Doc Searls on VRM. My view on the challenges

January 25, 2009 at 20:40 | In Linkdump, VRM, Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment
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I came across a nice post by Doc Searls on what he would like when it comes to CRM from the point of view of the customer, or VRM. I wonder how long it will take for the first VRM applications to be released.

One of the challenges I personally see with VRM is: who will we trust with our information? We already trust loads of companies with privacy related information, such as what we buy, what we subscribe to etc. but this information is dispersed over multiple vendors. I wouldn’t want to trust Albert Heijn (a major dutch supermarket chain) with information on all my purchases and subscriptions. Perhaps this is something for a semi-governmental institution like a consumer authority that is regulated and that we can trust not to use our personal information for commercial gain.

On the first steps of Social CRM

November 30, 2008 at 19:42 | In CRM 2.0, Social CRM, Social Networking, VRM | 1 Comment
Traditional CRM is about gathering data and knowing all about your customer. Gaining insight into your customer and his or her behavior traditionally allows a company to better respond to it’s customer needs, provide better quality service and generally leads to market succes. Over the last 10 years companies have invested in CRM systems for Sales, Marketing and Service and gather quite a lot of data on their customers and customer behavior. Much of this data has been put to good use, it is a lot easier to get high value services from the companies you do business with and companies or government insitutions are able to adapt quickly to the changing needs of their customers / consituents. 
Our behavior as consumers is changing however. They way we interact with companies, make decisions on which products to purchase has changed significantly since the late ’90s. The usage of internet has risen dramatically, using social networking sites like facebook and myspace have become part of our daily routine and do we even remember how we used to find information before Google? When I recently bought a new LCD flat panel HD TV I did most of my research online (but I still bought it at a brick and mortar store). This changed behavior provides companies new possibilities to interact with (potential) customers. The number of possible touchpoints has greatly increased, if a company is able to capitalise on the wealth of opportunities today’s Web 2.0 environment offers. 

Image courtesy of Brent Leary (http://www.brentleary.com)
Not only are consumers searching for information about your company or your products or services online, web 2.0, communities, blogs and other tools offer companies a wealth of information on your consumers as well. As the graph above indicates social media users believe that companies should engage the customer in a conversation on Social Media sites.  The challenge however is to use social media in a non intrusive way. No one wants to be ‘friended’ by a company on facebook, I however would like to have the opportunity to contact companies for service regarding their product online, possibly through branded communities. I would also applaud VRM like applications that would allow me to inform all the companies that I do business with of an address change online (perhaps through something as simple as Plaxo). Social Media also offers the possibility to research your clients and determine how to best serve or contact them. Using Social Media for CRM is far from mature, Oracle has started offering plugins for popular social media tools in it’s Siebel CRM application and others are sure to follow. We are on the verge of a new development in CRM and we’ll see loads of tools popping up that will allow companies and consumers alike to engage in mutually benificial conversations with each other. The future holds a lot of promise, let’s see what will happen in 2009.

On VRM: Doc Searls Keynote @ Mobile Monday Amsterdam

June 12, 2008 at 20:41 | In CRM 2.0, Mobile Monday, VRM | 2 Comments

Doc Searls, Harvard’s Godfather of the concept of VRM recently visited Amsterdam, to hold a keynote speach at Mobile Monday. Mobile Monday Amsterdam is a monthly meeting where minds in mobile marketing, applications, services and service providers meet to discuss future developments and opportunities in the Mobile Market place. Since I’m not part of the mobile arena I do not attend these meetings, but I was keen on finding out what Doc Searls had to say on VRM. Fortunately his keynote is available on the internet and, as Doc Searls puts it himself, ‘things..are too easy to steal’, so I’ve embedded it below. Thanks to Mobile Monday Amsterdam and Yuri van Geest

On CRM, VRM and CRM 2.0 – check InsideCRM

June 11, 2008 at 20:42 | In CRM, CRM 2.0, VRM | Leave a Comment

Paul Greenberg, one of the worlds biggest experts on CRM, has written an article on how CRM and VRM are / can be combined into CRM 2.0. Worth checking out. Read it here.

Linkdump – Web 2.0 and CRM

April 9, 2008 at 06:56 | In CRM 2.0, Oracle, Technology, VRM, Web, Web 2.0 | Leave a Comment

On the future of social networks

March 5, 2008 at 19:29 | In CRM, CRM 2.0, VRM, Web | Leave a Comment

One of the most interesting Web 2.0 trends, the advent of social networking, will certainly also impact the CRM, CRM 2.0 and most probably the VRM field. Charlene Li, from Forrester Research, recently held a presentation on the future of Social Networks at the Social Graph 2008 event in San Francisco

Worthwhile to click through for a bit. (Via Marketingfacts)

On a VRM One Pager

March 2, 2008 at 17:24 | In CRM 2.0, VRM | Leave a Comment

I’ve posted about VRM before, mostly outlining the some of the challenges I see and some opportunities. I didn’t fully explain the concept of VRM in a clear-cut and consise manner however. If you want to get a real ide on the promise of VRM, read Adriana Lukas’ One Pager

On Vendor Relationship Management (VRM)

February 20, 2008 at 09:09 | In CRM 2.0, Social Networking, Technology, VRM, Value Proposition, Web, Wiki | Leave a Comment

Over the last week I’ve been diving into the concept of Vendor Relationship Management, which is being developed by CRM experts around the world and lead by a Harvard project group. Vendor relationship management is being defined as reciprocal to CRM. Vendor Relationship Management places the consumer in control of the relationship it has with several companies that sell the consumer certain products or services. The key is to not confuse this concept with Partner or Supplier Relationship Management which has existed for some quite some time in the Business 2 Business arena. VRM is a CRM for you and me as consumers and is fueled by the innovations and rise of the use of Social Media and Social Networks.

The concept
The project VRM pages do not offer a readymade definition of VRM, as the concept is still being worked on. The goal of VRM is clearly stated however.

“The goal of VRM is to improve the relationship between Demand and Supply by
providing new and better ways for the former to relate to the latter. In a
larger sense, VRM immodestly intends to improve markets and their mechanisms by equipping customers to be independent leaders and not just captive followers in
their relationships with vendors and other parties on the supply side of the
marketplace.”
(Source: http://projectvrm.org)

Another definition is offered by one of the individuals participating in Project VRM, Alec Muffet.

“Technical outline: the feeds-based VRM concept is for you to be able to manage,
manipulate and share information – e.g. hotels you have visited, flights you
have taken, wines you have enjoyed – using a pluggable web-based software
platform similar to WordPress or Movable Type; however unlike those tools
which deal with free-form blog posts, instead your data is be stored as
objects (encoded in pertinent open-standards formats) which are then
“shared” via secure, self-referential, closed and authenticated ATOM or RSS
feeds that can be read, aggregated or further processed by “subscribers”
whom you authorize via your “friends list”.
The effect is: your data is held in one place and is authoritative.
Your subscribers can see it. When you change it, your subscribers will see the changes. No longer will you need to tell people when you change your address. They’ll already know.”(

Source: http://www.crypticide.com/dropsafe/article/2374)

Applications of VRM
VRM is an interesting concept because it is intended to make your live easier and provide you with more control over your relationship with vendors. It would be a great improvement if you would have a single environment where you can control the information you share with vendors and inform them of changes in your desires and contact details. In my view several solvable issues exist in further refining the concept of VRM and providing technology that can be used to manage your vendor relationships:

1. Trust, who do you allow to receive your information and updates? What kind of information are you willing to share with all kinds of vendors, and what information do you want to only provide to a small number of providers (such as bank and/or credit card details). I feel it would be necessary to define several trust levels and assign vendors a certain trust level (high, medium, low), that allows you to control who receives what kind of update, without the need to perform an elaborate setup of attributes for each vendor.

2. Technology providers, Alec Muffett mentions the re-use of existing technology such as MovableType and WordPress. Doc Searls, who is heading up Project VRM at Harvard also outlines the re-use of existing technology as one of the key points in further refining VRM. The issue I see here is that the technology selected must have a certain, and possibly very high, level of security, you do not want your updates to be readily available to wrong doers. I foresee an opportunity for companies that you already trust with your information and that provide a high level of security, such as PayPal or your Bank’s Internet banking application, to become key players in the VRM space.

3. Acceptance by vendors, user adoption is an issue with all kinds of applications and this also goes for VRM. Key Vendors, such as companies you interact with frequently (your cable company, cellphone provider, internet service provider etc.) should subscribe to your personal feed, if the concept is to become widely accepted. This means that your VRM feed needs to be based on widely accepted, open standards (XML / Web services), allowing companies to quickly adapt their systems to subscribe to your VRM system. Each platform that provides VRM functionality should also adhere to these open standards and not try to create lock-in by developing proprietary VRM feeds.

VRM Technology now
Within the Dutch Market there are already two interesting concepts that are VRM avant-la-lettre, such as the Rabo notabox (Dutch) and TNT Post’s Privver (Dutch) (Now de Digitale Brievenbus, or Digital Mailbox). Both services provide a way to digitally receive invoices, provide payments and send updates to a limited number of companies through a secure environment, in which you control which company you allow to send you a digital invoice.
When it comes to providing address and other updates to the outside world,
Plaxo Pulse is perhaps one of the best examples of how a feed based system could work.

More information
A whitepaper was recently made available on Google Docs which provides more insight into VRM and possible applications. It would be interesting to see whether the VRM project is able to crowdsource a viable VRM solution with the help of industry experts around the world.

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