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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
orgzts, Q2 2010
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
2
6
9
13
22
mailto:[email protected]://www.forrester.com/http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55828&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=56879&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=56879&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55828&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55828&src=57106pdfhttp://www.forrester.com/http://www.forrester.com/mailto:[email protected]8/4/2019 Forrester - CRM Suites, Customer Service Solutions for Q3 2010
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
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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igre 3 Frrester We: CRM Stes Cstmer Serce Sts, Q3 10 (Ct.)
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
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.)
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
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=57106pdf8/4/2019 Forrester - CRM Suites, Customer Service Solutions for Q3 2010
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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=57106pdf8/4/2019 Forrester - CRM Suites, Customer Service Solutions for Q3 2010
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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=57106pdf8/4/2019 Forrester - CRM Suites, Customer Service Solutions for Q3 2010
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