Category Archives: IT

Enterprise, Etc.

Can Microsoft ‘force’ its way through?

That is the question most of us would be asking when the Redmond giant throws down the gauntlet in the in e-CRM space, dominated by Salesforce.com.  

The new product, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Live, is the most extensive business push on the Web for the software giant. Starting in mid-2007, the company will host a service on its data center servers that will let customers manage business contacts and help them follow sales leads. The software will have the same look and feel that the packaged version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM has today.

Businessweek has more on Microsoft’s catch-up plan and Salesforce.com

Enterprise, Etc.

Unica: An Enterprise Marketing Management Solutions company

Unica Corporation (NASDAQ: UNCA) is a leading global provider of Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) software. It focusses exclusively on the needs of marketing organizations. Its Affinium software addresses the principal functions of EMM including marketing and customer analytics, demand generation, and marketing resource management.

Affinium provides a complete platform to transform the entire marketing process including planning, budgeting, project management, execution and measurement for brand, relationship and internet marketing. Over 400 companies worldwide rely in Unica’s solutions to manage the complexities and processes of marketing and facilitate the operations of a customer-centric business.

Founded in 1992, Unica is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, with additional locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, India, and Singapore.Š

Internet

Internet Portals

A Portal is a web site but…
Over the years, the word portal has acquired a lot of meanings.
Infact, it has became so ubiquitous that there is a danger that
one could call his 5-odd-pages-static -web site  a portal too.
So, if an ordinary web site is not a portal, what is a portal anyway?

A portal in its simplest definition means a gateway or a destination
site…or a starting point. So, if you have your customers/stakeholders
log on to yourwebsite.com and get to do more than just accessing
the content and start savoring the other
Cs (Communication, Collaboration and Commerce) you are on
the ‘portal’ trail.

Types of Portals
Having defined a portal, let’s go for a broad classification of portals. 

1.Dynamic web publishing; possibly the simplest use-case
and a common entry point for portal developers.
2.Self-service portal; improving customer, partner, or
employee care by enabling them to help themselves and
obtain better service on their terms.
3.Collaboration portal; allowing geographically dispersed
teams to work together on projects, handing out
assignments, collaborating on tasks, providing review on
documents and tracking progress.
4.Enterprise intranet; helping employees work more
effectively and efficiently, often via multiple specialized
portal applications.
5.E-business portal; enabling enterprises to extend
commercial information and services to external trading
partners, suppliers, and customers
6.Enterprise integration; possibly the most complex use
case, piecing together enterprise systems to achieve greater
efficiency and agility; involving ERP and Business Performance
Management software as well.

Portal Life Cycle
Each of the above portals go through a different life cycle because
of their end-customers. The life cycle gets further altered based on
the utility they serve and the channel they use. For instance, a mobile
delivery brings in a new dimension.

Here are the broad steps

1. Research
2. Strategy
3. Ideation
4. Design (Visual, Content and Technical)
5. Development and Integration
6. Support and Maintenance

It is built, but ain’t over yet…
An effective management of the combination of
4Cs (Content, Communication, Collaboration, Commerce) based on
the requirements of your internal and external stakeholders adds
all the necessary dimensions to your portal framework. Once the
framework is in place, it is all about executing it…over and over again,
the stakeholders only ask for more.