Vividence Study the First to Weigh Impact of Customer Experience on Performance of Top Online Retailers
A study, conducted by Vividence is based on research with 2,000 consumers as they interacted with 20 leading online retailers. The study found that Amazon.com is the clear leader in the online retail market, in terms of the overall customer experience, followed by Barnes & Noble, Circuit City and eBay. The Vividence Customer Experience (CE) Rankings for Online Retailers provide a competitive benchmarking measure of the leading online retailers based on more than 250 metrics captured, measured and evaluated for each site during the study. The retail sites topping the Vividence CE Rankings performed best, in aggregate, across all measured metrics, including customer satisfaction, brand and purchase/conversion impact.

ReShape Selects salesforce.com
Salesforce.com announced that ReShape has successfully implemented salesforce.com to help drive the next phase of sales growth for its start up business. A customer since April 2004, ReShape chose salesforce.com Professional Edition over Siebel CRM OnDemand for greater customization, a better user experience, state-of-the-art functionality, and salesforce.com's innovative, high-touch CRM Success Program.

			Required Reading
		CRM Implementations Depend On Communications    Guns alone don't kill people; it's the person who pulls the trigger that kills, although the gun does help. CRM software/hardware does not kill implementations it's the people, but the way the software/hardware is implemented helps. This article is based on hard won experience and scars. Having been involved in a number of multi-million dollar CRM implementations over the years my findings are very simple communicate, communicate and communicate some more. (AMT Consulting) more >>
Archive of past Required Reading articles

EDS Joins Siebel Systems BPO Alliance Program
Siebel Systems announced EDS as the charter partner in Siebel Systems' new Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Global Strategic Alliance Program. The agreement expands the relationship between EDS and Siebel to provide a set of high-value managed products and service solutions targeted at the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and customer relationship management (CRM) marketplace.

mobilkom austria Selects Chordiant
Chordiant Software announced that Austria's leading mobile communications provider, mobilkom austria, has chosen Chordiant's Marketing Director software to handle all of its direct marketing activities to actively approach the existing customer base. Chordiant's marketing solution allows mobilkom austria to develop proactive campaigns for private and business customers using a centrally, automated and multi-channel approach.

SSPA And Tech Strategy Partners to Conduct Study
Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA) and Tech Strategy Partners announced they are collaborating on a Support Demand Study, a research piece to take an in-depth look at changing customer requirements and expectations for technical support. The results of this study will be revealed during a keynote presentation at the SSPA Conference @ Savannah, Oct 3-6, 2004, held at the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center.   (about SSPA)