NetSuite has updated its flagship CRM+ product with new capabilities for marketing automation, customer support and improved knowledge management.

The new version makes it easier for marketing departments to segment their audience, thus improving the targeting of campaigns. A new workflow system, reduces the effort required to set up a campaign and simplifies the system so training overhead is reduced, said Toby Davidson, Business Development Manager, NetSuite.

The application can also distinguish between target groups whose constituents will change and those where membership remains static.

“Traditionally a database administrator or data expert was required to actually put the list together of campaign recipients once the marketing department had filled in a specification sheet,” said Davidson.

“Using AJAX we have been able to provide powerful search and data segmentation capabilities directly to the appropriate people in the marketing team, giving them the ability to go directly to the data and remove the need for the specification sheet.”

The updated CRM+ also provides knowledge management tools to improve case management, said Davidson. A new keyword search tool has been built directly into the user interface, enabling customer support staff to find relevant material faster.

“A support person can now access the complete knowledge base while looking at the problem ticket raised by the end customer,” said Davidson. “Once a solution is found, the details are automatically pasted into the reply section, or solution section, of the support case, and this is then easily emailed out to the end customer to assist them with the problem."