Disruptive technology or simply better marketing?

Ted spoke enthusiastically about the latest and greatest from Sword-Ciboodle, and I couldn’t wait to read about it. Besides the name, Ciboodle impressed me with their online video, telling a story of a utopia customer service. Great marketing for sure!

So, what’s new? Is it Ciboodle One, a customer interaction console bolted on a Customer Interaction Hub (CIH) platform for CSRs and experts that provides a 360-degree view of customers, their preferences, their interactions and their products? Is it Ciboodle Flow, a case management workflow which manages end to end customer requests across people, process and time? Or, is it Ciboodle Live; a “do it yourself” rich web selfservice experience?  All three modules sound like polished versions of eGain, KANA and RightNow. Where is the difference? Why should I buy Ciboodle instead of KANA? Why should I replace eGain with Ciboodle? Ciboodlers, you are setting yourselves up for an uphill battle; it is tough to sell over your competitors simply because they do the same stuff.

The eService market is about $1B; it is a congested space with about a dozen players taking 82% of the market and 30-40 vendors scraping for the leftovers.  How to win? Innovate and increase your reach.

Innovations such as:  (*) social-cloud monitoring and intervention; (*) social knowledge management and collaboration; (*) social customer view and sentiment, will create the necessary competitive edge to take a bigger piece of the pie.

New modules to support post sales service lifecycle management such as: (*) field service, (*) fleet management, (*) parts management, (*) last mile logistics, will bring revenues from less congested markets with smaller less experienced s/w vendors.

Exciting times for the Ciboodlers is ahead, let’s keep an eye on them...they got my attention! 
more about the new Ciboodle products

Hire or assign? Give Growth Initiatives Full-Time Attention

Before you assign your next growth initiative to your overworked managers, think about whether you can staff one person who can make the new endeavor his or her priority. Even if resources are scarce, growth is often a high priority and focusing one person on a high-stakes venture will pay off. Interesting debate on HBR

http://blogs.hbr.org/anthony/2010/03/the_danger_of_part-time_busine.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-MANAGEMENT_TIP-_-MAY_2010-_-MTOD0513&referral=00203