有谁对saratoga CRM 比较了解？

显示全部楼层 · 2005-10-30 17:05:33

千问 · 2005-10-30 17:05:33

利用google.com搜索到的introduction.
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CRM: Saratoga Systems' Avenue
Page: 5882
Issue Date: 02/28/2000
Category: Systems Management Tools

The functional requirement for customer relationship management (CRM) products has moved on from allowing a collection of loosely coupled functions for managing contacts and for automating field service engineers and sales forces into a demand for tightly bound solutions that bring all of these functions together into an integrated environment. Integration requires an open approach in order to bring together different products that support the complete range of business processes. It is also necessary to build an accurate and up-to-date view of the information required to provide sales, marketing and service functions to the user base. This is the view supported by Saratoga Systems with its Avenue products.

It has based its strategy for Avenue on a toolkit approach that allows flexible development of a whole range of CRM solutions. The toolkit provides a number of class libraries that allow easy inclusion of CTI (computer telephony integration) technology, key contact management functions and synchronization to remote users such as a sales force. This is all based on a centralized architecture designed for easy management and easy integration to ERP and other tools through third party APIs. Saratoga sees its strength in its ability to manage the synchronization of remote users. It also integrates well with key technologies such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word and palmtops. This allows the mobile user to perform key sales functions from an accurate database of sales information.
The corporate strength of Saratoga is in sales force automation. Other functions to support sales and marketing requirements are developed in conjunction with Rubric for e-marketing, Broadbase and Cognos for analysis, Dialogic for CTI and Exactium for product configuration. All of these technologies can be tied together into a vertical solution | predominantly through the use of templates. The templates provide a basis for initial prototyping and form the foundation of any custom solution.
PRODUCTS
Saratoga's product for CRM is Avenue. It's designed to provide sales, marketing and service modules that combine to form a centralized platform for customer management. It is implemented in the form of a toolkit and product combination with a development environment that strongly resembles the capabilities of major applications development tools supported by CRM function libraries and vertical solution templates with supporting data. The aim is to provide the fundamental CRM capabilities within the libraries and then to enable customized development through prototyping tools. The solution is then completed through the addition of business rules that define how the customer relationships are to be managed and also how information is distributed to remote users. International versions of Avenue are available in French, German, Swedish, Italian, Danish and Spanish.
The current version, Avenue 5, operates solely as a two-tier client/server solution with remote users operating in a stand-alone configuration. The next release, as yet unnamed and due for release in the second quarter of 2000, will introduce the use of Internet technologies for remote access to the centralized data stores which will improve the synchronization capabilities further.
AVENUE 5
Avenue can be viewed in two ways. In effect, it is divided into three functional capabilities | Avenue Sales, Avenue Marketing and Avenue Service. Each of these functional areas is constructed from a variety of different tools; and this is the second view | a collection of tools to be combined to meet set technological requirements. The product is sold as functional modules and so this how it will be discussed. Each of the modules comes with some out-of-the-box capability that provides a starting point for customization and development. There are additional templates that cover vertical solutions such as specialty chemicals, mutual fund management and utilities.
Architecture
Avenue is built on a two-tier client/server architecture. This will change with a new release planned for later in 2000 that will introduce a web server layer to enable more flexible access to the server components. At its most basic level, Avenue is simply a toolkit of CRM functions that are incorporated into a solution using Visual C++ as its foundation. The solution consists of an executable image and a server-held database that contains the data structures required for development of the solution along with business rules and triggers that define the behavior and automate actions. Locally connected users hook directly to data held on the server; remote users have their own local database that's synchronized with the central store. The data distribution mechanism allows different database suppliers' products to be used. As an option, Saratoga has its own proprietary database. The data structures in Avenue 5 are hierarchical although the next release will move to a relational structure, intended to improve flexibility.
Although it is possible to start with a blank sheet of paper, the best way to develop solutions is to start with pre-defined templates. Saratoga provides template that can be modified using its development tools. These come in the form of a schema wizard, that allows the basic record structures and business rules to be built, and a display wizard for the development of displays. These tools are similar in capability to a standard application development tool with extensive use of multiple windows, graphics, drag and drop and other productivity features that allow simple prototyping. The tools are targeted at business analysts rather than skilled programmers. Integration with third-party tools is possible through the use of APIs that are called from the C++ environment. Underlying the CRM solution is a collection of tools that can be built into the configuration. These include:
* Avenue DocumentExpress | in effect, the synchronization tool. It allows the exchange of any document or file across the Avenue environment. Updates can be scheduled or requested by the users and allows information to be passed from the central server to remote users. These updates can be modifications to the database, patches to the executables or simply word processing documents and presentation material. The DocumentExpress mechanism is a key part of Avenue 5 and allows filtering to ensure that traffic volumes are kept to a minimum.

* Avenue WebWarehouse | a web cache that allows important pages of information to be loaded (with or without images) and automatically updated. This means that the pages can then be viewed at a later time whilst off-line. This is an important capability for mobile users who may not have permanent access to the web but need information about customers.

* Avenue WebExpress | a web gateway into the Avenue data store that provides thin-client access through a browser. This is achieved without an intermediate web server. The WebExpress product also comes with a WebWizard that allows HTML pages and ActiveX components to be created from data fields within the database. The result is a simple web front end to customer details.

* AvenueCTI | this add-on brings the customer data into full use within the telesales and telemarketing solutions. In effect this is an API that is able to interface between the CTI and ACD hardware and the user displays. In particular, customer data can be extracted from the database using the telephone number as a key with information automatically populated on the agent's inbound screen. Outbound call management allows automatic dialing. There are also facilities for transfer management, call routing and event capture.

* AvenueConfigurator | wherever a product needs to be configured with multiple options, there is a need for a configurator. This takes relevant information about available components, such as prices, specifications or delivery times, and allows them to be combined to provide customized products for customers. It provides an authoring tool, where all of the rules regarding component relationships are entered, and a configuration tool where the component information is used by the sales users to gain accurate details of pricing and availability for inclusion in sales proposals. AvenueConfigurator can automatically generate proposal documents from the configuration information and link into ERP systems for order processing and management.

千问 · 2005-10-30 17:05:33

Avenue Sales
The Sales template comes with support for internal and external sales force automation and represents Saratoga's chosen area of strength. The basic template provides user displays with tabs and multi-panel displays for easy navigation, database structures and trigger definitions to enable a full range of activities from opportunity management through to full campaign control with mass-mailing, forecasting and telemarketing. The business functions that are supported can be broken down into four areas:
* Account Management | full account and prospect profiles can be created through customization of the data structures and displays. These can be segmented to enable enhanced access and reporting. Security and workflow management caters for different classes of user and account integrity while team selling and territory management are also available. Different types of relationship can be created to reflect varying business activities and the underlying data can be structured to reflect logical relationships between accounts and associated details. In all cases, a complete history of contacts, correspondence and activity is maintained.

* Telesales | 'contact center' support with automated capture of data from web forms and CTI. This upports the creation and use of scripts for telemarketing and generates 'to do' lists and follow-up actions from qualified leads.

* Opportunity Management | takes user-defined rules and applies them to the sales processes with the aim of ensuring that maximum benefit is gained from every opportunity. This includes forecasting and sales analysis functions and tracking of actual results against predicted performance. There is also an event handling mechanism to trigger actions automatically when a specified set of events occurs.

* Contact Management | profiling and segmentation of contacts to enable improved targeting for sales campaigns. This supports different user roles and provides the appropriate security for access to contact information, relationship history and actions. A full audit trail is maintained.
Avenue Marketing
This module is designed to enable the construction and management of complex marketing campaigns so that the right marketing communications reach the right people at the right time. There are also facilities for carrying out competitive analysis and for understanding customer trends so that marketing professionals have an accurate view of their business environment and construct plans accordingly.
The telemarketing capabilities are similar to those of the telesales functions within Avenue Sales. These include the capture of data from web forms and routing to named individuals, script creation and execution, 'to do' lists and follow-up actions. For standard marketing functions the emphasis is on the management of data. All activities are structured under a campaign heading that holds the rules that govern actions to be taken and the timing of those actions. Mass mailing is supported through database targeting and automatic generation of letters and material. Information can be made available to show the capabilities of competitors and functions are available to assist with literature fulfillment.
All campaign activities are tracked to evaluate the leads being generated. Reports are available based upon segmentation and sales activity. All of this leads to a facility that tracks ROI (return on investment) so that the success of each campaign can be assessed.
Avenue Service
This is the module that brings together all of the capabilities of Avenue Sales and Avenue Marketing into a customer service center. Avenue Service is all about ensuring that all of the data relating to a customer relationship is available to the service center. This needs to include details of any marketing campaigns that may have targeted the customer and also any sales activity that may have taken place. The Avenue Service functions are supported by CTI technology to allow inbound and outbound call management with full tracking and reporting capabilities.
This is not a full problem resolution solution but, like all Avenue modules, it can be customized to integrate third party tools for knowledge management, case-based reasoning and first call resolution. However, Avenue Service does provide for basic incident tracking and resolution to monitor the support activity required and the final solution. These activities can be tied to workflow rules so that basic service level management with escalation can be implemented using rules and database triggers as controls. There are also capabilities built into the solution that handle return processing, cross selling and up-selling and link into account management functions. Once again, there is a wide range or reports that allows calls to be tracked along with the performance of agents, problem customers, problem products, resolution times and many others.

千问 · 2005-10-30 17:05:33

PLATFORMS
Currently, Avenue uses a two-tier client/server approach based upon Microsoft Windows 95/98 clients and Windows NT servers. The supported databases for local connection are:
* Microsoft SQL Server
* Oracle
* IBM DB2
* Informix
* Avenue Database Management System

Remote users can use one of the following databases:
* Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Edition
* Sybase SQL Server Desktop
* Avenue Database Management System

In addition to this, complete bi-directional integration of tasks, schedules and contact details is available for Microsoft Outlook and a variety of Palmtop devices.
The future release will move to a three-tier model with web enablement. Saratoga will be adopting a Microsoft-based strategy with the web layer using IIS with ActiveX and COM middleware. Browser clients will be restricted to Internet Explorer only.
PRICING
Saratoga operates a relatively simple pricing model with the implementation usually preceded by the development of a prototype based upon an existing solution template. Once this has been completed, the actual implementation time averages between 3 and 6 months for 150 users. The licensing is based mainly upon the number of remote users who are licensed at around $2000 each. In addition to this, there are one-off charges for the individual CRM modules:
* Sales module - $20,000
* Marketing module - $20,000
* Service module (including CTI) - $30,000

A direct translation between the dollar price and international currencies is applied.
OPINION
STRENGTHS
* The greatest value within Avenue is its technology for synchronizing remote users with their central data stores. The disconnected client has its own schema and database which is kept up to date through requested or scheduled updates. The support for multiple access mechanisms and filtering ensures that only the required data is transferred through any route selected. Conflict resolution is practical with multiple modifications passed to the originators for manual resolution. The synchronization does not require the same supplier's database to be used throughout.

* The template driven method for developing solutions can be applied to nearly every Avenue implementation. It is not simply a case of having functionality developed in advance because every solution is different and a significant amount of customization will be inevitable. However, the template offers businesses a starting point from which to evolve using JAD methods. Saratoga's estimate is that only 40% of the original template will still be in place at the end of the development but the time saved compared with starting from scratch is immense.

* The use of Visual C++ as the target language and the implementation of Avenue as a toolkit creates an open environment for developing complex CRM solutions. The tools for customization are a key part of the overall capabilities but the architecture is flexible enough to allow a wide variety of third party products to be incorporated into the solution quite easily. This is especially useful where ERP systems are to be used for product configuration or account management.

* The development tools within Avenue are not targeted at highly skilled developers but, instead, offer complex capabilities to less skilled developers such as business analysts. The solution is developed using wizard technologies for developing database structures and business rule schemas. Drag and drop is used throughout to enable easy access to more sophisticated functions. The centralized architecture ensures that implementation of changes is not difficult whilst the synchronization technology gets the changes to remote users in a controlled manner.
WEAKNESSES
* Saratoga Systems is a company needing a public offering. It has done well to maintain profitability with its limited resources but it needs more reserves if it is to remain competitive. General awareness of the company and its product line is not good and its ability to chase after the large deals that will guarantee its future is constrained by shortages of manpower and funds.

* Saratoga does not have its own services capability. At the same time, it has not developed the partnerships that it really needs to be able to offer its customers implementation consultancy. This means that customers that do not have the skills, internally, to build the Avenue solution have no option but to turn Saratoga away. Saratoga is developing some consulting and VAR relationships that may address this problem but, until it does this, it must be losing some business.

* In many ways, it is difficult to view the Saratoga approach as being different from a standard application development environment with additional class libraries for added functionality. The development tools offer much the same facilities as Visual C++ (the target language) and, even with templates, it is expected that a significant amount of customization will be required. The value is in the integration with third party products and the functionality that is already developed within the toolkit and templates. It is necessary to balance the extra cost of Avenue (compared with a Visual C++ development environment) and the costs of developing the required functions.
CONCLUSIONS
Saratoga Systems is a business that has grown slowly. It has taken 12 years to get to the stage where it is raising significant revenues and has the technology to compete in the highly demanding world of CRM solutions. It is profitable and without debt and can be justifiably proud of that achievement but if it wants to really make a name for itself then it needs to do much more. Saratoga shows all the signs of having developed under the influence of its founders who are technically skilled and understand the requirements of a CRM system but are not marketing experts and, perhaps, have been slow to realize how much more could be achieved with greater resource. Saratoga is a company that too few have heard of and has no obvious branding for its products. It needs to spend some marketing dollars to raise its profile so that it does not get left behind in the current rush for CRM solutions. It needs to make sure that it is included in every tender list. Making the market aware of its existence is a good beginning.
In the same vein, Saratoga is already finding it difficult to attract big deals. Instead, it has to content itself with small contracts and build them up through trust and high quality service. In order to win the bigger sales opportunities, it needs to have more resources to put into the bidding process and it also needs to develop a partner or VAR channel so that the services are more freely available to carry out the customization requirements.
The technology itself is easy enough to understand. The toolkit concept offers a flexible approach to the creation of solutions which is exactly what is required where customization and integration with business systems is required. The tools for developing the solutions are targeted at business analysts rather than skilled programmers. However, the method requires some development skills in order to fulfil the integration and prototyping requirements. It would be easy to see experienced developers preferring to use their own choice of development environment with the Saratoga libraries providing the important CRM and synchronization functionality. The Avenue tools would be ideally suited for VARs or for services organizations who are looking to develop complex CRM solutions. The templates provide a strong starting point that would allow VARs develop from a strong beginning and to evolve towards full support for the business processes along with appropriate look and feel.
Saratoga Systems is planning a public offering at some time in the future. This should raise the funds necessary to allow the company to boost its standing in the marketplace, develop the implementation partnerships it needs and to chase after the larger deals that its product deserves.

千问 · 2005-10-30 17:05:33

Company Profile
Saratoga Systems was founded in 1987 and is a supplier of tools for customer relationship management with some emphasis on sales force automation. The company employs over 180 staff worldwide with more than 100 of these based at its US headquarters in San Jose. Other offices are located in London, Paris, Munich and Stockholm. It can be seen to be a conservative company that, after 13 years in business, is still privately held by its founders, has no debt and operates profitably. Although it generated worldwide revenues of around $30 million in 1999, the company has now recognized that its ability to expand and to take on better business is being constrained by lack of resources. As a consequence, a public offering is in the plans which is expected to provide the finance required to improve competitiveness.
The inability of Saratoga to make major investments in sales and marketing has meant that awareness of the company and its ability to chase big deals has been restricted. Saratoga positions itself as a software company and so does not look to provide services. The company uses the expression 'growing by stealth' to describe how it achieves results through initial small sales that grow and expand within the customer's site to become a key part of the overall CRM solution. In this respect, it can be said that Saratoga starts out with an SME or departmental sale but ends up with an enterprise solution. This is a strong picture because it indicates that a very high proportion of its customers have successful implementations | it is not 'shelfware'. Currently, Saratoga has approximately 700 customers representing 85,000 users. Over 40% of these customers have solutions supporting more than 1000 users.
The Saratoga product set has evolved over the lifetime of the company. Today, the product is known as Avenue but will be recognized better by some under its earlier name of SPS. The change of name to Avenue came about in 1997 when the technology took a step forward to support 32-bit architectures. The dominant capability is in sales force automation but Saratoga has developed partnerships with other CRM suppliers to include marketing and service management functions. Although its products are not directed at particular markets, Saratoga has found success in a number of vertical areas | most notably financial services, high technology, retail & manufacturing and specialty chemicals. Saratoga has also done well in the North American utilities market with its sales force automation solution.