Vendor Landscape Plus: CRM Suites for Large Enterprises · Vendor Landscape Plus: CRM Suites for...

Info-Tech Research Group ‹#›Info-Tech Research Group 1

Vendor Landscape Plus: CRM Suites for Large EnterprisesSelect and deploy an enterprise-class CRM suite that provides a 360-degree view of your customers across marketing, sales, and customer service processes.


Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a critical activity for acquiring,retaining, and growing your customer base.

Introduction

IT or business managers involved with crafting a strategy for customer interaction.

IT managers involved with evaluating, selecting and deploying a CRM suite.

Marketing, sales, and customer service managers interested in how to integrate their respective business process domains.

Senior executives responsible for IT and/or CRM steering committees.

Create a multi-channel strategy for Customer Relationship Management that effectively joins together marketing, sales and service.

Understand the benefits of taking an integrated suite approach to CRM.

Evaluate and select a CRM vendor that meets your unique business requirements.

Implement best practices for deploying a CRM suite.

Optimize the CRM application ecosystem.

This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:


Executive Summary

• For large enterprises, deploying a CRM suite is absolutely critical. Most organizations have adopted a CRM suite – if you are still at the greenfield decision level, now is the time to select and implement. CRM suites provide a broad range of capabilities for effectively integrating processes across channels and business domains (marketing, sales, and customer service), creating a 360-degree view of the customer. This is essential for large enterprises that need to manage complex, ongoing interactions with their customers.

• CRM suites provide myriad business benefits. At a broad level, they drive revenue and reduce costs. Common metrics improved by leveraging a CRM suite include increased customer acquisition, satisfaction and retention, and decreased cost-to-serve and duplication of effort.

• Augment the CRM suite with the best available point solutions where necessary. Strengthen the CRM ecosystem with integrated point-solutions, such as a Social Media Management Platform or a Field Service Automation suite to turbocharge functionality.

• The importance of social media integration and mobile access (either through HTML5 or a dedicated application) cannot be overstated. However, the vast majority of CRM vendors evaluated by Info-Tech are lagging behind in both these areas. While we anticipate that the market will improve over the next 18 months, current offerings are disappointing and necessitate the use of third-party add-ons or point solutions to remedy the feature gap.

• Taking a structured approach to implementation is paramount. Assemble a deployment team with the right skills and representation from stakeholders in the business.

• Due to the vast volume of data that needs to be pulled in from legacy systems and other enterprise applications, hiring a system integrator is often desirable to ensure things are done right (unless your company has specific in-house expertise).

• Prior to going live across the organization, be sure to test the CRM suite with a group of pilot users first. In the large enterprise context, a phased deployment approach is advisable.


The Info-Tech CRM Research Agenda

Coverage of CRM suites for small-to-medium and large enterprises, as well as point solutions in marketing, sales, and customer service.

Marketing

• Vendor Landscape Plus: Social Media Management Platforms

• Vendor Landscape Plus: E-Mail Marketing Services

Sales

• Vendor Landscape Plus: Lead Management Automation

Customer Service

• Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Management Platforms

• Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Knowledge Management Platforms

• Vendor Landscape Plus: Field Service Automation Solution

Vendor Landscapes for Marketing, sales, and customer Service Point Solutions

CRM VL+: Large Enterprise Focus

For large organizations, having a top-shelf CRM suite is quickly becoming table stakes for interacting with customers. Select a vendor whose feature set best aligns with your organization’s unique business cases.

CRM VL+: Small-to-Medium Focus

Small-to-medium enterprises will realize significant gains by having the right strategy and technology for customer interaction. A variety of vendors now provide CRM solutions aimed at meeting the needs of SMBs.

Customer Relationship Management Suites


Customer expectations are rising: failing to meet them will spell disaster for firms that silo customer touch points!

• Managing interactions across the customer lifecycle is a critical activity. In a highly competitive marketplace, firms must demonstrate proven competence at every customer touch point – marketing, sales, and customer service. If they don’t, customer acquisition and retention will quickly become a serious problem.

• Product differentiation is important, but is not always the determining factor in customer satisfaction: the customers of today are more likely to factor in the quality of the overall customer experience in making judgment calls about a company.

• Customers are demanding that organizations interact with them in a coherent, unified manner. Companies that excel at customer interaction management are approaching customers with a single face. This doesn’t necessarily mean that customers always interact with the same representative – but it does mean that initiatives across marketing, sales and service are harmonized with a focus on improving overall experience.

Customers interact with your firm at touch points from initial awareness to ongoing relationship. It costs more to gain a customer than to keep an old one!

• Getting a CRM suite is one of those things where it’s almost a no-brainer: you have to get something into play.

•-Ryan Scullen, IT Director

Firms are dependent on successfully managing relationships with their customers. Failing to do so means your customers will defect to competitors.

Lifecycle Stage

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Mar

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Supporting a holistic customer lifecycle requires integration between marketing, sales and service. A CRM suite enables this by providing a common toolset and customer database across the entire lifecycle.


Leverage a CRM suite to create a seamless experience across the customer lifecycle for both customers and employees

• A CRM suite is an enterprise application that provides a broad feature set for supporting customer interaction processes. These suites supplant more basic applications for customer interaction management (such as the contact management module of an ERP platform or office productivity suite).

• A common misconception is that CRM suites are primarily about customer records: modern suites offer an exhaustive feature list, from campaign management, to lead automation, to social media monitoring and engagement tools.

• The last decade has seen a massive proliferation of CRM suite adoption across a variety of organization sizes and industries. This trend can be attributed to the falling cost of CRM solutions (particularly from cloud-centric vendors) and the proven competitive advantage these suites provide.

Info-Tech’s research shows that most organizations have either deployed a CRM suite, or will be deploying in the next 18 months. Adopt now!

If your organization hasn’t already evaluated or deployed a CRM suite, do so now or risk being at a considerable strategic disadvantage!

CRM suites are a customer interaction mainstay of large enterprises, and are quickly penetrating the mid-market as well. If your company has not already adopted a CRM suite, now is the time to evaluate, select and deploy.

Large organizations most likely to adopt CRM


What’s in this Section: Sections:

Build a CRM Strategy

Build a CRM StrategyCreate a Selection Roadmap

Select the Right Suite

Implement and Optimize

• Understand how CRM is both an organizational strategy and set of enabling technologies.

• Appreciate how a CRM suite creates a 360-degree view of the customer across multiple business domains and customer interaction channels.

• Assess the appropriateness of a standalone CRM suite for your organization, and when it should be augmented with the best available point solutions.


CRM suites automate and synchronize processes that are essential for managing customer interactions – from basic account management to complex service resolution.A CRM suite creates value across the three domains:

• Assists marketing managers by identifying customer buying trends and behavior, while providing tools for managing campaigns. Email campaign management and social media monitoring provide assistance in the execution of a social marketing strategy.

• Supports sales agents through lead automation, pipeline management, and advanced reporting. By using a common suite, the sales process is kept in sync with activities in marketing and service.

• Provides customer service representatives with the tools to manage an integrated multi-channel customer support system. Knowledgebase management and self-service portals allow both service reps and customers to find relevant solutions quickly and easily.

CRM is an organizational approach and set of enabling technologies that support customer-centric business processes (marketing, sales and service).

Seize market opportunities by using a CRM suite to support multiple domains and customer interaction channels

CRM suites unify information gathered by marketing, sales, and customer service and eliminate redundancy in customer contact processes. Use a CRM suite to facilitate knowledge transfer across business domains: this will allow you to realize internal cost efficiencies, while providing a consistent customer experience across different channels and lifecycle stages.

Customer

CRM Suite Ecosystem


Ensure that senior management understands the value of a CRM suite by outlining how the suite will have a positive impact on the top line and ongoing costs of operation.

Equip your organization with a CRM suite to improve both drivers of profitability – revenue and operational costs!

Increased customer acquisition due to enhanced accuracy of segmentation and targeting, superior lead qualification and pipeline management.

Increased customer satisfaction and retention due to targeted campaigns (i.e. customer-specific deals), quicker service incident resolution, and longitudinal relationship management.

Increased revenue per customer due to comprehensive lifecycle management tools, social engagement, and targeted upselling of related products and services (enabled by better reporting/analytics).

De-duplication of effort across business domains as marketing, sales and service now have a common repository of customer information and interaction tools.

Increased sales and service agent efficiency due to their focus on selling and resolution, rather than administrative tasks and overhead.

Reduced cost-to-sell and cost-to-serve due to automation of activities that were manually-intensive.

Reduced cost of accurate data due to embedded reporting and analytics functionality.

Benefits of a Customer Relationship Management Suite:

Drives Revenue Growth Decreases Costs/Boosts Operational Efficiency


Determine if a CRM suite is right for your organization

For the vast majority of mid-market and large organizations, a CRM suite is a necessity to remain competitive. Those organizations still at the greenfield decision stage need to move quickly and decisively to evaluate, select and deploy a robust CRM suite.

A CRM suite increases revenue, lowers costs and improves the overall customer experience. However, there are a few situations when a CRM suite may be inappropriate. Use the following guidelines to determine

whether your organization will benefit from a CRM suite, or if you should bypass adoption.

Adopt a CRM suite if: Bypass a CRM suite if:

• Your organization has very few customers. B2B firms that rely on only a few key clients are unlikely to require a CRM suite over an existing ERP system or contact management software, due to a lower volume of customer interactions. Some firms are very large, but rely on only a few key customers. In this instance, a full CRM suite is unnecessary.

• Your organization has very narrow or specific needs that only require the use of parts of a full CRM suite. A typical example would be some government agencies: though they may have a large headcount and the need to serve multiple contacts, their needs can be better served by dedicated contact management, or with Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape Plus: Help Desk Software Solutions.

• Your organization is a medium-to-large enterprise that serves a large volume of customers (especially with a high transaction value). While organizations of all sizes are adopting CRM suites, they are particularly indispensible at the large-enterprise level. Due to the table stakes nature of CRM for large companies, if you are a sizeable firm still at the greenfield decision stage, don’t delay – adopt today.

• Your organization is actively pursuing a multi-channel strategy that uses a wide variety of methods to provide marketing, sales, and customer service. The more channels your organization uses, the greater the need for a powerful CRM suite to manage the complexity inherent in multi-channel interactions.


Adopt the best available point solutions for sales, marketing and service to augment the CRM ecosystem when warrantedManagers are interested in replacing legacy CRM suites or an in-house solution. CRM adoption includes the rise of the best available point solutions for specific marketing, sales, and customer service functionality.• When the CRM market first evolved, vendors took a heavy

“module-centric” approach – offering basic suites with the option to add a number of individual modules. Over time, vendors began to offer suites with a high degree of out-of-the-box functionality. The market has now witnessed the rise of powerful point solutions for the individual business domains.

• Point solutions augment, rather than supplant, the functionality of a CRM suite in the mid-market to large enterprise context. Point solutions do not offer the necessary spectrum of functionality to take the place of a unified CRM suite.

• Point solutions turbocharge aspects of customer relationship management. For example, most CRM vendors have yet to provide truly impressive social media capabilities. An organization seeking to dominate the social space should consider purchasing a Social Media Management Platform to address this deficit in their CRM ecosystem.

When the time comes to replace a legacy CRM suite, be sure to consider augmenting the new CRM ecosystem with the best available point solutions. While these solutions cannot hope to match the breadth of a CRM suite, they do offer depth on particular feature sets that are lacking from most CRM vendors.

Sales AutomationField Sales

Sales Comp. Mgmt.

Customer Service Mgmt.Service Knowledge Mgmt.

Social Media Mgmt.Email Marketing Bureau

Point solutions provide greater depth of functionality in areas of the CRM environment.

Info-Tech Research Group 12

Don’t adopt multiple point solutions unless there is a genuine need: choose domains most in need of additional functionality

Customer Service Management (CSM):Manage the customer support lifecycle with a comprehensive array of tools, usually above and beyond what’s in a CRM suite.

Customer Service Knowledge Management (CSKM): Advanced knowledgebase and resolution tools.

Field Service Automation (FSA): Manage customer support tickets, schedule work orders, track inventory and fleets, all on-the-go.

Sales Force Automation:Automatically generates, qualifies, tracks and contacts leads for sales representatives, minimizing time wasted on administrative duties.

Field Sales: Allows field reps to go through the entire sales cycle (from quote to invoice), while offsite.

Sales Compensation Management: Models, analyzes and dispenses payouts to sales representatives.

Sales

Social Media Management Platforms (SMMP): Manages and tracks multiple social media services, extensive social data analysis and insight capabilities.

Email Marketing Bureaus: Conduct email marketing campaigns and mine results to effectively target customers.

Marketing Intelligence Systems: Perform in depth searches on various data sources to create predictive models.

Marketing Service

CRM and point solution integration is critical. A best-of-breed product that poorly integrates with your CRM suite compromises the value generated by the combined solution, such as a 360-degree customer view. Challenge point solution vendors to demonstrate integration capabilities with CRM packages.

Not all organizations will be satisfied with a CRM suite. Some may find that the capabilities of a CRM suite are not enough to meet their specific requirements: supplementing a CRM suite with a targeted point solution can get the job done. A

variety of point solutions are designed to enhance your business processes and improve productivity.


Environmental Conditions:Medium-to-large enterprises that focus primarilyon the consumer marketplace should employ a CRM to meet core requirements. A baseline of approximately 50 customers with a few interactions per customer would suffice to employ a CRM suite.

Sales Conditions: Need selling and lead management capabilities for agents to perform the sales process, along with sales dashboards and statistics.

Marketing Conditions: Need basic marketing campaign management and ability to refresh contact records with information from social networks.

Customer Service Conditions: Need to keep basic customer records with multiple fields per record, basic channels such email and telephony.

Standalone CRM Suite

Know your end-state and what kind of tool will get you there. Define use cases for marketing, sales and service – then compare against CRM and point solution feature sets.

Identify your use case(s) in order to decide whether to add a high-end point solution alongside your CRM suite

The volume and complexity of both customers and interactions have a direct effect on when to employ justa CRM suite and when to supplement with a point solution. Check to see if your CRM suite can perform a specific business requirement before deciding to evaluate potential point solutions. Ruling this out can save money evaluating, purchasing, integrating and training for a best-of-breed product.

Environmental Conditions:An extensive customer base beyond 50 customers with many different interactions per customer along with industry specific or “niche” needs. Point solutions will benefit firms with deep needs in particular feature areas (i.e. social media or field service).

Sales Conditions: Lengthy sales process and account management requirements for assessing and managing opportunities – technically complex sales process.

Marketing Conditions: Need social media functionality for monitoring, and for social property management.

Customer Service Conditions: Need complex multi-channel service processes, and/or need for best-of-breed knowledgebase and service content management.

Add a Best of Breed or Point Solution


Use Info-Tech’s opportunity assessment tool to identify the optimal CRM environment for your organization

Every organization is unique. Use Info-Tech’s CRM Suite Opportunity Assessment Tool for Large Enterprises to determine the specific CRM suite and best-of-breed point solution opportunities that apply to your organization.

1. Most large organizations should adopt a CRM suite, but there is uncertainty around when to augment with point solutions. Make this decision based on overall goals and the complexity of needs in each business domain (marketing, sales and service).

2. Use Info-Tech’s Opportunity Assessment Tool to gain an understanding of when and where to augment your overall CRM ecosystem with point solutions.

Info-Tech Insight


Decide which features are the most necessary out of the wide variety of functionality provided by CRM suites

• Account Management Features: Contact records –demographic information, as well as account history.

• Activity Management Features: Calendars, task assignments, Outlook integration, etc.

• Call Center Features: Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI) and call management.

• Collaboration: employee-to-employee and customer collaboration (forums, activity feeds, chat, A/V).

• Customer Service Features: Case/ticket management, agent workflow tools, service resolution tools (i.e. decision trees).

• Event Management: Create events and manage attendee information.

• Knowledge Management: Knowledgebases for customer service, external content indexing.

• Marketing Management Features: Email (and other channel) campaign and project management.

• Mobile Support: Dedicated apps, HTML5• Reporting and Analytics: Real-time dashboards for

marketing, sales and service.• Sales Management Features: Lead generation,

qualification and pipeline management.• Sell Side E-Commerce Features: Customer portals,

quotes, order/shipment tracking.• Social Media Features: Social listening,

keyword/sentiment analysis, content creation.• Workflow Management: Building processes and visual

workflows across multiple domains.

CRM suites provide a variety of feature buckets for marketing, sales and service: Account

Mgmt. Activity Mgmt.

Call Center Mgmt.

Collaboration

Reporting&

Analytics

SalesMgmt.

Sell SideE-Commerce

SocialMediaMgmt.

WorkflowMgmt.

MobileSupport Marketing

Mgmt.

KnowledgeMgmt.

EventMgmt.

CustomerService


• Understand your customers’ preferred channels when deciding which ones to use. Market research should gauge the channel affinity of your target market(s). Customers prefer a choice of multiple interaction channels – which will vary by domain. A customer might reject telephony for marketing and sales interactions, but prefer it for receiving service.

• As more customer interaction channels become available, organizations must ensure that all channels are aligned into a cohesive multi-channel strategy.

• A customer should be able to start in one channel and seamlessly transition to another. Information should be conveyed at each transition point. If a customer has to reiterate the same information each time they switch channels, the process is bound to be frustrating.

Don’t lock your customers into a single channel! Adopt a hybrid channel approach that is strengthened by a CRM suite

A CRM suite should enable – not impede – a multi-channel strategy. During vendor evaluation, challenge vendors to demonstrate innovative support for the channels you use to interact with customers. For more on a multi-channel customer service strategy, please see Info-Tech’s Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the Social Customer.

Customer interaction channels are the medium that connect you to your customers. Originally centered around face-to-face, telephony and email, a host of new Web 2.0 channels have changed the playing field. A sound CRM strategy reaches out to target customers through multiple channels.

Social media should be added to an existing channel mix. With social channels, the social cloud itself becomes a point of

interaction – conversations are not just “one to one”.


Choose the channels that will make your target customers happy – and ensure they integrate well with your CRM suite

Successful integration requires assessing a channel’s ability to deliver value for your business model. Having effective access to multiple channels can increase your clientele base by catering to customers who prefer to interact through a variety of channel methods. As your client base grows, continually assess adding new interaction channels based on customer preferences.

Email is an asynchronous interaction channel still preferred by many customers. Email gives organizations flexibility with queuing.

Web Portals permit transactions for sales and customer service from a central interface. They are table-stakes for any large company.

Telephony (/IVR) has been a mainstay of customer interaction for decades. While not fading, it must be used alongside newer channels.

Live Chat is a way for clients to avoid long call center wait times and receive a solution from a quick chat with a service rep.

HTML/HTML5 Mobile Access allows customers to access resources from their personal device through its integrated web browser.

Social Media consists of many individual services (like Facebook or Twitter). Social channels are exploding in consumer popularity.

Face-Face is efficient and has a positive personalized aspect that many customers desire, be it for sales or customer service.

TraditionalChannels

Web 1.0 Channels

Web 2.0Channels

Dedicated Mobile Apps allows customers to access resources through a dedicated mobile application (i.e. iOS, BB & Android).

Postal used to be employed extensively for all domains, but is now used predominantly for e-commerce order fulfillment.


Enable channel switching within and between marketing, sales, and customer service. Give your customers choices!

The customer needs to have easy access to channel switching and escalation processes within and between business domains. It is up to your business to ensure a symmetric flow of accurate information between these channels for greater customer satisfaction. Your CRM suite needs to have cross-channel communication capabilities between marketing, sales and customer service.

Impact of Poor Channel Integration Between Business Process Domains

• Unhappy customers due to lack of information flow between departments, as well as long wait times.

• Reduction in customer loyalty.• Potential to create poor image of the company over social

media channels.

Face to Face

Sales ServiceThe customer is able to choose any channel they would like for any portion of their experience with the company. These channels are fully integrated and able to share information – thus the customer gets what they want faster!

Impact of Good Channel Integration Between Business Process Domains

• Smooth and accurate flow of customer information between all domains – prevent duplicate information keying or processing.

• Satisfied customer due to expedient service resolution.• Increases customer retention due to effective service. Good

service is critical when customers can now broadcast compliments (or complaints!) over social media.

The customer would like to switch channels between business domains – but no integration is present. As a result, the customer is forced to select their second best choice. Second best doesn’t retain customers!

Website

Telephone

Social Media

Face to Face

Sales Service

Website

Telephone

Social Media

The integration of different channels through all business domains gives customers full flexibility when purchasing a product or receiving service in any channel of their choice. Ensure all of your channels in marketing, sales and service can both accept and send information regarding sales processes, service calls, and potential opportunities that stem from any channel of the business. A large part of the CRM value proposition is dependent on using the suite to do this.


Consumers are now social, so integrate social media into your hybrid channel CRM strategyConsumers are heavily dependent on social networks at all stages of the customer lifecycle. Savvy organizations are incorporating social channels to best serve their target customers.

Social media’s popularity is growing among all demographics; it is replacing more traditionale-channels. As a result, many CRM vendors are putting social media integration at the forefront of their solutions – often above and beyond traditional channels like email or telephony. If your organization is heavily invested in a social media strategy, choose a vendor with innovative social integration.

• Social media is not a fad: it’s here to stay. Consumers have been adopting social media services at an extremely fast pace, and organizations are struggling to keep up. Over half of the organizations surveyed by Info-Tech are now using at least one social media service for marketing, sales, or customer service.

• Social media services include popular social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as microblogging services such as Twitter. In addition to the services themselves, many vendors now provide products for managing social channels. TweetDeck is a “freemium” solution, while best-of-breed providers include high-end services from vendors like Radian6 (an SMMP vendor recently acquired by Salesforce).

• Firms that have a target customer base actively involved with social channels should be seeking a CRM solution that provides tools for social monitoring and engagement.

The social cloud consists of a vast array of individual sites and services.

As various means of communications become more common, we must meet

the customers where they prefer. -Business Engagement Specialist, Energy

Sector

“ ”


Interact with customers over social channels to build a strong brand image and increase mindshare• Social channels have a number of use cases across

marketing, sales, and customer service:◦ Marketing: listening for feedback, conducting

sentiment analysis, executing social campaigns through social property management

◦ Sales: Updating and refreshing leads and customer information directly from public available social feeds, such as LinkedIn, prospecting over professional social networks.

◦ Service: Providing reactive (inbound) and proactive (monitoring-enabled) customer service.

• While the case for social media is strongest in business-to-consumer (B2C) centric firms, business-to-business and government-to-constituent organizations are also poised to realize benefits:◦ B2C organizations can achieve gains across all

business process domains (marketing, sales, and service).

◦ B2B organizations can particularly benefit from customer acquisition and the ability to build more meaningful relationships (social selling).

◦ G2C health care, non-profit and education organizations can leverage social media as an integral channel for effectively reaching out to citizens, particularly in younger demographics.

There’s an awful lot of benefit [to using social channels] for very little cost.

-Carol Voss, Marketing Director“ ”

67% of organizations surveyed by Info-Tech succeeded in using social media to enhance their brand image and

increase customer share of mind

N=64


Like social, mobile is on the rise: adopt a suite with robust mobile capabilities

Today’s workforce has matured alongside mobile devices; their experience and familiarity with this technology has led to demands for – and expectations of – access to all kinds of information, wherever they are and whenever they want it. Furthermore, in what is now a 24/7 business environment, mobile is becoming increasingly important for employees to effectively manage client relationships while on the go.

Who should use mobile CRM?Mobile CRM provides employees with the power to manage people and processes while on the go. High level sales and marketing managers can view dashboard updates of sales goals and marketing campaign progress. Field agents can record and access client information while servicing offsite requests. The flexibility and agility provided by this mobile access is crucial in order to satisfy consumers who expect more and more from all three business domains.

Users expect mobile access. Leverage mobile CRM to support this expectation.

Use tablets as a complete work tool for high level management. A manager’s work day is rarely done once they leave the workplace, so they should be able to resolve customer requests and have quick access for escalation purposes at all times. These actions, while offsite save time – and more importantly – money.

Sales ServiceMarketing

61%

39%

62%

38%

67%

33%

Use MobileDon’t Use Mobile

Organizations continue to turn to mobile as a channel to reach customers across domains.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group SurveyN = 105


Native applications sacrifice multiplatform compatibility in favor of access to more powerful mobile features, but HTML5 is now a robust alternative.

Evaluate your organization’s mobile environment to determine the best deployment option: web, or dedicated application?

Dedicated Mobile Applications

Pros• Deeper integration with mobile

architecture – enabling the use of maps, calling features, etc.

• Can access data while offline.

Cons• Not all vendors will support multiple mobile

platforms, so all users must be using the same type of device (e.g. iPhone, Android, BlackBerry).

HTML/HTML5

Pros• Compatible with most devices that have

web browser functionality.• Easily customized from existing content.• HTML5 can replicate the “application feel”.

Cons• Unable to access features available to

apps, like phone and geolocation.• Requires online connectivity for access.

Know your user base: use surveys to evaluate your employee and customer mobile preferences and guide your development process. If your users are split between mobile platforms (e.g. iPhone & Android), consider a mobile-agnostic option like HTML5.

Mobile access comes in two flavors – employee-facing (for accessing CRM functions such as contact management, etc.) and customer-facing (for e-commerce, customer self-service, etc.). These applications need to be tailored to their respective audience to best drive user adoption.


Although smartphones are still the most popular mobile option, tablets are becoming an influential force in the CRM market (and beyond).

Tablet growth is on the rise, and employee productivity is improving as a result– include tablets in your mobile strategy

Info-Tech expects to see widespread deployment of tablets, especially within corporations. Tablets provide an alternative to laptop and smartphone access –they’re more portable than laptops, but more functional than phones.

Whether your organization provides its employees with corporate mobile devices or employees bring their own, failing to provide them with the tools to do their job effectively is a costly mistake. As consumerization trends increase, tablets are frequently finding their way into the enterprise. If tablets are inside your firm, look for CRM vendors that provide convenient tablet access.

Tablet use is expected to

double in the next year

Source: Info-Tech SurveyN=68

Unlike smartphones, tablet screens are large enough to provide easy usage of productivity apps (e.g. word processing, spreadsheets) and are also large enough to use during presentations, making them ideal for working while in transit or offsite with a client. Organizational adoption and mobile support are maturing; consequently, vendors are developing both touch- and tablet-optimized applications that are tailored to corporate needs and enhance the user experience.

CRM vendors – notably Salesforce.com with its upcoming touch platform – are beginning to latch onto the tablet trend.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

% of employees with mobile devices

+133%

Laptops34%

32%

Tablets17%

7%

Smartphones39%

31%

In One YearCurrent


The CRM suite must be integrated with other technology services and applications to realize concrete business value

Enabling points-of-integration will drive business value by enriching the quality of information that passes through the CRM suite. Organizations must prioritize points-of-integration by targeting the applications and systems that are most commonly used in daily workflows.

Points-of-integration are the junctions between the CRM suite and other enterprise applications. Most CRM suites offer native points-of-integration with systems such as ERP, office productivity suites, and/or content management. When native integration is unavailable, third-party add-ons or custom integration may be necessary. Custom development can become an expensive proposition, so factor it into the total cost of ownership when selecting among different suites.

In the data-driven business, points-of-integration (POIs) are incredibly important. Before proceeding with CRM selection or deployment, enumerate the enterprise applications that should integrate with your CRM suite. Other popular systems to consider for POIs include billing, directory services, and collaboration tools.

Email (i.e. Exchange)

Content Management

(i.e. SharePoint)

Point Solutions (i.e.

SMMP)

Telephony Systems (IVR, CTI)

ERP (Commerce

Chain)

Directory Services

CRM


Use Info-Tech’s CRM Business Plan Template to build a central document containing the business justifications, goals, risks, and required roles and resources.

1. Include stakeholders from multiple departments in the creation of the business plan.

2. Make sure to identify the potential risks, as well as the gains of CRM, and how you plan to mitigate those risks.

3. Assigning accountability and roles for post-deployment is just as vital to the project`s success as organizing workflow pre-deployment.

Info-Tech Insight

Use Info-Tech’s business plan template to identify the optimal CRM environment for your organization.


Financial corporation had realized greater value from CRM through establishing points of integration between the suite and its Computerized Telephony Integration (CTI) systems.

Case Study: Financial services company realized increased customer satisfaction through CRM integration with CTI

Industry:Segment:

• Needed to make better use of their CRM as it pertained to everyday call center duties.

• Wanted to make call centers more efficient and allow agents to up-sell and cross-sell customers.

• The company found a method of identifying problems, and needed to establish best practices such as case closure and case confirmation emails.

• They needed to leverage customer information to promote a positive customer experience.

Goals

• A third-party CTI point solution, that would work in conjunction with their existing CRM and architecture.

• Agents could make outbound customer calls directly within the CRM.

• During calls, agents were able to receive pop ups within the CRM with relevant information that both personalized calls and resolved issues quickly.

• Agents were able to review the knowledgebase solutions while researching a case.

Solution

• CTI lowered inbound calls by 60 seconds and eliminated costly misdialing for outbound calls.

• Dashboards enable Client Services Management to monitor and measure the performance of the call center (types of calls, volume trends, bottlenecks, etc.).

• Better customer insight allowed for better targeted and more cost-effective sales campaigns

• The knowledgebase allowed for agents to publish their own solutions as they closed cases.

Results

Global Information Solution ProviderFinancial Services

Source



Create a Selection Roadmap


Create a Selection RoadmapSelect the Right Suite


• Follow Info-Tech’s step-by-step model for selecting a CRM suite.

• There are three pillars in the section process:◦ Understanding your goals.◦ Knowing your users.◦ Selecting a suite that aligns business needs and technical

requirements.


Follow Info-Tech’s Roadmap for Selecting a CRM Suite

Perform vendor

review and select a vendor

Evaluate vendors against criteria

Determine evaluation

criteria

Translate into

functional requirements

Determine business

requirements

Stop! Before beginning to evaluate and select vendors, set up a meeting with the relevant stakeholders in the business (marketing, sales, service) to ensure you

identify the necessary business requirements that the suite must meet.

Even if IT holds the key role in CRM selection, the process must continually involve consultation with different departmental stakeholders! Soliciting user feedback is

essential to the success of CRM adoption.

From my point of view, one of the biggest mistakes and dangers around this project is the fact that CRM is never an IT project – the business has to be involved at every stage.

-Chief Information Officer, Sports Marketing Firm

“ ”


Decisions regarding CRM suites don’t affect IT alone: include input from all relevant parties in the process, or risk failure

I think that IT should be heavily involved in both the selection and implementation phases. When we get to the implementation phase, we plan to have the project managed only by IT.– Andrew O’Brien, Manager, IT Client Services,Trinity Wall Street

Role of IT Role of the Business

IT as advisor. IT must have a solid understanding of business impact and the risks of new technologies before they can explain them to the business. Focus on the needs of your customers and employees first. Act as an advisor: guide the process, provide insights, but ultimately, it is not IT that leads the process, it is the business.

Business as leader. The business should initiate – or at least fully support – the process of selecting a CRM suite. They must come to understand the value of the suite from a business standpoint. Marketing, sales, and service need to take the leadership role and ensure that all relevant teams are involved in the decision-making process.

It is very important to have maximum buy-in from the people who will actually be using the application.– Bob Smucker, EverenceFinancial Services

Take advantage of different perspectives of all your business processes through all end users and stakeholders, to ensure business requirements are exhaustive. A steering committee that is carefully chosen will make a difference in what kind of return your organization receives from its CRM.


Leverage the IT Steering Committee for CRM adoption – if one doesn’t exist, now is the time to build executive support!

Goals of IT Steering Committee

1 2

4 3

Composition: The team should consist of departmental stakeholders and decision makers. Ensuring broad participation from the executive side is critical for success because large-scale CRM projects typically cross many different departments and business units. Key executives include VPs of marketing and sales.

Purpose: In addition to aligning the organization’s strategic goals, the composition of the team serves as an ideal channel to drive organizational buy-in. Given the enterprise-wide scale of a CRM project, it often takes multiple executives to successfully champion the cause.

Focus: Focus on three CRM-related tasks: strategic planning, project prioritization and project approval. Other activities, such as resource allocation and the implementation process, are best left to designated deployment teams.

The IT Steering Committee

Info-Tech’s Establish an Effective IT Steering Committee provides strategic direction to the organization, linking IT strategy with business strategy. CRM is a major investment for most organizations: on the same level as (or greater than) an ERP project. Given the cross-functional scope and budget of a CRM project, support from the IT Steering Committee is essential for setting strategic objectives.


Choose the right suite by having a thorough understanding of user and business requirements

Select a CRM suite that aligns with the needs of your users, as well as with your business goals and requirements.

CRM evaluation criteria must be clearly linked to an understanding of your workforce dynamics and the goals of the business process domains (both individually and in concert).

An invaluable framework for aligning business goals, users requirements and selection criteria is to conduct User Experience Engineering (UXE). See the next slide for an explanation of this methodology.

CRM solutions need to make the job of the marketing, sales, and customer service departments easier.

Understanding user preferences is a vital step, as end-user buy-in will be critical during the deployment phase.

Collect input from users in the marketing, sales and service groups via interviews and surveys. Points to examine include:

• Current user workflow and process• Desired functionality• Desired user interface requirements

Know your users.

Start with requirements – both customer and agent – and not with the vendor, so you understand the real business issues. That should drive your decision making process.

– CIO, Manufacturing Sector

“ ”

Define specific business goals (end-user requirements) and translate them into functional criteria that will be supported by the suite. Common business goals that are encountered for CRM deployments include:

• Increasing the effectiveness of marketing, sales, and customer service (i.e. better targeting, more leads, increased lead quality).

• Increasing customer interaction efficiency (i.e. reduced sales cycle, time-to-resolution and cost-to-serve).

• Increasing key growth and retention metrics (i.e. customer churn and new acquisitions).

Understand your goals. Select a suite.


Gather end-user requirements through defining processes, actual data, and each actor’s functional needs!

Businesses differ in terms of their day-to-day needs. Basing feature requirements on actual data collected through user research reduces the risk of investing resources in unwanted features and increases the likelihood of adding useful ones. A good requirements document understands each user group (actor) and defines the process, data, and functional needs of that group. It is beneficial to formulate the end-user requirements through the three step User Experience Engineering (UXE) process.

Have a clear understanding of your goals and requirements before selecting your vendor. You can buy a hammer and it will get the job done, but it does not mean that it will do the cleanest job possible.

- VP of Information Systems, Healthcare Services”“

3.Business

Objectives

User Experience

Requirements

User Needs

from UserResearch

Watch users work and notice pain points, time wasters, and unmet needs. It is also useful to interview targeted users to fully understand their level of proficiency with CRM applications.

2. Complete user research to determine user needs

Example: the business goal is to decrease technical support costs, and user research shows that sales staff call technical support when needing to add a new record in the system. Therefore, a user requirement would be to develop an intuitive new record feature that sales staff can use without assistance.

3. Identify where business objectives and user needs overlap

A good example of a business requirement may be to minimize the cost of technical support. Make sure your requirements are Specific, Measureable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound (SMART).

1. Define business requirements


Firms rate functionality as the most important criteria – don’t focus on a low-cost vendor unless it has the right feature set

Overall Criteria Ranking Criteria Ranking by Company Size

On average, without specifying company size, the most important criteria for selecting a CRM suite was functionality and integration capabilities.

On average, when controlling for company size, large firms still placed the most emphasis on functionality, but less on TCO, than their mid-market counterparts.

When evaluating vendors in preparing to select a CRM suite, create an ordered ranking of specified criteria as seen above. Rank these criteria in order of business priorities. Having good judgment in this area will help immensely when choosing from a shortlist of vendors.

0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00

Flexibility of Licensing andVendor Support

Vendor Reputation

Ease of Deployment

Total Cost of Ownership

Integration Capabilities

Functionality

Average Ranking Score (Out of 6)Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N = 40

0 2 4 6

Vendor Reputation

Flexibility of Licensing and VendorSupport

Integration Capabilities

Ease of Deployment

Total Cost of Ownership

Functionality

Average Ranking Score (Out of 6)Source: Info-Tech Research Group, N = 29,

Small Medium Large


Cloud solutions are commonplace in the CRM market, but don’t discount an on-premise deployment if it’s warranted by security or customization needs.

Identify your use cases in order to decide whether Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or On-Premise solutions are the right fit

The CRM market was one of the first to embrace the cloud paradigm. Large organizations have typically preferred on-premise deployments, but should not shy away from relevant SaaS-based products. Many SaaS-only vendors have an incredibly strong track record – market leader Salesforce.com for instance.

Benefits• No physical hardware required.• Rapid deployment.• Requires less support personnel.• Lower upfront costs.

Challenges• Potentially higher TCO over time.• Still security risks (or perceived risks).• Service availability.• Custom development is more difficult.

SaaS Solutions

Benefits• Deployments are highly customizable.• Data is kept on premise – fewer compliance

headaches (a plus for firms with restrictions, i.e. government or healthcare).

Challenges• Slower physical deployment.• Physical hardware and software required.• Higher upfront costs.• On-system DBs pose a possible security risk.

On-Premise Solutions


Turn the tables around and issue a Request-for-Proposal (RFP) to ensure that the vendor fits your needs!

Use Info-Tech’s CRM Suite RFP Template for Large Enterprises to conduct this critical step in your vendor selection process.

The Statement of Work Proposal Preparation Instructions Scope of Work Basic Feature Requirements Advanced Feature Requirements Sizing and Implementation Vendor Qualifications and References Budget and Estimated Pricing Vendor Certification Approval Sign-Offs

Info-Tech’s CRM RFP Template is populated with critical elements including:

Issue RFP Score RFP Conduct Vendor Demo


The RFP process involves more than collecting information, use the RFP Scoring Tool as a benchmark for evaluation

• Evaluate RFP Responses.

• The CRM RFP Scoring Tool is pre-built with essential criteria complementing the CRM RFP Template.

• Use the tool to drive the selection meeting with your procurement department.

Use this tool to:

Use Info-Tech’s CRM Suite Evaluation and RFP Scoring Tool for Large Enterprises to standardize your process for scoring individual vendor RFP

responses in order to ensure minimal internal biases.



Get the most out of vendor finalist demos with the CRM Suite Vendor Demonstration Script

Info-Tech’s CRM Suite Vendor Demonstration Script provides evaluators with a consistent set of instructions for examining different feature sets. The script is segmented by multiple user groups, including:

• Marketing users

• Sales users

• Customer service users

• IT personnel

This tool is designed to provide vendors with a consistent set of instructions for key scenarios from the perspective of IT and departmental managers.

While words can deceive, a demo shows enterprise decision-makers a more accurate view of the product’s capabilities and constraints.







Select the Right SuiteImplement and Optimize

• Evaluation of the current CRM suite market, as well as advice on where it is headed.

• Review of major and emerging vendors in the CRM space, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.

• Info-Tech’s Vendor LandscapeTM and evaluation of individuals vendors.

• Scenarios for selection (i.e. by domain and feature).


Summary of the CRM Vendor Landscape

Info-Tech evaluated eight major vendors in the CRM space, including the following notable performers:

Champions:• Oracle Siebel offers an unparalleled level of feature complexity,

and the experience to back it.• Dynamics CRM earned its place in the champion quadrant

through its strong vendor backing, primarily driven by Microsoft’s reach and channel strength.

• Sage SalesLogix’s focus on the large enterprise, coupled with its robust sales and marketing features, allow it to rise above its competitors in this space.

• Salesforce.com has become the CRM standard against which most companies compare other options.

Value Award:• Dynamics CRM provides a balance of price and feature

complexity, remaining strong on features across the board.

Innovation Award:• Salesforce.com touts strong overall mobile strategy and thought

leadership concerning mobile and touch devices. Their new touch.salesforce.com designs around the mobile device instead of treating mobile as an extension of desktop.

1. The CRM market is mature. On traditional feature sets such as account and contact management, workflow tools, and sales management, there is relatively little product differentiation.

2. SaaS offerings are the norm, not the exception. The majority of vendors profiled by Info-Tech offer hosted deployment models. Some prominent vendors (such as Salesforce.com) forego on-premise deployments altogether.

3. Social and mobile feature sets are weak. Despite important social and mobile trends in the consumer space, most CRM vendors are struggling to keep up.

Info-Tech Insight


Market Overview

• The CRM market began in the 1980s with software designed for automating customer interactions in the call center, as well as basic contact management products. These products matured with sales force automation (SFA) products in the 1990s.

• Eventually, vendors began adding customer service and later marketing capabilities to their SFA offerings.

• During the late 1990s to mid-2000s, integrated CRM suites with comprehensive feature sets were extremely popular with a variety of enterprises.

• In the latter half of the 2000s, organizations began to value integrated modules less, and put new emphasis on a common suite with services that could be added. SaaS also became a dominant deployment during this time period.

• Recently, organizations have begun to leverage best-of-breed solutions alongside more traditional CRM suites.

• Utilization of social media, both social sharing and social listening and management, will increasingly become a differentiator in the provision of marketing and customer service. Most CRM vendors are making major investments in this space. Info-Tech predicts that over the next two years, the major CRM players will either develop robust social capabilities in-house, or will acquire best-of-breed social monitoring and management vendors. For example, Salesforce recently acquired the premium SMMP company, Radian6.

• Organizations are beginning to realize the value of extending mobile technologies to sales reps, marketers, and service agents. Vendors with advanced mobile capabilities have already created interfaces that mimic the CRM for their mobile applications, as well as a dedicated CRM application for the specified mobile device. We expect this trend to continue.

How it got here Where it’s going

The CRM market evolved from traditional contact management and sales force automation suites. The recent emphasis has been on the broader CRM ecosystem (such as best-of-breed point solutions), as well as a surge in the number of hosted deployment options. Social media integration and mobile solutions will dominate the CRM landscape over the coming years.


Info-Tech reviewed the most dominant and well-positioned vendors in the large-enterprise CRM suite market

• Consona Onyx: A Microsoft .NET framework pioneer; first CRM to be built on the Microsoft stack.

• Infor Epiphany: An excellent multifaceted marketing feature set puts Infor at the top in the marketing domain.

• Dynamics CRM: A CRM mainstay, Dynamics CRM is well-known for interoperability with other MS products.

• Oracle Siebel CRM: A high-quality vendor with an intense world-wide reach and a very extensive feature list.

• Pivotal CRM: A market leader in social media CRM capabilities; offered as both cloud and on-premise.

• Sage SalesLogix: Sage has extensive deployment offerings in on-premise, cloud, and Amazon EC2 hosting.

• Salesforce.com: Along with Dynamics CRM, is a largely significant competitor in the CRM space; leader and

dominant cloud-centric CRM.

• SAP CRM: A strong vendor with many products, while the CRM offers excellent ERP integrating capabilities.

Included in the Vendor Landscape:

• The CRM market has a large number of established vendors, as well as newer entrants (typically cloud-centric vendors). Not all vendors made Info-Tech’s shortlist – those with insufficient feature sets, low visibility/presence or extremely high vertical focus (i.e. exclusively designed for not-for-profit) were not included.

• For this Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on those vendors that have a strong market presence and/or reputational presence among many large enterprise customers.


CRM Criteria & Weighting Factors

20%

10%

20%

50%Features

Usability

Affordability

Architecture

50%

50%

Product

Vendor

Vendor Evaluation

Vendor is committed to the space and has a future product and portfolio roadmap.Strategy

Vendor offers global coverage and is able to sell and provide post-sales support. Reach

Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will be around for the long-term.Viability

Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the channels themselves are strong. Channel

Product Evaluation

The solution’s dashboard and reporting tools are intuitive and easy to use.Usability

The delivery method of the solution aligns with what is expected within the space.Architecture

The three year TCO of the solution is economical.Affordability

The solution provides basic and advanced feature/functionality.Features

40%

20%

15%

25%Viability

Strategy

Reach

Channel


Feature Basic/Adv. What we looked for:

Account ManagementBasic Comprehensive customer records with demographic information, transaction history, and

billing information. Ability to add user-defined fields.

Advanced Data management tools for contact de-duplication. Advanced field management tools.

Activity ManagementBasic Calendars, reminders, task management and assignment.

Advanced Integration with office productivity tools like Microsoft Outlook.

Call Center ManagementBasic Computer-Telephony Integration for bringing call information into the CRM suite.

Advanced Call recording, call scripting, interactive voice response.

CollaborationBasic Team selling, email integration and management.

Advanced Live chat, employee activity feeds, video/audio/web conferencing.

Customer Service FeaturesBasic Case and ticket management; escalation assignment, agent management.

Advanced Automatic escalation rules, advanced service resolution tools, warranty management.

Event ManagementBasic Ability to set up and host events – automatic email distribution and RSVP tracking.

Advanced Social media event integration; budgeting and event project management tools.

Knowledge ManagementBasic Basic knowledgebase and search capabilities.

Advanced Ability to index and search external content, wikis, customer content ratings and sharing.

Marketing ManagementBasic Marketing campaign management and tracking; email campaigns with lead targeting.

Advanced Multi-channel marketing management, budget and tracking; “click to lead” capabilities.

Info-Tech evaluated a range of features: basic points were awarded for table stakes, more for advanced functionality*

*See appendix for scoring methodology


Feature Basic/Adv. What we looked for:

Mobile SupportBasic Access to suite over mobile-optimized HTML.

Advanced Access to suite via HTML5 or dedicated mobile applications (iOS, Android, BB).

Reporting and AnalyticsBasic User-configurable dashboards for basic metrics.

Advanced In-depth reports and predictive modelling.

Sales ManagementBasic Lead generation and pipeline management, team-based and geography-based

assignment.

Advanced Sales compensation management, contract management.

Sell-Side E-Commerce Features

Basic Web portals, quoting capabilities.

Advanced Order tracking and fulfillment.

Social Media IntegrationBasic Ability to pull information from social channels into customer contact records.

Advanced Ability to conduct social cloud monitoring and management; in-band response abilities.

Workflow ManagementBasic Text or code-based workflow designer.

Advanced Visual workflow designer for multiple business process domains.

Info-Tech evaluated a range of features: basic points were awarded for table stakes, more for advanced functionality*

*See appendix for scoring methodology


The Info-Tech CRM Vendor Landscape

Champions receive high scores for most evaluation criteria and offer excellent value. They have a strong market presence and are usually the trend setters for the industry.

Innovators have demonstrated innovative product strengths that act as their competitive advantage in appealing to niche segments of the market.

Market Pillars are established players with very strong vendor credentials, but with more average product scores.

Emerging players are newer vendors who are starting to gain a foothold in the marketplace. They balance product and vendor attributes, though score lower relative to market Champions.

For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Vendor Landscape is created, please see the slide entitled Vendor Evaluation Methodology in the appendices.

Consona Onyx

Infor CRM

Dynamics CRM

Pivotal CRM

Sage SalesLogix

SAP

Salesforce.com

Oracle Siebel


Every vendor has its strengths & weaknesses;Choose the one that works best for you

Product VendorFeatures Usability Afford-

ability Viability Strategy Channel

Sage SalesLogix

Infor CRM*

Dynamics CRM

Oracle Siebel CRM

Salesforce.com

Consona Onyx*

ReachArchitect-ure

SAP CRM

Overall Overall

For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Harvey Balls are calculated, please see the slide entitled Vendor Evaluation Methodology in the appendices.

Legend = Exemplary = Good = Adequate = Inadequate = Poor

Pivotal CRM*

*Vendor declined pricing requests


What is a Value Score?

Value Score Slide

0001011

8996100Average Score: 38.6

The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product offering and business strength relative to their price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking.

Vendors that score high offer greater value for your dollar (e.g. features, usability, stability, etc.) than the average vendor, while the inverse is true for those that score lower.

Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the Value Score more consideration than those who are more focused on specific vendor/product attributes.

On a relative basis, Microsoft Dynamics maintained the highest Info-Tech Value ScoreTM of the vendor group. Vendors were indexed against Microsoft Dynamics’s performance to provide a complete, relative view of their product offerings.

For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Value Index is calculated, please see the slide entitled Value Index Ranking Methodology in the appendices.

For an explanation of how normalized pricing is determined, please see the slide entitled Product Pricing Scenario & Methodology in the appendices.

Champion


Each vendor offers a different feature set; concentrate on what you need

Consona Onyx

Infor CRM

Dynamics CRM

Oracle Siebel CRM

Sage SalesLogix

Salesforce.com

SAP CRM

Account Mgmt

WorkflowMgmt

MarketingMgmt

EventMgmt

CustomerService

Social Media

SalesMgmt

Legend = Fully Satisfactory = Partially Satisfactory = Unsatisfactory

Pivotal CRM


Legend = Fully Satisfactory = Partially Satisfactory = Unsatisfactory

Each vendor offers a different feature set; concentrate on what you need

Consona Onyx

Infor CRM

Dynamics CRM

Oracle Siebel CRM

Sage SalesLogix

Salesforce.com

SAP CRM

Call Center Sell SideE-Comm.

Reporting&Analytics

Collaboration MobileSupport

ActivityMgmt

KnowledgeMgmt

Pivotal CRM


$1

Info-Tech Recommends:Siebel CRM is extremely advanced – however, only organizations with complex and well-defined domain processes will be able to justify its cost.

Product:Employees:

Headquarters:Website:

Founded:Presence:

Siebel CRM108,400Redwood Shores, CAoracle.com1977NASDAQ GS: ORCLFY11 Revenue: $31.637B

Oracle’s Siebel CRM has everything your organization needs, a lot it doesn’t need, and a steep price

Champion• Siebel CRM helped define the CRM suite market, and holds a

wealth of experience serving large enterprises.• Oracle has top vendor credentials, with 380,000 customers in

145 countries.

Overview

• Siebel’s account management features are elite, and possess both the breadth and the depth that will satisfy every company’s day-to-day work processes.

• Siebel’s E-Support customer service functionality provides great customer care value, and can integrate with third-party knowledge management applications.

Strengths

• Relative to competitors in the space, Siebel CRM’s user interface leaves something to be desired.

• Provides a very well-rounded CRM suite, but not all IT departments can afford such an expensive product.

Challenges

3 Year TCO: Tier 10; between over $ 1M$1M+


$1

Info-Tech Recommends:Choose Dynamics CRM if you are looking to address most CRM needs, but it is noteworthy that the product has limited innovative capability for managing external social media.

Microsoft’s global reach and large-firm focus appeal to many organizations, especially those who are “Microsoft shops”

Champion• Microsoft’s global reach, large enterprise focus, and the on-

premise deployment option make it a good alternative to Salesforce.com.

• Microsoft has recently placed a renewed focus on CRM.

Overview

• The offering ranks high on its sales management capabilities, including strong lead and opportunity management features, as well as escalation features.

• Dynamics CRM is a popular choice for shops heavily invested in MS Office products, e.g. Outlook, Exchange, SharePoint. The clean ribbon-based interface will be familiar to Office users.

Strengths

• The most recent release, R8, brings significant enhancements to mobile capabilities and internal social collaboration. However, the ability to monitor, analyze, and engage with external-facing social contacts is still relatively weak, requiring third-party software to augment native capabilities.

Challenges

3 Year TCO: Tier 10; Over $1 million$1M+

Product:Employees:


Founded:Presence:

MS Dynamics CRM 90,000Redmond, WAdynamics.com1975MSFT, FY11 $62.484 B


$1

Info-Tech Recommends:SalesLogix is especially flexible for companies with complex, but smaller sales organizations, such as small pharmaceutical companies with small customer bases, but complex sales processes.

Product:Employees:


Founded:Presence:

Sage SalesLogix13,600Newcastle upon Tyne, UKsage.com1981LSE: SGEFY10 Revenue: £1.435B

SalesLogix provides strong sales management features, as well as good self-service and defect tracking abilities

Champion• Sage is known for its proven reliability in the ERP and CRM

markets and a vast network of channel partners. • SalesLogix is a popular choice in the financial services,

insurance, technology, and manufacturing industries.

Overview

• The product offers an exhaustive range of deployment options, including on-premise, regular cloud, and Amazon EC2 hosting.

• Offer an impressive web services integration layer (REST).• SalesLogix offers strong account management, and meets

expectations on customer service features, offering the convenience of self-service and defect tracking.

Strengths

• The product offers minimal workflow and knowledge management features, and virtually no event management.

• Although Sage offers strong baseline analytics, advanced analytics is licensed separately.

Challenges



$1

Info-Tech Recommends:Choose Salesforce.com if you want a proven cloud-based solution that is exceptionally strong on the sales management, customer service, and mobile aspects of the CRM equation.

Salesforce.com is the new CRM standard against which other CRM products are compared

Champion• Salesforce.com was the first company in the CRM space to focus

only on cloud solutions. The firm has grown rapidly since its inception, with strong performances in a variety of different organizational sizes and verticals.

Overview

• Salesforce.com Sales Cloud has best of breed sales management capabilities. Service Cloud is equally strong on the customer service front with powerful case management features.

• Salesforce.com is one of the few vendors evaluated that is executing well on its advanced mobile strategy.

• Salesforce.com is also the CRM vendor with the best internal and social collaboration a la Chatter.

Strengths

• All vendors scored below Info-Tech expectations in social media. However, the recent acquisition of Radian6 provides Salesforce.com with opportunities to embed more social features into their products.

• Salesforce.com’s cloud-only deployment is popular, but poses a challenge for the remaining organizations that prefer on-premise.

Challenges


Product:Employees:


Founded:Presence:

Sales Cloud/Service Cloud6,000San Francisco, CAsalesforce.com 1999CRM, FY11 $1.65 billion


$1

Info-Tech Recommends:Organizations already utilizing SAP enterprise applications should strongly consider SAP CRM; those without a firm understanding of organizational processes will find themselves overwhelmed.

Product:Employees:


Founded:Presence:

SAP CRM53,513Walldorf, Germanysap.com1972NYSE: SAPFY10 Revenue: $12.464B

SAP CRM has a robust feature set, but its dependency upon the broader SAP ecosystem can be a challenge

Innovator• SAP is the third largest independent software manufacturer in

the world, with a presence in over 120 countries.• Having been in the industry for nearly 40 years, SAP is

perhaps best known for its ERP application, SAP ERP.

Overview

• Offers excellent tools for workflow management, including visual workflows and workflow wizards across all domains.

• Comprehensive sales management capabilities, with contract, performance, and lead management features.

• Marketing features are equally strong; campaign and loyalty management tools are very extensive.

Strengths

• Although SAP integrates Facebook and Twitter, there is still room for improvement on the social media front.

• Event management is limited within the SAP suite, but additional functionality can be obtained with SAP Supply Chain Management (SCM).

• Sybase mobile applications require additional licensing fees.

Challenges



$1

Info-Tech Recommends:Infor’s CRM suite is perfect for organizations with complex marketing needs; however, some waiting will be necessary for Infor’s social and mobile tools to fully mature.

Product:Employees:


Founded:Presence:

Infor (formerly Epiphany)8,000Alpharetta, GAinfor.com2002PrivateFY10 Revenue: $1.8B

Exceptional marketing management functionality makes Infor the ideal choice for a marketing-driven organization

Market Pillar• Infor’s CRM product has made vast improvements since past

evaluations, showing a dedicated commitment to the product.• Infor offers managed hosting with licensing, but is mainly an

on-premise offering with no multi-tenant architecture.

Overview

• Infor has top marketing management functionality; Interaction Advisor allows for full multi-channel campaign management, closed loop reporting, real-time self-learning analytics, proactive event launching for up-sell and cross-sell opportunities, and integrates with order tracking.

• Exhibits a great multi-channel customer service focus as well.

Strengths

• Infor lacks in workflow management – but can integrate with a common service layer called Ion, which can extend workflow between enterprise applications.

• The vendor has basic mobile and social CRM capabilities. No ability to use social media to proactively engage with customers is available at this time, but it is on Infor’s roadmap.

Challenges

Vendor declined to provide pricing.$1M+


$1

Info-Tech Recommends:CDC CRM is particularly favored by companies in the finance, manufacturing, and business services industries, and any business with a strong focus on social media will be impressed with this product.

Product:Employees:


Founded:Presence:

Pivotal CRM1,300Atlanta, GAcdcsoftware.com2002NASDAQ GM: CDCSFY10 Revenue: $212.88M

CDC offers complex sales, marketing, and service management features – and leads the way in social media

Emerging Player• CDC operates internationally with their partner network, and

offers both SaaS and on-premise deployments.• Built on Microsoft.NET Framework, including heavy integration

with MS productivity applications.

Overview

• The product includes Facebook integration with event management, and the linking of social media requests to support queue and in-band response is on the roadmap.

• Extensive SharePoint integration for dashboards.• Includes advanced contact center features, such as call

scripting, call scheduling, and CTI support.

Strengths

• Although basic collaboration features are included (e.g. team selling), employee-to-employee collaboration is a bit lacking.

• Mobile access options are limited to browser access (HTML 4.0) with no dedicated mobile applications, but HTML 5.0 is on the roadmap.

Challenges

Vendor declined to provide pricing.$1M+


$1

Info-Tech Recommends:Companies considering Consona will likely want to supplement its features with point solutions or additional Consona solutions. Renewed investment in CRM will enhance the suite over time.

Product:Employees:


Founded:Presence:

Onyx700+Indianapolis, INconsona.com1986Private

Consona offers an adequate feature set, but has fallen behind other competitors; new investment is required

Emerging Player• Consona was founded in 1986, but only recently entered the

CRM market with its acquisition of Onyx in 2006.• Prior to its purchase by Consona, Onyx was a player in the

CRM market since the late-90s.

Overview

• Consona is relatively strong in the customer service management space. Historically, the suite has excelled at case/ticket management, as well as multi-channel escalation.

• Consona has demonstrated a renewed commitment to investment in the Onyx suite. The company’s roadmap includes augmenting the suite with social and mobile features.

Strengths

• Due to switching hands multiple times, Onyx stagnated relative to other large-enterprise focused CRM vendors. In particular, lack of multi-channel management for marketing and sales, as well as no visual workflow designer, has hurt the offering.

• The product is also weak on reporting and analytics tools, particularly on the visualization side.

Challenges

$1M+Vendor declined to provide pricing.


The Info-Tech CRM Suite Vendor Shortlist Tool for Large Enterprises is designed to generate a customized shortlist of vendors based on your key priorities.

Identify leading candidates with the CRM Vendor Shortlist Tool

• Overall Vendor vs. Product Weightings

• Top-level weighting of product vs. vendor criteria.

• Individual product criteria weightings:FeaturesUsabilityAffordabilityArchitecture

• Individual vendor criteria weightings:ViabilityStrategyReachChannel

This tool offers the ability to modify:


SAP fronts financial services, governments can rely on Siebel’s CRM Public Sector, and Infor’s marketing power rules consumer packaged goods.

Scenario: Industry Focus

Financial Services

Governmental

Consumer Packaged Goods

4

Industry Focus

Domain Focus

Social Media Integration

1234Mobile Support4


Infor meets marketing needs best, Salesforce.com is perfect for sales requirements, and Pivotal boasts multi-channel customer service support.

Scenario: Business Process Domain Focus

Marketing

Sales

Customer Service

4

Industry Focus

Domain Focus


1234Mobile Support4


No product scored higher than 50% on Info-Tech’s Social CRM scale. Augmentation with point solutions or a Social Media Platform is a necessity!

Scenario: Social Media Integration Focus

Adequate PerformersIndustry Focus

Domain Focus


1234Mobile Support4


Only Salesforce.com scored higher than 50% on Info-Tech’s Mobile CRM scale. Most vendors are behind, making investment in third parties common.

Scenario: Mobile Support Focus

Exemplary Performers

Viable Performers

1 Industry Focus

Domain Focus


1234Mobile Support4








• Build a cross-functional team for CRM deployment.• Successfully navigate the deployment, integration, and pilot

phases of the CRM project.• Manage CRM data quality.• Ensure successful adoption with user-targeted training

programs.


A CRM suite is only as good as its implementation: take a structured approach to roll-out across the firmSelecting a suite is only the beginning of your CRM project. With your new application in hand, it’s time to get your money’sworth. Unfortunately, that’s going to require a bit more work:

1. Establish the roles and resources that will support the system. Some resources will likely already be in place from your previous system, but now is the perfect time to re-evaluate and adjust.

2. Prepare in anticipation of deployment. Manage goals, integration, and training efforts.3. Deploy and optimize. Like most applications, your CRM suite will require monitoring, maintenance, and modification.

Designate an applications manager

Build a CRM selection and

deployment team

Determine customization and synchronization

needs

1. Resource Planning

Establish data quality procedures

Conduct end-user training

Create a formal communication plan

2. Preparing for Deployment

Conduct user acceptance testing and pilot projects

Establish metrics and maintenance

policies

Develop an upgrade strategy

3. Deploy and Optimize


The first step on your agenda should be designating an applications manager to oversee, select, deploy, and maintain

• Select an individual who can understand the business needs of the organization to lead the CRM deployment project. Ensure the candidate has hands-on marketing, sales, or service experience and can serve as the resident subject matter expert on the suite once it has been rolled out.

• The perfect candidate has experience in direction, development, and implementation of software solutions; ideally, he or she has previously managed applications in the marketing, sales, and/or customer service domains.

• This individual will apply proven communication and problem-solving skills to guide and assist the user groups on issues related to the strategy and planning, acquisitions, deployment, and operational management of the CRM system.

The CRM Manager Role Includes the Following Responsibilities:

Strategy and Planning

Acquisition and Deployment

Operational Management

Ensure that the suite meets

business and end-user requirements

Cultivate and disseminate

knowledge of CRM best practices

Evaluate, install, configure, and

deploy a suitable CRM suite

Collaborate with analysts and end

users in the testing of the

new suite

Manage and provide direction for the CRM team

in support of business

operations

Develop and communicate training and

documentation for end users

For a full role description of an Applications Manager, refer to Info-Tech’s job description, Applications Manager.For more information


CRM Suite

Selection Team

Sales Agents and Managers

Marketing Staff

IT Staff and Managers

Customers (via surveys and focus groups)

Call Center and Field Service

Agents and Managers

The CRM selection and implementation team must be small enough to make effective decisions, but it should encompass representatives from key user groups (namely, from marketing, sales, and the customer service department). For large enterprises, choose a team of approximately 10 to 14 people.

• A diverse team provides different perspectives on how employees will be using the suite as well as how customers will use it.

• Securing user involvement in the early stages will help with adoption in the later implementation stages. Participatory selection fosters user investment.

• Don’t forget that customers are an important stake-holder as well. Conducting surveys on current gaps in self-service and assisted-service can be very valuable information for both selection and implementation: prioritize those features customers find deficient.

Build a cross-functional CRM project team to ensure a variety of stakeholder and user needs are fully represented

- Mike Kelly, Director of Enterprise Applications

The end-users need to want it at the end of the project; if they are not involved in the selection process, they will just feel like

it’s been pushed down their throat.

Adoption is strengthened when end users have a say in the selection and implementation process – bring them on board.


Make use of in-suite customization whenever possible: move to extension and custom development only if necessary

There are three pillars of CRM suite development: customization, extension, and custom development.

• Customization refers to carrying out in-suite tweaks in order to meet business requirements. This usually involves making changes to suite control panels. Most suites give administrators the ability to make a large number of customizations natively; take advantage of easy-to-use customization by training team leads to make their own tweaks.

• Extension uses third-party software to augment the capabilities of the CRM suite: for example, Microsoft Outlook or social media plug-ins.

• Custom development involves writing specialized code to enable required suite functionality. Custom development can be used to permit special integration between the suite and applications that do not have a native (or third party) integration bridge. Custom development is expensive and labor-intensive: use it only as a last resort when required functionality can’t be achieved via customization or extension.

Avoid custom development whenever possible. If the required functionality can be achieved in-suite, custom development is a waste of time and money. Select a CRM suite which includes many out-of-the-box functions that suit your business needs. In those cases where custom development or large amounts of data loading are necessary, strongly consider hiring a system integrator.

Customization• What it is: modifiable, in-suite

functionality.• Use case: customize team sites

and customer portals; administrator access.

Extension• What it is: Third-party software that

augments suite capabilities.• Use case: easy method to plug

requirement gaps.

Custom DevelopmentWhat it is: suite-specific solutions involving new coding.Use case: Legacy data loading, ERP integration, industry-specific niche functionality.

Overview of development options:


Hire a system integrator to work alongside IT; overseeing all touch-points of the CRM necessitates smooth integration

A system integrator is a consultant (person or company) that is responsible for identifying, loading, and integrating information and data from other enterprise systems (for example, an ERP or billing application).

A system integrator will:

Identify and enumerate sources of data. This data should be linked into the CRM suite. System integrators can help managers select which information will be ported in the suite during deployment. Select systems that will contribute to business goals, and leave out systems that are superfluous.

Load information from legacy systems. System integrators typically have specialized experience in using third-party connectors - or where necessary, providing custom development frameworks for porting information between otherwise incompatible systems.

Provide practical guidance. Ask the system integrator to recall previous projects that are very similar in nature to your own organization’s size or vertical. Apply this knowledge to your project.

Who Is a System Integrator?

Hire a specialist, not a jack-of-all-trades employee. Any money saved in hiring or assigning the task of system integrator to a less-qualified individual will create more problems later on, and it may even compromise the functionality of the CRM system.

Info-Tech Insight


Assess usage patterns before enabling offline synchronization

Many CRM suites support offline account synchronization. However, offline sync can sink the database by overloading transaction logs if enabled for the wrong usage patterns.

Service professionals may have to service all customers, not knowing at any time which customer will be next. So, they may need access to all records. However, they usually need to manipulate only a few data fields within a customer record. If they don’t sync often, they will overload transaction logs, due to the breadth of records they require.

Account managers usually only handle a subset of customers at a time, having an assigned group or territory. However, they need a complete record for that group. So, while they don’t manipulate a lot of records, they need the ability to manipulate many fields within each record.

Account Manager: Deep/Narrow Pattern Service Professional: Broad/Shallow Pattern

Synchronization can have drawbacks, especially when unjustified by user needs:

• Cost: Infrequent users of synchronization can cause backlogging in the transaction logs, which can only be addressed by forcing the infrequent users off the system to flush the log. This then means the user needs to install a new local database extract, creating costs in the form of operational inefficiencies.

• Security: Offline synchronization means multiple devices are entering the world with all of your customer information. This can be a major security concern if any such device is lost. Minimizing the number of users with offline synchronization capabilities helps to minimize this risk.

broad and shallow access

deep and

narrowaccess

Number of fields in

the customer

record (depth)

Offline CRM synchronization should only be enabled for roles with a deep/narrow usage pattern, to prevent overloading transaction logs. Users with a broad/shallow usage pattern should only be allowed live access, such as browser access, with no offline sync capability.

Number of customer records (breadth)


Create a formal communication process to keep departments in the loop throughout selection and implementationThe team heading the suite’s implementation will need to establish a communication process around the CRM roll-out. The team must solicit input from the various departments in order to create a comprehensive communication plan.

Network groups should take the lead and implement a process for: Scheduling business application kick-off meetings Soliciting preliminary input from the attending IT groups to develop the discussion agenda Establishing communication paths and the key communication agents from each department who is responsible for

keeping lines open moving forward

The overall objective for the inter-department meeting is to confirm that all parties agree on certain key points, such as goals and metrics that gauge success.

The kick-off process will significantly improve internal communications by inviting all affected internal IT groups, including business units, to work together to address significant issues before the application process is formally activated.In many cases, subsequent meetings will also be required to finalize and resolve some of the open issues. Once top stakeholders agree on the major points, establish a training plan for end users.The next slide will shed more light on best practices in training.

The meeting should

encompass:

Target Quality of Service (QoS) metrics

Target business-user requirements

The high-level application overview

Tangible business benefits of applicationSpecial

consideration needs

Other IT department needs


Create a plan for end-user training: the CRM suite will be of no value if end users can’t use it properly

Focus CRM training on:• Recording of opportunities, leads, and deals• How to maximize sales with sales support

decision tree

Focus CRM training on:• Familiarization with the software• Software integration with other enterprise

applications• The technical support needed to maintain

the system in the future

Focus CRM training on:• Campaign management features• Social media monitoring and

engagement capabilities

Focus CRM training on:• What to do with inbound tickets• Routing and escalation features• How to use knowledge management

features effectively• Call center capabilities

Customer Service Sales

Marketing IT

Focus CRM training on:• Keeping the customer-facing web portals simple and intuitive, have clear explanations/instructions under important

functions (i.e. brief directions on how to initiate service inquiries), and provide examples of proper uses (i.e. effective searches). Make sure they’re aware of escalation options available to them if self-service falls short.

Customers

Training

A AM PE

APE

PE M

All training modules will be different, but some will have overlapping areas of interest.

- Assign Project Evangelists - Analytics Training - Mobile TrainingMPE A


Profile your data, eliminate dead weight, and enforce minimum standards & policies to protect data quality

Identify and

Eliminate Dead

Weight

Poor data can originate in the firm’s CRM system. Custom queries, stored procedures, or profiling tools can be used to assess the key problem areas.

Loose rules in the CRM system lead to records of no significant value in the database. Those rules need to be fixed, but if changes are made before the data is fixed, users could encounter database or application errors, which will reduce user confidence in the system.

Conduct a data flow analysis: map the path that data takes through the organization. Use a mass cleanup to identify and destroy dead weight data. Merge duplicates either manually or

with the aid of software tools. Delete incomplete data, taking care to reassign related data in other tables.

COTS packages typically allow power users to merge records without creating orphaned records in related tables, but custom-built applications typically require IT expertise.

Create and

Enforce Standards & Policies

Now that the data has been cleaned, it’s important to protect the system from hygiene problems.

Work with business users to find out what types of data require validation and which fields should have changes audited. Whenever possible, implement drop-down lists to standardize values and make programming changes to ensure that truncation ceases.

Truncated data is usually caused by mismatches in data structures during either one-time data loads or ongoing data integrations.

Don’t go overboard on assigning required fields; users will just put key data in note fields. Discourage the use of unstructured note fields: the data is effectively lost except if it gets subpoenaed. To specify policies, use Info-Tech’s Master Data Record Tool.

Preemptively take steps to ensure data quality. Going forward, this data will be the base for measuring performance and driving strategic decisions. Ensure it is of the utmost quality.


We have appointed an employee to the role of data steward, who now has full accountability for

managing data quality initiatives.

-Roland Blaettler, CIO, T.E.A.M. AG

Create data stewards in the business with accountability for ensuring that CRM (and other) data remains clean

• Data stewards are designated full-time employees who serve as the go-to resource for all issues pertaining to data quality. Stewards are tasked with keeping a particular data silo clean and free of errors, and are formally evaluated on their competence in this role.

• Data stewards are typically mid-level managers in the business, preferably with an interest in improving data quality and a relatively high degree of tech-savvy.

• Data stewards can sometimes be created as a new role with a dedicated FTE, but this is not usually cost effective for small and mid-sized firms. Instead, diffuse the steward role across several existing positions, including one for CRM and other marketing, sales, and service applications.

Department A

Data Steward (CRM)

Data Steward (ERP)

Department B

Data Steward (All)

Department C

Data Steward (All)

Example of data steward structure

For more informationFor a full role description of the Data Steward role, refer to Info-Tech’s job description, Data Steward.


Meet end-user requirements with user acceptance testing

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a test procedure that helps to validate that end-user requirements are met. Test cases can reveal bugs before the suite is implemented.

FIVE SECRETS OF UAT SUCCESS

1. Create the plan. With the information collected from requirements gathering, create the plan. Make sure this information is added to the main project plan documentation.

4. Highlight acceptance criteria. Together with the UAT group, pinpoint the criteria to determine system acceptability. Refer back to requirements specified in use cases in the initial requirements gathering stages of the project.

2. Set the agenda. Agree on the agenda for each UAT with business sponsors and users. The time allotted will vary depending on the functionality being tested. Ensure that the test schedule allows for the resolution of issues and discussion.

3. Determine who will participate. Work with the relevant stakeholders to identify the people who can best contribute to system testing. Look for experienced power users who have been involved in earlier decision making about the system.

A pilot project is an essential component of UAT.

5. Collecting end-user feedback from both customers and agents is essential. Weaknesses in resolution workflow design, technical architecture, and existing customer service processes can be highlighted and improved by with ongoing surveys and targeted interviews with staff from persistent teams.


Troubleshoot possible issues by piloting the CRM suite with a small team before full deploymentThe ideal pilot project introduces CRM functionality to a focused marketing, sales, or service team.

Choose a sub-group that already has a significant volume of customer interactions or high-level needs so the suite can be truly tested. After you choose a pilot group, define the goals of the project, decide what metrics to measure, how they will be tracked, and what is intended for the results. Next, train the relevant agents, product specialists, and/or target customers and begin the pilot project. When you begin full deployment, roll-out one customer segment or product line/brand group at a time to minimize disruption during implementation.

Pilot projects mapped to interaction channels are not a good way to pilot because it can cause maximum disruption in customer experience. Don’t pilot solely by telephony, email, or web chat.

Avoid:

Suite Selection

Pilot Project

Identify Suite Issues

Track Common Questions and

Popular Functions

Find Resolutions

Develop End-User Training

around Results

Company-Wide

Deployment

Most customer interaction organizations are segmented by marketing, sales, and customer service. These teams then tend to be sub-segmented by brand or product line. Test the CRM suite with a small team like a brand portfolio management group.

Consider:


Do not neglect updating business processes within CRM as changes occur in the companyAny time a process changes, evaluate how the process is reflected in the CRM system. Following the sequence below leads to the greatest benefits in process improvement. But Business Process Management doesn’t always end at the control stage. Those tasked with continuous improvement in the organization will repeat these stages when needs change or issues are identified through control mechanisms.

List the current business processes that exist in the organization and determine which provide the most opportunity for improvement.

Describe the processes using a graphical model. This may be through a diagram or by using consultants to capture processes.

Find improvements in the existing processes, by simulating process changes (also known as business process reengineering).

Replace manual processes with technology-enabled steps. For example, updating data in another system, or escalating an issue to a manager.

Monitor the state of process instances, both individually and as a whole to detect issues, which may trigger continuous improvement activities.

Document

Refine

Automate

Control

Identify1

2

3

4

5

For more informationRefer to Info Tech’s, Develop a Business Process Management (BPM) Strategy.


Create a secure environment for the CRM suite that emphasizes access privileges as a primary safeguard

You have to know what the business model is in order to dictate what you restrict and what you don’t, along with knowing what the risk[s] to IT and the infrastructure environment are.

• Establish user access privileges to safeguard confidential information and prevent service disruptions.• Keep a roster of active, authorized users: when employees leave the company, promptly remove their

access to the internal system. Integration with directory services can speed this up.• Consider if access to the system should only be allowed via Virtual Private Network (VPN). • Guard against phishing attacks by training users never to disseminate their CRM access credentials

over email.

Security Environment

• An on-premise CRM suite should be secured behind the firewall in order to reduce the suite’s vulnerability to external threats. Cloud-based solutions must meet necessary compliance requirements; for example, if your organization is in government or healthcare, there may be restrictions on what vendors you can select based on where the solution is hosted.

Patches and Patches and Hot Fixes

• Secure the software from external threats by keeping it up-to-date with current hot fixes. For more information on security strategy, see Info-Tech’s Storyboard: Build a Security Architecture & Roadmap.

- Thomas Uyehara, IT Director, Independence First

Implement policies and set up access permissions that prevent users from accessing sensitive information unless they have the appropriate credentials. There are many security risks that come with the suite. For example, due to offline database synchronization, confidential customer information can be misused if an employee’s PC or laptop is left unattended.

Access Restrictions

CRM Security


Increase revenuesIncrease revenues

Decrease costs

Decrease costs

▲ Leads attributed to campaign▲ Sales attributed to campaign▲ ROI on opportunities

▲ Leads attributed to campaign▲ Sales attributed to campaign▲ ROI on opportunities

▼ Costs of campaigns▼ Agents per campaign▼ Costs of campaigns▼ Agents per campaign

▼ Average time to resolution▼ Cost of data inaccuracy▼ Average time to resolution▼ Cost of data inaccuracy

▲ Average deal size▲ Sales per agent▲ Share of wallet

▲ Average deal size▲ Sales per agent▲ Share of wallet

▼ Channel escalation rate▼ Assisted-service: self-

service ratio▼Cost to serve

▼ Channel escalation rate▼ Assisted-service: self-

service ratio▼Cost to serve

▲ Customer retention percent▲ Up-selling opportunities▲ Customer retention percent▲ Up-selling opportunities

Keep your pulse on the suite by tracking relevant metrics

Leverage the reporting and analytics built into your CRM to maintain effectiveness of your solutions as well as look for potential product defects. Take a proactive stance toward problems – don’t wait for them to get worse. If a performance metric is lagging, conduct a root-cause analysis to find out why.

The metrics you want to track depend upon your departmental goals. Consider tracking the following:

Marketing Sales Customer Service

Most organizations have some sort of contact management solution already in place. After transitioning to a new solution, it is often beneficial to track incremental results gained through changes in functionality.

Be sure to track:• The use of new features• Sales attached to new features

Post-Deployment CRM Metrics


Establish a plan for ongoing upkeep of the CRM suite

After deployment, don’t neglect to conduct periodic maintenance. Create a plan that delegates aspects of suite maintenance to various components of the business.

End-User Skill Development(keeping users up-to-speed)

Responsibility: Marketing, sales and service

Technical Maintenance(troubleshooting of suite bugs/glitches)

Responsibility: IT

Physical Maintenance(infrastructure and storage upkeep, if

applicable)Responsibility: IT

Ongoing Solution Maintenance(upkeep of web pages, articles, content pruning, taxonomy)Responsibility: Marketing and service

Cover all the Bases of

Maintenance


Iterative Checkpoint

Establish an iterative and annual review process to set CRM upgrade (or suite transition) strategy

• After the organization has fully deployed a CRM suite, a strategy must be put in place for when to evaluate and implement upgrades to the suite.

• There are two points at which applications managers should assess upgrade potential: an iterative checkpoint whenever a major new release of the CRM suite occurs, and an annual assessment that asks the question, “is our current suite meeting the needs of business users?” The former evaluates incremental feature sets included in product upgrades, while the latter is a deep-dive assessment of any gaps that have emerged in the strategic intent of the CRM suite.

• If major strategic gaps open between desired and actual functionality, consider moving to another vendor. Don’t continue to invest in a solution if it’s not proving useful or valuable.

• Upgrade complexity is determined in large part by the degree of customization of the suite: the more custom coding and data integration that is done, the more challenges you can expect in transitioning suites.

•The strong point of the agility solution turned into its weak point because upgrades of this nature were extremely complex because of the customization we asked for.

–IT Manager

The CRM marketspace moves quickly, and organizations must have an approach in place for deciding when, where, and how to upgrade their suites.

There are two paths that lead to an upgrade decision.

Vendor Updates Product

Annual Assessment

Don’t UpgradeUpgrade

Business Requirements Analysis


Concluding Recommendations

• Assess your organization’s need for a new CRM suite by reviewing the volume and complexity of your customer interactions, as well as the functionality provided by your current solution(s). When your needs exceed the capabilities provided by a CRM suite, consider augmenting it with best-of-breed point solutions.

• Evaluate your organization’s CRM integration strategy. Don’t overlook the importance of other integration needs, such as telephony systems, ERP, email, and content management. Channel integration between business process domains is critical. Do not underestimate integration with social media and mobile support when shopping for a CRM suite.

• Assemble a cross-functional selection and deployment team consisting of sales agents, marketing staff, call center and field service managers, IT managers and staff, and possibly customers. Leverage the executive support of the steering committee as well.

• Gather specific business goals and end-user requirements, and then use them to shortlist products.

• Issue a Request-for-Proposal (RFP), evaluate RFP responses, create a shortlist of the most appropriate vendors, conduct vendor demonstrations with shortlisted vendors, and then make your decision. After selection, designate an Applications Manager to oversee the implementation and maintenance stages.

• Make sure to pilot the CRM suite of choice with a small team before full deployment. Create a formal process for introducing the CRM suite – both through kick-off meetings and through end-user training.

• If possible, always use out-of-the-box customization; if significant custom development is required, hire a system integrator.

• Assign data stewardship responsibilities to ensure that data remains clean.

• Create a secure environment by establishing access rights, creating authorized users, and protecting against breaches.

• Create metrics to gauge the suite’s effectiveness, and establish a plan for ongoing suite maintenance and upkeep.


Need Additional Support?

Info-Tech goes beyond research: Speak directly to an analyst and/or engage onsite consulting services to help your team achieve results.Trigger Point: UnderstandingCRM

Defining Customer andOrganizational Focus Making the Business Case

Our Advisory & Consulting Services

Definition of preliminary CRM requirements across the organization

Identification of primary drivers for CRM and business case development

Trigger Point: Developing a Strategy for CRMSelection

Understanding the Current State Defining Functional and Technology Requirements for CRM


Definition of existing CRM business processes; assessment of existing policies

and technologies

Identification of process, policy, and technology areas that can benefit from

CRM and documentation of requirements

Trigger Point: Comparing CRMVendor Offerings

Reviewing the Vendor Landscape Identifying and Selecting Solutions that Meet your Needs


Preliminary vendor shortlisting, based on established functional andtechnology requirements

Request for Proposal (RFP) development and vendor response evaluation

Email our Advisory Team to discover how we have helped other clients. Get your CRM initiative started today!


Appendix A: Survey Responses


Survey Respondents - Industry


Survey Respondents - Country


Survey Respondents - # of FTEs


Survey Respondents - # of IT Employees


Survey Respondents - Revenue


Survey Respondents – By Job Title


Survey Respondents – By Location


Survey Respondents – By Department


Responses: Number of CRM Suite Features


Responses: Overall Importance of CRM Suite


Responses: Frequency of Using CRM Suite Features


Responses: Marketing Channels


Responses: State of Adoption of CRM Suites and Point Solutions


Responses: Primary Vendors for CRM Suites


Responses: Criteria for Selecting a CRM Suite


Responses: Frequency of Feature Usage


Responses: Importance of Different Features for a CRM Suite


Appendix B: Vendor Landscape Methodology


Vendor Evaluation Methodology

Info-Tech Research Group’s Vendor Landscape market evaluations are a part of a larger program of vendor evaluations which includes Solution Sets that provide both Vendor Landscapes and broader Selection Advice.

From the domain experience of our analysts as well as through consultation with our clients, a vendor/product shortlist is established. Product briefings are requested from each of these vendors, asking for information on the company, products, technology, customers, partners, sales models and pricing.

Our analysts then score each vendor and product across a variety of categories, on a scale of 0-10 points. The raw scores for each vendor are then normalized to the other vendors’ scores to provide a sufficient degree of separation for a meaningful comparison. These scores are then weighted according to weighting factors that our analysts believe represent the weight that an average client should apply to each criteria. The weighted scores are then averaged for each of two high level categories: vendor score and product score. A plot of these two resulting scores is generated to place vendors in one of four categories: Champion, Innovator, Market Pillar, and Emerging Player.

For a more granular category by category comparison, analysts convert the individual scores (absolute, non-normalized) for each vendor/product in each evaluated category to a scale of zero to four whereby exceptional performance receives a score of four and poor performance receives a score of zero. These scores are represented with “Harvey Balls,” ranging from an open circle for a score of zero to a filled in circle for a score of four. Harvey Ball scores are indicative of absolute performance by category but are not an exact correlation to overall performance.

Individual scorecards are then sent to the vendors for factual review, and to ensure no information is under embargo. We will make corrections where factual errors exist (e.g. pricing, features, technical specifications). We will consider suggestions concerning benefits, functional quality, value, etc.; however, these suggestions must be validated by feedback from our customers. We do not accept changes that are not corroborated by actual client experience or wording changes that are purely part of a vendor’s market messaging or positioning. Any resulting changes to final scores are then made as needed, before publishing the results to Info-Tech clients.

Vendor Landscapes are refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.


Value Index Ranking Methodology

Info-Tech Research Group’s Value Index is part of a larger program of vendor evaluations which includes Solution Sets that provide both Vendor Landscapes and broader Selection Advice.

The Value Index is an indexed ranking of value per dollar as determined by the raw scores given to each vendor by analysts. To perform the calculation, Affordability is removed from the Product score and the entire Product category is reweighted to represent the same proportions. The Product and Vendor scores are then summed, and multiplied by the Affordability raw score to come up with a Value Score. Vendors are then indexed to the highest performing vendor by dividing their score into that of the highest scorer, resulting in an indexed ranking with a top score of 100 assigned to the leading vendor.

The Value Index calculation is then repeated on the raw score of each category against Affordability, creating a series of indexes for Features, Usability, Viability, Strategy, and Support, with each being indexed against the highest score in that category. The results for each vendor are displayed in tandem with the average score in each category to provide an idea of over and under performance.

The Value Index, where applicable, is refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.


Product Pricing Scenario & Methodology

Info-Tech Research Group provided each vendor with a common pricing scenario to enable normalized scoring of Affordability, calculation of Value Index rankings, and identification of the appropriate solution pricing tier as displayed on each vendor scorecard.

For this set, vendors were provided with the following scenario and asked to provide a 3-year TCO:

• Enterprise Name: Mushu Dynamics

• Enterprise Size: Mid-Sized

• Enterprise Vertical: Consumer Electronics

• Total Number of Sites: One Customer Service Call Center

• Total Number of End Users: 150 call center agents, split into three shifts (50/shift – please specify per-user or per-device licensing). 15 customer service managers (5 per shift).

• Operating System Environment: Windows 7

• Office Productivity Suite Environment: Office 2010 Enterprise Edition

Functional Requirements and Additional Information:

• Mushu Dynamics is a global provider of specialized consumer electronics. The firm provides 24/7 customer support via self-service portals and assisted-service channels

(telephony, email, and chat). It has a single call center, with 50 agents working per shift (150 over three shifts). The organization has a CRM solution in place, but is specifically

looking for a best-of-breed option for Customer Relationship Management (CRM). In particular, the organization needs a solution that provides the following functionality:

◦ Case management (i.e. ticketing system)

◦ Automated assignment and escalation rules

◦ Agent-facing and customer-facing portals

◦ Service resolution tools (i.e. decision trees and wizards)

◦ Reporting and analytics (i.e. data on first-contact resolution, average time to resolution) Please specify if an external reporting vendor is necessary.

◦ Social functionality (ability to offer solutions through social channels; basic monitoring and response capabilities)

◦ Integration with other relevant technologies: CRM, call center telephony/IVR etc.

• Mobile support is highly desirable (either through a dedicated app or mobile browser)

• Please provide an accurate 3-year TCO for this organization. Please be sure to include all costs (licensing, maintenance plus hardware and implementation costs if applicable).


Pricing Tiers

We do not list price on vendor slides, instead we indicate a price bracket – we have defined ten pricing tiers, listed below.

• Under $1,000• $1,000 to $2,500• $2,500 to $10,000• $10,000 to $25,000• $25,000 to $50,000 • $50,000 to $100,000• $100,000 to $250,000 • $250,000 to $500,000 • $500,000 to $1 Million• Over $1 Million

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