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Créme de la Créme, CRM
May 06, 2008
Sales & Marketing Management's online exclusive of ISM's Top 15 CRM Awards winners and 2008 Trends Report.
By Stacy Straczynski
If you're looking for the latest and the greatest in CRM technology, you had better take a gander at the just released ISM's 2008 Top 15 CRM Awards winners list. The Top 15 SMB and Enterprise category winners not only mark considerable advancements for the industry, but have also pioneered the way for the changing trends of CRM software this year.
The annual Awards announcement, which began 18 years ago in December 1989 and was first publicized by Sales & Marketing Management in an early 1990 issue by editor Thayer Tailor, recognizes those top-notch CRM vendors who continue to push the envelope in multiple areas of functionality and client service. The Top 15 CRM Enterprise Award winners in alphabetical order are:
Amdocs CRM CES v. 7.5, Amdocs Limited
Pivotal CRM v. 6.0, CDC Software
Saratoga CRM 6.6, CDC Software
C2 CRM v. 8.6, Clear C2, Inc.
Consona CRM, Consona Corporation
Firstwave CRM v. 3.1, Firstwave Technologies, Inc.
Infor CRM Epiphany, Infor
CMS v. 9.0/OnContact CRM V v. 6.1, Oncontact Software Corporation
ExSellence 5.5, Optima Technologies, Inc.
PeopleSoft CRM, Oracle Corporation
Siebel 8.0, Oracle Corporation
RightNow CRM v.8.2, RightNow Technologies, Inc.
Salesforce.com, Salesforce.com
SAP CRM 2007, SAP AG
growBusiness Solutions, Software Innovation ASA
update 7.0 STRIKE!, update software AG
Note: 16 packages qualified for the Top 15 CRM Enterprise Awards for 2008. To view the Top 15 SMB winners, please visit www.ismguide.com
The Top 15 are selected each year by rigorously testing the CRM software sold in the North American marketplace. Both leading company and customer input are included in the testing criteria, then subsequently ranked according to a 217-point scale that analyses product performance in areas of business features, technological features, implementation capability, real-time criteria and user support services.
"The competition comes from the function of rich functionality and the verticalization (market- and target-specific products) of software," says Barton Goldenberg, president of ISM. "The Top 15 are those packages that offer a comprehensiveness. We're seeing a foreign ownership coming into the market … we're also seeing a lift in business functionality and richness, and a lift in verticalization."
But overall, Goldenberg says that out of the eight trends the Top 15 reveal for the industry, there are four main developments emerging that will continue to deliver significant change and ultimately determine industry focus in 2008 and beyond.
1. Increased Number of Mobile CRM Offerings and a Move Toward Real-Time CRM
The fastest growing portion of the CRM trends unveiled by the Awards is an explosion in CRM mobile offerings. And it should be no surprise as recent research has revealed staggering trends in both the generational and mobile sectors: By 2015, the tech-savvy Generation Y population will soar from today's 750 million to three billion. Over those seven years, 2.25 billion more mobile devices are expected to be sold, meaning this always-connected lifestyle is not going away.
It's a mobile world and if businesses want to keep up, they'll have to equip their sales teams with the newest versions of wireless access, smart phones and more.
"One can't talk about this topic and without mentioning the iPhone announcement a couple of months ago and its Desktop iBraodband capability. It's very significant to the industry—it's the first time ever that mobility becomes a reality," says Goldenberg. "Unless CRM vendors make software very usable, they will be out of business by 2015—they need to cater to the mobile user."
Goldenberg continues, "[Generation Y-ers] conduct business differently. The need for CRM vendors to stay competitive is mandatory. They must acknowledge the need to fit CRM to the way a mobile device works."
2. Increased Availability of Web 2.0-Type Functionality
Web technologies and Web 2.0 capabilities have greatly impacted the business world within the last several years. Not only is there a rise in social networking from age groups ranging from teens to seniors, but businesses are also seeing a disintermediation trend—where users can go directly to the source online to purchase their goods, eliminating the middlemen.
Additionally, companies around the world have started to implement Web 2.0 technologies in various levels—internal networks for institutional memeory, by-invitation-only panels for relationship building and public-access sites—into their strategies.
"This trend is a wild and willie one," says Goldenberg. "Gen Y are strong users for social networking, but those users aged 55 and over are the fastest growing group. Not to mention that today there are 70 million blogs available with a new one created every second. There's an explosion going on that one cannot deny and you have to take that into account."
So what's that mean for the CRM vendor? Not too much yet, according to Goldenberg. It's not a full-out blossoming, but the industry is seeing more Web 2.0 being built into their products.
"Here's the kicker: [Businesses ask,] 'How quickly do I have to move into Web 2.0?" You don't have to lead the pack, but you have to immerse yourself in the Web 2.0 culture," Goldenberg says.
3. Increased Use of Business Intelligence Analytical Tools in CRM Solutions
As with all new trends, the business world got caught up in CRM when it first came out. But the mad rush to create and sell the next best feature left out one important aspect, according to Goldenberg.
"As CRM began to sort, stack and offer an overwhelming amount of data, they forgot about getting reporting as good functionality … but now they're catching up," says Goldenberg. "It's a normal 'growing up' of using info effectively to make business decisions."
"There's a lot of lining up with third parties who specialize in analytics to integrate them inside the actual software. It's a multibillion-dollar industry on its own," he adds.
ISM's Top 15 Business Trends Report gives several examples of this occurrence: Unica specializes in marketing software and analytics tools; SAS has an alliance with Siebel and Amdocs to integrate data mining and statistics with Siebel and Amdocs CRM Suite; and Cloud9 Analytics offers a software application to augment Salesforce.com.
"The expanse in social networking drives this influx of data. There's a need to look at the trends of users," Goldenberg says. This development of data will ultimately lead to an abundance of on-demand, more accurate information to business leaders and allow them to make better decisions.
4. Increased CRM Offerings Via the SaaS Model
The Software-as-a-Service trend (SaaS) is a movement toward borrowing software or leasing it on a monthly basis. And while many companies have been hesitant to use SaaS, Goldenberg says "there has been a blossoming in recent years—especially since 2000."
"We're seeing that while SaaS was initially used by smaller players, it has now moved into the mid- to large-sized businesses" says Goldenberg.
The Report confirms this growth of SaaS into the CRM service pool. Vendors are increasingly offering their services via this model with no signs of slowing—a 2006 survey estimated that the majority of companies will receive service this way by 2010.
Why? Goldenberg gives several reasons:
• The initial implementation and use costs less (about $50 to $100 per user) than purchasing the actual software.
• When renting the software, it's easier for departments to justify the expense on company reports.
• Customizations of SaaS is also easier when completed through a third party.
"But there's an inherent conflict: there's only one server at the vendor’s location," says Goldenberg. "Many clients desire to have their own unique server, which drives up cost for both the vendor and user."
Other drawbacks of the SaaS model given by the Report include:
• Government-regulated industries are discouraged from outsourcing data
• Organizations with complex processes would benefit more from on-site software.
• Some sales operations demand deeper levels of back-office integration than SaaS can provide.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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