CRM vendors tout major upgrades

CRM solutions will take center stage this week as three major CRM companies — Interface Software, Kana, and RightNow Technologies — launch new versions and modules of their applications. The products aim to resolve what each vendor believes to be the crucial pain point in CRM software.

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Interface will release InterAction 5.1, targeted at data change management.

“CRM is getting a black eye. Gartner and Meta [Group] reports both cite data quality as the main reason,” said Rick Klau, vice president of vertical markets at Interface.

The key component of InterAction 5.1 is a data service that will identify anomalies in data, de-duplicate the data, and return it to the customer in a cleansed database, Klau said.

RightNow will launch Version 6.0 of its eService Center CRM application this week. The company is focused on delivering what it calls a multichannel customer service.

“The objective is to empower call center agents with a richer view of a customer during a support-related call,” said Greg Gianforte, CEO of RightNow.

Gianforte also said Version 6 will give agents a customer’s recent sales history, providing the agent an opportunity to up-sell new products or services.

Finally, Kana will launch IQ 8 of its CRM knowledge management product. The new version adds support for J2EE and .Net and four industry-specific modules targeting financial services, high tech, health care, and telecommunications.