Rusty Coleman, VP Sales & Marketing

Dovetail Expands Marketing Group

2009-10-22T13:23:00Z

I am pleased to announce that Lisa McDonald has joined Dovetail as Marketing Communications Manager based in our Austin, TX office. Lisa brings to Dovetail experience in various Marketing activities and will be managing initiatives to extend Dovetail's presence in the CRM market space, creation of product marketing content, and interaction with customers and partners. Lisa is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a Masters of Science in Technology Commercialization.

Dovetail at CCNG Dallas Event

2009-10-14T21:30:00Z

Dovetail will be sponsoring and presenting at the upcoming CCNG event in Dallas on Wednesday, October 21st at New Benefits office location. For CCNG members attending, we look forward to seeing you there. For others interested in attending check the details at http://www.ccng.com/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4555. This is a great networking opportunity.

Rusty

Webinar Series for Clarify Users

2009-09-16T21:58:00Z

This month we launched the first of several Dovetail complimentary webinars for companies using Clarify software. This particular webinar focused on Clarify Data Management & Optimization utilizing a data archiving strategy and Dovetila's Archive Manager software. Stay tuned for our next session on how to economically extend access to your Clarify data for those who occasionally use Clarify from a laptop or mobile phone. Invitations will go out soon.

Flexibility & Adaptation Make A Difference

2009-07-25T14:26:00Z

We have had the opportunity to engage in discussions this year with a number of customers and prospects about the challenges and needs they have related to their customer service and support software applications.

A few common themes are;

Software Support Value – Historically, software support has been offered and valued as a percentage of the total purchased software cost (usually at list price). For that price, customers could call the supplier for assistance with operational or technical questions or issues, obtain bug fixes, and receive software upgrades as required or available. When additional software licenses were purchased (for new or existing applications) the cost of support would increase proportionately. Tack on a few years of “contractual” price increases and it’s not surprising that the overall cost of support for an application purchased several years ago reaches a level that is disproportionate to the value received.

User Based Licensing Cost – Software applications that are purchased on a user-based license model (specifically named-users vs. concurrent users) inevitably restrict the expansion of the software to new users (particularly those who are occasional users) due to the high cost of the licenses. Without access to the software and, more importantly the information that can assist employees in their job, they have to rely on other methods to get the information they need or do their job without it. Where is the balance between cost and usage?

Support of Software Customizations – As software design and architecture continues to evolve the ability for a customer to easily configure and customize an application enables the software to be better suited for their environment. However, customizations typically challenge the vendor support model and in some cases the software warranty which can, at best, make vendor support challenging or worst case be in violation of a support agreement.

Recognizing these and other challenges and issues, we continue to evolve our software and services to try and address them in creative ways;

· Customized support programs, adjusted annually to meet a customer’s needs, providing flexibility such as optional support channels (telephone, email, web self-service), including professional services for training, customization, and consulting, and free use of certain Dovetail licensed software.

· Software licensing that aligns the value of software to the needs of the user community by providing full-use licenses to those who rely on the software for their daily job function and limited-use licenses for those who occasionally access the system from laptops or mobile phones.

· Software support programs that allow customers to work with Dovetail to ensure that their customizations will not be affected by new software releases as they become available.

Flexibility and adaption in our approach and strategy with each customer has allowed Dovetail to grow and to develop and sustain long-lasting mutually beneficial customer relationships, particularly during times when economic conditions constrain budgets and spending.

Regards,

Rusty

Greetings

2009-01-06T20:47:00Z

I recently joined Dovetail as VP of Sales & Marketing and will be posting from time to time with my thoughts on the marketplace Dovetail resides in and activities at Dovetail as we introduce new technology offerings.

In the early 90's I started selling to the enterprise call center market and since that time have experienced first-hand the evolution of a variety of technologies that have revolutionized the way in which customer service and support is now provided. The convergence of telecommunications systems, software, the internet, and best practices has created an incredible opportunity for both providers and consumers to interact effectively and efficiently in the acquisition, delivery, and support of products and services. Most now consider this convergence, collectively, to be Customer Relationship Management, or CRM as it is more popularly known.

There are numerous technology suppliers in the CRM space, including those that specifically focus on just customer service & support (CS&S) software within the CRM space. However, the pace at which the customer service and support operations have expanded in the past few years, relative to the ability for some of the legacy CS&S applications to address this expansion, has created a technology gap that, at Dovetail, we refer to as "The Forgotten Space".

After spending some time with Dovetail's President & CEO, Stephen Lynn, and getting to know the history, culture, and people at Dovetail, I became increasingly impressed with how the company has evolved and grown focusing specifically on the Clarify software market. The opportunity to now leverage this history and expertise through the expansion of our platform in our latest release to the broader CS&S market will create an exciting opportunity for both Dovetail and our customers. Our strategy, focus, and passion are specifically about the ability to provide the best CS&S software in the marketplace, period. If you haven't already, take a look at what we have to offer at http://www.dovetailsoftware.com/.

Regards,

Rusty