CRM and related strategies and technology news from the past week

Oracle now gunning for Amazon, Salesforce

Database management system’s company Oracle Corp. is no longer interested in competing against rivals IBM Corp. and SAP AG, it’s now after the like cloud giants such as Amazon and Salesforce.com. Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, was answering questions …

Oracle’s Hurd: A ‘Once-In-A-Career Opportunity’

Mark Hurd explains Oracle’s strategy on cloud, marketing, innovation, and those pesky startup rivals. …. In that time, most of the company’s 20 or so acquisitions have been cloud-based, including RightNow (CRM software), Taleo (talent …

Everything’s moving to the cloud, even ERP.

CRM Watchlist 2014: For the 1st time ever: The Watchlist Elite, Part I

Today begins the CRM Watchlist 2014 reviews. The Elites get first dibs on the discussion – up first the vendor generalists – Salesforce.com and Microsoft.

Why LinkedIn is the King of Contacts for Sales

LinkedIn is a goldmine for getting to know prospects before a meeting. Instead of walking into a meeting cold, you can find out a client’s work history, how long they have been in their role, where their role sits within the company hierarchy, where they went to school, personal and professional interests – even whether you back the same sports team.

Did NSA Use Angry Birds or Other Apps for Spying?

One of the first revelations by Edward Snowden, a former contract employee of the National Security Agency, involved the NSA’s use of popular services for data gathering. Among these services were Facebook and Gmail, which the NSA had been using since 2007 to obtain information on people around the world. Now, new information reportedly released by Snowden shows the NSA also tapped into mobile apps like Angry Birds and Twitter to collect data.