2012 CRM MARKET LEADER AWARDS

The CRM market continues to prove its worth with some impressive growth. According to one analyst firm's CEO survey,

CRM is the most important area of investment to improve business over the next five years. Fueling this growth are

investments in software-as-a-service, social, mobile, analytics, and even gamification applications. Find out which vendors

are ramping up these offerings and best responding to industry needs in this year's Market Leader awards.

1. Enterprise Suite CRM

The Market

This year, CEOs rated CRM as the most important area of investment to improve their business over the next five years,

according to Gartner's 2012 CEO Survey. Global CRM software revenue totaled $12 billion in 2011, a 13.5 percent increase

from 2010. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) deployments continued their growth trend, accounting for 32 percent of the CRM

software market in 2011.

CRM vendors are increasingly tasked with tying workflows, analytics, mobile, and social components into an experience-

driven solution that addresses the entire customer journey, according to Gartner.

The LeadersMicrosoft earned a solid score of 4.0 in cost for its pricing strategy. There has been a changing of the guard for Dynamics CRM this year, with Microsoft naming Dennis Michalis as general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a move analysts approved. The hiring of a new corporate vice president for Dynamics this spring was equally well-received. "With the arrival of Bob Stutz, competitors can expect a shift to the enterprise," comments Ray Wang, principal analyst and CEO of Constellation Research. While Wang applauds Microsoft's offering choice in deployments, Paul Greenberg, president of The 56 Group, notes that Microsoft's social and analytics components need to be strengthened.

NetSuite's scores were consistent with category averages across the board. Like some others on the leaderboard,

NetSuite is paying careful attention to cloud commerce. This year, NetSuite unveiled its commerce-as-a-service solution,

SuiteCommerce, allowing enterprises to manage business and customer interactions through a cloud platform on

NetSuite's ERP/CRM business management application. John Ragsdale, vice president of technology research for the

Technology Services Industry Association, calls NetSuite's integrated professional services automation and CRM a "major

plus for an OnDemand solution."

Oracle made our leaderboard again, with good reason. Of all the enterprise CRM vendors evaluated, Greenberg says

Oracle "might have the most complete functionality." Other analysts agreed, giving Oracle a 4.2, the top score for

functionality. Brent Leary, partner at CRM Essentials, notes Oracle's "acquisition spree" over the last 18 months, picking up

RightNow Technologies, Taleo, Endeca, Inquira, Market2Lead, Collective Intellect, and Vitrue, "which has allowed it to [add]

top-notch functionality to its traditional CRM offerings." Leary mentions Oracle's developing a "broad focus on customer

experience—and dividing that focus into B2B and B2C workflows, processes, and solutions."

An active player in this spring's string of big-name acquisitions, SAP again makes its presence known in the enterprise

suite CRM category. Acquiring cloud-based business commerce company Ariba for $4.3 billion reinforces the fact that

"people are getting into end-to-end commerce," Wang says. Cloud-based enterprise network and procurement is a $5

billion market, and SAP wanted a piece of it. Martin Schneider, CRM analyst at 451 Research, says SAP is essentially

"rebuilding what it's doing" in terms of mobility and analytics. "[SAP is] entrenched in so many big businesses on the back

end side with the financials that they can take the time [and] do it right. I think SAP is going to come back in CRM in a big

way," Schneider says. SAP's score of 3.9 for company direction was solid, but not without a nod to the movement that

awaits.

The WinnerSalesforce.com, our enterprise victor, showed off a prime score of 4.5 for company direction. The company continued to wow judges this year, especially with its $50 million acquisition of SaaS solution Assistly (now Desk.com) last fall. "While it brings social service functionality that can be used in the service cloud, it also is a service rooted in serving small businesses," Leary says of Salesforce.com's multimarket reign. Oracle's pursuit of marketing automation (in its snapping up of Vitrue this May) was soon followed by Salesforce.com's acquisition of social marketing solution suite Buddy Media. "Salesforce.com continues to make a lot of moves," Schneider maintains.

One to WatchKANA came in as our One to Watch, and while the company didn't make it to the leaderboard this year, Leslie Ament, senior analyst and vice president of Hypatia Research Group, says she is "favorably impressed" by the company's spring launch of the Service Experience Management platform, which is targeted for the enterprise. "Ease of use is provided via a single sign-on with one interface for agents, so that CRM data is available to them for history and decision support without having to access multiple screens," Ament says.

2. Midmarket Suite CRM

The MarketLast year's blurring of the lines between midmarket and enterprise CRM offerings has not cleared much. The likely trailblazers in the midmarket are those vendors that account for the surge in cloud, social, and mobile computing.

Expect to see SaaS growth continue, as Gartner predicts revenues in the United States will total $9.1 billion in 2012, up

from $7.8 billion last year. That uptick carried out across the globe, with Asia-Pacific, Japan, and Latin America's growing

adoption of CRM or ERP deployments.

The LeadersMicrosoft's release of Dynamics CRM 2011 continued to shake out with a Q2 2012 update, which included native support for mobile devices and planned upgrades in social customer care. "Microsoft showed some very interesting visions at [Convergence 2012] and they're kind of percolating," says Martin Schneider, CRM analyst for 451 Research. But he added that "it's interesting what [Microsoft] can do with all of its components to really create an experience-driven CRM." Laurie McCabe, a partner with SMB Group, says Microsoft "has hung in there [against competitor Salesforce.com] and that tenacity seems to be paying off. It's coming on strong." But the general word among analysts was that this vendor needs to juice up its analytics.

NetSuite took a solid 3.9 for company direction, a slight dip from its 4.1 last year, but analysts seemed pleased with this

vendor's overall performance. Steve King, partner at Emergent Research, calls NetSuite "a great midmarket choice." While

Paul Greenberg, president of The 56 Group, notes that "social components in the CRM component of its suite" are lacking,

he did point out NetSuite's inherent nature as an ERP company. NetSuite continued to pad its midmarket and enterprise

partner network this year, introducing the cloud-based SuiteCommerce platform as a way for companies to manage

customers across numerous touch points. "In terms of the bigger picture…it should be the way people think [about CRM],"

McCabe says.

Oracle scored strong in functionality, nabbing a 4.1, a drop from last year's 4.4. A 3.7 in company direction—among the

lowest on our leaderboard—justifies analysts' "wait and see" sentiment, especially with Oracle's recent acquisitions. Last

year, analysts had questions about how Oracle Fusion CRM was shaking out, and at press time, Oracle had just paired its

customer experience suite, RightNow CX Cloud, with Fusion CRM—bolstering the multichannel view of the customer.

SugarCRM held its competitive pricing edge, earning a score of 4.1 for cost. John Ragsdale, vice president of technology

research for the Technology Services Industry Association, calls Sugar "a solution that continues to expand," with customer

satisfaction that appears to be "climbing." Analysts were sweet on this vendor for replacing IBM's Siebel Systems

implementation with SugarCRM, which indicates to King that it's "moving beyond small businesses."

The WinnerSalesforce.com continued its winning streak, pulling the rug out from under its competitors for reputation for company direction with a score of 4.4. Salesforce.com's acquisition of Buddy Media further proved that the company planned to pad its social-media marketing capabilities. King calls Salesforce.com a "consistently strong vendor of midmarket CRM," and his praise was echoed by a declaration from McCabe that "Salesforce.com is still the leader."

Salesforce.com was hot on Oracle's heels for depth of functionality, earning a solid 4.0 for its bells and whistles. The vendor

remains a CRM provider of choice for enterprise, midmarket, and SMB users, Schneider says, who adds that

Salesforce.com's "ability to…ramp up to $750 million in revenue before quickly attacking the enterprise…proves it runs the

gamut really well."

One to WatchBeing snapped up by Oracle last year for $1.5 billion did not hurt RightNow Technologies' position as a strength player, as it scored a 4.0 in customer satisfaction and retained its title as One to Watch. "This vendor has a significant offering with a good reputation for customer satisfaction, depth of functionality, and company direction," says Leslie Ament, senior analyst and vice president of Hypatia Research Group. "After being acquired by Oracle, along with ATG, Endeca, and other front-office vendors, it will be interesting to see if RightNow will be able to maintain the level of customer satisfaction built up over many years."

3. Small-Business Suite CRM

The MarketWhen it comes to small and midsized businesses (SMBs), cash is king. Affordability and pricing often take precedence over intricacies in functionality, and this year's small-business suite CRM leaders are no exception.

Smaller sales and marketing teams demand a no-nonsense approach, and software-as-a-service solutions that zero in on

an SMB's lines of business and build out an all-in-one product will be most competitively positioned.

Forty-one percent of SMBs report having a CRM system in place this year, according to Forrester Research. Another 25

percent plan to deploy a CRM system this year or beyond, indicating the small and midsized environment is ripe for growth.

The LeadersMicrosoft made it on to our leaderboard for the second year in a row, following a four-year lapse. Steve King, partner at Emergent Research, says Microsoft has "great third-party support," and Martin Schneider, a CRM analyst at 451 Research, spoke of its many "interesting components, like the mobile platform." Still, in functionality, it settled in at 3.5. "I think they have a really great, great midmarket product, but I'm…skeptical that they are scaling it down enough for the true small business," Laurie McCabe, a partner with SMB Group, asserts.

NetSuite inched up from its position as One to Watch last year to place on our leaderboard. While King praises the suite's

"excellent functionality," he remarks that this is generally a solution geared toward larger small businesses. While McCabe

touts NetSuite's overall big-picture strategy, with impressive efforts in multichannel and e-commerce—namely, the

introduction of the SuiteCommerce platform integrating ERP and CRM capabilities—she does point out that "you don't

actually see too many small businesses buying NetSuite CRM." This may explain why the vendor's company direction

dipped slightly from last year, dropping from 3.9 to 3.7.

Our winner in this category for five years straight, Salesforce.com did not relinquish its crown without a fight. It took top

spot in company direction with a 4.2, and small wonder. It continues to be seen as a top innovator among industry experts.

"Some of Salesforce.com's acquisitions…[are not] necessarily pulled together and neat yet, but it's really the innovator,"

McCabe notes. But despite the all-around "excellence" in offerings King speaks of, Salesforce.com's small-business pulse

appears less clear. Some [small businesses] really like it, says McCabe, "but there are others that find it getting a little too

convoluted."

SugarCRM carved out a niche again on the small-business suite CRM leaderboard, with a score of 4.0 in the cost category.

King calls Sugar "a leader in open-source CRM, [offering a] solid product at a good price." While it may seem Sugar has its

eyes on the enterprise after integrating with the IBM LotusLive collaboration suite and replacing Siebel as IBM's on-demand

CRM of choice, it is still positioned as a leader in the SMB realm.

The WinnerZoho stepped up its game and stole top spot as our winner with a 4.5 for cost and a 4.0 for functionality. Analysts had plenty of positive things to say about this vendor. "Zoho CRM is cost-effective, easy to use, and continues to add on attractive functionality priced like an a la carte menu, which enables smaller businesses to scale as necessary," says Leslie Ament, senior analyst and vice president of Hypatia Research Group. John Ragsdale, vice president of technology research for the Technology Services Industry Association, counted Zoho among the "rising stars" for small-business CRM. This year, Zoho gave its user interface a full facelift, added a plethora of features like Pulse for internal collaboration, came out with myriad mobile integrations, and integrated Zoho Support with Facebook and Twitter.

For the small business that requires functionality at a price it can afford, "Zoho is emerging as a very strong candidate,"

Schneider says. Zoho has that disruptive star quality, he points out, adding that "Salesforce.com disrupted the Siebels of

the world and [now you see] Zoho disrupting Salesforce" in on-demand, small-business CRM.

One to WatchSage was nudged off the leaderboard, but positioned itself as our One to Watch. This year, Sage launched a Cloud Platform with Essentials and Professional editions, as well as mobile support for devices such as Android and iPhone. While King says Sage has "fallen a bit behind in the cloud" in comparison to some of its counterparts, analysts' scores still reflected that Sage offers a cost-effective solution for small businesses, earning a solid 3.7.

4. Sales Force Automation

The MarketSales force automation (SFA) has been and continues to be about enabling sales teams to sell better. "Salespeople are kind of on an island—they're set with a quota and they want to be able to track and manage the basics," says Martin Schneider, CRM analyst at 451 Research. The industry is witnessing a push for deeper social and mobile SFA capabilities, as well as collaboration. He adds, "[Collaboration] does make people better by linking them to other people, but there's a big cultural change in that."

The LeadersMicrosoft's "hiring a major product strategist for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is one of the best moves [it] has made," asserts Leslie Ament, senior analyst and vice president of Hypatia Research Group. Bob Stutz came on board to lead the Dynamics CRM effort, catching the industry's attention. Microsoft earned a 4.0 for company direction, underpinned by its "ability to offer choice in deployments," giving it a huge advantage, says Ray Wang, principal analyst and CEO of Constellation Research. The Microsoft Dynamics CRM Q2 2012 Update introduced Microsoft Dynamics CRM Mobile and cross-browser support for Dynamics on versions of Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome. "Microsoft is trying to figure out…how do we get [social, mobile components] into a stronger SaaS or cloud model?" Schneider says. "It's playing catch-up in some ways, but it's got tools to be innovative in others."

NetSuite earned an enviable score of 4.0 as the SFA category leader in customer satisfaction. Last year's Market Awards

found NetSuite eyeing larger enterprise, and it appears the company made some headway in that regard. Among

enterprise and midmarket solution providers that recently made the move to NetSuite Cloud were Deloitte Consulting,

Grant Thornton, and Blytheco. As a result of this effort, NetSuite's revenue spiked, showing a 30 percent year-over-year

increase in the first quarter of 2012.

For the fourth year in a row, Oracle clinched a title as an SFA Market Leader, and rightfully so. Oracle pulled a 4.2 for depth

of functionality. John Ragsdale, vice president of technology research for the Technology Services Industry Association,

calls it a "functional best of breed." The release of Oracle RightNow CX Cloud Service, coupled with Oracle Fusion CRM,

blended its customer experience solution with sales force automation for a cross-departmental view of the customer.

Oracle's score for company direction dropped slightly (3.7, down from 3.9), which could be correlated to the company's

healthy stream of acquisitions, not the least of which was the $1.5 billion purchase of cloud-based CRM provider RightNow

Technologies last fall.

After coming in as our One to Watch last year, SugarCRM was clearly not content to watch from the sidelines. Wang says

that SugarCRM's "win with IBM puts it on the map for enterprise-class, open source solutions," after IBM bid farewell to its

Siebel solution last year and said hello to Sugar. SugarCRM recently clinched $33 million in financing to further expand its

enterprise offerings, experiencing 118 percent growth in global billings in the first quarter of 2012 from first quarter 2011.

The WinnerFor the seventh consecutive year, Salesforce.com stole the show for its Sales Cloud, which weds social accounts, Chatter, mobile, and analytics capabilities. Securing the top spot for company direction with a 4.4, it;s safe to say that it's "mapped on to the transformative nature of social and analytics in the workplace," Schneider notes. At press time, Salesforce.com was gearing up for its summer 2012 release, going full steam ahead with social business offerings and beefing up its sales solution pipeline. Salesforce.com led the pack for functionality, with an impressive 4.3. This vendor "continues to lead the market with thought leadership, and its vision of a social enterprise goes beyond sales," Wang says, adding that customers will be eyeing "how it plans to modernize and improve its core SaaS architecture.

One to WatchA newcomer to the SFA ranks this year, >Zoho nudged its way onto our radar screen to take the title of One to Watch. Ament says this is a company with small-business know-how, offering solutions that serve as "an attractive option for businesses requiring basic marketing, customer support, Web conferencing, and sales force automation functionality." There's something to be said for getting back to basics. "Zoho is emerging as a very strong candidate for the space…where people just want 'enough'" to seamlessly close the deal, Schneider explains.

5. Incentive Management

The MarketIncentive management (IM) is heating up. "This is a very hot area, with lots of innovation and merger activity going on," says Jim Dickie, managing partner of CSO Insights. The economy is putting pressure on companies to find smarter, cost-efficient ways to motivate their sales teams as well as help them uncover and track more leads. The year was marked by a number of major consolidations as companies seek ways to invest in their employees. In addition, gamification has become the latest industry buzzword, and forward-thinking companies are turning to game mechanics to influence employees' and customers' behavior.

The LeadersThe newly acquired Merced Systems has once again earned a spot on the leaderboard. Late last year, NICE Systems , a company based in Israel that provides analytical tools for recording service transactions, announced that it would buy Merced Systems for approximately $150 million. Analysts approve of the acquisition. Dickie notes that integrating Merced with NICE's capabilities gives customers a "more robust [sales performance management] solution." Ray Wang, principal analyst and CEO at Constellation Research, says the acquisition "adds a broader vision" to the range of solutions in Merced's portfolio.

After receiving the 2010 One to Watch title, Softscape disappeared last year, only to reappear on the leaderboard as part

of SumTotal Systems. After acquiring Softscape two years ago, SumTotal Systems, a provider of human capital

management solutions, integrated Softscape's talent and performance management solutions into its offerings, providing a

software suite that covers key human resource functions including training, performance, compensation, social

collaboration, hiring, planning, analytics, and more. SumTotal's offerings point to a growing trend in companies investing in

more HR technology, according to Wang.

One of the earliest vendors to enter this space, Synygy holds steady as an IM leader. Along with SumTotal, Wang notes

that Synygy appears on a lot of short lists "because of its wide range of industries and depth of functionality." Last year, it

announced partnerships with Kane Bank Services, a retail bank consulting and sales training practice, and talent

management solutions provider StepStone Solutions. Synygy reported 35 percent total revenue growth for Q1 of 2012

compared to the same quarter last year, and a 56 percent rise in managed support subscriptions.

In April, a few months after Varicent Software reported a 42 percent revenue growth for 2011, making it the company's

best year in terms of sales and client acquisitions, IBM snapped up the Canada-based vendor. With its high score of 4.1 in

company direction, analysts seem confident that Varicent will do well on IBM's roster. Combining Varicent's software, which

automates and analyzes data to uncover trends across sales, finance, human resources, and IT departments, with IBM's

other acquisitions, such as Unica, Cognos, and SPSS, provides customers with a "very strong analytics solution set,"

according to Dickie.

The WinnerXactly has done it again: The San Jose, Calif.–based company takes the title of IM winner for the fourth year in a row. Michael Fauscette, group vice president of software business solutions at IDC, says Xactly provides "a strong and modern user experience and [does] simplicity better [than other vendors]." Analysts also praise the vendor for its innovative approaches. "Xactly remains a progressive thought leader as it adds gaming mechanics to incentives," Wang says. Xactly unveiled a new customer loyalty/gamification platform, Friends of Xactly, that rewards customers with points for activities, such as speaking at Xactly's user conference, providing a case study, or following Xactly on Twitter. Customers can exchange points for discounts to its user conference, free training, or dinner with Xactly's CEO, Chris Cabrera, in addition to earning status levels such as "Fan," "Champion," and "Rockstar."

One to WatchFrench compensation provider Excentive International slipped off the leaderboard this year. Fauscette notes that the company has a "good set of functionalities," but needs to "shake things up." Given its new strategy, the company may return to the leaderboard next year. Excentive International has made North America "a top priority for 2012" according to a company statement. As part of its strategy, the company announced a partnership with OpenSymmetry, an Austin, TX–based SPM consulting firm, which will include Excentive in its offerings to its customers. "This partnership represents an important step in our current strategy: to make our U.S. subsidiary the number one operation of Excentive International," said Excentive International CEO Fabio Ronga in a statement.

6. Marketing Solutions

The MarketMarketers continue to place their bets on digital technology as vendors roll out increasingly sophisticated solutions. Digital tools covering online, mobile, and email are "taking the lion's share" of the marketing budget at the expense of traditional advertising and marketing vehicles, according to a report by Forrester principal analyst Tracy Stokes. Gartner analyst Laura McLellan predicts that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than their counterpart CIOs. In a Webinar, McLellan noted, "Technology is at the heart of marketing—and adoption is well under way."

The LeadersReturning leader Aprimo (acquired by data warehousing and business analytics company Teradata in 2010) is a "dominating presence among Fortune 100 companies and a solid brand," says Raj Agnihotri, assistant professor of marketing and director of research at The Schey Sales Center at Ohio University. Aprimo expanded its Integrated Marketing Management solutions this year with the Aprimo Real-Time Interaction Manager, an inbound solution that analyzes customer interactions in real time. With solid 4.0s in depth of functionality and company direction, analysts are pleased with Aprimo's development. Despite its success, Michael Fauscette, group vice president of software business solutions at IDC, says Teradata faces "a lot of competitors coming from different angles," posing a challenge for the vendor.

Although it managed to stay on the leaderboard, analysts had mixed reactions to Eloqua, the software-as-a-service

marketing automation pioneer. Last summer, Eloqua launched a new Social Media Suite that enables users to improve form

conversions, increase campaign reach, monitor real-time conversations, and score leads. According to Ray Wang, CEO and

principal analyst at Constellation Research, the release "significantly improves the user experience and is designed to

simplify the most complex scenarios." Fauscette notes that the company has a "decent reputation" but it needs to improve

its company direction.

SAS Institute is the"Rolls Royce of [the] market," Fauscette says. The vendor scored a 4.2 for customer satisfaction and

4.0s for depth of functionality and company direction but stumbled on product cost, with a 3.2. On a positive note, Wang

points out that SAS's industry solutions "remain its strength" and it has "made strides in improving its offerings in social

[media]." Last summer the company unveiled new features for its SAS Social Media Analytics, which include social

scorecards, an author hub, and competitive intelligence functionality.

This year marks the second year that Unica has held its spot on the leaderboard after IBM acquired the marketing software

maker for about $480 million in 2010. To get the most out of its purchase, Brent Leary, cofounder and partner of CRM

Essentials, says making Unica "more accessible" so that end users can "take advantage of the [solution's] vast amount of

functionality would go a long way in maximizing [IBM's] investment in the platform." In addition, Unica remains "the gold

standard" for high-end solutions, according to Wang.

The Winner

Marketo grabbed the crown for the second year in a row. Social marketing automation solutions have been a weak spot

for many vendors, but Marketo shook things up this spring when it bought social campaign management firm Crowd

Factory in its first-ever acquisition. "Marketo's move to acquire Crowd Factory signals a realization that social is not only a

requirement but also a key strategic differentiator," Wang says. Adding Crowd Factory to its portfolio makes Marketo a

"complete happy family," adds Agnihotri. "Marketo's leadership understood…that social marketing applications were

missing from their product family so acquiring Crowd Factory was really a smart move," he says. The company also

recently unveiled Marketo Social Marketing, a suite of products designed to make marketing campaigns inherently social.

The suite's first offerings, Marketo Social Boost and Marketo Social Promotions, include a new collection of social campaign

applications, such as video sharing, voting, sweepstakes, and referrals.

One to Watch

Despite falling short of the leaderboard once again, Oracle offers a lot of potential, according to the judges. "They're

serious about building out," Fauscette says. "They're competing heavily against IBM and SAS Institute, and they're starting

to run into Marketo more." According to Wang, Oracle's recent acquisition of Vitrue, a social marketing platform, was a

response to Marketo's Crowd Factory purchase and an attempt to "leapfrog" its own gap in social marketing automation.

7. Business Intelligence

The Market

As big data continues to grow, the business intelligence market does too. Start-ups and established vendors are racing to

help companies unlock insights about consumers by offering tools to mine data, analyze it, and track it in real time. The

market is dominated by companies buying their way in because BI is "such a hot space," Michael Fauscette, group vice

president of software business solutions at IDC, explains. There is still room for smaller, more nimble players to gain a

toehold, particularly around social analytics, he says. "It just takes a little time to get there," he says.

The Leaders

"Oracle gets big data," says John Ragsdale, vice president of technology research for the Technology Services Industry

Association, adding that the company is oriented toward helping customers leverage BI through its core applications. In a

blog post, Forrester analyst Boris Evelson explains that Oracle's 2011 acquisition of Endeca, a provider of unstructured data

management, Web commerce, and business intelligence solutions, was key in differentiating the company. "Oracle has

leapfrogged all other leading BI vendors in its capability to integrate unharmonized data sources and perform search-based

BI," Evelson writes. Oracle still has room for improvement, though, and received a 3.8 in customer satisfaction, placing it

behind several vendors.

Last year's One to Watch, Qliktech, has jumped to the leaderboard. Qliktech offers a "fresh, modern application,"

Fauscette says. Its 37 percent sales growth over the past year helped it snag third place, surpassed only by LinkedIn and

Apple, on Forbes' annual list of America's 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies. In fall 2011, the company unveiled QlikView

11, introducing social decision-making on its self-service BI platform to help users collaborate to make more insightful

decisions. "QlikTech's focus on ease is helping to democratize business intelligence," Steve King, a partner at Emergent

Research, notes. Ray Wang, principal analyst and CEO at Constellation Research, says Qliktech's fast, business-friendly BI

tools"remain the envy of business users around the world."

SAP once again snagged a spot on the leaderboard with SAP Business Objects and its HANA in-memory database. "[SAP

seems] to be set up nicely for the future with HANA, and a thorough roadmap for collaborative analytics and mobile BI—two

areas that promise to be crucial," CRM Essentials cofounder and partner Brent Leary says. Wang notes that "customers love

the Business Objects capabilities, but the company still needs to harmonize its metadata model with the rest of its

acquisitions."

SAS Institute's offerings continue to secure its position on the leaderboard. "SAS customers are extremely loyal and love

the industry focus on solutions," Wang says. The fact that the company's product is difficult to implement holds it back,

however. In a "Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms" report, Gartner notes that the company has been

making an effort to address such criticism, which could boost SAS Institute's results with analysts next year.

The Winner

The reigning champion for the fourth year in a row, IBM continues to be a "dominant player," thanks to multiple strategic

acquisitions in the BI space, according to Ragsdale. "Cognos, in particular, is highly adopted and highly regarded by large

high-tech firms," Ragsdale notes. Having added Varicent to a broad collection of acquisitions in its Smarter Analytics

System, including Algorithmics, Clarity Systems, OpenPages, and Cognos, in addition to investments in predictive analytics

vendors such as SPSS, IBM is going strong. Part of IBM's success is its ability to solve complicated issues for its customers.

"IBM's Smarter Analytics is the high end of the market in the types of problems solved and the ability to address complex

scenarios," Wang says. Judges awarded the vendor best-in-category scores of 4.7 and 4.6 for depth of functionality and

company direction, respectively.

One to Watch

As a business intelligence provider, Teradata is a company to watch. Its solutions are "highly flexible," and the user

interface of its products is becoming "increasingly easy for business users," Ragsdale says. Although Teradata's market

share in this space is small compared to companies on the leaderboard, the company's coffers are growing, which could

lead to more powerful solutions down the road. The company reported a 21 percent increase in revenue for the first quarter

of 2012, compared to the same quarter a year ago.

8. Data Quality

The Market

Current estimates put the waste associated with poor data quality—blamed for duplicate mailings, lost contacts, and

missed sales opportunities—at about one sixth of the company budget at many organizations. That unacceptable loss has

prompted an uptick in the data quality market. Analyst firm The Information Difference valued the data quality market at

about $948 million in 2011, showing 7 percent growth over 2010.

While the industry's main focus has been on customer contact information, a new area of attention has been product and

marketing data, which is far more complex to maintain and update. As such, data quality continues to be recognized as an

inherent issue for larger master data management projects, an area Gartner says will grow to $1.9 billion this year, up 21

percent from last year, and to $3.2 billion by 2015. And while a few large vendors dominate, more than half of the revenue

industrywide will come from smaller, more specialized vendors, according to Gartner.

The Leaders

DataFlux, a part of SAS Institute, maintains its leadership position mostly on the strength of its customer satisfaction, for

which it received an industry-leading score of 4.4. The company also scored an impressive 4.3 in depth of functionality.

Leslie Ament, senior analyst and vice president at Hypatia Research Group, calls its flexibility an asset. "DataFlux enables

its brand-name retail apparel clients that sell direct via multiple channels…to consolidate customer records via multiple

channels," she says. Moreover, its data management platform supports any domain, any data source type, in any time

frame—real, batch, or virtual."

IBM was kept out of the top spot in data quality this year by its score on cost (2.9), the lowest in the industry, but don't

count Big Blue out just yet. IBM, already a long-time staple in the data quality field, stirred the pot this year with several

key acquisitions that strengthen its position in data quality and analytics, the most recent being DemandTec, Vivisimo, and

Tealeaf Technologies. If they pay dividends for the company, it could see its 4.5 score in depth of functionality climb even

higher next year.

Pitney Bowes joined the data quality ranks in 2004 when it acquired Group 1 Software, but has been slow to capture

market share. A One to Watch in both 2008 and 2009 after placing on the leaderboard in 2007, it's back among the leaders

on the strength of its scores for cost and value. The company's 3.9 score in cost was second only to Talend, which failed to

place this year.

Trillium Software, a division of Harte-Hanks, sits proudly among the industry elite for the ninth straight year. Its depth of

functionality score of 4.3 was among the highest in the industry, but it also attracted attention for making its solutions

cloud-ready (with support for the Amazon and Microsoft Azure clouds), and offering on-premises and hosted offerings. Its

partnership with Microsoft, which positions it as the first and only choice for data quality profiling and cleansing within the

Microsoft Dynamics CRM environment, will only expand its reach. Beyond that, "Trillium has amassed an impressive

quantity of clients," Ament says, noting that the company "is now engaging directly with customers by offering ROI value

propositions that attract both upstream and downstream decision-makers."

The Winner

Informatica ran away with the top spot in the industry for the third year in a row after capturing top scores in functionality

(4.5) and company direction (4.4) and a second-place finish in customer satisfaction (4.1). In May, it released version 9.5 of

its Informatica Platform, which it says will not only make corporate big data more valuable, relevant, actionable, timely, and

secure, but will lower operational costs and time to implementation too. Ray Wang, principal analyst and CEO of

Constellation Research, says, "From data quality to master management to integration, Informatica has all the pieces

needed to master big data and provide high-fidelity stream as we make the shift from data to decisions."

One to Watch

Oracle last year was projected to advance to the leaderboard following several key acquisitions in the data management

area. Well, the acquisitions continued this year, but they weren't enough to propel the company beyond being a One to

Watch again in 2012. As with many acquisitions, integration is often a struggle, and that was certainly the case at Oracle,

which scored at the bottom of the field in company direction with a 3.1. Nonetheless, its customers were among some of

the happiest, according to Andy Hayler, president and CEO of The Information Difference.

9. Open-Source CRM

The Market

Open-source CRM solutions haven't exactly hit the mainstream just yet, but they have a lot going for them. They're often

far less expensive and easier to modify than their proprietary counterparts, and if modifications are needed after

deployment, programmers are usually easy to find. And while the past year has seen a continuation of the shift to a

"freemium" model, the real momentum shift has centered around the hosted model. "The way vendors have packaged

their solutions on a premium and pay-as-you-go basis has been a model for success," says Jeff Kaplan, founder and

managing director of ThinkStrategies.

The Leaders

ADempiere, a spin-off of Compiere, draws its strength from its developer and user community. It had been absent from

our rankings since 2008, when it appeared as a One to Watch. This year, it climbs onto the leaderboard, mostly on the

strength of its offering in terms of cost. The company scored an industry-leading 4.1 in that criteria, but the fact that it is

mostly known for its ERP products kept it from rising higher in the other judging criterion.

Concursive, a staple on the leaderboard, led the industry this year with a score of 4.0 in customer satisfaction, but

analysts also favored the company's very strong presence and robust set of offerings in the social CRM space, and the fact

that its products are deployable individually or as a full suite in either software-as-a-service or on-premises versions. Also

true to the open-source creed, Concursive boasts a developer and user community of more than 17,000 registered

members, most of them operating in the Java/J2EE environment. Still, the company struggles with direction; like so many

others in this category, it is trying to expand its reach beyond CRM to other business applications.

Consona again takes a place among the industry elite, bolstered by its 2010 acquisition of Compiere, a staple on CRM's

leaderboard before the acquisition. The company, which has a strong presence in the cloud-based ERP space, was helped

along by the second-highest score (4.2) in depth of functionality; in fact, analysts have warned that in some cases, much of

the enterprise-class application's power is likely to go unused. The company also pulled in a better-than-average score

(4.0) in cost, with a community edition that is free and three other editions that range in price from $300 to less than

$1,000 a year.

vTiger makes the top ranks of companies in the open-source CRM space simply by virtue of its industry-leading score (4.3)

in cost, an essential requirement for such solutions. It also scored 3.8 in three of the other judging criteria—depth of

functionality, company direction, and customer satisfaction—but perhaps is most known for its ease of use. Though it has a

strong following among small and midsized firms, it is an enterprise system with a lot of capability and some of the

strongest tie-ins to other systems and databases, according to industry analysts. The company has found its warmest

welcome in developing markets, but its recent push in the cloud could take it farther.

The Winner

As it has done since the category was launched in 2008, SugarCRM emerged as the standard bearer for open-source CRM

solutions, with a total score of 4.4, more than four-tenths of a point above its nearest competitor. As the most significant

open-source CRM solution vendor by a wide margin at this time, its 4.7 score in depth of functionality, 4.6 in company

direction, and 4.5 in customer satisfaction more than compensated for its below-average score in cost. The company was

also bolstered again this year by a number of key partnerships, which are at the core of the open-source movement in the

first place. "It has very solid core offerings, which are enriched by its many partnerships with other developers," says Jim

Dickie, managing partner at CSO Insights.

One to Watch

xTuple, the One to Watch for the past two years, continues in that role this year after better-than-average scores in each

of the judging criteria and a particularly strong finish in cost, where it tallied a score of 3.9. With business management

software geared especially toward growing companies starting from scratch, analysts were particularly impressed with the

way that xTuple integrates all critical functional areas in one system; its multiplatform support for Mac, Windows, Linux,

and mobile operating systems; and flexible licensing and pricing options. Nonetheless, it is still known as an ERP vendor

with limited product offerings in CRM, according to analysts.

10. Consultancies

The Market

As the CRM market grows with additional solutions, so, too, does its complexity, which is fueling impressive growth in the

CRM consulting industry as well.

While the largest consulting houses continue to dominate the market, a crop of new players has been emerging to help

clients assess where, when, and how to take advantage of new cloud-based alternatives. Another crop specializes in social

media monitoring.

In addition to specializations, many consulting firms have expanded beyond very basic services this year to include

implementation strategies, training, release management, customizations, product upgrades and migrations, system

testing, business intelligence and analytics, data integration, and product support and maintenance. Some have even

aligned themselves with specific solutions vendors to ensure a steady stream of business.

The Leaders

All four of this year's leaders have been around for a while, and while some of them have changed their focus slightly, most

have stayed true to what has placed them at or near the top in the category since CRM magazine began presenting its

Market Leader Awards more than 10 years ago.

Accenture, for example, ably produces in its ability to execute, earning a score of 3.9. And while Jim Dickie, managing

partner at CSO Insights, says the company continues to offer "the broadest practice for dealing with sales, marketing, and

support issues," Leslie Ament, vice president and senior analyst at Hypatia Research Group, says the company's

accomplishments will go far beyond. "Accenture has certainly made inroads into the customer management arena with its

digital marketing offerings," she says. But that comes with a caveat: "Customers should carefully evaluate whether they

require the full portfolio of resources that a management consulting firm brings to the table or whether a digital marketing

agency or marketing services provider would serve as well," Ament says.

French company Capgemini's differentiator this year was customer satisfaction, where it racked up an industry-leading

4.0, roughly a quarter-point higher than its nearest competitor. Its largely European and multinational clientele is very

happy with the level of services it provides, as the company rang up an above-average score of 3.8 in both its ability to

execute and its company direction. Both should position Capgemini to continue atop the field for years to come.

Deloitte continues to demonstrate its ability to execute, where it scored a 3.9. And while the company's main focus has

been on compensation management, it has "been busy developing intellectual property around social risk and reputation

management," Ament says. "Coupled with its comprehensive portfolio of risk intelligence services, Deloitte is well-

differentiated from its competition."

IBM, a powerhouse in the areas of analytics and compensation management, according to Dickie, this year also flexed its

muscle in company direction, where it garnered a respectable score of 4.0, and its ability to execute (3.9). Ament attributes

its leadership position to a much broader reason. "While navigating global services is often challenging, IBM's portfolio of

CRM-related consulting and software offerings is unmatched," she says.

The Winner

Cognizant, a newcomer to the leaderboard, shared the top mark in ability to execute, with a 3.9, but where it really

impressed analysts was its company direction (4.3) and cost (4.0). And while its offerings might not be as broad as some of

its competitors, "what they do, they do very well," Dickie says. Ament is just as enthusiastic. "Cognizant's rapid growth in

the B2C sector after carving out impressive wins in the manufacturing sector and supply chain operations make this

consultancy one to watch in the customer management service line," she says.

One to Watch

Hitachi Consulting, which hasn’t appeared on the leaderboard since 2009, was lifted up by a second-place score (3.8) in

customer satisfaction and a 3.7 score in its ability to execute. And though still largely a niche player focusing on solutions

in corporate management, customer and channel, strategic technology, and supply chain, Hitachi has a rather impressive

customer base and strategic alliances with industry powerhouses like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Lawson, and Hyperion.

The CRM Magazine – August 2012 – www.destinationcrm.com