CRM tools and strategy
Customer relationship management combines various tools -- like marketing and sales force automation software -- and strategies to help organizations maintain, manage and learn from customer interactions. Find out the latest news and expert advice for your CRM approach.
Top Stories
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Video
06 May 2025
An explanation of customer relationship management (CRM)
CRM systems combine data, strategies and technology to manage customer interactions. Features include automation, lead tracking, and analytics to improve service and drive sales. Continue Reading
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News
10 Apr 2025
HubSpot users get more Breeze generative AI agents
HubSpot users get agents for sales, service and marketing. Continue Reading
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News
19 Apr 2021
Salesforce Digital 360 for Industries adds developer tools
Salesforce Digital 360 for Industries releases developer tools, templates and guides for users to build e-commerce storefronts, webpages and portals on its vertical-specific clouds. Continue Reading
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News
08 Apr 2021
Salesforce updates vaccine distribution tool ahead of surge
President Biden moves COVID-19 vaccine availability deadline for American adults to April 19; Salesforce Vaccine Cloud adds asynchronous bookings on more channels to meet surge. Continue Reading
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News
07 Apr 2021
Microsoft pushes deeper into Dynamics 365 industry clouds
Microsoft's vertical industry strategy keeps pace with similar approaches from Oracle and Salesforce, which strive to woo users on the benefits of their platforms and data models. Continue Reading
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News
24 Mar 2021
Salesforce updates Sales Cloud for remote work
Salesforce created CRM tools for its own sales team's pandemic shift to remote work -- and is rolling out the ones it found most effective to all the platform's users. Continue Reading
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News
16 Mar 2021
ServiceMax releases Engage field service management app
ServiceMax Engage app gives users' customers a snapshot of their service contract benefits, and gives users vital updates for asset managements of property in the field. Continue Reading
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News
02 Mar 2021
Salesforce tackles B2B rebate management automation
Salesforce's tool for manufacturer rebates may have applications in other verticals, as it automates typically spreadsheet-driven processes. Continue Reading
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News
02 Mar 2021
Microsoft Dynamics 365 adds customer journey orchestration
Dynamics 365 users in marketing and sales get CX features forged from the pandemic economy that enable one-to-one digital experiences. Continue Reading
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News
26 Feb 2021
Salesforce Field Service spring release adds map features
Salesforce dubs pandemic and post-pandemic times 'the appointment economy' for field service operations and builds mobile app features to accommodate it. Continue Reading
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Tip
01 Feb 2021
The top real estate CRM software
Today's competitive real estate market highlights the importance of CRM systems that provide listings management and property tracking, as well as typical CRM system features. Continue Reading
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News
27 Jan 2021
ServiceNow, Salesforce deliver vaccine management tech
Salesforce releases Vaccine Cloud, tools that enable tracking and distribution of COVID-19 immunizations. ServiceNow also enters the technology space. Continue Reading
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News
11 Jan 2021
Salesforce Ventures tops $3 billion invested
Salesforce Ventures continues to invest heavily in partners to help build out its platform as the pandemic evolves customer needs. Q&A with managing partner Matt Garratt. Continue Reading
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Infographic
30 Dec 2020
The history and evolution of CRM
Customer relationship management had simple beginnings, which evolved into a sophisticated system that helps businesses improve the overall customer experience. Continue Reading
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Tip
29 Dec 2020
How the Salesforce-Zoom integration benefits sales
Video conferencing is now the primary form of communication for sales and marketing teams that rely heavily on meetings. The Salesforce Zoom integration increases efficiency. Continue Reading
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News
23 Dec 2020
Salesforce's acquisitions lead CX tech buying spree in 2020
Most CX vendors acquired new companies to enhance their platforms, none bigger than Salesforce buying Slack. Facebook's Kustomer buy might be the most intriguing. Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Dec 2020
10 Dreamforce to You 2020 sessions for sales managers
DreamTX -- part of the Dreamforce to You 2020 lineup -- will offer a variety of relevant sessions for attending sales managers. Here's a peek at 10 of those sessions. Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2020
Salesforce workflow automation tools, Hyperforce debut
Salesforce delivers new Einstein workflow automation tools and unveils what it calls the most significant tech advancement in the company's 21-year history. Continue Reading
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News
02 Dec 2020
Salesforce adds customer service management features
Salesforce adds AI-powered features to enable contact center workforce management and agent staffing models for call volume, as well as email and messaging channels. Continue Reading
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News
01 Dec 2020
Salesforce to acquire Slack for $27.7 billion
Salesforce acquired the Slack messaging platform for $27.7 billion. Experts weigh on in what Slack would bring to the Salesforce platform. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Nov 2020
Transactional vs. relationship marketing: Key differences
Some companies thrive on building strong relationships with customers, while others want to make a sale without long-term commitment. Either way, the business needs a strategy. Continue Reading
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News
17 Nov 2020
Salesforce Customer 360 Truth services go live
Salesforce releases a new bundle of services which includes ID management, privacy, security and compliance tools for Salesforce users' customers and employees. Continue Reading
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News
12 Nov 2020
Salesforce Revenue Cloud bolsters B2B e-commerce workflows
Salesforce, moving deeper into revenue ops, releases Revenue Cloud. It enables B2B digital sales with new pricing, billing and contracting models, as well as revenue forecasting. Continue Reading
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News
09 Nov 2020
Oracle CX suite adds tools for sales teams, digital commerce
Oracle tackles sales rep and e-commerce experience in the latest update to its CX application stack, retuned for the pandemic's remote-work and digital sales uptick. Continue Reading
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News
05 Nov 2020
SAP CX application stack grows with addition of Emarsys
SAP scoops up a marketing automation platform with CDP capabilities, as well as personalization and the ability to reach customers across digital channels. Continue Reading
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News
05 Nov 2020
SAP customer data platform strategy comes into focus
SAP acquires Emarsys, which has a CDP included in its customer experience data handling toolbox. SAP execs shed light on how it will fit in with the company's own CDP. Continue Reading
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News
29 Oct 2020
Oracle CX targets communications industry with new apps
Oracle moves into vertical-specific digital experience customizations, starting with Oracle Digital Experience for Communications, with more to come. Continue Reading
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News
14 Oct 2020
SAP CDP the latest customer data platform on a crowded block
SAP released a customer data platform, following its CX platform competitors Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe and Oracle. The SAP CDP extends outside of the common marketing use case. Continue Reading
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News
30 Sep 2020
Salesforce Vlocity acquisition gives rise to new industry clouds
Four new vertical-specific clouds debut from Salesforce -- for media, telcos, government and utilities -- as fruits of its Vlocity acquisition earlier this year. Continue Reading
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News
22 Sep 2020
HubSpot CRM gets enterprise makeover
HubSpot might not yet frighten Salesforce with its competing platform, which now includes enterprise CRM, but the company definitely pushes upmarket with its latest offering. Continue Reading
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News
22 Sep 2020
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service to add voice channel
Leading a host of CX releases, Microsoft plans to add native voice telephony and voice-channel hooks for chatbots and transcription into its contact center platform. Continue Reading
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News
18 Sep 2020
Oracle CX upgrades focus on field service, contact center
Oracle adds self-service features, field tech tools and call center capabilities to its CX stack in response to customers' business needs in pandemic. Continue Reading
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News
08 Sep 2020
Salesforce e-commerce capabilities to expand with Mobify
Salesforce beefs up its headless e-commerce platform capabilities for enterprise retail customers with the acquisition of Mobify, a Canadian headless commerce hosting vendor. Continue Reading
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News
01 Sep 2020
Salesforce Field Service features added to Winter '21 Release
Salesforce Field Service users can better pinpoint arrival times for their customers as well as other new capabilities coming in the Winter '21 Release. Continue Reading
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News
26 Aug 2020
Salesforce confirms around 1,000 layoffs after monster quarter
Salesforce says COVID-19 did not precipitate the layoff of about 1,000 employees, but the pandemic did show the company where customer needs are headed. Continue Reading
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News
19 Aug 2020
Salesforce pulls plug on Einstein Voice Assistant
Salesforce's voice assistant made a big splash at Dreamforce last year, but the AI tool -- personified with the Einstein brand -- didn't survive the pandemic. Continue Reading
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News
29 Jul 2020
Oracle CX head Rob Tarkoff: Acquisition integrations complete
The executive vice president of CX and Oracle Data Cloud discusses how acquired technologies have been fully integrated into Oracle's customer experience SaaS application stack. Continue Reading
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News
21 Jul 2020
Microsoft releases voice of the customer platform
Microsoft takes on Qualtrics with Dynamics 365 Customer Voice, a customer experience feedback tool native to its platform for retailers and B2B users. Continue Reading
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News
21 Jul 2020
Salesforce beefs up e-commerce order management features
Salesforce adds B2C-friendly order-management features to support internationalization of e-commerce, as well as pre-built integrations to channels such as Google and Instagram. Continue Reading
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News
16 Jul 2020
Salesforce Pardot, Interaction Studio get feature boosts
Salesforce adds Einstein AI, as well as personalization and data visualization features from its acquisitions of Evergage, Datorama and Tableau, to Marketing Cloud. Continue Reading
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Answer
08 Jul 2020
What roles are essential on a content marketing team?
There are a number of people involved in business content marketing teams. Some of those roles include content managers, content strategists and content creators. Continue Reading
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News
30 Jun 2020
Zendesk CRM adds email automation features
The Zendesk Sell CRM platform adds email automation features for customer engagement as the pandemic cuts off sales rep users' access to in-person customer meetings. Continue Reading
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News
25 Jun 2020
Salesforce pushes forward with DNS security standard
A Salesforce-backed DNS security model to prevent downtime could become standard for multi-tenant cloud providers. Continue Reading
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News
25 Jun 2020
Salesforce collaboration gets mobile boost with new app
Salesforce integrates chat, text and video collaboration into a desktop interface and a new mobile app, Salesforce Anywhere. It tracks and logs conversations and transcribes videos. Continue Reading
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News
23 Jun 2020
Salesforce Trailhead adds Einstein AI for learners
Salesforce's free training site, Trailhead, got AI features based on its products recommendation engine to guide admins, developers and consultants on personalized paths. Continue Reading
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News
19 Jun 2020
SAP C/4HANA leads discuss future of CX platform
New leaders of SAP's customer experience platform discuss its future direction, with a retrospective look at how CRM's past evolved into customer-centric CX technology. Continue Reading
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News
17 Jun 2020
SAP C/4HANA users describe e-commerce pivots amid COVID-19
SAP's customer experience application suite still a priority after a year of senior leadership upheaval at the enterprise cloud vendor, thanks to the COVID-19 economy. Continue Reading
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News
28 May 2020
Pega Academy goes free with Trailhead-like badges
On the eve of his company's user conference, Pegasystems CEO Alan Trefler discussed COVID-19, RPA tech, free Pega skills training and a new appreciation for old rival Salesforce. Continue Reading
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News
12 May 2020
Salesforce coronavirus contact tracing platform goes national
Salesforce gets involved in state and local health authorities' coronavirus contact tracing efforts in New York City, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California and Louisiana. Continue Reading
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News
07 May 2020
Salesforce Lightning App Builder adds low-code forms features
Salesforce Lighting App Builder will include oft-requested low-code features for building complex forms that previously required developer coding to create and update. Continue Reading
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Opinion
08 Apr 2020
What to expect from the Salesforce and Tableau integration
The Tableau integration with Salesforce has many users wondering how this will affect its approach to growth and development, and its place in the digital transformation marketplace. Continue Reading
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News
31 Mar 2020
Salesforce Live web series offers tips for uncertain times
Salesforce execs and celebrity speakers deliver advice to help customers rewrite the sales and marketing playbook while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue Reading
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Feature
31 Mar 2020
3 ways CRM improves customer experience
To be efficient, businesses need their information in one place. Using a CRM system, companies can improve CX by keeping track of their customers and automating business processes. Continue Reading
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Feature
26 Mar 2020
9 steps for negotiating deals with Salesforce
Understanding the Salesforce fiscal calendar, motivations of sales agents and what your businesses needs from a deal are key steps in negotiating contracts with the CRM giant. Continue Reading
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Feature
09 Mar 2020
Salesforce adds new features to Trailhead Live and Go mobile app
Trailhead Live now features a live chat option and is available on Trailhead Go. While the mobile app fills a need, users still gravitate toward the desktop version. Continue Reading
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News
04 Mar 2020
Zendesk Sunshine CRM, social media upgrades released
Zendesk upgraded Sunshine CRM and Support platforms to manage digital customer conversations, and added e-commerce tools that enable agents to work through order and payment issues. Continue Reading
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News
27 Feb 2020
Salesforce Vlocity acquisition to aid vertical CRM integrations
As Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block steps down, the CRM vendor acquires Vlocity to spur growth in healthcare, energy, media, government, financial services and insurance. Continue Reading
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Feature
25 Feb 2020
Salesforce salary survey shows increase in Trailhead use
The annual Mason Frank International survey shows the top two Salesforce certifications are administrator and platform app builder. Trailhead use has also increased. Continue Reading
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News
19 Feb 2020
Salesforce Sydney event moves online amid coronavirus concerns
As coronavirus spreads, Salesforce changed its March 4 live World Tour Sydney conference to a livestream event, citing safety concerns for employees, customers and Trailblazers. Continue Reading
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News
04 Feb 2020
Experts: Salesforce Evergage acquisition for personalization, not CDP
Salesforce acquires Evergage, which offers personalization and a customer data platform. Analysts say Salesforce bought the tech for the personalization -- not to add to its CDP. Continue Reading
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Tip
24 Jan 2020
6 ideas to consider before making a C/4HANA SAP cloud migration
Moving to SAP's C/4HANA platform may lead to improved CX. However, companies should make some considerations before starting an on-premises to SAP cloud migration. Continue Reading
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Answer
07 Jan 2020
What are some useful Salesforce CPQ features?
CPQ tools help speed up the quote process while providing accurate pricing, along with other features. Here's how this technology can help your organization. Continue Reading
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Feature
05 Dec 2019
AppExchange, acquisitions key to the future of Salesforce
In the first 20 years of Salesforce's history, acquisitions and products drove rapid growth. In the next 20, AppExchange partners will play a crucial role in the company's growth. Continue Reading
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News
21 Nov 2019
Salesforce Trailhead app makes learning more convenient
Learning Salesforce skills and boosting career potential gets easier with the new mobile app, Trailhead Go. Customers explore how they can take advantage of it. Continue Reading
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Conference Coverage
21 Nov 2019
Salesforce Dreamforce 2019 news, events and highlights
Dreamforce 2019, Nov. 19 to 22 in San Francisco, promises a variety of announcements and events. Follow this guide for all the happenings during the conference. Continue Reading
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News
20 Nov 2019
How Salesforce mobile Einstein Voice Assistant can improve CX
The Salesforce mobile app’s Einstein Voice Assistant brings a variety of benefits to customers. The AI-enabled tool creates a more human interaction and could help improve self-service. Continue Reading
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News
18 Nov 2019
Oracle expands Customer Experience platform with Oracle Digital Sales
Features of the new CRM tool include Oracle Digital Assistant and a user interface that brings tasks frequently done by sales reps into one place to reduce data entries and clicks. Continue Reading
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News
18 Nov 2019
Salesforce mobile app, Trailhead Go rebuilt for iOS
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Apple CEO Tim Cook take the Dreamforce stage as a rebuilt-for-iOS Salesforce Mobile, new Trailhead Go app and Swift-optimized mobile SDK debut. Continue Reading
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News
14 Nov 2019
Salesforce.org Education Cloud updates enhance student engagement
New Salesforce.org Education Cloud features assist with degree planning, setting up adviser appointments and getting a more well-rounded view of students. Continue Reading
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Feature
13 Nov 2019
Microsoft CDP helps businesses unify customer data
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights takes data from disparate sales, service and marketing systems to bring it all into one golden record of the customer. Continue Reading
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Feature
11 Nov 2019
Salesforce customers supplement CRM with AppExchange tools
Salesforce customers are turning to the AppExchange to supplement their CRM function. Many find AppExchange tools to be more cost-effective and to integrate better with the CRM. Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Nov 2019
Have success with SAP C/4HANA on-premises-to-cloud migration
There is no one way to complete a CRM platform migration, but a little planning and asking questions along the way can ensure you are on the road to success. Continue Reading
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News
30 Oct 2019
Salesforce Trailhead to roll out live training videos
By year's end, Salesforce will unveil a new set of live and on-demand video training classes to give users a new way to earn Trailhead badges and certifications. Continue Reading
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News
29 Oct 2019
Salesforce Financial Services Cloud adds mortgage tools
Salesforce pushes deeper into financial services with tools to make mortgage data collection easier, and to find upsell opportunities for customers looking for home loans. Continue Reading
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News
24 Oct 2019
Salesforce email marketing gets Einstein AI infusion
Salesforce adds Einstein AI features to email marketing tools to find images and keywords and provide keyword analysis to help email campaigns succeed. Continue Reading
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News
23 Oct 2019
Ex-Salesforce exec Bob Stutz takes the reins of SAP C/4HANA
Ex-Salesforce Marketing Cloud CEO Bob Stutz, known for jump-starting stagnating CRM and CX software at Siebel, Microsoft and SAP, returns to SAP to bolster C/4HANA CX cloud. Continue Reading
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News
18 Oct 2019
Microsoft CDP pricing might prove attractive to midsize retailers
With entry-level pricing of $1,500 a month, the new Microsoft CDP could attract midsize retailers. Continue Reading
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Feature
18 Oct 2019
These are the ABCs of marketing in the digital age
Audience understanding, behavior analysis, marketing convergence and accessible design are the ABCs of marketing in the digital age, according to Microsoft's Purna Virji. Continue Reading
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Feature
16 Oct 2019
Salesforce Einstein Vision sinks teeth into shark recognition
Using drones and a modified version of Salesforce's Einstein Vision, marine biologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara, can track and identify great white sharks. Continue Reading
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News
10 Oct 2019
Salesforce Lightning Order Management boosts e-commerce
Salesforce extends Customer 360 capabilities with a bundle of APIs to help users manage and track e-commerce orders and provide more detail to the customer as orders are picked, packed and shipped. Continue Reading
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News
03 Oct 2019
Zendesk Sell apps marketplace extends Sunshine CRM platform
Zendesk's Sunshine CRM gets an apps marketplace built on its Sell sales force automation platform, adapted from the 2018 acquisition of FutureSimple's Base. Continue Reading
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Feature
01 Oct 2019
Field service providers drive CX, engagement, retention
Manuel Grenacher, general manager of SAP Service Cloud, offers tips for using CX best practices to improve the lives of both field service providers and the people they service. Continue Reading
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News
26 Sep 2019
New Salesforce clouds focus on manufacturing, consumer goods
Following the success of the Health Cloud, Salesforce is releasing new industry-specific cloud services for the manufacturing and consumer goods sectors. Continue Reading
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News
24 Sep 2019
Microsoft challenges Amazon with Dynamics 365 Commerce
Microsoft broadens Dynamics 365 retail apps suite by introducing an e-commerce platform, as well as tools to track product data and intermingle physical and online retail data. Continue Reading
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News
24 Sep 2019
Salesforce rolls out new security add-on for Quip
The new security add-on, called Quip Shield, offers encryption and customization capabilities tailored to companies' specific security and compliance needs. Continue Reading
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News
18 Sep 2019
Salesforce search about to get smarter with Einstein AI
Salesforce will add Einstein AI to its cloud search functionality in hopes of better assessing context, personalization and reducing false hits for end-user queries. Continue Reading
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News
17 Sep 2019
Oracle CX Unity goes live, adds voice to digital assistant
As Oracle CX Unity arrives, analysts debate whether it will be an upsell to current Oracle customers, or a challenger to Adobe, Salesforce and SAP CX platforms. Continue Reading
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News
11 Sep 2019
Security, management updates made to LogMeIn Bold360
LogMeIn has updated the search optimizer, monitor view and workload organization features in its live agent and chat bot customer engagement and AI software platform Bold360. Continue Reading
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Feature
03 Sep 2019
Organizations reap benefits of mobile CRM apps
Salesforce now offers organizations such as Cornell University the ability to render CRM systems as apps, making it easy to manage students and faculty at a number of colleges. Continue Reading
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Answer
28 Aug 2019
Learn how to build a Salesforce app in 4 steps
Salesforce users can follow these steps to create sophisticated codeless apps that integrate the Next Best Action feature using the Lightning App Builder. Continue Reading
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News
22 Aug 2019
SAP Product Content Hub underpins CX initiatives in C/4HANA
SAP SaaS tool integrates AI, APIs for pushing updated product content to e-commerce sites. It also gives sales, marketing and service teams using C/4HANA access to the content. Continue Reading
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News
21 Aug 2019
Salesforce DNSSEC project aims to boost site security, speed, uptime
Salesforce, which juggles multiple DNS providers to serve customers while complying with global data-privacy regulations, spearheads new DNS models to enable deeper encryption. Continue Reading
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News
15 Aug 2019
Salesforce-SNHU partnership helps students earn college credit
A new partnership between Salesforce and Southern New Hampshire University enables students to earn college credit by completing guided learning modules through Trailhead. Continue Reading
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News
25 Jul 2019
Increases expected from new Microsoft Dynamics 365 pricing
Microsoft's move to a la carte pricing for Dynamics 365 could lead to higher costs for some customers. The new pricing plan takes effect Oct. 1. Continue Reading
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News
24 Jul 2019
Salesforce Essentials adds direct messaging channels, telephony
Salesforce expands its small-business offering with tools to facilitate customer conversations on Facebook Messenger, Instagram, YouTube and web chat. Continue Reading
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Tip
10 Jul 2019
Businesses use AR/VR in CRM to boost customer experience
Businesses are using augmented reality -- and its cousin virtual reality -- in applications across many industries. Where CRM is concerned, AR/VR may represent a big leap forward. Continue Reading
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News
21 Jun 2019
Salesforce Customer 360 promises will be clearer in 2020
Salesforce expects to show off what customers are doing with Customer 360 at its next Connections conference in 2020, along with some new integrations. Continue Reading
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News
18 Jun 2019
Salesforce teases new CDP features ahead of fall release
Salesforce gives details about the makeup of its Customer 360 integration platform and features of the customer data platform that it plans to release this fall. Continue Reading
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News
10 Jun 2019
$15.7B Salesforce-Tableau acquisition a direct shot at Microsoft
By acquiring Tableau, Salesforce dramatically strengthened its BI and data visualization capabilities. The move boosts Salesforce's ability to compete with Microsoft. Continue Reading
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News
05 Jun 2019
SurveyAdvantage launches new customer management service
LoyaltyLoop is SurveyAdvantage's newest service. It provides businesses with a platform to collect and manage customer feedback and reviews through surveys and reviews. Continue Reading
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News
30 May 2019
Salesforce blockchain development tool for CRM platform unveiled
Blockchain has grown beyond its high-profile use case as the technology behind Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. Salesforce is the latest tech company to bet big on blockchain. Continue Reading
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Feature
28 May 2019
Businesses see increasing importance of video conferencing
Video chat is another channel for businesses to interact with employees and customers. Learn why businesses are placing increasing importance on video conferencing and about its effects on CX. Continue Reading