eWeek - June 16, 2008

CRM 2.0 FROM PAGE 33 force Ideas to help it go online One blogger at mystarbucksblog. Shakur, project manager at ADP’s and engage its customer base in a com noted problems with multiple Tax Credit Services. “Now we can dialogue, the organization had no instances of the same idea, the lack just add a queue list to their desktop idea what to expect. The Starbucks of ability to vote against an idea and so they never have to log into a third brand was a huge success in the the degeneration of discussion in system.” brick-and-mortar world, of course, general. “The comments have really RSS also improves communi- but online lattes were few and far descended to the level of a grade cations among members of sales between. school argument over who is faster teams, allowing them to receive Since its launch MyStarbucksIdea between Superman and the Flash,” updates made by team members on has drawn strong community involve- the blogger wrote. “[A] post about tip-customers, projects and events. ment. Although statistics aren’t ping has some really nasty comments shown on the site, its 4,137 pages by more than a few individuals. I

_Stiff _competitionof ideas—at 10 ideas per page—add don’t think that removing the tip jars _up _to _more _than ₄₀_,000 _ideas _as _of _is _a _good _idea, _but _the _concept _of _Mysalesforce.com and oracle provide early June. Starbucks Idea is that all voices are a complete CRM ecosystem, but And, yet, there seems to be more heard in a respectful manner.” a number of smaller vendors— noise than productive suggestions. [CON TINUED ON PAGE 36] including Communispace, Market-

Tools and Think Passenger—are providing solutions that can help ^Looking ^for ^answerscompanies interact with customers more effectively. Used with social networking applications _from _vendors _such _as _Jive _Soft-1. Executive sponsor 2. Implementation team ware, Lithium Technologies and

Prospero Technologies, these customer collaboration applications Customers can help companies lower support costs by empowering customers ₃_.Online ₄_.^Projectto solve one another’s problems. ^{community team}⁵^.^Executiveteam

While none of these customer col- Employees ^laboration ^apps ^provides ^the ^same So, how do you deploy a vibrant online commu-

^Digg-like ^capability ^to ^promote nity? Here’s the basic process that Salesforce. ^ideas ^as ^{Salesforce.com}^’s ^does, ^they com has seen with its customers, and one that do address similar market niches. closely mirrors our conversations with users of

A direct competitor to Salesforce ⁶^.^Deliver ^resultsother CRM apps.

Ideas is Spigit, a provider of idea generation and crowd-sourcing tech- 1. Find an executive sponsor who backs the project. Gaining this sponsorship is nology with a twist. Like Salesforce a big factor in the success of the deployment.

Ideas, Spigit enables participants 2. The leadership team works with the vendor to implement the product, which to promote and demote ideas. But takes about 45 days.

^Spigit ^adds ^the ^ability ^to ^factor ⁱⁿ 3. Once the organization launches its community, decisions have to be made the reputation of participants to about whether to invite employees or customers or both. ^weight ^opinions ^and ^give ^greater 4. Once the app is implemented, a team reviews the ideas that are being credence to the views of people who _submitted.^have ^demonstrated ^expertise ⁱⁿ ^a 5. The executive team’s goal is to identify ideas that will likely deliver results. particular area.

This kind of reputation-based 6. When an idea is being worked on or has been delivered, that status is commu- ranking of ideas might have pre- nicated back to the community to let members know that their ideas are being vented the problems Starbucks had heard. This can be done through a status field or a date-ordered blog that high- _with _its _{MyStarbucksIdea} _service.lights success stories and recognizes key contributors.