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DSC Tech Library
This section of our technical library presents information and documentation relating to CRM Vendors and Customer relationship management software and products. Providing customer service is vital to maintaining successful business relationships. Accurate and timely information provided in a professional manner is the key to any business and service operation.
Our CRM software application TELEMATION, was developed with this in mind. But the ability to change is just as important in this ever changing business environment.
Telemation call center software was designed from the very beginning for this environment.
Many call center managers, with unique and changing requirements, have chosen and continue to use our CRM software as their solution of choice.
Our contact center CRM solution is ideally suited for call center service bureaus.
Consider a Hosted CRM Solution
Look past the buzzwords for a truly rich application.
by Robert Gryphon
Silicon Valley doesn't know how to build a good application, and has no incentive to try. The enterprise software business model depends on fighting constant feature wars, building complicated applications, and selling heavy customization services, to stay on top of buzzwords and make their numbers.
Most software companies--enterprise application vendors in particular--focus on technology and trends instead of consolidating customer requirements into useful and usable applications. Home-grown applications and heavily customized enterprise software can deliver on the specifications of each individual customer, but at a high price and without letting multiple customers benefit from each other's ideas. For vendor-supplied software to beat home-grown applications, it must be cheaper, easy to use, accessible from anywhere, and be useful out of the box.
I came to Silicon Valley in 1994 after 10 years of building custom applications for dozens of companies--from small startup law firms and service businesses to large supermarket chains and a top consumer software company. When I joined one of the big-three customer-service application vendors, I was shocked by the lack of application functionality in the product. The company had a reputation for technology, but the application side was just a toolkit for customization, with five screens in the whole out-of-box application. I assumed the problem was just us, but after studying many enterprise applications, I realized they were the same: limited functionality, poor UI, difficult to learn, and unusable as delivered. At this point, I realized how far I could go in Silicon Valley--my skills were unexpectedly unique.
Enterprise vendors are mired in past generations of technology and rely on obsolete sales models to victimize big companies that can afford to be overcharged. There's money to be made by charging separately for licenses, maintenance, and professional services--the holy trinity of invoicing. These vendors are often fundamentally incapable of moving to a hosted model, because it would cannibalize their core business. Meanwhile, most hosted applications assume customers are simpletons with minimal requirements--the features just aren't there. So they must announce and promote customization, with customers paying extra for features they needed in the first place.
No one should have to pay a fortune for a toolkit and another fortune to build an application. A vendor can build a rich application, covering a broad spectrum of departments for customers to choose from, and charge a fair price, with heavy customization being rare. Customers can have 80 percent of the features they need off-the-rack, and if they choose to customize, the sky's the limit. With a true hosted suite, customers start with a wide feature set and turn off modules they don't need, rather than starting from a minimal application and building the really important pieces from scratch.
Which approach sounds easier to you?
About the Author
Robert Gryphon is the founder and CEO of Airframe Business Software Inc. In 1997 he cofounded eCRM leader Octane Software, which was acquired by E.piphany in 2000 for a record price. Gryphon has worked as a software architect, database developer, network engineer, software consultant, and freelance computer writer, with 90 articles and a book on ODBC.
CRM Software and Phone System
DSC can provide your call center or marketing organization a complete turnkey CRM software and phone system that is both affordable and expandable.
This solution includes our award winning CRM software solution (Telemation) and our inbound/outbound call center phone system.
The WIZARD CRM phone system is developed using industrial PC components from Intel/Dialogic and can provide your organization with inbound and outbound features normally associated with large PBX systems.
Telemation is fully integrated with this system and is capable of performing all forms of outbound calling including Predictive Dialing. Likewise, inbound campaigns can be developed that support call distribution to agent groups as well as stand alone IVR interactive voice response programs.
To obtain additional information about this integrated solution, click on the "CRM Phone Systems" button.
CRM Solutions and Remote Agents
A significant benefit of today's telecommunication advancements is the ability for your employees to work from home. Database Systems Corp. has developed a family of telecom products that promote this capability.
Telemation, combined with our PACER call center phone system, fully supports remote agents. Now your customer care workforce can be significantly expanded with the addition of work at home employees. The economic savings and environmental advantages are significant.
To obtain additional information about our remote agent capability, you may view our Remote Agent page.
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