RightNow CEO: For software, think tapas

RightNow Technologies, still fresh from one of the most successful IPOs of 2004, has called on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) a way to circumvent offshoring. It has also hit out again at traditional CRM vendors and online upstart Salesforce.com.

Montana-based RightNow has traditionally specialised in the customer service side of CRM, as opposed to Salesforce.com whose roots are more in sales force automation, though the release of RightNow CRM 7.0 is trying to serve sales and marketing too.

In an interview with silicon.com, CEO Greg Gianforte said RightNow technology "eliminates the need to handle an enquiry manually at all".

He said this is in stark contrast to many user organisations - including some of his customers - who have in recent years looked to offshoring as an economical way to handle cheaply in call centres things such as customer enquiries.

RightNow has accounts spanning sectors including retail, public sector, media and travel - the latter used on the websites of well-known names such as British Airways, Opodo and Holiday Autos.

Traditional software companies with CRM suites battling the trend towards hosted or on-demand applications - or trying to pursue a dual strategy - include Microsoft, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and market-leader Siebel.

However, Gianforte - understandably echoing rallying cries by executives over at Salesforce.com - says the way users buy software has changed significantly since the days of signing large contracts ahead of usage.

"Company appetites have changed," he said. "They ordered five-course meals and got indigestion. It was rammed down their throats. Now they want appetiser-sized portions."

This idea of software as tapas, with users paying for what they use only when they demand it, often in small units, is at the centre of how CRM software and other software is being sold and bought.

But Salesforce.com, which has received a lot of attention this year for its IPO and 'software is dead' message, also came in for stick.

"We have Gartner saying our technology is two years ahead of theirs," Gianforte added, also saying it is harder for Salesforce.com to move from sales force automation to customer servicing than vice versa.

Phill Robinson, VP marketing EMEA at Salesforce.com, said in response: "If anything, RightNow is two years behind Salesforce.com. It has had little or no success outside of the US, with a tiny European presence, having tried to launch in the UK at least twice. The customers have voted with their feet. We have more subscribers to Salesforce.com in Europe than the whole of RightNow put together."

Salesforce.com points to having many more customers than RightNow - and both can point to active seats rather than just licences sold - but RightNow counters that it serves more large enterprises.

silicon.com will be bringing you more on this subject over the coming weeks.