Chapter 5 • Enterprise Systems 207Videoconferencing
Videoconferencing permits face-to-face, or, more properly,
image-to-image meetings and conferences without the
need for costly and time-consuming travel. In most cases,
computer-generated reports and graphics, such as a
PowerPoint presentation, can also be shared during the
conferences.
Desktop videoconferencing has become popular
for one-on-one and small group conferences. The screen
on a desktop PC is so small, however, that desktop
videoconferencing would be unsatisfactory for larger
group conferences. Splitting an already small screen into
multiple smaller images will reduce the sense of being
there, reducing the effectiveness of the conference.
Thus, larger businesses often have a separate videocon-
ferencing facility (usually a conference room) where a
group of people can participate in a conference with a
group at another location.
As an example of both group and desktop videocon-
ferencing, let us consider offerings from Polycom, Inc.,
headquartered in Pleasanton, California. With its 2001
acquisition of PictureTel Corporation, Polycom solidified
its position as the worldwide market leader in voice- and
videoconferencing. Polycom’s HDX series provides a
choice of several conference room videoconferencing units
designed to work in a custom boardroom, a large room, or
an auditorium. The various HDX models are designed
for different-sized rooms and different-sized groups. Full-
room systems start at about $34,000. All of the models
have high-definition video, designed to be superb at any
data rate. The high-end models have two video screens,
and the lower-end models have dual monitor emulation on
a single screen. The audio is also high-definition, and it
is possible to distinguish which side of the room a person
is talking from, just as in an in-person meeting. Audio is
activated automatically, only when needed. The HDXThe Future of CRM
The basic ideas, goals, and challenges of CRM have not changed in the last decade, but there have been
changes and these changes are continuing. For one thing, the cost of CRM software has decreased.
According to a Gartner study, CRM application pricing reached a peak of $3,000 per licensed user in
2000 and dropped to between $1,000 and $1,500 per licensed user in 2009. Perhaps more significant is
the movement to hosted solutions—Software as a Service (SaaS)—as the delivery mechanism for CRM.
Gartner expects SaaS to be the delivery model for 50 percent of all field sales applications in 2009,
compared to less than 1 percent in 2000. Considering all CRM applications, Gartner predicts that SaaS
will be the delivery model for 25 percent of applications by 2012 and 40 percent by 2020. At the same
time, pricing of SaaS-delivered CRM will drop from $800 per user per year in 2009 to $500 by 2020.
Another change in CRM is just beginning—the incorporation of social media into CRM applica-
tions. Clara Shih, Chief Executive Officer of Hearsay Labs, a SaaS provider of B2C sales and marketing
software, argues that “Facebook, Twitter, and other social sites have become CRM for individuals.
They’re how a growing number of people manage relationships across personal and professional
realms.” Ed Thompson, Vice President of Gartner, believes that social CRM will become a big part of
what CRM means over the next 10 years. Salesforce.com has been the early leader in incorporating
social media into its CRM. Salesforce.com first partnered with Google by permitting its core CRM
software to be used alongside Google Ad Words, which allows companies to advertise their products on
Google by associating them with specific keywords. Then the two companies announced that any
customer of Salesforce.com could add Google Apps (a competitive product to Microsoft Office) to their
existing CRM software for free. Salesforce.com next partnered with Facebook, unveiling a product that
allowed developers to build business applications for Facebook using Salesforce.com technology. A fea-
ture was built into Salesforce.com’s customer service application—named Service Cloud—to connect it
to Facebook, so that customer service representatives can read and post messages on Facebook. More
recently, Salesforce.com established a similar partnership with Twitter so that a customer service
representative can monitor conversations over Twitter and respond if appropriate. These moves into
social CRM permit businesses to build a marketing and customer service presence on Facebook and
Twitter, and they serve as a logical step in helping companies figure out how to utilize social media.
[Based on Lynch, 2009; Musico, 2009; and Shih, 2009]