By Chris Bucholtz

Getting all the data you need into a CRM system is important, obviously, but only because it later allows you to take that information out and do something with it. In many cases, that means generating a report, then looking up the nugget of information you’re looking for.

But what if it could be done more easily? What if you could do a search of your CRM system – and your ERP system, corporate intranet, tech support emails and customer support databases – and pull out specific details that apply to your customer, and do it in real-time?

That’s the thrust behind Coveo’s G2B for CRM, the limited availability of which was officially announced this morning. Coveo has worked on enterprise search tools in the past, and only recently came to the realization that a search product tuned for CRM could have a ready audience.

“Most of the time, you don’t need a report from your CRM system – you need just one answer about one customer,” said Jim Waters, vice president of global marketing for Coveo.

A good example of this came from one of Coveo’s customers, CA, Waters said. CA has many products and lots of deeply technical content, and that puts a strain on services staff. “Customer service would have to put people on hold and hunt for answers,” Waters said. “That’s not what customers expect.”

G2B for CRM includes connectors for Salesforce.com and Siebel, with connectors for “three or four more CRM systems” in development, Waters said. It also has connectors to email systems, ERP, and information stored on corporate intranets. “You can enter a three or four-word search and draw data from seven, eight, nine or 10 servers,” said Waters. And, if you ave an idea where the data may be located, you can exclude data sources to streamline your search.

That allows you not only to snag individual answers form a corporate knowledge base - it also allows you to assemble various bits of data to get a full picture of the circumstances around a customer, including order and service status and past purchases, to provide sales with a complete view of his relationship with the seller.

The systems also has mobile CRM capability, so rather than hunting for a piece of data while in the field, a sales rep can search for it and get specifically what he’s looking for quickly.

The software’s provided on-demand, with a 30-day trial period. Waters prides the product on its ease of installation, and says that services are included as part of the free trial period.

The idea that sales people could pluck specific bits of information out of their companies’ information systems, especially in the field, is a tempting one – so tempting that it’s a little surprising no CRM vendor has introduced it as a product. Of course, CRM vendors are not so well versed at tying different systems together, so it’s no surprise that the first entrant into what could be a vibrant space is a company that understands the intricacies of working with disparate data sources as well as the value of search and the importance of quick installation.