Web Sites

The web is a great place to look for CRM information and since almost all magazines have a web presence, I will comment here about the magazines that have web sites rather than in the next section. Since there are so many relevant web sites, they are organized by focus, starting with CRM-specific sites, then sites the focus on business functions, which all contain CRM information that's nicely tailored to that business function.

Sites for CRM Information

  • www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/crm/resources. A set of links to recent CRM articles in ComputerWorld and other media, including some of the ones listed here.
  • www.crmcommunity.com. Contains industry news as well as CRM-related classes and resources. Many articles are press releases or pointers to articles on other sites. Free registration.
  • www.CRMDaily.com. A site that provides short, focused articles, often written by analysts about CRM vendors and CRM implementations. Includes links to CRM Buyer Magazine. Free e-mail news alerts.
  • www.CRMguru.com. An online community focused on CRM, containing in particular Q&As on various CRM topics by and for business users. There is a weekly newsletter you can subscribe to called CustomerThink, focused on the business aspects of CRM. Free membership.
  • www.destinationCRM.com. The site of the monthly CRM Magazine. Contains a variety of short industry articles that mixes vendor interviews, case studies, and interesting editorials.
  • www.fierceenterprise.com. Provides a short daily bulletin of industry news, with an emphasis on CRM. Many articles are pointers to articles on other sites and tend to be limited to news, not analysis. Great if you want to keep up-to-the-minute on CRM topics. (Was FierceCRM.)

Sites for Sales and Marketing

The sites listed here target the business functions rather than CRM per se, but all have occasional coverage of CRM topics from the point of view of the business owners.

  • www.salesandmarketing.com. This is the web site for the Sales and Marketing Management magazine. The content is mostly focused on business processes, and mostly on sales rather than marketing per se. Sponsors the "Chief Sales Executive Forum," a yearly conference for sales VPs. To read most articles you will need to purchase a subscription.
  • www.saleslobby.com. This is the site for the SLC Insider, a newsletter. It includes information about tools with an annotated list.
  • www.sammag.com. This is the web site of SAM Magazine (Sales, Advertising, and Marketing). More marketing coverage here than in Sales and Marketing Management. Some articles are for subscribers only.
  • www.sellingpower.com. This is the web site for Selling Power magazine, a magazine for sales managers. Includes a dedicated CRM section with short articles about various aspects of CRM, often focused on one particular solution.

Sites for Support And Service

The sites listed here focus more on support processes than CRM topics, but all have occasional coverage of CRM topics from the point of view of the support and service functions.

  • www.afsmi.org. The site of the Association for Services Management International and their newsletter, Members' Newsline. Focused on processes more than tools.
  • www.callcentermagazine.com. The web site for Call Center Magazine, a monthly publication geared towards both incoming and outgoing call centers, and very much focused on the telephone as a communication channel. Includes many articles about technology, usually in the form of contrasting case studies. Also includes links to many different vendors.
  • www.helpdeskinst.com. The web site of the Help Desk Institute, the association of help desk and other support professionals, and its electronic magazine.
  • www.softletter.com. The online presence of the Softletter newsletter, focused on personal computer software uploader. Only selected articles are available on the web site, otherwise you need to subscribe. Well-researched, very practical articles, with some CRM commentary.
  • www.supportgate.com. The web site of SSPA, the Service and Support Professionals Association and its electronic newsletter, SupportWeek. Contains lots of CRM coverage as well as information about processes. Has many (paid-for) links to CRM vendors and integrators.
  • www.the-resource-center.com. An online retailer of all kinds of resources for support and service professionals, including tutorials and tapes.

Sites for IT

These sites are targeted at IT owners, but may be interesting to technically minded business owners as well.

  • www.openitx.com/g/ITtoolbox/CRM-SELECT.asp. An open forum for IT staffers to discuss CRM topics. The counterpart of the CRMGuru forum, but from a technical perspective.
  • www.cio.com. The site of CIO Magazine, a general-purpose magazine for IT executives with good-quality articles, including some about CRM. Free e-mail subscription.
  • www.informationweek.com. The site of Information Week, a weekly general-purpose IT magazine. Free subscription.
  • www.SearchCRM.com. A complete site for information about CRM from an IT perspective.
Screenshot


   
Comments