THE 2010 CRM MARKET AWARDS
MARKET LEADERS
REPUTATION FOR REPUTATION FOR REPUTATION FOR
COMPANY DIRECTION CUSTOMER SATISFACTION DEPTH OF FUNCTIONALITY TOP 3 VERTICALS
Microsoft Financial Services, Professional Services, Public Sector
NetSuite Wholesale/Distribution, Software, Retail
Oracle Financial Services, Communications, Retail
RightNow Technologies Government, Higher Education, Retail
Salesforce.com Financial Services, High Technology, Media/Telecommunications
The Market its e-commerce.” NetSuite particularly targets vertical markets,
Midmarket companies—those with revenue between $100 million Band says, including wholesale and distribution, software, profes-
and $1 billion—are resuming recession-delayed CRM efforts, and sional services, e-commerce, and, more recently, manufacturing.
“doubling down on their investments in customers,” says Forrester “NetSuite best suits organizations needing an all-in-one business
Research Vice President and Principal Analyst William Band. Now, application that spans the front- and back-office functions,”he says.
with speed to deployment and ease of payment as primary goals, Oracle, often associated with massive-scale enterprise deals, con-
organizations are embracing software-as-a-service and supple- tinues to hold ground in the midmarket thanks largely to a Busi-
mentary technologies to get full value out of core capabilities. China ness Accelerator program providing rapid-implementation tools.
Martens, senior analyst with The 451 Group, says she sees collab- Band attributes Oracle’s jump in depth-of-functionality score—a
oration and social networking increasingly coming into the fold. whopping 4.5 compared to last year’s still-high 3.8—to the com-
A product such as Salesforce.com’s Chatter, she says, might even be pany’s breadth of offerings: From Oracle CRM On Demand to
better suited for a midsize organization than a huge enterprise. Oracle Siebel CRM to Oracle E-Business Suite CRM and Oracle
PeopleSoft CRM, the vendor claims to have something for every-
The Leaders one. Band says Oracle fares well in client referrals, and Fauscette
Microsoft reclaims a long-standing leader position, and manages notes it seems to be keeping VARs happy, who in turn, are keep-
to boost scores in both company direction (up from a 3.9 to a 4.0) ing customers happy. The results are clear, with nearly a full-point
and depth of functionality (up from a 3.3 to a 3.8). Band says Mi- improvement this year in its score for customer satisfaction.
crosoft’s strengths in functionality stem from its native integration In its sixth consecutive appearance on the leaderboard,
with Microsoft Outlook and other pieces of the technology stack. RightNow Technologies’ scores largely resemble last year’s, with
The lower score in customer satisfaction—from 3.8 in 2009 to