Doc Searls, Drummond Reed and I participated in the closing keynote and panel at Sugarcon 2011, which is SugarCRM’s annual customer and developer conference. SugarCRM has become a major success story in the world of Open Source software, as CEO Larry Augustin was proud to point out in his opening remarks on April 4.

SugarCRM is “cash flow positive,” having recorded seven consecutive quarters of record revenue. They have counted 9 million software downloads and have 800,000 active users. It is expanding its global reach by adding 8 languages to the 14 already in production. Its mobile wingspan has moved beyond the iPhone to run their mobile apps on Blackberries, Android-based devices and the iPad, including the addition of an “offline mode” for road warriors to sync or update information even when they are in a disconnected state. What’s more, the Open Source approach makes SugarCRM a platform for innovation embracing “Activity Streams” (meaning the ability to import metadata and what used to be called “feeds” from a variety of social media platforms and Web sites) and a slew of customized applications.

In addition to speaking, Doc, Drummond and I were in attendance to gauge how well the SugarCRM version 6 suite of software might support the cause of VRM (Vendor Relationship Management). At a high-level of abstraction, a highly flexible CRM resource, such as SugarCRM, could be an ideal VRM platform. SugarCRM could be tailored to serve as a repository for personal data, an aggregation point for information on the individuals, shops, stores, merchants or service providers with whom an individual might want to carry out business. It also has embedded mechanisms for sharing information among peers and trading partners (along with the rules and instruction sets one might want to apply as conditions for such sharing).

That said, to convert SugarCRM into SugarVRM would amount to major surgery – like a sex change and the marketplace is just not ready. Social CRM maven Paul Greenberg cited figures in the $14 to $16 billion range for enterprise spending on CRM systems and software. Greenberg also mentioned that spending on “Social CRM” resources are probably more than $1 billion at this point. That figure would include spending on the offerings of pure plays like Lithium or GetSatisfaction, as well as the community building, “listening” and analytic offerings from classic CRM, including Oracle, Salesforce.com, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics…); and customer care platforms like RightNow, Cisco, LiveOps and others.

I came away from Sugarcon more convinced than ever that following the path from CRM to “social CRM” and “social commerce” does not arrive at VRM. During the opening session, Doc Searls (Twitter handle @DSearls) was sitting next to Paul Greenberg (Twitter handle: @pgreenbe) in the front row. That led Brian Vellmure (@CRMstrategies) to tweet: “@pgreenbe & @dsearls sitting together is a metaphor 4 future of biz.” The meeting of the minds was documented when Doc posted this frequently retweeted item: “”We live in a customer ecosystem. Not a corporate ecosystem.”

Yet, for all of the talk of CRM getting more customer-centric, it is VRM, not classic CRM that will put individuals in the center of activity. That was what Doc noted in his keynote and Drummond and I discussed in the closing panel. The take-away, as we designed it was that VRM is a “companion” to CRM (and vice versa). In addition to Doc, Paul Greenberg and Brian Vellmure, attendees who chose the “Social Business” track were treated to the perspectives of social CRM luminaries Estaban Kolsky (@ekolsky), Brent Leary (@brentleary), Natalie Petouhoff (@drnatalie) and Mitch Lieberman (@mjayliebs). Each brought very common-sense advice to application developers and practitioners alike as we oversee siloed CRM systems morphing into better platforms for community-building and customer engagement.

Many of the speakers paid homage to the Cluetrain Manifesto, which Doc Searls co-authored with Chris Locke, David Weinberger and Rick Levine. Natalie Petouhoff mentioned that she frequently uses quotes from the book – which is now 12 years old – to articulate the objectives that “social CRM” and “social commerce” advocates are moving towards today. The market is, by most accounts, at the “early adopter” stage of a normalized adoption curve.

The point being that social CRM has had a gestation period of over 10 years to get to this point. We’re about three years into the ten-year awareness and adoption cycle for VRM and its major components. Thus our panel at SurgarCon 2011 was designed to serve as a “heads up” for those attending. Be aware of VRM, the Personal Data Ecosystem (PDE) and the power of the individual as you evolve your strategy for social CRM and social commerce, lest you miss out on engaging and perhaps even alienate your best customers and prospects.

Categories: Articles

Tags: CRM, VRM, conversational commerce, socialCRM