Introducing Enterprise 2.0 for Small & Medium Business

The increasingly torrid pace of business today, calls for better, faster ways of managing not just relationships, but also the dynamic transactions and processes every business utilizes.

Traditional Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications have focused on managing customer information, not the varied, dynamic transactions, workflows or business processes that exist and grow within and around working relationships. The need for the convergence of CRM and BPM (Business Process Management), and the delivery and applications of these concepts using Web Services has advanced as a high priority for businesses.

Unfortunately, the integration of legacy systems with Web-enabled applications, coupled with slow adoption and high cost has made CRM an option only large enterprises could afford. Small to Medium Business (SMB) has been completely devoid of options for low-cost, on-demand, hosted, dynamic CRM solutions. However, the recent evolutions of Enterprise 2.0 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms have become welcome new friends to the SMB market.

In today’s ever-growing business community, the companies that take early advantage of Enterprise 2.0 solutions defined by Andrew McAfee, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, as “emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers,” will take a prominent leadership position.

The leadership position will solidify for companies offering technology to the SMB market that according to Stuart Eccles, a UK Internet consultant, employ the following Enterprise 2.0 features:

Rich, dynamic user interfaces powered by Flash and AJAX
Low integration price points delivered by extremely loosely coupled services
Custom mash-ups of company information on a user-by-user basis
Custom business process applications continually developed in low-cost technology

Enter COMPLETExRM Enterprise 2.0 CRM—delivering dynamic business transactions

COMPLETExRM is the leading provider of Enterprise 2.0 CRM solutions for SMB built on its xRM™ (Complete Dynamic Relationship Management) Foundation. Utilizing a Java-based Service-Oriented Application, the xRM Foundation is delivered via SaaS (Software-as-a-Service), and is easily extended and customized to meet the needs of any industry or user.

Companies can use this dynamic foundation to build or “mash up” any desired sets of on-demand dynamic transactions into customized BPM around a specific customer’s needs, thus the dynamic “x”. The xRM Foundation focuses on managing the dynamic or “on the fly” nature of transactions in a relationship—not simply the contact. This is the essence of Dynamic Transaction Management (DTM) through the xRM Foundation.

COMPLETExRM is delivering Enterprise 2.0 CRM – which is all about the ways that Web 2.0 enables, the business person—and is making it fully accessible to the SMB. COMPLETExRM, through the new context of Enterprise 2.0 CRM, helps individuals and companies intertwine people, time and resources by managing around automated business services, productivity processes, and applications for a much lower price and through the fastest implementation vehicle available, the xRM Foundation.

The On-demand, Hosted xRM Foundation—Extendable & Customizable

While COMPLETExRM’s dynamic technology foundation, xRM, provides the expected CRM functionality, such as sales force automation, marketing automation, help and support, on-demand invoicing and billing, and other necessary Web Services, it is designed to be extended and customized as needed to solve a broader range of BPM issues. The services extendibility of xRM is as varied as there are varied business needs.

The xRM Foundation delivers Web Services via the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. xRM is designed to be flexible, and is not tied to any fixed industry, logic, or schema. This means xRM has plug and play based functionality combined with its ability to have services switched on and off as needed.

Through its AJAX (Asynchronous JAvaScript and XML)-based user interface, xRM is fast and responsive with friendly functionality like drag and drop and right click to increase user interactivity and navigation. Ease of use and customization is increased through xRM’s other key features, such as:

Pluggable XMLs and algorithms
User-definable rules, workflows and processes

xRM can integrate with multiple databases—from the open source MySQL, to the industry leader Oracle. As for mid-tier Java application servers, xRM will function with open source Apache Tomcat, WebLogic, and Websphere.

Because xRM technology is adaptable in nature, add-on functionality or third-party Web Services can be integrated or “mashed up” into the core product. COMPLETExRM partners and users can create private-label or OEM CRM offerings for virtually any industry or company.

FranklinCovey PlanPlus™ Online—Building Upon the xRM Foundation

In a move that has validated xRM’s capabilities and has helped to make it pervasive as a Web Services foundation, FranklinCovey has partnered with COMPLETExRM to create PlanPlus™ Online, a Web-based, SaaS application that allows worldwide customers to apply FranklinCovey planning methodology via the Internet.

On-Demand, Hosted CxRM—the Future is Now

CxRM is targeted at the SMB market where inexpensive, quick, go-to-market hosted services thrive. The on-demand, hosted CRM segment of this market is expected to see dramatic, exponential growth over the next few years. Research from IDC analysts confirms this and indicates: “76% of growth in the CRM market between now (2005) and 2008 will come from the "on-demand market," also known as hosted CRM. IDC predicts vendor revenues in this sector will grow from $700 million to $3.6 billion in the same time period.

In 2005 Gartner analysts saw the growth of the hosted CRM too. They estimated, “that by 2009, businesses will be spending nearly $1 billion on CRM as a service, and that 33% of all small to medium-sized businesses will have opted for a hosted model.”

William Band of Forrester Research in his recent report, “Trends 2007: Customer Relationship Management,” says: "With more frequent upgrades, lower risk, and lower upfront costs, customer demand for the SaaS deployment option shows no signs of slowing down."

COMPLETExRM History

COMPLETExRM, Inc. was founded in 2006 by Mike Morgan and Keith Norris. The founders came from a real estate background, having a keen understanding of the need for detailed business processes for managing complex customer transactions in their vertical.

With this knowledge, they set out to find a solution that focused on automating and managing these relationships. At the time, many basic contact management software and CRM offerings could not do what they required. If they found a workable solution among the current offerings, it would cost millions of dollars to implement.

The founders believed the market needed a solution that could manage the dynamic nature of transactions and their associated business processes. Basically, they wanted a product that could manage the relationship within and around dynamic processes—regardless of data, device, customer or partnership.

Recognizing that an affordable solution did not exist in the marketplace, the founders decided to create a technology foundation that leverages basic relationship management services found in CRM services, while it also allows businesses to customize and extend the product to solve their unique, real business problems.

COMPLETExRM Milestones

2002—CRMRealtor founded by Mike Morgan and Keith Norris
2004—Company changes name to CompleteCRMSolutions and broadens market focus
2006—Mike Morgan and Keith Norris found COMPLETExRM, which communicates its xRM technology foundation’s dynamic extendibility.
2006—COMPLETExRM provides xRM Foundation, code and hosting solution for FranklinCovey's New PlanPlus Online
2007—COMPLETExRM receives strategic investment from key investors Donald L. Lucas, LongBow Holdings Company LLC, and the University Venture Fund
2007—Donald L. Lucas appointed to COMPLETExRM Chairman of the Board
2007—FranklinCovey Licenses xRM to create PlanPlus Online SALES Edition
2008- PlanPlus Online BASIC Edition released
2009- PlanPlus Online Business Edition released
2010- Complete XRM acquires long term licensing rights to FranklinCovey Software from FranklinCovey Products LLC