Oracle CRM given social boost

Oracle has announced the addition of social enhancements to its customer relationship management (CRM) products.

Social CRM Applications Release 3, unveiled at Oracle OpenWorld 2009 in San Francisco, contains a new module called CRM Sales Campaigns On Demand.

The application allows sales staff to converse with colleagues easily whenever they have questions surrounding the identification of leads or the development of sales campaigns. The interaction is dynamic, according to Oracle, and requires no data entry.

One of the key features in Release 3 is the introduction of shared templates posted by other users to help sales staff drive successful campaigns.

Oracle said that the new module will allow sales staff to access an editing tool to update templates in their social networks or design new ones.

Sales staff will be able to locate the best templates and images to adopt, based on user ratings, reviews and historical response rates, Oracle said.

Additionally, the module will allow users to find out when emails are opened or clicked, or cannot be delivered owing to an invalid address.

Oracle also used the OpenWorld customer and partner event to announce the release of Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant 2.0 for the BlackBerry.

The application will let users collaborate with colleagues and customers when on the move, allowing them to log emails and calls to Oracle CRM On Demand and access appointment, task and contact data.

"Oracle has spearheaded an industry-leading movement to provide sales professionals with mobile CRM and social CRM applications that reflect the day-to-day realities of selling," said Mark Woollen, Oracle Social CRM vice president.

"The new releases of Oracle Mobile Sales Assistant 2.0 for BlackBerry and Oracle Social CRM Applications Release 3 for Oracle CRM On Demand address the highly mobile and relationship-driven elements of working and communicating within the sales cycle."

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