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Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office

by Cassandra Millhouse and Clive Burrows

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Without customers, you’re out of business.

• Do you have a consistent and unified view of your customers?
• Do they have a consistent view of your organisation whenever they communicate with it?
• Are your sales, support and service staff assisted by software that helps them realise their potential?

If not, you need Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to support your sales and service operations.

Let Ovum help you make the right decision by investing in our new evaluation service.

Are you selecting your company’s CRM software?

Get it right, and you’ll immediately boost your customer sales and service – which feeds straight through to your bottom line.

Get it wrong, and you could go out of business. You’ll certainly fall behind your competition.

Efficient and effective sales and service are critical to any organisation’s commercial success. When a decision is as crucial as this to your company, make sure it’s the right one with Ovum’s new service, Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office. You’ll understand what Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is, how it will critically improve your sales and service operations and what to expect from your investment.

You’ll receive authoritative, informative and independent evaluations of the leading products so you can see how well the software supports your company’s customer-interactive departments. Finally, you’ll be in position to make your selection based on a balanced and informed view of the market.

Spot the differences

There are three essential conditions that CRM software must fulfil:

1. To give your company a consistent and unified view of each customer every time it deals with that customer. Your staff can use that knowledge to increase the value of sales and effectiveness of customer service;
2. To enable a customer to have a holistic view of your organisation, regardless of the way the customer contacts it, which will improve customer satisfaction, and thus retention;
3. To enable front-office staff to perform sales, service and marketing tasks more efficiently as a team, reducing costs and boosting efficiency.

Unfortunately, no CRM software product is a leader in all three. Each has strengths in one or two of these areas, and they all differ in functionality. Your difficult task is not only identifying these differences, but also relating them to your own business. Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office helps you to do this – and much more.

For example, there’s a marked difference in how well these products can be used in the field, for channel partners/resellers and offices in multiple locations. Web access for customers is so important that you would think that all products would be equally Web-enabled – but they are not. You’ll be told which products perform best in which situations.

If you’re a CRM software vendor, you’ll be given an independent view of your market, enabling you to answer these key questions with confidence:

1. What are the latest developments in the CRM market?
2. How does the current crop of CRM products compare against each other?
3. What are the product features my potential customers will be looking for?
4. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the individual products and vendors?
5. How is the CRM market likely to develop over the next five years?

USERS: we help you make the right choice

When the Board is planning to invest thousands, even millions of dollars on your choice of CRM software, you have to be sure you are recommending the right one. Over years of evaluating the software market, Ovum has developed an unparalleled knowledge of the vendors you’ll be dealing with – and we understand what their products offer in precise detail. It’s not easy to clearly differentiate products on an equal basis when vendors present them so differently. Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office separates fact from fiction, with easily understood comparative evaluations, giving you the confidence you need to make your decision.

Vendors: ensure your product is on their shortlist

When selecting the right CRM software product, your potential customers don’t just base their decision on your marketing literature and reputation. Many come to Ovum first. They know we’re totally independent, they know we’re experts in the CRM software market, and they know that our opinion is based on exhaustive in-depth research.

The evaluation teams, and the Board receiving their recommendations, are your potential customers ... and they base their selection on Ovum’s evaluation criteria and the Ovum verdict. We tell them what to expect you to deliver ... and if you want to get your product on their shortlist, your product must match their particular requirements. Find out where your product’s functionality succeeds, and where it falls short, in Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office.

Evaluated for the business user – against 7 key criteria

You are clearly shown how the products match up to our evaluation criteria in the report’s 40-page evaluations for each CRM product. Every evaluation also includes a summary page for quick comparisons and for use in your Board presentation:

1. Relationship management
   The core functionality of a CRM product is its ability to maintain a single, cohesive view of the customer for the customer-facing functions of sales, service and marketing. This distinguishes them from older and less functional sales automation, customer service and marketing automation software.
2. Sales
   You’ll be shown the ability of the product to support your sales processes, opportunity management and pipeline management. The performance of sales teams must be managed; we look for forecasting, territory management and team-selling capability. We also focus on sales productivity tools supplied as standard, including sales configuration and quote generation.
3. Marketing
   Marketing performs two functions which require capability from CRM software – campaign management and prospect generation. We look for the ability to both manage and execute a campaign at all stages from planning to determining its success rate. We examine how prospect generation is linked and related to sales.
4. Customer service
   We look for the ability to run a customer service or support operation, including capability to record interaction with the customer, as well as being able to provide differentiated service according to the terms of a contract. Capability to support both ‘one and done’ service centres and tiered support operations is examined. We also assess how self-service is supported across the Web.
5. Universal Access
   Each channel has its own particular requirements for delivery. For example, while CRM software support for doing business across the Web may be top of your list, it’s an afterthought for some vendors. We identify how well each product runs multiple offices globally, how suitable each is for call centre deployment and remote working – paying particular attention to synchronisation, integration with MS-Outlook and other messaging systems.
6. Usability and personal productivity tools
   Ease of use is vital for CRM products: poor usability discourages sales, marketing and support staff from using the system – and your customers won’t use the Web interface for self-service. If staff decide not to enter information because of poor software the product will be soon be unused and irrelevant.
   We look at the ability of the product to improve an individual’s productivity. Where a product helps an individual to do their job better, it is welcomed – this is critical to the success of CRM. We include information on resources such as the Encyclopaedia, activity and event management.
7. Customisation & integration
   We examine how far the application may have to change to fit your organisation’s needs and also how easy it is to customise and integrate with your other systems.

Why you need this service:

USERS

Make the right choice:
In-depth, 40-page evaluations for all the leading products help you choose the best CRM software product to fit your particular needs. You’ll find out how effective each product is in providing functionality for relationship management, sales, marketing and customer service. The report also tells you how easy the product is to use, customise and integrate with your other systems. You’ll also be able to quickly compare the products against each other using the at-a-glance summary pages.

Persuade the final decision-makers:
By using the report’s independent verdict for each product, you can be confident in the selection you recommend to the Board, and your business case will be dramatically strengthened. Combining our expertise with your selection team adds 40 years of product experience, as well as the authority that only Ovum’s long-established, independent and objective evaluation methodology can bring.

Save valuable time
Our expert analysts are in constant contact with the leading vendors; always questioning, always challenging. We’ve asked them all your questions – and the ones you haven’t thought of yet. This saves you time and money. It brings your selection team up to speed, helping you to quickly create a shortlist and shed light on important issues early in the project.

Get to grips with the key issues
We fill you in on all the issues surrounding CRM software with key chapters explaining why CRM is vital to your company’s future, what CRM does, and how to implement it. For example, you’ll be shown how CRM software can transform your customer into your best salesperson. You’ll also be able to clearly differentiate between SFA and CRM.

Benefit from the software months earlier
You’ll find that the evaluation time you save with Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office allows you to bring the implementation process forward. Previous readers of Ovum software evaluations have found they could go live at least three months earlier than originally planned. And one quarter’s results makes a big difference to your company’s performance.

VENDORS

Monitor the competition
The report reveals what your competition are offering; where they are strong and where they are weak. In each product evaluation, you’re clearly shown how the vendors deliver their particular functionality.

Understand your customer
Because we take the view of the business user, you can better understand how your customers regard your own offering. Take our expert evaluations on board to improve your marketing strategy and position your product more successfully in sales situations. In addition, feed our evaluation criteria into your development process – we are looking for functionality now that your customers will ask for tomorrow.

CONSULTANTS

Find the right partner
These are challenging times in the CRM market. Most growth will occur in the services sector; you want to be sure you are positioned for success. But which vendors provide the best fit to your clients? With the entry of new, important vendors, which one will win and dominate the market? Don’t waste your time and resources partnering with vendors which won’t survive. And avoid wasting your client’s time and money advising them to select an inappropriate vendor.

Here’s how a similar report benefited an Ovum customer;

"The criteria and evaluations in Ovum Evaluates: Sales Automation Tools saved us time, energy and money. A very worthwhile report. The most useful analysis of its type that I have ever seen."

Martin Edwards,
Business Systems Group.

All these questions are answered:

• Siebel seems to own this market. Why should I look at other products?
• My ERP system vendor has suggested we use its CRM product too. But how does it compare to independent CRM vendors' offerings?
• Most of the CRM products I have seen specialise in the call centre. But I sell mostly via resellers, and provide support via the Web. Which products are best across these channels?
• What’s the difference between CRM and sales force automation (SFA)? Isn't CRM just a new name for the same old SFA software?
• Our selling process is successful – and unique. Which CRM products can be customised to implement this?
• All our customer data is in a mainframe system. Which CRM product can I use?
• Do I want to enter a long-term partnership with this vendor?
• How well does my preferred product support my field sales team?

Two options to suit your needs

For a quick decision...

1. To make your selection now, you need the Decision Maker package

Is your organisation embarking on the selection process for new CRM software? Are you involved in making the decision? If you need to:

• understand the technology and its benefits for your organisation;
• draw up a shortlist without wasting months on ‘beauty contests’;
• make and justify the right product/supplier choice within strict deadlines;

then Ovum’s Decision Maker package is for you. You’ll receive:

All current Product Evaluations – we are continuously updating our evaluations of the leading products in the market. When you buy, you’ll receive a complete set of totally up-to-date evaluations, helping you to make a decision that is right for your current and future needs.

Guide to the Evaluations – to help you get the most from our detailed evaluations, we provide a detailed description of our evaluation methodology and what to look for in the products.

Everything you need to back up your decision – an overview of CRM: what is it, how do you do it and why is it critically important to your organisation’s future health?

To be updated on the latest CRM software developments...

2. For on-going, up-to-the-minute information from the heart of the CRM market you need Decision Maker PLUS+

If you need regularly updated product information and market news in order to:

• understand which supplier/product best matches your requirements on a continuous basis;
• assess whether your company will benefit from CRM software now, or in the future;
• identify the strengths and weaknesses of your own products and strategies against those of your competitors if you are a supplier;
• assess the market opportunities in CRM;

then a subscription to Decision Maker PLUS+ is for you. In addition to all the elements of the Decision Maker service, you’ll receive:

Product Evaluations – continuously updated for a whole year. As new releases become available, we’ll update our product evaluations to keep them current. We will also evaluate significant new products as they are launched. Subscribers to Decision Maker PLUS+ will receive additional evaluations as soon as they become available.

Annual Market Forecast – Ovum’s expert analysts forecast market development, predicting how sections of the market will grow or decline, and identifying the key factors behind this movement. Ovum’s Annual Forecast provides you with the insight you need to plan your business strategy.

Regular Updates – Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office will bring you regular updates on product and market developments to ensure that you stay informed about this fast-moving technology area.

Telephone enquiry service – speak directly to the Ovum Evaluates: CRM in the Front Office experts for additional information and advice when you need it.

You’ll receive evaluations of products from these leading vendors

Applix	Baan	Clarify	Corepoint (IBM)	Onyx
Oracle	Pivotal Software	POINT Information Systems	Siebel	Vantive

Decision Maker PLUS+ customers will be rushed evaluations for soon-to-be-released products as they happen throughout the year from companies such as:

SAP AG
JD Edwards
Platinum Software (Clientele)
Chordiant
SalesLogix.