REPUTATION FOR REPUTATION FOR REPUTATION FOR
COMPANY DIRECTION CUSTOMER SATISFACTION DEPTH OF FUNCTIONALITY TOP 3 VERTICALS
Maximizer Software Financial Services/Insurance, Manufacturing, Professional Services
NetSuite Publishing, Healthcare, Resellers
Oracle Financial Services, Communications, Retail
Salesforce.com Financial Services, High Technology, Media/Telecommunications
SugarCRM Technology/Telecommunications, Financial Services, Manufacturing
The Market Emergent Research, who praises NetSuite’s aptitude in connect-
The ability to integrate social media into small-business CRM ing marketing and CRM. Dickie says NetSuite elevates itself with
suites is what mattered most in 2009. “You’re starting to see tools back-office functionality. “For a company that has minimum
and services that help businesses create communities for custom- resources but front and back offices that have to integrate together,
ers to interact with each other,” says Brent Leary, cofounder and [NetSuite has] a lot to offer,” Dickie says. “Within a single appli-
partner of CRM Essentials. Cloud computing also became more cation you’ve got a strong capability for running your business.”
of a must-have this year, as small businesses expanded invest- Oracle’s inclusion in this year’s group of leaders is due to its
ments in Web-based services, and, as Leary notes, CRM vendors social CRM solution and its Sales Prospector product. “Oracle
began taking cues from Google’s use of its platform to shape cus- really understands that one of the biggest pain points in using
tomer experiences. Jim Dickie, managing partner at CSO In- CRM is requiring salespeople to enter more and more informa-
sights, says lack of resources is the main reason why small tion,” says Chad Thompson, vice president of AMI-Partners’ Mar-
businesses utilize cloud computing.“In order to compete,” Dickie ket Strategy Group. “Its social CRM solution addresses that need
says,“small businesses have to have the type of infrastructure that by leveraging the inherent ‘connectedness’ of sales while not
larger businesses have. Cloud computing has allowed small busi- putting the onus onto the salesperson to just keep adding more
nesses to have that without an [information technology] staff.” and more data.” Sales Prospector, Thompson says, helps ac-
curately predict the best product for each prospect. “A well-
The Leaders articulated and managed sales funnel is critical,” he says, “and
Superb depth of functionality kept Maximizer Software on the this is what Oracle’s solution excels at.”
leaderboard this year. “Maximizer is attracting an audience be- SugarCRM moved from our One to Watch in this category to
cause they focus on specific vertical industries and types of sales the leaderboard, as its score for depth of functionality jumped
forces,” Dickie says. By building applications geared to a vertical, from 3.3 to 3.9, and its scores for customer