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Tag: Dovetail CRM

Austin Code Camp 2010

May 10, 2010 It’s that time of year again – time for the Austin .Net User Group annual Code Camp. It’s a one day free conference, For the Community, By the community. The Conference is this Saturday, May 15, 2010. You can still register online. Jeremy Miller and Chad Myers from Dovetail will be doing a Dovetail Software Show and Tell session, going under the hood of Dovetail CRM. The session overview: Dovetail's "rules engine." We have a custom rules engine built on the standard Event - Condition - Action pattern that works against our domain model. The E-C-A parts are all composed with StructureMap and the rules configuration is done by an external DSL editor that presents a near English experience for users. It's also very extensible for those pesky customer customizations down the road. I think this is the most challenging…

The Future of Amdocs Clarify

Static image June 8, 2007 How does the future look for the owner of the Amdocs Clarify CRM system?   When Amdocs acquired Clarify, it led the way in combining its specialization in billing with CRM. This was an exciting story for the industry as a whole, sparking more acquisitions, and fueling general interest in the broader integration of departments.   The story since then has been a mixed one for Amdocs customers, although the surge in CRM has led to some new integration possibilities. The upgrade path for the once-pioneering Clarify system under Amdocs has had a tortuous history, with no progression outside of the proprietary Clarify codebase, and with Amdocs moving awkwardly into thin-client experimentation. Lately the company has been developing open frameworks.   Even within the main Amdocs constituency of telecommunications, some Clarify owners have looked outside of Amdocs for help, notably with the Dovetail Software enhancements. Amdocs remains…

Knowledge in Motion

Static image May 15, 2007 Knowledge only works when it’s in motion – being consumed, or expressed, or else being analyzed, sorted and ordered. The data components of knowledge arise out of motion, and are captured by information systems.   The greatest technical challenge for the development of enterprise-wide knowledge management lies with integration of legacy systems and newer information tools.   Key tools in this effort are ETL products. ETL (extract, transform and load) refers to the extraction of data from active systems, classically for importation into a data warehouse for cleansing and (re)processing, but generally for any reason, such as a mashup or entry into another application for further recalculation on the fly.   “the reality of BI for most enterprises is far murkier, with massive investments in technology for data warehousing, data integration, and analytics, but payoffs that are sparse or hard to calculate. What’s needed, experts agree,…

The Troubled Future of IT

Static image April 27, 2007 Gartner at its annual Symposium/ITxpo this week in San Francisco has presented a number of messages to the IT profession, with few holds barred.   Gartner analyst Steve Prentice said it most bluntly: “Now is not the time for complacency or mediocrity [...] This industry is in danger of becoming one of failure. We’ve come to accept mediocrity as the norm. It’s not a lack of technology or skills. The problem comes down to a lack of vision.”   This message as reported by Larry Dignan says that technology managers are essentially paralyzed, waiting for software vendors to roll out the next upgrade, and no longer capable of leading their company’s development future innovatively.   “Technology managers are mired in mediocrity, wait for technology vendors to innovate and fear being a first mover. The result: The U.S. doesn’t innovate and CIOs risk…

Two Key CRM Problems – Adoption and Expectations

Static image April 23, 2007 After a decade of development, CRM deployments are still problematic for many companies, as recent surveys show. Two main areas of concern are employee adoption of new deployments, and also large disparities between what executives expect and what the system actually delivers.   Additionally, sales consultancy CSO Insights finds installation problems, with forty-one percent of implementations going over budget. The main reasons for budget overruns center around management failure to plan for user training and post-install support. This melds with the adoption rates being lower than expected. CSO explains:   ”’I’m sure we could pick out companies whose numbers are well above average, and I think we would find those companies have had CRM [programs] for some time,’ Trailer said. ‘But I would suspect the difference is not their CRM[technology] but their management. CRM isn’t what makes the difference; people embracing the tools makes the difference.’” See CRM software fails sales   This is…