1. Info-Tech Research Group1 1 Vendor Landscape Plus: CRM Suites for Small Enterprises Select and deploy a CRM suite that synchronizes marketing, sales and customer service to provide a comprehensive view of the customer.

2. Info-Tech Research Group2 2 Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a critical activity for acquiring, retaining, and growing your customer base. Adopt a dedicated SMB-focused CRM suite if you need a unified view of your customers across multiple channels and interaction touch points (marketing, sales, and customer service). 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 CRM steering committees. Create a multi-channel strategy for Customer Relationship Management that effectively ties together marketing, sales and service. Understand the benefits of taking an integrated suite approach to CRM, as opposed to basic point solutions. 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 small and medium enterprises, adopting a CRM suite is a vital step for companies with high-growth rates. 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. A full CRM suite may not always be needed. A series of point solutions may be better able to address the requirements of specific departments while a CRM suite would provide broad functionally that largely went to waste. 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. Social media integration and mobile access (either through HTML5 or a dedicated application) are becoming requirements for many organizations. 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 “catch up” 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. Prior to going live across the organization, be sure to test the CRM suite with a well-targeted group of pilot users first. Info Tech evaluated a number of vendors in this space – the following were champions:  Champion 1: Microsoft Dynamics champions the SMB space with an impressive array of features, including particularly strong customer service and call centre features, as well as the familiar Microsoft ribbon-based interface. The vendor’s uncontested global reach and viability are also a nice bonus.  Champion 2: Sage CRM has a proven track record in the SMB space and maintains a strong product focus on the midmarket. Sage CRM’s competitive pricing, comprehensive set of features and the variety of deployment options set the product apart from competition.

4. Info-Tech Research Group4 4 The Info-Tech CRM Research Agenda Info-Tech’s CRM research agenda provides coverage of CRM suites for small-to-medium businesses and large enterprises, as well as point solutions in marketing, sales, and customer service. Marketing Social Media Management Platforms (SMMP)Social Media Management Platforms (SMMP) email Marketing Services Sales Lead Management Automation Customer Service Customer Service ManagementCustomer Service Management Customer Service Knowledge ManagementCustomer Service Knowledge Management Field Service Automation 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 isn’t always the determining factor in customer satisfaction: today’s customer is 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 taking a single face to the customer approach. 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 an eye 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. - IT Director All firms are dependent on successfully managing relationships with their customers. Failing to meet consumer expectations means your customers will defect to forward-thinking 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 customers and employees A CRM suite is an enterprise app that provides a broad feature set for supporting customer interaction processes. These suites supplant more basic apps for customer interaction management (e.g. 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 the majority of small organizations have a CRM suite in place, or will be adopting in the near future. Ten years ago, many organizations squeezed by with basic contact management apps. The situation is rapidly shifting: 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 were traditionally a mainstay of large organizations. However, they are rapidly penetrating the SMB space, driven in large part to a number of SaaS based offerings. Rising consumer expectations mean that SMBs need to “swim with the big fish” and adopt a CRM suite for effective customer interaction. Growth of CRM in the SMB Space

7. Info-Tech Research Group7 7 What’s in this Section:Sections: Build a Customer Relationship Management Strategy Build a CRM Strategy Create a Selection Roadmap Select the Right Suite Implement and Optimize Understand how CRM is an organizational strategy and a 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, or when you should forego for simpler alternatives.

8. Info-Tech Research Group8 8 CRM suites support business processes across (and between) marketing, sales, and customer service. These 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 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. CRM Suite Ecosystem

9. Info-Tech Research Group9 9 Taking a suite approach to CRM is vital for unlocking a variety of business benefits. Ensure that senior management understands the value proposition 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 share-of-wallet (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 Decreases Costs/ Boosts Operational Efficiency

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