This entry was posted by admin on January 19, 2010 at 9:20 pm under SAP Data Management News.

The ability to have SAP download CRM data from popular microblogging service Twitter is present in the newest version of SAP’s CRM software, according to Search CRM news director Barney Beal.

Beal reported that SAP CRM 7.0 "has all key objects exposed as web services allowing SAP to connect the Twitter API to SAP CRM. Additionally, the Business Objects Text Analyzer serves to provide sentiment analysis." Beal wrote that this ability will let BI specialists engage with their customers in a more meaningful way than they were previously able to do.

SAP vice-president Vinay Iyer told Express Computer Online that mobile devices – on which Twitter is one of the most frequently used applications – will be important to future CRM offerings: "With the proliferation of smartphones such as the BlackBerry, iPhone, Windows Mobile and now Android, enterprises that make a preemptive, early move to invest in mobile customer service will have a generous business advantage if they extend their current m-SFA/CRM strategies."

However, some critics have argued that Twitter is not, in itself, a CRM channel, but only a part of a larger CRM campaign. Paul Greenberg of ZDNet writes that "Twitter is not social CRM. It is a channel that has value to CRM strategies."