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By Bob Thompson, President, Front Line Solutions
This year "collaboration" will be the Buzzword. All hype aside, I think it's one of the Top 10 CRM Trends for 2001
You'll get sick of hearing that paper clips are new "collaborative fastening devices," your trusty Palm or Blackberry is a "collaborative digital companion," and all software has been magically transformed into "collaborative commerce" tools. However, look past the marketing hype and you'll see 2001 as the dawn of a very exciting time for any company with suppliers, customers, and partners. In other words, every business on the planet.
There's plenty of collaborative action on the buy-side, with companies like Ariba and I2 jockeying for leadership in supply chain management. But forget about "chain" -- think about supplier networks working together to cut costs, shrink cycle time, and improve quality. As executives try to cut costs in the soft economy of 2001, this is a great opportunity for e-biz vendors and integrators.
In the sell-side land of customers and partners, the potential is equally huge, although it's sure to take longer to develop. When times get tight, just try to justify new projects based on increasing revenue. However, over the past two years we've seen PRM vendors prosper by focusing on vendor-to-partner relationships, while "e-CRM" vendors have developed ways to support CRM processes with online customers. And e-commerce players of all stripes have built the online cash registers for the digital economy. Where is this all going?
I believe this year we'll begin to see a melding of these three technology trends into integrated solutions that enable true collaboration. Key driver: customers. Customers that want choices in products, services, and channels of delivery. The trouble is, enterprises can't always provide these choices without creating conflict between channels. So the customer may win, but the enterprise could destroy partner relationships developed over decades. Not smart.
Collaborative e-business will minimize these win/lose scenarios through an integration of e-CRM, PRM, and sell-side e-commerce applications. Vendors and partners will use the Internet to collaborate in real-time, leveraging their strengths to pass the opportunity ball around like a savvy pro basketball team that knows one superstar can't win a world championship.
Some examples of collaborative e-business are already in the market. VARStreet.com, for example, enables VARs to do business with manufacturers and distributors, but takes it a step further by making it easy for the VAR to set up a customer storefront. InfoNow recently announced a similar capability in a more vendor-centric approach. Comergent has pioneered a distributed e-commerce solution that allows manufacturers, customers, and partners to work together -- collaborate, even -- on online transactions. PRM vendors like Allegis and OnDemand are providing capabilities for partner-to-partner collaboration.
The collaborative e-business trend has begun. While the "C" word may get over-hyped by those looking for a fix to the Internet crash hangover, make no mistake about it. The real promise of the Internet is not creating winners and losers, but multiple winners. While roles and expectations will change, collaborative technology can help vendors and their partners work and win together, serving customers faster and better than ever before. And that creates a third winner, the really big "C" that we all need if we're to survive and prosper in any economy.
All the best in Collaborative 2001!
Front Line Solutions is a Silicon Valley-based independent consulting firm specializing in Partner Relationship Management (PRM). As the industry's leading consultant and evangelist for PRM, Bob Thompson is frequently quoted in industry publications, speaks regularly at industry conferences worldwide, and writes extensively for channel- and CRM-related publications. Bob is the founder of CRMGuru.com, the largest and fastest-growing interactive CRM web site in the world, with over 40,000 members worldwide. For more information, please visit www.frontlinehq.com or www.crmguru.com.
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