CRM (company wide processes and software that improve the Customer Experience) is an evolution from the era of contact managers. Contact management software such as Maximizer, ACT and GoldMine are not CRM software programs. By definition CRM software must provide the support structures for the integrated business processes of each unique company. Because these products do not lend themselves to customization and integration they cannot fit in the class of true CRM.

Sales forces are typically resistant to complex and time consuming processes so first and foremost the tool must be simple and intuitive to use. With a creative combination fob feedback systems, strategic process definition and data collection improve and measurable results can be achieved.

First, it's important to develop a customer service strategy and plan that LookOutCRM can hook itself into. This can be a simple three or five step process. Then the power of our software will support your short term and long term customer service plans.

	With simple to use, centralized data gathering available in real time anywhere in the world, there are fewer excuses for critical customer information remaining in someone's personal email inbox.
	So affordable that every customer touching person in your organization can be involved in the program, providing valuable customer interaction information and the ability to alert others to potential issues.
	Matches your customer service requirements, the ones your people already use in a manual way, to reduce resistance to new systems.

TCO means Total Cost of Ownership. In any costing equation, one must take into account all the elements that make up the actual TCO. Most software vendors don't want you to know (or care about) all the costs involved in implementing their software.

TCO must include the "hidden costs" for hardware upgrades, ongoing technical support and training. A savvy project manager will see these as hard costs and compare them against the business costs of inefficiency, endless workarounds to match business process, user training issues, conversion problems locked in data that plain and simple, prevent future expansion. These costs are difficult to predict and quantify but if your business has a growth plan then your software should expand appropriately. If your software purchase is made because of a crisis situation you should take all these costs into consideration in your comparison and purchase decision.

Imagine the president of a country having to make decisions without his Inner Circle of Advisors. Many Presidents and CEO's are today making decisions that will affect the future of their organizations without the complete picture. Information remains in an individual's email inbox, sent items folder, c:/ drive or worse, their heads. LookOutCRM understands the pressures of today's workers and considers the feedback loops critical to their buy-in and support to move beyond email to centralization of sharing of key customer information. Knowledge is king; collecting, distributing and acting on information in a timely manner will be a defining point in the successful businesses of the future. LookOutCRM supports this evolution.

There are few products on the market today that can scale to the heights of LookOutCRM. Affordable scalability was key when designing the LookOutCRM solution. With an MS SQL engine driving your system you can grow to millions of records and thousands of users. LookOutCRM can extend from the very front (your Web site) to the very back (your accounting software) of your business. Your system is limited only by your creativity, time and budget - certainly not by the software.

Today, the word "customization" has evolved to really mean moulding, enhancing, enabling and implementation of your system to support the way your business operates but most importantly, it will continue to evolve with you.

	LookOutCRM works by developing the design and Implementation of your system to support the way your business operates; a degree of "ownership" and fit. Most importantly, it will continue to evolve with you.
	A partnership forms between management and your front line people to continuously improve, innovate and align your system as your business needs change and your company grows.
	It does all this without having the huge price tags of previous and current software. Using XML and .NET technology you get the best of the old and the best of the new.

The first point to make is: it's like comparing apples to tomatoes.

	You would choose Maximizer if you wanted good contact management capability "out of the box" without the need for customization. Total cost of ownership on anything other than a small group setup should be completely explored.
	You would chose SalesForce.com if you were seeking an immediate remedy to a sales problem and you were not concerned about integrating you organization's existing systems. And of course , if you don't object to not having ownership of the system, ever.
	You would choose LookOutCRM if you were looking for software that can provide the platform to build your organization. You've realized that effective CRM does not come out of the box and in order to realize an ROI your only option is software that is adapted to you business; if your organization is distributed there are no competitive products in LookOutCRM's class.

Microsoft® .Net is a set of Microsoft software technologies for connecting data, systems, devices and people within your business, as well as partners and customers. It enables an unprecedented level of software integration through the use of XML web services: small discrete, building-block applications that connect to each other - as well as to other, larger applications - via the Internet.

Most software products on the market today are First Generation Software. .Net is the future of software. LookOutCRM was developed from the ground up in .NET - not adapted to suit .NET. Development that once took weeks and months now takes only hours and days. Integration that was impossible before is now possible. User interfaces that were once flat when viewed through a browser are now interactive. Fully customized and adapted solutions are now within the price range of small businesses. Technology is entering a new phase of evolution with .NET and that's exciting.

Implementing CRM software and expecting nirvana is how most software vendors sell their products. Software alone however, will not drive successful business outcomes. When your implementation plan goes beyond software to include business process and realistic, measurable performance outcomes, projects will NOT fail.

There are no recognized name CRM software products using .NET today. Although .NET was developed by Microsoft they do not have a CRM product that puts it to use. MS Office 2003 uses .NET and most software vendors are rushing to add it in some capacity. Even products like Maximizer and ACT will have to rebuild from the ground up to fully take advantage of the powerful .NET framework technologies. Remember, even Microsoft started with two guys. Call us for further discussions on this topic.

Many users have embraced email as the communication tool rather than use it strategically as part of a toolkit of business tools to get the job done. A forced deviation from an email inbox will have its challenges and therefore, in our experience, it doesn't matter where the CRM system resides, even inside the email environment. Users must be trained, coached, encouraged and supported to use the CRM processes developed by the organization. In order to service customers and improve performance the development of central knowledge management is what's critical to the decision to purchase CRM software.

LAN based software like Maximizer, ACT and GoldMine are considered first generation software in that they used the technologies available at the time they came into being. Next Generation software (sometimes known as 2nd Generation) makes use of more recent technologies. It will adapt easily and mould to processes; it is intelligent in the way it operates. It streamlines and supports business systems swiftly, without the fuss and cost associated with 1st Generation. 1st Generation is flat and can become nothing more than a fancy Rolodex because it lacks the depth and sophistication, the functionality of Internet based Next Generation tools like LookOutCRM.

An Active Server Pages (ASP) solution such as SalesForce.com is a hosted software solution; it means your data is resident on their server. With LookOutCRM, your intellectual property is resident on your own server. This is what we mean by self -hosted. You decide where your sensitive information resides.