If you're using SFDC, what decisions will you have to make? How should you measure success? Here are some customer support executive guidelines for the first few months of system usage. While much of this article applies to any modern CRM system, we've focused here on the specifics of salesforce.com.

Unlike traditional call center packages that "grew out of" advanced telephony gear (PBXs, ACDs, etc.), salesforce.com was not designed to center on telephone conversations. Indeed, many of their customers use web, e-mail, and IM extensively for customer support interactions. So if your CS operation is highly dependent on the phone, job one will be obtaining an App Exchange CTI plug-in for your telephony system. Fortunately, there are several of these available (and some are free). Evaluate the plug-ins for their depth of integration and the amount of data they automatically insert into SFDC records with each call. The larger and more distributed your call center, the more you'll appreciate the automation provided by the better CTI plug-ins.

Depending on the function of your customer support reps (CSRs), they'll need access to information that's outside the purview of SFDC. You will need to access the Force.com platform APIs to facilitate integration with external systems such as:

• Information integrated from your order management system: current orders, pending fulfillments, etc.