According to Gartner Research, it was found that customer relationship management is growing faster than any form of enterprise software and it is also predicted that CRM tools will grow annually at the rate of 15.1 % until 2017. CRM integration helps to enable sales and marketing alignment and customer knowledge management. Marketing automation, sales automation, and knowledge management are revolutionizing the way organizations connect internally and externally. The relationship between marketing automation tools and CRM is complex and the impact of integrating marketing automation and CRM technologies is huge. To know more, follow: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/marketing-sales-and-knowledge-management-demystifying-common-crm-features-70093

Lack of planning and special interest pressure among politicians resulted in failure of building the necessary infrastructure required for adequate water retention which lead to water crisis in the state of California. Governor Brown is trying to control who can use water and for what it can be used efficiently. Charging people for water won’t be of any help but through the use of technology things like underground leaks, non-revenue water loss can be identified specially by using the ‘Night-time Flow Analysis’ solution given from Esri. This analysis works by using an optimal time to analyse for leaks mostly at night when consumption is low comparatively. It is a configuration of ArcGIS platform which includes sample data. The accuracy of leak detection depends on customer’s pipe network. The solution responds in real time and is a freely available configuration used to observe base flow conditions and control water crisis.

Read more at: http://www.smartdatacollective.com/shawn-gordon/325636/where-did-all-water-go

A company must protect itself from viral attacks and hackers. Such hackers have been in existence for as long as the internet has existed and they make a living out of stealing important business information by selling them in the market to the highest bidders online which can cause terrible damage to the reputation of company in question. The appropriate way to go about this is to install malware removal software’s on all the computers and also ensure protection of their private business and assets. Some other ways to ensure this protection are:

• Sufficient disaster recovery layouts: since virus and malwares on the computer can wipe away important data and ruin the business in seconds, efficient systems for disaster recovery should be in place so that information back up is restored at that very moment after the attack ensuring no loss is incurred. Professionals should be hired for such tasks.

• Effective virus protection should be installed since sensitive information about the business as well as of the employees once leaked can lead to several other problems and regular security checks should be done to ensure everything is updated and new viruses are detected instantly.

• It’s always necessary for the company to regulate the employee’s access to the computers so that information is not mishandled. Every employee must have his own work station and not mingle with others work which ensures no personal information exchange.

Such practices can definitely help the business data stay protected in the long run if followed properly.

Read more at: http://www.smartdatacollective.com/peterdavidson/320351/how-ensure-protection-critical-business-data

An organization can convert information into customer intelligence to strengthen relationships and maximize profits by integrating Knowledge management (KM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Knowledge management (KM) is the practice of identifying, capturing, distributing, and using information for a company’s benefit and CRM is all about data. The more information a CRM system receives, the better it performs. When a CRM system is integrated with the KM system, it creates an environment in which employees can share insights for the benefit of the company and the customer and customer knowledge remains with the company regardless of turnover or job changes. KM integration helps only if the database is properly maintained and employees actually use the application. Read more at: http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/knowledge-management-can-make-your-crm-project-a-success-64662