Saratoga party!

The brain trust over at CRM solutions provider Saratoga Systems apparently decided that it was high to shape the future of the company’s CRM offerings; not unusual that. Also not unusual was the call for the formation of a customer council, and so Saratoga has done so. The new Saratoga CRM Customer Council held its first meeting in New York City in June, and yesterday released some notes from the powwow. From among the reported 800 Saratoga global customers came IT experts.

Representatives from American International Group Inc. (AIG), BlackRock Inc., Brenntag, General Electric, Phoenix Contact, Johnson Controls, T. Rowe Price, and Tyco were mentioned as in attendance, cited for their representation of “a cross-section of companies using Saratoga’s enterprise CRM software.” Markets represented included the financial service, insurance, chemical, manufacturing, energy and transportation markets. Said Saratoga Systems president Al Smith, in a presidential statement within the news release: “By forming this CRM Customer Council we can [provide customers] a structured roundtable to learn more about their CRM applications, and [give] customers an open forum where they can share applications strategies and best practices.”

Accentuating the positive, Saratoga information highlighted three advantages council members could agree upon: web services support, close integration with other enterprise applications, and support for tactical analytics. Council members basically unanimously agreed, too, that these areas should see additional development in the future. In fact, Saratoga analysis sees this trio as representing both a common theme and market differentiator for Saratoga CRM: “…the software’s ability to function as a veneer that overlays multiple back-end enterprise systems and delivers tactical data at the point of need.”

In the company view, web services support for SAP and other back-end systems allows real-time access to multiple data repositories; integration makes possible linking of CRM systems with common applications such as Outlook; and tactical analytics can assess performance in the field and make critical CRM data available. More specific information regarding the meeting is available on the Saratoga website. The Saratoga Systems CRM Customers Advisory Council expects to convene on a quarterly basis, and will exchange data and insight on an ongoing basis through a web forum.

Billed as a pioneer in the CRM industry, Saratoga Systems specializes in CRM solutions for large-scale global enterprises to manage customer interaction from marketing and initial contact through sales, service and support. Saratoga Systems currently has 120,000 users worldwide in its clientele base of over 800 corporate customers including BASF, Hanson PLC, ING Investment Management, Kodak, MetLife, T. Rowe Price, Tyco Healthcare, UBS, Virgin Atlantic Airways, and WellPoint. Saratoga Systems is headquartered in Campbell, Calif., and has regional offices in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, and France.