forrester - crm suites, customer service solutions for q3 2010

8/4/2019 Forrester - CRM Suites, Customer Service Solutions for Q3 2010

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Making Leaders Successul Every Day

J 19, 2010

The Frrester We: CRM StesCstmer Serce Sts,Q3 2010b Wm Bd d Jmes Kbes

fr Bsess Prcess Prfesss
http://www.forrester.com/


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2010, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Inormation is based on best availableresources. Opinions refect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester, Technographics, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar,and Total Economic Impact are trademarks o Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property o their respective companies. Topurchase reprints o this document, please [email protected]. For additional inormation, go to www.orrester.com.

Fr Bsess Prcess Prfesss

ExECuTivE SuMMaRy

Forrester evaluated the customer service and support capabilities o 19 leading CRM suite solutions

against 196 criteria. Customer service and business process proessionals ace a diverse range o

products to si through to support the quest to create dierentiated customer experiences and build

stronger bonds o buyer loyalty. Leader solutions CDC Soware, Microso, Oracle CRM On Demand,

RightNow, salesorce.com, and SAP Business All-in-One oer exible and quick-to-implement

solutions. Other Leaders, like Oracle Siebel CRM, Pegasystems, and SAP CRM, oer solutions with

deep and broad customer service unctionality and business process management (BPM) acumen.Strong Perormers such as Oracle E-Business Suite CRM, Oracles PeopleSo Enterprise CRM, and

SageCRM oer strong integration with ERP systems. Chordiant Soware and Sword Ciboodle, also

Strong Perormers, oer BPM strengths as well. Strong Perormers Maximizer Soware, NetSuite, Sage

SalesLogix, and SugarCRM provide core customer service capabilities at lower price points. FrontRange

Solutions, a Contender vendor, oers a solution to meet basic customer service needs.

TaBlE oF ConT EnTSCstomer Service Ptorms Ebe Itegrted

Mtice Eperieces

CRM Sites Cstomer Service Sotios

Evtio Overview

Te Rest: My Cstomer Service Sotios

To Sit Trog

Vedor Proes

Sppemet Mteri

noTES & RESouRCES

i Q2 2010, Frrester eted the cstmer

serce d spprt cpbtes f 19 CRM stes

sftwre sts: CDC Sftwre, Chrdt

Sftwre, FrtRge Sts, MmzerSftwre, Mcrsft, netSte, orce CRM o

Demd, orce E-Bsess Ste CRM, orce

PepeSft Eterprse CRM, orce Sebe CRM,

Pegsstems, Rghtnw Techges, Sge

Seslg, SgeCRM, sesfrce.cm, SaP CRM,

SaP Bsess-a--oe, SgrCRM, d Swrd

Cbde. Frrester s ctcted 99 cstmer

refereces thrgh e sre.

Reted Reserc Docmets

The Frrester We: CRM Stes Fr lrgeorgzts, Q2 2010

Je 16, 2010

The Frrester We: CRM Stes Fr Mdszed

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Je 16, 2010

J 19, 2010

The Frrester We: CRM Stes Cstmer SerceSts, Q3 2010by Wiim Bd d Jmes Kobieswth Ce Mre, Crg le Cr, d adrew Mgre

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2010, Frrester Reserch, ic. Reprdct PrhbtedJ 19, 2010

The Frrester We: CRM Stes Cstmer Serce Sts, Q3 2010


2

CuSTOMER SERVICE PlaTORMS EnaBlE InTEGRaTED MulTIChannEl ExPERIEnCES

Customers demand superior service and support as the price or their ongoing loyalty and

patronage. In response to these demands in todays experience-based economy, organizations are

ramping up their multichannel customer service initiatives.

Since the last iteration o the Forrester Wave evaluation o customer service soware solutions, the

global economy plunged into a severe recession rom which it is now gradually recovering. However,

the undamental business needs that drive the requirement or eective and ecient customer

service management have not changed. I anything, the need or a compelling and engaging

customer experience, throughout the customer interaction lie cycle, is more critical than ever.

Customers are increasingly online, want sel-service options, and demand responses in real time. In

addition, social media, such as witter and Facebook, has grown to be an important new channel or

interacting with customers and engaging in innovative ways.

Cstomers Demd Eggig, Re-Time Service

Forresters research repeatedly conrms that good customer service experiences boost repurchase

probability and long-term loyalty. In our recent surveys, Forrester asked customers to rate their

interaction experiences based on whether they were:

Useul. Could they get what they needed to do done?

Easy. Was the interaction process simple, straightorward, and hassle-ree?

Enjoyable. Did they nd the interaction pleasant and productive?

Forrester ound that the higher a business Customer Experience Index was, regardless o industry,

the more likely customers will buy its product, and the more loyal those customers will be (see

Figure 1).1

What are businesses most critical customer management priorities or 2010 and beyond?2 Our

research shows that both B2B and B2C enterprises spotlight improved customer loyalty as a top goal.

B2B companies also intend to capture new customers, while B2C companies ocus on improving the

customer experience. o support achievement o these important priorities, customer management

technology solutions are widely used by organizations o all sizes. Fiy-six percent o the 455 large

organizations we recently surveyed in North America and Europe have already implemented acustomer relationship management (CRM) solution and many o these plan to invest more to

upgrade their tool set. An additional 20% have plans to adopt a CRM solution within the next 12 to

24 months.3


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2010, Frrester Reserch, ic. Reprdct Prhbted J 19, 2010



3

igre 1 Cstmer Eperece Crretes T lt

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.57106

Correlation between Customer Experience Index and three elements of loyalty

Base: US online consumers who have interacted with firms in these industries

0.77Banks

Credit card providers

Insurance providers

Internet service providers

Airlines

TV service providers

Investment firms

PC manufacturers

Wireless service providers

Hotels

Parcel delivery/shippingfirms

Utility providers

Health insurance plans

Retailers

Degree of correlation: Low Medium High

0.520.71

0.760.51

0.67

0.750.45

0.66

0.750.47

0.71

0.74

0.41 0.67

0.740.45

0.71

0.740.45

0.69

0.730.40

0.70

0.730.44

0.65

0.730.37

0.63

0.710.38

0.61

0.700.38

0.67

0.670.35

0.67

0.700.38

0.61

Source: North American Technographics Customer Experience Online Survey, Q4 2009 (US)

Willingness to considerpurchasing another productfrom the company

Reluctance to switchbusiness away from thecompany

Likelihood to recommendthe company to a friend orcolleague


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4

Te Service Sotio ldscpe hs Grow More Compe

Within this broader CRM applications context, customer service solutions are evolving to meet a

more complex set o business requirements, resulting in new eatures, application delivery models,

and integration choices. o make technology bets wisely, you must understand and navigate key

trends in the customer service landscape:4

Customer service embraces real-time methods.In 2010, contact center customer support needsto evolve to better serve customers who no longer rely on one venue or receiving inormation, but

instead engage multiple sources. In addition to checking a companys Web site and its brochures,

many customers research inormation on products and services rom social networking sources,

such as blogs and online user ratings. With customers now requiring more real-time support, its

essential to keep pace with their expectations and to respond to them in new ways.5

Sel-service knowledge management (KM) tools grow in importance. Once pigeonholedas a tool or consumers to access static customer Web site support documents, advancedknowledge management and search tools are a critical necessity or satisying sel-service and

agent/customer experiences. Whether via an IVR or Web site, search technology can provide

consumers with better sel-service experiences and answers. As or agents, robust KM is the

only avenue to eectively and eciently answer the exponentially increasing range o customer

inquiries about products, services, entitlements, transactions, and policies. Look or vendors

oering natural-language processing and automatic query intent combined with FAQ-guided,

structured resolution and decision tree/inquiry resolution processes.

Integrated computer telephony integration (CTI) becomes more important.About hal othe cost o running a customer service contact center is tied up in up in labor. CI bridges thetelephone to the computer, shortening the average length and duration o calls. Tis maximizes

the number o talk minutes per hour, which reduces the required number o sta and oers a

aster, more personalized service and voice processing input by minimizing time spent on the

discovery phase o the call. From a customers point o view, this eliminates having to answer

the long list o annoying and trivial questions, i.e., repeating inormation that he or she has just

keyed into the keypad. Not all CI is the same look or vendors that provide and implement

CI with screen-pop to the agents desktop.

Next-generation customer intelligence and customer eedback solutions emerge.Because

many products and services are highly commoditized, more and more businesses compete onanalytics. Getting better insights rom inormation based on richer data sets, more complex

models, or even making the same decisions as everyone else but beore everyone else makes

them this is how most advanced enterprises compete in todays world.6 For customer service

applications, its critical or a company to receive customer eedback, comments, and complaints.

Yet many companies dont have a mechanism to gather that eedback and analyze it, much

less to integrate that inormation back into their products and services. Many vendors oer

customer service analytics packages but dont oer an easy-to-use ormat. Look or companies


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5

that provide the next generation o collaborative Web 2.0 communication tools, which enable a

ree ow o eedback and ideas company-to-customer, customer-to-company, and customer-

to-customer making requests transparent.

Mobile capabilities serve as a linchpin or responsive customer service. Organizations haveinvested or more than a decade in CRM solutions. However, mobile workers (or example,

eld service technicians) oen still do not have needed inormation at hand to serve and sell

customers eectively when they are away rom the oce. Interest in mobile customer services

solutions is high. And consumers increasingly expect to complete customer service interactions

through their mobile devices. Virtually all CRM vendors now oer mobile solutions as

extensions o their applications to ll this gap. Despite the growing maturity o mobile CRM

solutions, business and I leaders will still be perplexed by the complexities o the dierent

mobile options and architectures.

Customer service soware-as-service (SaaS) solutions gain acceptance. Our surveys showthat nearly hal o apps proessionals are actively engaged with SaaS assessments or deployment.

And almost one-third o those use SaaS applications or CRM, including customer service and

support. Many vendors oer a variety o on demand customer-service solution deployment

models, including multitenancy, private hosting, and hosting o traditional on-premises

solutions. Some also oer hybrid deployment, a SaaS solution integrated with an on-premises

version, and others oer SaaS-only deployments. Teres a shi in vendor platorms rom

client/server to the SaaS platorm. But organizations must balance considerations o these

options against time-to-market, time-to-value, upront and ongoing costs, and integration and

optimization with internal legacy systems criteria.7

Agile customer service demands strong business process management soware (BPM).raditional enterprise applications tend to be monolithic in nature. Purchasers o these

applications have become increasingly rustrated with the cost and complexity involved in

customizing them to the needs o the organization. Moreover, they experience problems when

upgrading, eectively setting the I inrastructure in concrete as the business continues to

evolve. Enter pure-play BPM vendors such as Chordiant, Pegasystems, and Sword Ciboodle

into the customer management space.8 Tese types o solutions have or some time provided

the integration capabilities to access enterprise apps at the component level, allowing the

organization to model its processes and call relevant application elements at runtime. Just as

important, we see a growing range o products that support more integration ocustomer

service and eService workows. Best-in-class vendors have integrated customer service and

eService interaction channels and now provide common underlying workows and business

rule, as well as a seamless transition between contact interaction channels.

Interest in social computing or multichannel customer service builds.Social technologyadoption has increased tremendously during the past 12 months. Four in ve US online adults

now use social tools to connect with each other, compared with just 56% in 2007.9 However,


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the proo-point use cases or leveraging social media are still emerging. Nevertheless, Social

Computing unctionality is now beginning to permeate most multiunctional customer service

platorms, supporting richer experiences and uller community-oriented collaboration among

customers, agents, and support personnel. Weve begun to look at the vendor capabilities in thislight. For example, we include Web 2.0 tools and applications (discussion threads, wikis, blogs,

RSS, social bookmarking, social networking, widgets, mashups, and podcasting) as well as Web

2.0 technology capabilities (XML, AJAX, Flash/Flex and mashup markers, and Web services

standards) in our product evaluations.

CRM SuITES CuSTOMER SERVICE SOluTIOnS EValuaTIOn OVERVIEW

o assess the market o CRM suites customer service solutions soware and see how vendors compare

with one another, Forrester evaluated the customer service strengths and weaknesses o the top CRM

suites vendor products against 196 criteria.10 Te ollowing assessment will help you see how the 19

CRM suite vendor customer service products that we evaluated stack up against each other.

Byers ocs O Crret Oferigs, tre Visio, ad Stregt O Isted Bse

As a buyer considering customer service oerings, you have diverse range o solution providers to

choose rom. Te distinctions between premises-based and SaaS customer service oerings continue

to blur as vendors oer access to substantially the same unctionality through multiple deployment

approaches. For this report, Forrester used a comprehensive set o customer-service-specic

evaluation criteria to compare the customer service oerings o CRM suite solutions vendors.

Forrester also examined past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews. We

organized the criteria or this Forrester Wave evaluation into three high-level categories:

Current oering. We looked at the strength o the vendors products across a wide spectrumo CRM capabilities. In addition, we evaluated their support or customer-service-specic

unctionalities such as phone agent, call center inrastructure, agent collaboration, knowledge

base, chat, customer orums, and the social Web. We evaluated how the products supported

common underlying workows. We assessed the suitability o the tools or dierent business

models, such as B2B, B2C, and B2B2C. And we evaluated the products support or global

enterprises, the product architecture, usability, and cost.

Strategy. We looked at the strength o each vendors product strategy and vision and how it

intends to support increasingly complex customer service requirements. ime-to-value, productstrategy, and corporate strategy are also important criteria, specically with regard to customer

service needs.

Market presence. We gauged the size o the vendors customer bases and evaluated the depth ohuman and nancial resources available to enhance their products and serve customers. Market

presence in this report reects the relative importance o each CRM suite solution vendor

within the overall CRM suite solutions market.


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7

nietee Vedors Ofer a Diverse Rge O Cpbiities

Forrester included 19 CRM suite customer service solutions in our assessment: CDC Soware,

Chordiant Soware, FrontRange Solutions, Maximizer Soware, Microso, NetSuite, Oracle CRM

On Demand, Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) CRM, Oracle PeopleSo Enterprise CRM, Oracle Siebel

CRM, Pegasystems, RightNow echnologies, Sage SalesLogix, SageCRM, salesorce.com, SAP CRM,

the CRM unctionality o SAP Business All-in-One, SugarCRM, and Sword Ciboodle.

We did not include the assessment solutions that specialize in a narrow set o customer service

unctionalities. Tese include, or example, the customer service interaction-centric (sometimes

labeled eService and knowledge management) vendors reviewed in our 2008 Forrester Wave

evaluation o customer service solutions: Consona CRM, eGain Communications, Genesys

elecommunications Laboratories, InQuira, KANA Soware, LivePerson, nGenera, and Numara

Soware.11

We also did not include key point solutions that specialize in only one particular aspect o customer

service operations. For instance, some o the specialty vendors not in the assessment, but still

important to customer service proessionals, include: Jelso Enterprises and Jive Soware or

orums; chat soware vendors; Varolii and other outbound customer communications vendors; and

Parature, Kaidara Soware, and some other knowledge management and help desk vendors.

Te 19 CRM suites customer service solutions included in our assessment met the ollowing criteria

or inclusion (see Figure 2):

Oers customer service solutions as part o a multiunctional CRM suite.Each CRMsolution included in this Forrester Wave has unctionality in a minimum o three o theollowing CRM subdisciplines and tools: marketing, sales orce automation, customer service,

eld service, partner channel management, eCommerce, customer analytics, and customer data

management. Products promoted primarily as best-o-breed solutions or a single unctional

area were not included.

Provides unctionality that spans multiple unctional areas or customer service.Tevendors and products in the evaluation can support a breadth o customer service and support

requirements.

Has a strong presence in the customer service market. Each o the evaluated vendors has

hundreds, i not thousands, o customers and signicant revenue rom customer service licenses

and users.

Has at least one product that our clients are thinking about. Each o the vendors andproducts evaluated was the subject o an inquiry, discussion, client evaluation, or other contact

between Forrester clients and analysts during the past 12 months.


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8

igre 2 Eted vedrs: Prdct ad Seect Crter

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

Crietria for vendor selection

Vendor

CDC Software

Chordiant Software

FrontRange Solutions

Maximizer Software

Microsoft

NetSuite

Oracle

Oracle

Oracle

Oracle

Pegasystems

RightNowTechnologies

Sage

Sage

salesforce.com

SAP

SAP

SugarCRM

Sword Ciboodle

Product evaluated

Pivotal

Cx Suite

GoldMine Enterprise Edition

Maximizer CRM

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

NetSuite

Oracle CRM On Demand

Oracle E-Business Suite CRM

PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM

Oracle Siebel CRM

Customer Process Manager

RightNow CX

SageCRM

Sage SalesLogix

Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Custom Cloud

CRM functionality in SAP Business All-in-One

SAP CRM

Sugar Professional

Sword Ciboodle

Product version

evaluated

6.0.5

6.3

6.3

10.5

4

2009.2

R16

R12.1.2

9.1

8.1.1

6.1

RightNow CXNovember

v7

7.5.2

Winter 10

Based on SAP CRM 7.0

7.0

5.5

3.1

Version

release date

November 2009

October 2009

October 2009

October 2008

December 2007

September 2009

February 2009

December 2009

October 2009

November 2008

June 2009

November 2009

December 2009

November 2009

February 2010

August 2009

May 2009

December 2009

October 2009

Vendor selection criteria

Offers customer service solutions as part of a multifunctional CRM suite.

Provides functionality that spans multiple functional areas for customer service.

Has a strong presence in the customer service market.

Has at least one product that our clients are thinking about.


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9

ThE RESulT: ManY CuSTOMER SERVICE SOluTIOnS ChOICES TO SIT ThROuGh

Te evaluation uncovered a market in which (see Figure 3):

CDC, Microso, Oracle CRM On Demand, RightNow, and salesorce.com gain ground.Tese products all get high marks or ease o use and relatively ast deployment times. RightNow

and salesorce.com, which are SaaS solutions, are much aster to deploy and easier to change

than traditional on-premises oerings. Oracle CRM On Demand is also gaining traction in

the market as a SaaS companion to Oracle Siebel CRM. Microso oers a SaaS solution

Microso Dynamics CRM Online and buyers value the solutions native integration with

Outlook and working within the amiliar Microso technology stack. CDCs Pivotal also

leverages Microso technology to oer a solution that is highly exible and adaptable to

complex use cases. Although these players are not ully eatured across the board or customer

service, they are gaining acceptance rom organizations looking or ast time-to-value and

exible solutions.

Oracle Siebel CRM and SAP oer the most complete customer service solutions.Duringthe past our years, SAP has worked steadily to ll out its CRM oering, including customer

service, resulting in end-to-end process integration support that no longer comes at the expense

o missing CRM unctionality. Te vendor also recently introduced SAP Business All-in-

One CRM to oer a ully eatured solution targeted and priced or midmarket organizations.

Meanwhile, Oracle promotes the Siebel product and brand as its most ull-eatured CRM

solution, with strong customer service unctionality and a breadth and depth o unctionality

or many industry verticals. In their most current releases, both vendors moved to address

key complaints: poor usability, high cost, and long implementation times. Siebel 8.1 eatures

the Siebel User Interace, which can be highly personalized, uses embedded analytics, and

is task-driven. Te SAP CRM 7.0 UI is exible to support varying roles. It oers drag-and-

drop personalization embedded across the entire solution. Both vendors are working to lower

the total cost o ownership (CO) or their customers by introducing more pre-integrations

with other solutions rom within their respective corporate amilies and oering rapid

implementation methodologies and tools to reduce upgrade costs.

Oracles EBS CRM and PeopleSo Enterprise CRM are good options or ERP customers.Oracle continues to support two other important CRM customer ranchises. Oracle E-Business

Suite CRM attracts customers by providing ease o integration into the rest o the Oracle

E-Business Suite and oering strengths in eld service and sales compensation management.Similarly, Oracles PeopleSo Enterprise CRM attracts companies already using PeopleSo by

providing strong integration benets. PeopleSo is also making headway in developing unique

unctionality to meet the relationship management needs o the higher-education sector and

oering new solutions to support human resources proessionals. Both products oer strong

capabilities across the broad ootprint o core CRM unctionalities, including marketing, sales,

and service.


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10

Chordiant Soware, Pegasystems, and Sword Ciboodle ll business process gaps. Asenterprises begin to understand the importance o truly integrating end-to-end customer-acing

processes rom ront oce to back oce, they turn to solutions with native business process

management (BPM) capabilities that can support highly unique and exible process ows.

Tis is particularly important in supporting and integrating multichannel customer service

processes that cut across unctional silos. Sword Ciboodle has pushed into the CRM market

with its ocus on the intersection o business process modeling, customer service, and customer

interaction management. Pegasystems oers robust BPM capabilities and is building out a pre-

templated set o solutions to support customer-acing processes with a ocus on customer

service. Chordiant also oers a process-centric platorm combined with advanced decisioning

tools to orchestrate multichannel interactions to support real-time customer interaction

management. In April 2010, Pegasystems acquired Chordiant in a move that will result in an

even more robust process-centric solution approach or the CRM market than the two separate

product lines alone.

FrontRange, Maximizer, NetSuite, SageCRM, SalesLogix, and SugarCRM oer core eatures.Tis group o vendors oer a breadth (although not depth) o broad CRM capability across the

board, at a lower price point than many o the market Leaders that ocus primarily on the needs

o large enterprises. Where many o these products come up short, however, is in their lack o

comprehensive customer service and Web 2.0 unctionality. Sage SalesLogix oers a well-proven

general CRM solution with multiple deployment options, while SageCRM oers CRM

unctionality integration with Sage back-oce products. SugarCRM brings the development

exibility and lower cost o the open source model to CRM. NetSuite oers a sound core set o

customer service solutions, delivering a 360-degree view o customer data and providing a SaaS

solution that emphasizes ront- and back-oce integration best suited or midsized organizations.Maximizer Soware also oers core customer service capabilities best suited or smaller

organizations. FrontRange Solutions remains an option or small and midmarket organizations

with a low-cost set o basic customer service unctionalities and a modern architecture.

We intend or this evaluation o customer service soware solutions to serve as a starting point only.

We encourage readers to view detailed product evaluations and adapt the criteria weightings to t

their individual needs through the Forrester Wave Excel-based vendor comparison tool.


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igre 3 Frrester We: CRM Stes Cstmer Serce Sts, Q3 10


Go online to download

the Forrester Wave tool

for more detailed product

evaluations, feature

comparisons, and

customizable rankings.

Risky

Bets Contenders Leaders

Strong

Performers

StrategyWeak Strong

Current

offering

Weak

Strong

Market presence

FrontRange Solutions

Chordiant Software

CDC Software

Maximizer SoftwareSugarCRM

Sword Ciboodle

NetSuite

SageSalesLogix

SageCRM Oracle CRMOn Demand

Oracle E-Business Suite CRM

Oracle Siebel CRM

SAP CRMOracle PeopleSoft Enterprise CRMPegasystems

MicrosoftSAP Business All-in-One

RightNow Technologiessalesforce.com


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12

igre 3 Frrester We: CRM Stes Cstmer Serce Sts, Q3 10 (Ct.)


CURRENT OFFERING

Customer service

Field service

Internationalization

Industry business process support

Architecture and platformUsability

Cost

STRATEGY

Time-to-value

Product strategy

Corporate strategy

MARKET PRESENCE

Customer base

Employees

Financial performance

CDCSoftware

3.37

2.76

1.43

4.34

3.50

3.864.13

4.50

3.89

5.00

3.50

3.35

2.70

2.00

3.00

4.50

Forresters

Weighting

50%

35%

10%

10%

5%

15%15%

10%

50%

30%

30%

40%

0%

60%

20%

20%

ChordiantSoftware

3.12

3.51

0.10

2.69

4.00

3.893.57

2.95

2.88

2.00

3.25

3.25

1.30

1.50

1.50

0.50

FrontRangeSolutions

2.20

1.78

0.60

2.03

2.00

2.952.87

3.40

3.06

5.00

2.00

2.40

1.90

1.00

3.00

3.50

MaximizerSoftware

2.82

2.27

1.47

3.00

2.50

2.934.20

3.80

3.51

5.00

3.50

2.40

1.30

1.00

2.00

1.50

Microsoft

3.95

3.47

2.90

5.00

3.00

4.144.93

4.35

4.32

5.00

4.25

3.85

4.05

3.50

4.75

5.00

NetSuite

3.05

2.45

2.07

4.01

3.25

3.383.97

3.15

3.28

4.00

3.00

2.95

1.60

1.00

3.00

2.00

OracleCRMO

nDemand

3.63

3.10

1.53

4.01

3.50

4.484.54

4.60

4.32

5.00

4.25

3.85

2.80

1.50

5.00

4.50

OracleE-BusinessSuite

CRM

3.84

3.90

4.52

4.67

4.00

3.853.60

2.40

3.01

2.00

3.50

3.40

3.20

2.50

5.00

3.50

OraclePeopleSoft

EnterpriseCRM

3.81

3.77

2.89

4.67

4.25

4.164.37

2.40

2.86

2.00

3.00

3.40

3.00

2.50

5.00

2.50

OracleSiebelCRM

4.23

4.28

4.54

4.67

5.00

4.784.33

2.00

3.74

2.00

4.25

4.65

4.70

5.00

5.00

3.50

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).


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igre 3 Frrester We: CRM Stes Cstmer Serce Sts, Q3 10 (Ct.)


CURRENT OFFERING

Customer service

Field service

Internationalization

Industry business process support

Architecture and platformUsability

Cost

STRATEGY

Time-to-value

Product strategy

Corporate strategy

MARKET PRESENCE

Customer base

Employees

Financial performance

Pegasystems

3.63

4.16

0.15

4.67

3.00

4.773.66

2.75

3.42

3.00

3.00

4.05

2.40

1.50

3.00

4.50

Forresters

Weighting

50%

35%

10%

10%

5%

15%15%

10%

50%

30%

30%

40%

0%

60%

20%

20%

RightNowTechnolog

ies

3.86

4.47

0.27

4.67

4.50

4.183.94

3.55

4.34

5.00

4.25

3.90

2.10

1.50

3.00

3.00

SageSalesLogix

2.68

2.11

0.72

3.35

2.25

3.073.75

4.00

3.75

5.00

3.50

3.00

2.35

1.50

3.25

4.00

SageCRM

2.94

2.22

1.85

3.34

2.00

3.374.33

3.90

3.38

3.00

4.25

3.00

2.25

1.50

3.25

3.50

salesforce.com

3.96

3.91

2.72

4.01

3.75

4.174.87

3.80

4.54

5.00

5.00

3.85

3.60

3.50

3.50

4.00

SAPBusinessAll-In-O

ne

3.92

3.44

4.01

4.34

4.25

4.624.23

3.40

4.30

5.00

4.25

3.80

2.30

1.00

5.00

3.50

SAPCRM

3.87

3.44

4.07

5.00

4.25

4.604.37

2.00

3.95

2.00

4.50

5.00

3.80

3.50

5.00

3.50

SugarCRM

2.81

1.74

0.67

4.34

1.50

3.653.90

4.90

3.51

5.00

3.50

2.40

1.65

1.50

1.25

2.50

SwordCiboodle

3.54

3.86

1.76

3.35

3.75

4.563.73

2.45

2.75

3.00

2.50

2.75

1.30

1.00

1.50

2.00

All scores are based on a scale of 0 (weak) to 5 (strong).

VEnDOR PROIlES

leders: a Vriety O Sotios To it Diferet needs

CDC Soware delivers a user-riendly, exible, and cost-eective solution. CDCs PivotalCRM leverages Microso technology to oer a solution that is highly exible and adaptable to

complex use cases. Pivotal leverages industry best practices as a starting point, has the exibility

to tailor those best practices, and enables quick response to changes in the business environment.

It provides sound support or phone agents, knowledge base, and openness. CDC Pivotals otherstrengths include low license costs, strong customer data management, and internationalization

capabilities. Te product oers native support or rich Internet application rameworks such as

Ajax and Microso Silverlight to provide a better UI than can traditionally be accomplished

through Internet applications and make them more similar to desktop applications. CDC Pivotal

has very strong reliability, availability, ofine support, and time-to-value. It provides strong

support or: business process and workow; integration; development and customization;

scalability; security; Web 2.0 tools; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; UI; and help.


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However, CDC Pivotal provides only weak support or other customer service capabilities

such as call center inrastructure, sel-service tools, sel-service to live-service transition,

and customer orums. It also provides very weak support or core eld service capabilities,

scheduling, spare parts management, and depot repair. CDC Pivotal best suits organizationsthat need a well-priced customer service solution that can be highly tailored to an organizations

unique best practices and that need a tailored user experience that promotes high adoption o

the solution.

Microso gets high marks or exible customer service solutions. Microso Dynamics CRMshines by oering customer service exibility or large and midsized organizations. It supports

exible options in deployment (on-premises, on-demand, and partner-hosted deployments);

how to pay (license, subscribe, nance); and how to use (Outlook client, browser, SharePoint

site, other interaces). Microso Dynamics CRM provides strong support or: phone agents; call

center inrastructure; agent collaboration tools; knowledge base; customer data management;

analytics; email response management; architecture and platorm; business process and

workow tools; integration; security; and Web 2.0 tools. It provides very strong support

or: internationalization; deployment options; development and customization capabilities;

scalability; reliability and availability; usability; UI; help; support or mobile devices; and ofine

support; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; and customization.

However, Microso Dynamics CRM provides weak support or: sel-service tools; sel-service to

live-service transition; customer orums; core eld service capabilities; spare parts management;

and depot repair. It does not provide industry-specic solution sets. Microso Dynamics CRM

is best suited or organizations that are looking to buy a relatively ull-eatured customer service

solution and that have made a commitment to a Microso inrastructure to lower their CO inbuying and managing business technologies.

Oracle CRM On Demand oers sound customer service unctionality. Oracle CRM OnDemand, in combination with its sister product, Oracle Siebel CRM, lets customers choose

among enterprise-grade SaaS, hosted, packaged, and SOA-based component applications. It

oers a solution with quick time-to-value, strong usability, and low upront costs. Oracle

CRM On Demand oers strong support or: phone agents; call center inrastructure; email

response management; internationalization; business process and workow tools; and

integration capabilities. It also provides sound workow capabilities and support or mobile

devices. Te Oracle CRM On Demand solution, overall, is characterized by very strong social

Web capabilities, strong architecture and platorm, strong development and customization

capabilities, openness, and scalability.

However, Oracle CRM On Demand provides weak support or: knowledge base; sel-service

tools; sel-service to live-service transition; core eld service capabilities; mobile capabilities or

eld service; and industry-specic processes. It oers very weak support or: customer orums;


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scheduling capabilities; spare parts management; and depot repair. Oracle CRM On Demand

is attractive to midsized organizations, and it is nding increasing acceptance in units o large

companies. It best suits businesses that want a SaaS deployment method and have a medium or

large number o agents. It is particularly suitable or companies that are committed to the Oracleplatorm and Oracle technologies due to its pre-built integrations with other Oracle solutions.

Oracle Siebel CRM delivers deep and broad customer service unctionality.Oracle SiebelCRM 8.1 maintains its lead or across-the-board deep CRM unctionality. Oracle has promoted

the Siebel product and brand as its most ull-eatured CRM solution, with a breadth and

depth o unctionality or many industry verticals. With respect to customer service, Oracle

Siebel CRM oers very strong support or: phone agents; call center inrastructure; customer

service analytics; social Web capabilities; eld service capabilities; mobile capabilities or eld

service; internationalization; architecture and platorm; business process and workow tools;

deployment options; integration capabilities; openness; scalability; reliability and availability;

security; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; help; and ofine support. Additionally, it delivers

strong support or: knowledge base; sel-service tools; sel-service to live-service transition;

email response management; scheduling capabilities; spare parts management; depot repair;

selected industry-specic processes; development and customization; Web 2.0 tools and

capabilities; UI; and mobile devices.

Oracle Siebel CRM is a good t or B2C call centers that have high volumes and need high

availability, scalability, and reliability. However, Oracle Siebel CRM provides very weak

support or customer orums and is viewed by the market as expensive and requiring lengthy

deployment times. Oracle Siebel CRM best suits customer services buyers who value advanced

unctionality tailored or specic industries, customer insights gleaned through strong analyticsand customer data management, and the ability to support global organizations.

Pegasystems provides a robust business process platorm or customer service.PegasystemsCustomer Process Manager oers strong BPM capabilities and is building out a pre-templated

set o solutions to support customer-acing process with a ocus on customer service. In the

past, Pegasystems has been viewed by most buyers as a pure-play leader in the human-centric

business process management suites (BPMS) market. More recently, however, the company

has adopted a mission to help customer service organizations radically enhance and transorm

the service experience they deliver across all customer touchpoints while reducing the cost o

service. Te Pegasystems Customer Process Managers greatest strengths are its comprehensive

architecture and its BPM platorm, which orchestrate highly dynamic business procedures. It

oers very strong support or: phone agents; call center inrastructure; workow; customer

service analytics; internationalization; architecture and platorm; business process and workow

tools; openness; scalability; reliability and availability; security; Web 2.0-enabling technologies;

and UI. It oers strong support or: knowledge base; email response management; integration;

Web 2.0 tools; and help.


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However, Pegasystems Customer Process Manager provides very weak support or customer

orums, eld service capabilities, scheduling capabilities, spare parts management, depot repair,

industry-specic processes, and ofine support. And it oers weak support or sel-service to

live-service transitions, mobile capabilities or eld service, and mobile devices. In a signicantmove in April 2010, Pegasystems acquired Chordiant Soware. Pegasystems Customer Process

Manager best suits buyers who want to strengthen their ability to support rules-based customer

service processes.

RightNow stands out with social CRM capabilities or B2C enterprises.RightNow CXprovides a exible, quick-to-implement CRM solution with a particular strength in helping its

customers deliver exceptional customer experiences across the Web, social media, and contact

centers. Because it is a SaaS solution, the product is much aster to deploy and easier to change

than traditional on-premises oerings. Te products very strong social Web capabilities are

also worth noting. RightNow CX provides very strong support or: call center inrastructure;

knowledge base; sel-service tools; email response management; customer service analytics

capabilities; social Web capabilities; internationalization; development and customization;

reliability and availability; openness; UI; and help. It provides strong support or: phone agents;

agent collaboration tools; sel-service to live-service transition; customer orums; workow

capabilities; architecture and platorm; business process and workow tools; integration

capabilities; scalability; security; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; and usability.

However, RightNow CX provides only weak support or industry-specic processes and

mobile devices, and very weak support or core eld service capabilities, scheduling, mobile

capabilities or eld service, spare parts management, and depot repair. It has improved its

analytics capabilities, but a key weakness is a lack o strong support customer data management.RightNow CX is best suited or B2C organizations in need o a customer-service-centric CRM

suite solution with a rapid time-to-value.

salesorce.com bees up its customer service capabilities. Salesorce is growing quickly bymaking CRM solutions available through the SaaS deployment model. Te application is built

on top o a modern architecture, allowing or robust scalability, reliability and availability, and

openness to connect to other applications via Web services. salesorce.com provides very strong

support or: phone agents; social Web; customization; security; Web 2.0-enabling technologies;

usability; and mobile devices. It oers strong capabilities or call center inrastructure;

agent collaboration; knowledgebase; sel-service to live-service transition; email response

management; customer service analytics; internationalization; workow; and ofine support.

And it provides sound support or sel-service tools, customer orums, core eld service

capabilities, and mobile capabilities or eld service.

However, salesorce.com provides limited deployment options, as it only deploys as a SaaS

solution. And it provides weak support or selected eld service capabilities such as scheduling

capabilities, spare parts management, and depot repair. It lacks industry-specic vertical


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solutions; the vendor relies on its partner ecosystem (AppExchange) to complement its

shortcomings in the areas where the application is not robust. Te Salesorce application best

suits businesses that are looking or an easy to use, rapidly deployable customer service CRM

application, and that are committed to the SaaS as deployment approach.

CRM unctionality in SAP Business All-in-One promises quick deployment. CRMunctionality in SAP Business All-in-One is a new solution on the market. Its value proposition

involves oering combined comprehensive, precongured business scenarios rom SAP CRM

and SAP ERP so that midsized companies can more eectively manage their customers, brands,

and sales eectiveness together with core business operations in an easy-to-use solution.

Common master data and built-in business analytics ensure a single source o truth and

360-degree visibility to key data. SAP oers the product with two deployment options: on-

premises and hosted. Te hosting option has two payment choices or licenses: perpetual and

subscription. Te products strengths include deep across-the-board CRM unctionality rom

SAP CRM, including all customer service unctionality, combined with attractive pricing and

prepackaged ast start implementation packages or midsized organizations.

Te key drawback? At present, SAP has ew customers currently using CRM unctionality

in SAP Business All-in-One, so the success o this solution tailored to the needs o midsized

organizations remains an open question. CRM unctionality in SAP Business All-in-One best

suits midmarket organizations that are committed to SAP and its ERP platorm that need

support or end-to-end industry processes.

SAP CRM improves usability and oers strong unctionality or customer service. SAP

CRM 7.0 provides very strong support or: core eld service capabilities; depot repair;internationalization; industry-specic processes; architecture and platorm; deployment

options; integration; openness; scalability; reliability and availability; security; Web 2.0 tools

and capabilities; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; and UI. It oers strong support or: phone

agents; call center inrastructure; agent collaboration tools; knowledge base; sel-service tools;

email response management; customer service analytics; eld service; scheduling; mobile

capabilities or eld service; spare parts management; social Web capabilities; business process

and workow tools; development and customization; usability; help; and mobile devices.

However, SAP CRM provides very weak support or customer orums and sel-service to

live-service transitions. Prospective customers perceive it to be an expensive solution with

lengthy implementation times. Te vendor is addressing this issue through a new combined

package o soware and services (called Rapid Deployment o SAP CRM) that provides core

sales, service, and marketing capabilities in six to eight weeks or a xed price. SAP has also

introduced solutions tailored and priced more appropriately to meet the needs o midmarket

organizations (CRM unctionality in SAP Business All-in-One). SAP CRM best suits global

buyers committed to SAP and its ERP platorm who need support or customer service within

the context o end-to-end industry processes.


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Strog Perormers: Sotios Tt hve uiqe Stregts Or are We-Priced

Chordiant Soware evangelizes maximizing customer lietime value.Chordiants Cx Suiteoers a process-centric CRM platorm with advanced decisioning tools or orchestration

o real-time multichannel customer interactions. Chordiant has been an early evangelist or

customer experience management, helping brands seeking to elevate and manage the ways in

which they drive thousands o intelligent multichannel customer conversations that ultimately

improve the customer lietime value to an organization. Chordiants decision management

tools let companies analyze data rom many customer touchpoints so that they can understand

outcomes and apply rules to improve each interaction. With respect to customer service, it

provides strong support or: phone agents; call center inrastructure; agent collaboration;

sel-service tools; architecture and platorm; business process and workow tools; integration

capabilities; development and customization; reliability and availability; security; Web 2.0-

enabling technologies; usability; UI; and help. It oers sound support or knowledge base, sel-

service to live-service transition, and email response management capabilities.

However, Chordiants Cx Suite provides only very weak support or customer orums and

industry-specic processes (outside o the telecom, insurance/healthcare, and nancial

services industries). It lacks strong support or eld service and customer data management

and provides weak support or internationalization, Web 2.0 tools and capabilities, and mobile

devices. Chordiant does not oer a SaaS deployment option. Its Cx Suite is a good t or very

large B2C-centric organizations with complex customer interaction channels that are looking

or the means to coordinate an intentional and consistent customer experience at every point o

contact. Te company was acquired by Pegasystems in April 2010.

Maximizer Soware oers a sound CRM platorm or midsized and small organizations.Maximizer CRM oers a breadth (although not depth) o CRM capabilities across the board,

at a lower price point than many o the other CRM vendors that primarily ocus on the needs

o large enterprises. Maximizer oers on-premises deployment, and its partners oer on-

premises and hosting options. Partners typically bundle together other solutions and host

the whole package or customers. With respect to customer service capabilities, Maximizer

CRM provides strong email response management and customer service analytics. It provides

sound phone agent support and strong support or call center inrastructure, workow, social

Web interactions, internationalization, architecture and platorm, integration capabilities, and

reliability and availability. It has a very strong UI, help capabilities, and quick time-to-value.

However, Maximizer CRM provides weak support or other customer service capabilities, such

as: knowledge base; sel-service tools; sel-service to live-service transitions; mobile capabilities

or eld service; Social Web capabilities; business process and workow tools; Web 2.0 tools

and capabilities; and Web 2.0-enabling technologies. Maximizer CRM is appropriate or smaller

rms and divisions o large organizations seeking an on-premises CRM suite application that

includes core customer service unctionality with a low price tag.


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NetSuite oers an integrated SaaS platorm and open architecture.NetSuites SaaS solutionemphasizes ront- and back-oce integration, providing a ocus on personalization and

customization without constraints, and it delivers a 360-degree view o customer data. It

provides very strong openness and help capabilities. It oers strong support or: phone agents;

email response management; internationalization; architecture and platorm; development and

customization capabilities; scalability; reliability and availability; security; Web 2.0-enabling

technologies; usability; UI; and ast time-to-value. It also oers sound call center inrastructure;

knowledge base; customer service analytics; integration; Web 2.0 tools; and ofine support.

However, NetSuite provides weak support or other customer service capabilities such as agent

collaboration, sel-service tools, sel-service to live-service transition, workow management,

core eld service, scheduling, mobile capabilities or eld service, spare parts management,

business process and workow tools, and support or mobile devices. It lacks industry-

specic solutions but, targets several vertical markets, including: wholesale/distribution,soware, proessional services, eCommerce, I VARs, media/publishing, and more recently,

manuacturers. NetSuite best suits organizations needing an all-in-one business application that

spans the ront- and back-oce unctions o CRM, ERP, eCommerce, and nancials, delivered

as a SaaS solution.

Oracle E-Business Suite CRM shines or eld service and ERP integration. Te OracleE-Business Suite CRM solution provides strong support or all major CRM unctionalities.

Oracle E-Business Suite customers are attracted to the benets o E-Business Suite CRMs ease

o integration into the rest o the Oracle E-Business Suite. From a customer service perspective,

Oracle E-Business Suite CRM oers very strong support or: call center inrastructure; core

eld service capabilities; mobile capabilities or eld service; depot repair; internationalization;scalability; reliability and availability; and security. It provides strong support or: agent

collaboration tools; knowledge base; sel-service tools; sel-service to live-service transitions;

email response management; workow capabilities; customer service analytics; scheduling;

spare parts management; architecture and platorm; business process and workow tools;

integration capabilities; development and customization capabilities; usability; UI; help

capabilities; and ofine support. And it provides sound support or: phone agents; customer

orums; selected industry-specic processes; openness; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; and

mobile devices. It has the ability to scale or global deployments.

However, cost and lengthy implementation cycles can be drawbacks. Te solution does notoer a SaaS deployment alternative. Te Oracle EBS CRM customer service solutions best suits

buyers who are committed to using Oracle or platorm and applications in order to achieve

economies rom working with one vendor, who require deep unctionality to support eld

service operations, and who need comprehensive multinational capabilities.


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Oracles PeopleSo Enterprise CRM oers strong service capabilities and ERP integration.Oracles PeopleSo Enterprise CRM product line has a signicant base o loyal customers who

value the integration benets and usability o PeopleSos HR and ERP suite. It eatures SOA or

standards-based messaging to ease integration and lower costs. It oers very strong support or:

call center inrastructure; internationalization; business process and workow tools; openness;

scalability; reliability and availability; security; UI; and help. It provides strong support or:

phone agents; agent collaboration tools; knowledge base; sel-service tools; sel-service to live-

service transitions; email response management; customer orums; customer service analytics;

architecture and platorm; integration; development and customization; usability; and ofine

support. And it oers sound support or: workow; eld service capabilities; scheduling; spare

parts management; selected industry-specic processes; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; and

mobile devices.

However, Oracles PeopleSo Enterprise CRM provides weak support or specialty eld servicerequirements like depot repair. Its support or Web 2.0 tools is also weak. Customers see it as

relatively expensive, with somewhat lengthy deployment cycles. Te solution does not oer a

SaaS deployment option. Oracle PeopleSo CRM customer solutions are well suited or existing

PeopleSo customers who need a broad-based CRM platorm to build upon, need strengths

in customer service unctionality, and seek economies through working with a single vendors

platorm.

SageCRM oers integration with Sage back-ofce products. SageCRM targets midsized andsmall organizations. Te solution oers an intuitive admin UI, strong perormance capabilities,

and good product help unctionality. In addition, the product integrates well with other Sage

back-oce soware products like Peachtree and Sage ERP. SageCRM is available as an on-premises solution and as a SaaS solution at SageCRM.com. Some customers also elect to have

their business partners host the product or them. With respect to customer service capabilities,

it provides sound support or call center inrastructure and phone agents.

However, SageCRM provides weak support or customer orums and business process and

workow tools. And it provides very weak support or: knowledge base; sel-service tools;

sel-service to live-service transition; eld service capabilities; scheduling capabilities; mobile

capabilities or eld service; spare parts management; depot repair; and industry-specic

processes. In addition, the product lacks robust customer service analytics capabilities.

SageCRM remains a good t or midmarket organizations that already use other Sage back-oce products and have limited technology budgets yet require a solution that oers multiple

deployment options and lightweight customer service unctionality.

Sage SalesLogix has a proven CRM solution with basic customer service unctionality. SageSalesLogix is considered Sages premium CRM product oering targeted to midmarket

organizations with 1,000 users or ewer. Te product provides users with a consistent experience

whether they are connected, disconnected, or mobile, with multiple deployment options including


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on-premises, cloud, hosted, and mobile CRM interaces. It boasts a relatively large customer base,

meaning that its mature and tested. Its key strengths include sales orce automation capabilities,

usability, and the ability to support international organizations. In addition, the soware and

ongoing ees are relatively low, making it attractive rom a nancial standpoint.

However, Sage SalesLogix provides relatively weak support or most customer service

unctionalities, such as phone agents, call center inrastructure, agent collaboration tools, sel-

service tools, and knowledge base. It does not support eld service requirements. Te product

best suits businesses that value solution usability, have several hundred users primarily needing

rich sales orce automation unctionality, and that want a choice o deployment options at a

reasonable price point.

SugarCRM brings open source development to CRM. SugarCRMs open source CRM solutiongives buyers the ability to leverage ree code to manage basic sales, service, and marketing

activities. SugarCRMs Proessional CRM and Enterprise CRM editions are available or a ee.

Te open source model allows organizations to take a basic CRM platorm application and build

on it using their own I resources or add-on modules that are available through SugarCRMs

partner and developer communities. Te application is oered in SaaS and on-premises

deployments. SugarCRM provides very strong support or: development and customization;

scalability; security; Web 2.0-enabling technologies; and UI characteristics. It can be relatively

quick to deploy. It oers strong support or: internationalization; architecture and platorm;

deployment options; integration; openness; Web 2.0 tools and capabilities; and reliability and

availability. With respect to customer service unctionalities, it oers sound email response

management, workow, customer service analytics, and usability.

However, SugarCRM provides weak support or most other customer service capabilities such

as: phone agents; call center inrastructure; agent collaboration; knowledge base; sel-service

tools; sel-service to live-service transition; customer orums; eld service capabilities; and

business process and workow tools. Sugar Proessional best suits organizations seeking a low-

cost choice with deep customization exibility in a packaged CRM application.

Sword Ciboodle oers strong orchestration o customer service interactions through BPM.Sword Ciboodle, ormerly Graham echnology, has pushed into the CRM market with a ocus on

the intersection o business process modeling, customer service, and customer interaction

management. Its ambition? o innovate in the converging market o multichannel customer sales

and service and eService. Te solution provides very strong support or: call center inrastructure;

agent collaboration; workow and business process management; architecture and platorm;

business process and workow tools; development and customization; openness; scalability;

security; Web 2.0 tools; and Web 2.0-enabling technologies. It oers strong support or: phone

agents; sel-service to live-service transitions; email response management; and customer service

analytics. It oers sound support or knowledge base and internationalization capabilities.


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However, Sword Ciboodle provides very weak support or customer orums, most core eld

service capabilities, scheduling capabilities, and spare parts management. It also oers weak

support or sel-service tools and ofine capabilities. Te solution does not oer a SaaS

deployment option or industry vertical solutions although the vendor targets the insuranceindustry. Sword Ciboodle is a good t or buyers who are looking or a vendor that can bring

business process acumen to solve customer service-centric CRM challenges.

Coteder: Meets Bsic Reqiremets

FrontRange supports the core customer service needs o smaller organizations.FrontRangeGoldmine Enterprise Editions (GMEE) chie strengths are its relatively low cost and sound

architecture and platorm. It supports the newer Web 2.0-enabling technologies and runs

in both hosted on-premises and traditional on-premises deployment modes. It has strong

reliability and availability, security, and ofine support. With respect to customer service, it

provides sound support or: phone agents; call center inrastructure; agent collaboration tools;workow; development and customization; openness; scalability; usability; and UI.

However, FrontRange GMEE provides weak support or email response management,

internationalization, business process and workow tools, and integration. It provides very weak

support or: mobile devices; built-in analytics; knowledge base; sel-service tools; sel-service to

live-service transition; and customer orums. It does not support business capabilities or eld

service. FrontRange GMEE best suits midmarket organizations that seek a well-proven CRM

solution at a low cost, with basic customer service unctionality.

SuPPlEMEnTal MaTERIalOie Resorce

Te online version o Figure 3 is an Excel-based vendor comparison tool that provides detailed

product evaluations and customizable rankings.

Dt Sorces used I Tis orrester Wve

Forrester used a combination o three data sources to assess the strengths and weaknesses o each

solution:

Vendor surveys. Forrester surveyed vendors on their capabilities as they relate to the evaluationcriteria. Once we analyzed the completed vendor surveys, we conducted vendor calls wherenecessary to gather details o vendor qualications.

Vendor strategy briengs. Forrester conducted briengs with each vendor to learn aboutthe vendors strategy or participating in the market, its espoused key dierentiators, and its

product development road map or the uture. During some briengs, Forrester also received

demonstrations o the vendors product unctionality to validate details o product capabilities.


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Customer reerence survey. o validate product and vendor qualications, Forrester alsoconducted a survey o three to eight o each vendors current customers. Te total number o

customers surveyed was 99.

Te orrester Wve Metodoogy

We conduct primary research to develop a list o vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated

in this market. From that initial pool o vendors, we then narrow our nal list. We choose these

vendors based on: 1) product t, 2) customer success, and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate

vendors that have limited customer reerences and products that dont t the scope o our evaluation.

Aer examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop

the initial evaluation criteria. o evaluate the vendors and their products against our set o criteria, we

gather details o product qualications through a combination o lab evaluations, questionnaires,

demos, and/or discussions with client reerences. We send evaluations to the vendors or their review,and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view o vendor oerings and strategies.

We set deault weightings to reect our analysis o the needs o large user companies and/or

other scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave document and then score the vendors based

on a clearly dened scale. Tese deault weightings are intended only as a starting point, and we

encourage readers to adapt the weightings to t their individual needs through the Excel-based

tool. Te nal scores generate the graphical depiction o the market based on current oering,

strategy, and market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product

capabilities and vendor strategies evolve.

EnDnOTES

1 Forresters Customer Experience Index identies customer experience leaders and laggards. We used this

inormation to look at how customer experience correlates to loyalty. Across all industries, theres a high

correlation between customer experience and customers willingness to buy another product and their

likelihood to recommend a company. See the March 26, 2010, Customer Experience Leaders Garner More

Loyalty report.

2 Navigating the multiaceted customer relationship management (CRM) technology landscape is

challenging. o help CRM proessionals make smart decisions, Forrester surveyed 286 companies to

understand the adoption patterns or 19 types o customer management technologies. Adoption patterns

vary depending on whether a company primarily serves consumers or other businesses and whether

it aggressively invests in technology or is an I ollower. o win in todays dicult economic climate,

you must choose the best opportunities or quick wins, spend wisely on the right CRM solutions, and

implement them correctly. See the August 12, 2009, Cra Your CRM Investment Plans In Light O

echnology Adoption Patterns report.
http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56596&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56596&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56596&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56596&src=57106pdf


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3 Source: Enterprise And SMB Soware Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 2009.

4 Business and I proessionals who support customer-acing business processes must take into account

11 key trends: 1) companies return to investing in their most important asset customers; 2) CRM

evolves to become the extended CRM application ecosystem; 3) SaaS CRM solutions become the deault

choice; 4) social CRM hype reaches a crescendo, but projects remain in pilot mode; 5) customer service

embraces real-time methods; 6) next-generation customer intelligence solutions emerge; 7) the struggle

to integrate customer data continues; 8) mobile CRM becomes a must-have capability; 9) price/value

trumps unctionality in purchase decisions; 10) scrutiny o business cases remains intense; 11) best

practices continue to separate the winners rom losers. See the February 9, 2010, rends 2010: Customer

Relationship Management report.

5 Contact center customer support needs to evolve to better serve customers who no longer rely on one venue

or receiving inormation but instead engage multiple sources. In addition to checking a companys Web site

and its brochures, many customers research inormation on products and services rom social networking

sources, such as blogs, and online user ratings. With customers now requiring more real-time support, its

essential to keep pace with their expectations and to respond to them in new ways. See the November 11,

2009, Next-Generation Contact Centers report.

6 Te holy grail or CRM proessionals has long been to achieve a 360-degree view o customers. As a

consequence, 62% o those surveyed report that they have implemented and/or are expanding a CBI

solution. See the August 12, 2009, Cra Your CRM Investment Plans In Light O echnology Adoption

Patterns report.

7 Source: Enterprise And SMB Soware Survey, North America And Europe, Q4 2008.

8 For quite some time, Pegasystems (Pega) has pursued customer experience and customer service business

through its strong rules-based business process management (BPM) oering and customer processmanagement ramework application. Now Pega has thrown down the gauntlet to other CRM vendors by

acquiring Chordiant, a CRM vendor that could provide key pieces that Pega lacks. Pega isnt abandoning

the mainstream BPM market in avor o CRM its just strengthening its hand by more orceully

connecting business process and the delivery o great customer experiences. Te most important takeaway?

Packaged suites are slowly giving ground to BPM-enabled processes. See the April 7, 2010, Pegasystems

Acquires Building Blocks For Next-Generation CRM report.

9 Forrester has dened six overlapping classications o online social behaviors, rom the Creators (those who

create content) to the Spectators (those who consume it). While adoption has spread rapidly Spectators

have grown rom 48% o online consumers to 70% now the types o social activities people are doing

remain remarkably consistent. See the January 15, 2010, Introducing Te New Social echnographicsreport.

10 Forrester evaluated leading CRM suite solutions, including their customer service oerings. See the June

16, 2010, Te Forrester Wave: CRM Suites For Large Organizations, Q2 2010 and see the June 16, 2010,

Te Forrester Wave: CRM Suites For Midsized Organizations, Q2 2010 reports.
http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56288&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56288&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55303&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56863&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56863&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56290&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55828&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56879&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56879&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55828&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56290&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56863&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56863&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=54011&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55303&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56288&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56288&src=57106pdf


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11 In 2008, Forrester evaluated the leading customer service solution vendors across an average o

approximately 180 criteria and ound that the vendors still need to be grouped into three groups:

interaction-, process-, and record-centric. Forrester ound the Leaders in the customer-interaction-centric

products to be eGain Communications, KANA Soware, RightNow echnologies, alisma, LivePerson,and KNOVA; the Leader in business-process-centric products is Sword Ciboodle; and the Leaders in the

customer-record-centric products are Microso, salesorce.com, Oracle Siebel, SAP, Oracle CRM On

Demand, and Entellium. Among interaction-centric products, Genesys elecommunications Labs, InQuira,

and Numara Soware are Strong Perormers. Pegasystems, Chordiant Soware, and Consona CRM are

Strong Perormers within the process-centric category. And within the record-centric category, NetSuite,

Oracle PeopleSo CRM, Maximizer Soware, Oracle E-Business Suite CRM, SageCRM, SugarCRM, Inor,

and Sage SalesLogix are all Strong Perormers. A careul review o a companys customer experience

requirements must be weighed against the capabilities and individual strengths o each o the vendors

solution. o provide great customer experiences, the deployment and integration o more than one vendors

solution may be necessary. See the October 21, 2008, Te Forrester Wave: Customer Service Soware

Solutions, Q4 2008 report.
http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45543&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45543&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45543&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=45543&src=57106pdf


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Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR)

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forrester - crm suites, customer service solutions for q3 2010

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