aheadCRM

Do you remember the uproar that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently created about the death of SaaS ? Although this is obviously some hyperbolic BS, there is a grain of truth in there.  Not the death of a business model, but something that is hidden somewhat deeper. It is about the eternal struggle between suites and best of breed software, which is in its third iteration – at least – since I am in the CRM world.  The grain of truth lies in the potential change of the way that business and other applications actually are built. When I look at ERP and CRM systems, I see software stacks that often are twenty years old, or even older. Look at S/4HANA. It still has a lot of R/3 inside although there are many new parts. Or Salesforce, which essentially dates back to the early noughts. SugarCRM has a fairly old core, too, even posterchild Zoho has software that dates back twenty years. The list goes on and on. Essentially, all these systems have morphed from fairly specialized solu...

The news On April 3, 2025, Nimble introduced e-mail marketing capabilities including a template editor to power scalable campaigns and outreach. This new capability empowers businesses to send unlimited, HTML-powered, and trackable emails, enabling large-scale outreach. This can be used e.g., for newsletters, webinars, product announcements, seasonal promotions, and more — all from within the Nimble platform. According to the press release, Nimble Email Marketing allows users to send unlimited e-mails and to create campaigns using a drg-and-drop editor or pre-delivered templates. Jon Ferrara , founder and CEO of Nimble says that “ With Nimble Email Marketing, our customers can now scale their outreach and strengthen relationships like never before. ” The e-mail marketing tool leverages existing features like group messaging and sequences. This enables teams to manage outreach, nurturing of leads and deepen relationships.  With the combination of these capabilities, Nimble offers t...

During ZohoDay2025 I had the pleasure of having a conversation with Udit Pahwa, CIO of Blue Star Ltd . Blue Star is a nearly 80-year-old company, based in India, which is a leader in cooling solutions for both the residential and commercial market. The company offers a variety of cooling products, including deep freezers, air conditioners, and chillers. Solutions are provided through direct sales, channel sales, or a combination of both.  Blue Star went through a series of five CRM proof of concepts, evaluations and implementation attempts with limited success before settling on Zoho CRM. Blue Star certainly has been a “burnt child” at that time.  The main reason for Blue Star deciding for going with Zoho CRM is that Blue Star did not want to go for what Pahwa calls a canned solution. Zoho offered the willingness and ability to co-create a solution that is tailored to Blue Star’s needs. “They're ready to tailor it for us. That was a big advantage” he says. Before embarking int...