thomas.wieberneit@aheadcrm.co.nz
A CRMKonvos fireworks – the crop of the year according to you

A CRMKonvos fireworks – the crop of the year according to you

The other day, I had a look at my blog, checking the articles that resonated with you most in 2023. Today, I’d like to do the same for my YouTube channel, CRMKonvos. Shameless plug – any new subscriber is cordially welcomed – it means a lot to us. “Us” means my colleagues Ralf Korb and Marshall Lager, and I. We run this channel as a joint endeavor. CRMKonvos are all about fun and friendly one hour conversations with one or more live expert guest about a topic in the wider area of – you guessed correctly – CRM. Of course, this includes related topics, e.g., it is virtually impossible to talk CRM or CX without touching AI. They are streamed to LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and X. In addition, we actively encourage our audience to engage with our guest and us. Again, any new subscriber is more than appreciated. If I am not totally off, you can subscribe by just clicking this link. But now, what are the CRMKonvos that resonated most with you? Which ones received the most views?  Of course, we do not want to get the beans spilled immediately, so let’s start with the fifth place. Culture is the most enduring form of capital. This is a conversation I had with Zoho’s Chief Strategy Officer Vijay Sundaram about why a great corporate culture makes all the difference, how it contributes to success and why and how Zoho’s culture is different from that of most other companies. The fourth place is taken by an ISP’s journey with Zoho One. This is an interview with Amit Rai, Chief HR Officer of Tata Fiber. Amit has overseen the implementation...
Browsing in privacy with Ulaa? Here’s why!

Browsing in privacy with Ulaa? Here’s why!

During Zoho’s signature event Zoholics in Austin, the company announced the availability of Ulaa, the new Zoho web browser. Of course, Ulaa does have a meaning. It is a Tamil word that means journey or path. Tamil is the language spoken in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, where Zoho’s HQ is situated. Similar to Safari or Internet Explorer it signifies that the web is about discovery. Ulaa is a privacy orientated webbrowser that is based on Google’s Chromium engine. It has been built specifically to help users protect their online privacy by offering capabilities to block tracking and website surveillance. According to a study by YouGov, this  is something that two thirds of consumers want, as they feel that tech companies have too much control over their personal data. The 2022 Norton Cyber Safety Insights Report Special Release – Online Creeping even found that globally, 85 percent of internet users want to do more to protect their privacy, while 80 percent say that they are concerned about data privacy. Almost 70 percent say that they are more alarmed than ever. So, there is clearly a case for privacy-oriented browsers, also one more browser, as there are already some existing ones, like Brave or DuckDuckGo, even Safari. We had the chance to talk to Tejas Gadhia, Zoho evangelist in charge of Ulaa about the rationale behind Zoho developing a web browser and what the future will bring. You can watch the full interview here. Why did Zoho build a browser? According to Tejas, there hasn’t been much innovation in the browser market lately. Some browsers came, like Brave or DuckDuckGo, and went (TOR, anybody?),...
Why privacy is not an option

Why privacy is not an option

Data breaches, ransomware, stolen identities, collecting of data for no benefit of the customer, are only some of the things that we do see every day. There does not seem to be any privacy anymore. This makes privacy and data protection hot topics not only for customers, but also for software vendors – or at least should make it hot topics. Apple put in some privacy controls and got chided for it by Facebook and the rest of the adtech industry. Google, with FLOC, tried to establish a technology that aimed at being able to track users in a post cookie world. To adapt a quote of the Asterix books: The whole world tracks users and customers. The whole world? No, there is one brave company that doesn’t. All this is reason enough to have a #CRMKonvo with one of the most accomplished and outspoken protagonists of privacy in the enterprise software arena and we were very excited about the opportunity to have an intense and interactive discussion with Raju Vegesna of...
CRM, CX and the future of privacy

CRM, CX and the future of privacy

The CRMKonvos gang hat an intensive conversation in the intersection of CRM, CX, customer experience and privacy, which by default makes for a highly interesting one, because of all the conflicting goals that are involved. Our guest was Michael Hoos. Michael is a highly experienced specialist in the area of security. With his experience in various industries, using numerous CRM solutions, building compliant customer experiences that respect customer privacy, he has navigated many pitfalls for and with his customers. Now he shapes new solutions with...

Personalisation, Privacy, and Value – is Marketing out of Control?

Today I came across a short discussion on personalisation, privacy, and their value between two great analysts – Esteban Kolsky and Ben Kepes – who, naturally, take different positions. I mean, where would the value of a discussion be when everybody agrees from the outset … Whereas Ben maintains that he very much accepts having his behaviour, whereabouts and preferences collected (in the example by Google) and used to receive targeted advertisements that match his interests Esteban counters that it is none of Google’s business – and you can freely replace Google with any other brand name – to know this and use this, without your explicit consent. Though I think that targeted marketing can be better than the scatter-gun approach of earlier times I side with Esteban. I do not want to become the “target” of a “marketing attack” in Washington DC when I happen to show up there in May, just because Apple and Google, and name-them-all, know that I like a good coffee. If, and when I want a coffee (and it is rather a question of when than one of if), I am perfectly able to find the next coffee shop that I deem fitting. The same holds true for sports gear, appliances, watches, you name it. I want to be able to opt in, probably only for a limited time, and opt out again eventually, knowing that my data doesn’t get sold off and that it gets deleted after me opting out. Yeah, I am a little dreamer … but so far the value of highly targeted advertising is more on the business side than...