1. Info-Tech Research Group1 1 Vendor Landscape Plus: CRM Suites for Large Enterprises Select and deploy an enterprise-class CRM suite that provides a 360-degree view of your customers across marketing, sales, and customer service processes.

2. Info-Tech Research Group2 2 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:

3. Info-Tech Research Group3 3 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.

4. Info-Tech Research Group4 4 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 PlatformsVendor Landscape Plus: Social Media Management Platforms Vendor Landscape Plus: E-Mail Marketing ServicesVendor Landscape Plus: E-Mail Marketing Services Sales Vendor Landscape Plus: Lead Management AutomationVendor Landscape Plus: Lead Management Automation Customer Service Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Management PlatformsVendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Management Platforms Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Knowledge Management PlatformsVendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Knowledge Management Platforms Vendor Landscape Plus: Field Service Automation SolutionVendor Landscape Plus: Field Service Automation Solution Vendor Landscapes for Marketing, sales, and customer Service Point Solutions 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

5. Info-Tech Research Group5 5 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 Relationship Depth Marketing Sales Customer Service 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.

6. Info-Tech Research Group6 6 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

7. Info-Tech Research Group7 7 What’s in this Section:Sections: Build a CRM Strategy Create 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.

8. Info-Tech Research Group8 8 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

9. Info-Tech Research Group9 9 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

10. Info-Tech Research Group10Info-Tech Research Group10 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. 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.

11. Info-Tech Research Group11Info-Tech Research Group11 Adopt the best available point solutions for sales, marketing and service to augment the CRM ecosystem when warranted Managers 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 Automation Field Sales Sales Comp. Mgmt. Sales Automation Field Sales Sales Comp. Mgmt. Customer Service Mgmt. Service Knowledge Mgmt. Customer Service Mgmt. Service Knowledge Mgmt. Social Media Mgmt. Email Marketing Bureau Social Media Mgmt. Email Marketing Bureau Point solutions provide greater depth of functionality in areas of the CRM environment.

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