate and enrich big data directly in the Power BI web service – including data from a large and growing set of supported on-premises and cloud-based data sources, such as Dynamics 365, Salesforce, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, Excel and SharePoint. The ingested data can now be shared across multiple Power BI models, reports and dashboards enabling easy data reuse.
Advanced analytics and AI with Azure – Additionally, it’s important that all of the users throughout an organization operate on the same data. We’re fueling collaboration across roles by unifying access to data between Power BI and Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2. Business analysts can seamlessly operate on data stored in Azure Data Lake Storage taking advantage of its scale, performance, security and analytics with the self-service capabilities in Power BI, while data engineers, data scientists and other users can extend access to insights with advanced analytics and AI from complementary Azure Data Services like Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, and Azure Machine Learning.

For example, data engineers can add, enrich and orchestrate data; data scientists can build machine learning models; and business analysts can benefit from the work of others and the data available in the Azure Data Lake Storage while continuing to use the self-service tools in Power BI to build and share insights broadly.

Support for the common data model – Power BI will also support the common data model, which gives organizations the ability to leverage a standardized and extensible collection of data schemas (entities, attributes and relationships). Users can take advantage of a standard schema – or customize based on their unique needs – to simplify how they enrich their data with other sources from Microsoft and third parties to accelerate analysis across a broad, unified dataset.

Unifying self-service and enterprise BI

Just as managing data from multiple sources can create challenges, managing multiple BI platforms within an organization can limit centralized access to insights.

Moving to one modern, compliant platform as the single destination for business analytics is easier than ever with key enterprise-facing updates on Power BI.

Enterprise-scale BI models & application lifecycle management (ALM) – We’re taking another step to bring advanced capabilities from SQL Server Analysis Services into Power BI, enabling larger data volumes, lifecycle management, and third-party BI tool connectivity. Incremental refresh, higher dataset size limits, and aggregates will allow customers to reach large dataset sizes, while maintaining fast and fluid reporting end users expect. With new support for the XMLA protocol, existing Analysis Services tools for managing lifecycle—from deployment through operations can now work with Power BI datasets. Additionally, since many third-party BI tools support XMLA, Power BI can now fuel analytics for all users across your enterprise, regardless of which reporting tool they choose to use.
Enterprise reporting – Popular SQL Server Reporting Services technology is now part of Power BI, creating a unified, secure, enterprise-wide reporting platform accessible to any user across devices. Pixel-perfect paginated reports can now be included alongside Power BI’s existing interactive reports.

f5a205db b3e8 4c61 805b e7d2a64a0d0b Power BI expands self service prep for big data, unifies modern and enterprise BI

Three years ago we launched Power BI to create new opportunities for businesses to drive a data culture where all employees, regardless of role and skillset, can access the insights and intelligence they need to make smart decisions based on facts.

Today, Power BI supports 43 languages and is used by customers in more than 18,000 cities. More than 19 million data models are hosted in Power BI and over 8 million dashboard queries are processed each hour. Thank you to our users for being part of this journey, and for the vibrant community that helps shape the product.

Learn more about these latest updates during Microsoft Inspire at the Power BI session, and for a deeper dive, join us at the Microsoft Business Applications Summit in Seattle on July 23 where you will learn more about these capabilities and see them in action. Register now for the Microsoft Business Applications Summit if you haven’t already!

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Microsoft Power BI Blog | Microsoft Power BI

Self-Service AI Aims to Grease the Wheels for B2B Sales Teams

January 29, 2018 CRM News and Info

SalesDirector.ai this week released a self-service version of its artificial intelligence sales execution and sales forecasting platform for B2B sales teams.

The system provides enterprise-grade AI to sales teams in less than five minutes, according to the company. Like the regular SalesDirector.ai platform, the self-service version is offered as a service.

“There’s no need to configure, program or set up how you sell, and train the AI — no need for admins to connect to systems,” said SalesDirector.ai CEO Babar Batla.

“Our prior product required a few weeks’ work to configure the AI system to understand [clients’] sales methodology, process and playbook,” he told CRM Buyer. “Our new offering doesn’t need that — customers can start on their own. Same value, but a revolutionary onboarding and setup.”

Sales executives “are overwhelmed by data and solutions to help them sort through what are the important signals that impact deal closure and improve seller performance,” noted Cindy Zhou, principal analyst at Constellation Research.

“AI solutions have the ability to answer these questions,” she told CRM Buyer.

The product targets businesses with 50 to 1,000 employees.

“These companies have all the same problems as big companies, but don’t have the know-how, resources, budget, or the patience to put an AI system for sales in place,” Batla pointed out. “So we take care of it.”

Potential customers can access the platform through the “Try Now” button on SalesDirector.ai’s website and begin using AI and machine learning in their sales process without needing to implement the software and related services.

Annual contracts for the platform cost upwards of US$ 1,000 per user.

Productivity Features

The SalesDirector.ai platform connects with Microsoft and Google email and calendar applications on the server side, “so there’s nothing to install on the Outlook or Google Mail client,” Batla said.

It also connects with the Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics and NetSuite CRM platforms.

“We get data from CRM, but most of the interesting data is sitting in the sales reps’ mailboxes and calendars,” Batla remarked.

Both versions of the platform correlate all the interactions with buyers that are journaled in email, calendar and call logs, and provide various capabilities without the need for any data entry.

Among the tools for sales leaders:

Forecasts based on observed activities and relationship milestones;
The ability to manage the pipeline by exception to quickly identify corrective action and improve win rates; and
Training mechanisms, along with the ability to hold sellers accountable to the company’s sales best practices.

The platform helps sales reps do the following:

Stay organized around all their deals, keeping things from falling through the cracks;
Come better prepared for deal reviews; and
Focus on value-added discussions with managers and overlay teams, again without needing data entry.

The initial run to correlate data takes two to three hours, Batla said. After that, incremental correlations, which execute “much more quickly,” are done multiple times daily.

“The key component is using machine learning to analyze the data from a multitude of sources to surface insights for forecast accuracy,” Constellation’s Zhou pointed out. “The problem is, most companies have data quality issues that impact the effectiveness of the algorithms.”

Coaching Features

The SalesDirector.ai platform leverages data to provide real-time coaching in sales execution.

“We can do basic things like setting up the next meeting, engaging with more than one person on a deal, and making sure a particular contact isn’t ignored on a deal,” Batla said.

The platform also offers advanced coaching. Based on the sales opportunity, it can advise sales people when it’s appropriate to take the following actions:

Engage with the buyer who makes the purchase decision;
Send the discovery call follow-up; and
Send the contract.

Richard%20Adhikari Self Service AI Aims to Grease the Wheels for B2B Sales Teams Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology.
Email Richard.

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CRM Buyer

AI Self-Service: Smile for Your Supper

December 22, 2017 CRM News and Info

Cali Group and NEC on Tuesday announced a pilot program using kiosks equipped with facial recognition software and artificial intelligence to ease the ordering process for regular customers at the Pasadena, California, location of its international
CaliBurger restaurant chain.

The kiosks use NEC’s NeoFace facial recognition software to identify registered customers and pull up their order preferences and loyalty accounts.

The machines also will access a customer’s Yelp reviews and alert the manager if the customer needs special attention.

Customers have to register for the loyalty program before they can use the kiosks. They have to provide their name and take a picture to enroll.

There are two kiosks at the Pasadena location. One lets customers register by email or using a phone, and the other uses facial recognition.

“Customers can choose which kiosk they want to use,” noted Cali Group CEO John Miller.

“This makes the fast food experience faster and, at the same time more personal,” said Michael Jude, research manager at Stratecast/Frost & Sullivan.

“Anything that makes fast food faster is probably going to be attractive to those who indulge in it,” he told CRM Buyer.

Pay by Face in the Works

Cali Group’s plans for 2018 include using the facial recognition system on one of the kiosks to allow people to pay for their food, Miller said.

After customers swipe their card, the system will store a token associated with it; Cali Group does not store credit card information.

Cali also does not store photos of faces. Instead, it stores a digital fingerprint — a hash, if you like — of each face, Miller noted.

“The security needs to be bulletproof,” Frost’s Jude cautioned. “One failure would threaten the company’s survival.”

Going All Out With Technology

Facial recognition is part of Cali’s broader strategy to let the restaurant and retail industries provide the same kinds of benefits and conveniences in the brick-and-mortar world that Amazon and others do online.

Among those conveniences is faster, smoother ordering and order processing.

To fulfill its strategy, the Cali Group has been developing a Restaurant Operating System, or ROS, comprised of the following:

software for managing interactive in-store entertainment;
automated processes for ordering and cooking;
intelligent delivery of food from the kitchen to customers in local neighborhoods; and
real-time detection of operating errors and pathogens.

“Flippy,” an AI-driven robot from Miso Robotics that works alongside kitchen staff to grill burgers, is part of the ROS.

The Cali Group introduced the robot at its Pasadena location earlier this year. Flippy is slated for rollout in 2018, and it will be available in more than 50 CaliBurger restaurants worldwide by 2019.

The innovations the Cali Group has introduced will dovetail with consumers’ increasing demand for convenience and speed when they make purchases, Frost’s Jude observed. “There’s also the personal touch — a place where everyone… er, thing… knows your name.”

Major fast food retailers “have been moving to kiosks for a while now, and facial recognition raises the bar,” he noted. However, “most will wait and see whether this technology is feasible.”

Automation probably will be adopted widely in the fast food and grocery sectors, Jude suggested, but “less so in upscale or sit-down restaurants. There people are willing to pay for the human touch.”

The fast food and grocery sectors probably will adopt automated systems widely in “no more than five years,” he predicted.

In pursuit of its vision for the ROS, the Cali Group has taken “major equity positions in technology companies developing new technologies for restaurant and retail,” Miller said. Among them are Super League Gaming, FunWall, Miso Robotics, PoPpacks and Kitchen United.

The Cali Group will demo its facial recognition self-ordering kiosks at
NRF 2018 Retail’s Big Show in New York City Jan. 14-16.

The company has invested US$ 5 million in Miso, and it has raised about $ 30 million for Super League Gaming.

Richard%20Adhikari AI Self Service: Smile for Your Supper Richard Adhikari has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2008. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, mobile technologies, CRM, databases, software development, mainframe and mid-range computing, and application development. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including Information Week and Computerworld. He is the author of two books on client/server technology.
Email Richard.

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CRM Buyer

Give Your Customers Self-Service – Your “Portal” to Success in the Digital Economy

July 26, 2017 CRM News and Info

Are you finding yourself hiring more sales associates to meet volume demand, sorting through scattered records of frequently asked questions and service requests, and pulling at strings trying to facilitate customer engagement?

Well stop. Today’s customers expect service at their fingertips. In fact, 90% of customers in the US expect a customer self-service portal according to Microsoft’s 2016 Global State of Customer Service Report. Read the full report here.

Customer Portal Microsoft Global Customer Service Report stat 1 Give Your Customers Self Service – Your “Portal” to Success in the Digital Economy

Deploying a customer self-service “portal” can reduce stress on your sales associates and customer service representatives, and make the buying experience such a breeze that your customers keep coming back.

Understand your customers and maximize the impact of a positive customer experience. Learn about the impact of Microsoft Dynamics.

Customer Self-Service

Customer Self-Service Portals allow you to intelligently structure and surface just about any data you wish for your customers, including product and service information, videos describing how to use your products, and answers to frequently asked questions. Putting this information in the hands of your customers lets them access support on their own terms and, in return, can reduce the number of cases your service teams have to manage.

Additionally, customer portals allow customers to place and cancel orders under recurring terms and conditions without the help of your sales associates, freeing them up for more strategic work.

Customers can purchase products during any time of the day or night, providing flexibility for the customer and empowering global sales.

Give Your Customers a Tailored Experience

Information that you decide to publish such as orders, pricing, delivery schedules, and delivery processes in your ERP solution can populate the customer portal. On the flip side, information you obtain about a customer through the portal will be entered into your CRM solution. This automatic importing of data into all of your systems prohibits valuable information from getting lost in the shuffle!

Say goodbye to manual data entry for new and existing customers!

Customization of the Sales Process

With an integrated customer portal, you’ll be able to better segment and target your customers for sales and marketing. Integration with CRM can suggest cross-sell or up-sell items based on customer buying behavior. Customers eligible for reward programs can be automatically notified when they qualify for a reward based on the information obtained through the portal.

Increase in Customer Engagement

As customers come to appreciate this streamlined customer experience, they will naturally engage with your brand. The portal provides you with excellent ways to facilitate this engagement, giving customers an exclusive “in” with your company and a customized profile to operate from. Customer engagement and the creation of a strong brand community can make a significant impact on your sales revenue in today’s connected, digital economy.

Learn how to get started with your customer self-service portal today!

Click here to contact Turnkey Technologies.

Click here to learn about CRM from Microsoft.

By Turnkey Technologies, Inc. – Gold Microsoft Dynamics Partner based in St. Louis, Missouri.

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CRM Software Blog | Dynamics 365

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Click here to contact Turnkey Technologies.

Click here to learn about CRM from Microsoft.

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