1. Vendor Landscape: Customer Service Management Suites
Mobile support is improving, but social continues to underwhelm.
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2. Introduction
Customer Service Management (CSM) suites are important for efficient resolution of customer inquiries across all support channels (e.g. phone, ). Select a product that looks into the future of customer service, particularly as social and mobile continue to pick up steam with consumers.
This Research Is Designed For:
This Research Will Help You:
Enterprises seeking to select a solution for Customer Service Management (CSM)
Their CSM use case may include:
Significant social requirements.
Extensive collaboration needs.
Solid mobile support.
Understand what’s new in the CSM market
Evaluate CSM vendors and products for your company needs
Determine which products are most appropriate for particular use cases and scenarios

3. Info-Tech’s Customer Service taxonomy covers a variety of Vendor Landscapes and a separate report on CSM strategy
Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the Social Customer
Providing world-class customer service is a critical differentiator in a competitive marketplace. Create a proper strategy for success.
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VL: Customer Service
Management Suites
Customer Service Management (CSM) suites provide a range of functionality for effectively resolving service inquiries.
This set will help you choose the right CSM platform.
VL+: Field Service Automation Solution
Field service agents require unique mobile solutions that allow them to get the job done. A variety of vendors offer end-to-end solutions for field service that meet complicated use cases.
VL+: Customer Service Knowledge Management Platforms
Supporting knowledge management in the customer service organization is critical for successful resolutions. Choosing a standalone CSKM platform can help achieve KM goals.
VL+: CRM Suites for Small Enterprises
A variety of vendors now provide customer relationship management (CRM) solutions aimed at meeting the needs of SMBs.
VL+: CRM Suites for Large Enterprises
For large organizations, having a top-shelf CRM suite is quickly becoming table stakes for interacting with customers.
CRM Strategy
(Upcoming Research)
Providing world-class experiences across sales, marketing, and customer service is a critical differentiator in a competitive marketplace. Create a proper CRM strategy for success.

4. Market Overview How it got here Where it’s going
Customer service software was originally developed in order to address ticketing in call centers. It did not develop in conjunction with sales software.
CRM suite vendors were the first to propose integration of sales, marketing, and customer service solutions. While they began developing software that integrated the three areas, the standalone CSM market remained strong because service organizations tend to be independent from sales and marketing departments.
The market is no longer exclusively for larger organizations. The rise of cloud start-ups and the growth of social channels has opened up the market for organizations of all sizes and threatens the dominance of the larger vendors. Associated with this threat, the years of saw a new wave of vendor consolidation. Major players (Salesforce, Oracle, KANA) acquired smaller cloud-based vendors for their less complex and more social capabilities.
After an apparent convergence of the CSM and help desk markets, some vendors that previously invested in both markets are focusing almost exclusively on customer service.
Organizations are beginning to realize the value of extending touch-optimized mobile technologies to both agents and users. Many vendors are now delivering device- and browser-agnostic mobile capabilities.
Until recently, inbound response capabilities for social media sites were enough to keep up in the CSM market. In the next two years, Info-Tech believes social listening capabilities must be added to CSM sites in order to address exponential growth in the socially generated customer service opportunities.
Info-Tech expects to see continued integration of screen-testing and consumer video conferencing (e.g. Google+ Hangouts, Facebook Video) built into CSM suites, as video becomes a commodity support channel.
Patch now and plan for the future. Organizations must still look elsewhere to fully integrate social media support into their customer service strategy. Don’t overestimate the state of the market, and consider a standalone Social Media Management Platform (SMMP) today. As more consumers carry live video devices in their pockets, prepare for the addition of consumer video as a service channel in both B2C and B2B and adjust vendor evaluation criteria appropriately.

5. Included in this Vendor Landscape:
CSM Vendor selection / knock-out criteria: market share, mind share, and platform coverage
Some of the forward-looking trends in the CSM market include emphasis on newer channels like social and mobile, agent collaboration, and native computer-telephony integration (CTI).
For this Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on those vendors that offer broad capabilities across multiple platforms and that have a strong market presence, primarily among mid-sized enterprises.
KANA Express. Formerly known as Trinicom and acquired by KANA in 2012, this SaaS offering targets mid-sized businesses globally.
Microsoft Dynamics. A market leader with strong workflow management and a range of deployment options.
Oracle RightNow. SaaS vendor has strong knowledge management and social features.
Parature. A vendor with a long-standing commitment to social and excellent call center features.
Pegasystems. This industry veteran has good knowledge management and noteworthy social features.
Salesforce Desk.com. Formerly known as Assistly, this vendor was acquired by Salesforce (SFDC) to enter the small business market.
Salesforce Service Cloud. An industry trendsetter with an innovative customer service offering.
SugarCRM. One of the first SaaS vendors to enter the space with an offering for the SMB market.
TeamSupport. A SaaS startup with help desk and customer service solutions.
Zendesk. Another cloud-based vendor with help desk and customer service offerings.
Included in this Vendor Landscape:

6. CSM criteria & weighting factors
Product Evaluation Criteria
Criteria Weighting:
Features
Usability
Features
The solution provides basic
and advanced feature/functionality.
Usability
The solution’s dashboard and reporting tools are intuitive and easy to use.
Affordability
Affordability
The three year TCO of the solution is economical.
Architecture
Product
Architecture
The delivery method of the solution aligns with what is expected within the space.
Vendor Evaluation Criteria
Viability
Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will be around for the long-term.
Vendor
Strategy
Vendor is committed to the space and has a future product and portfolio roadmap.
Viability
Strategy
Reach
Vendor offers global coverage and is able to sell and provide post-sales support.
Channel
Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the channels themselves are strong.
Channel
Reach

7. Info-Tech evaluated a range of features: basic points were awarded for table stakes, more for advanced functionality
Feature
Basic/Adv.
What we looked for:
Resolution Workflow Management
Basic
Ticketing and case management capabilities.
Advanced
Automated assignment and escalation, decision trees, guided resolution wizards (ideally GUI drag-and-drop).
Customer self-care features (self-service)
Central point to submit requests for assisted customer service.
Central product portals, customer-facing resolution wizards and guidance, customer community forums.
Portal Framework
Ability to create customer and agent-facing portals.
Library of rapid deployment templates and use cases, highly customizable framework.
Service Knowledge Management
Basic knowledge base and search capabilities.
Ability to index and search external content, wikis, customer content ratings, screencasting / screen sharing.
Call Center Features
Agent desktop, CTI integration.
Call scripting, call queuing, prioritization by different support channels.
Multi-Channel Integration
Integration with , telephone, and live chat.
Integration with self-service and social media.
Scoring Methodology
Info-Tech scored each vendor’s features on a granular scale. Vendors were given partial marks for basic and advanced features, summing up to 1.0 if all the advanced criteria were satisfied.
For an explanation of how Advanced Features are determined, see Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stop Lights) in the Appendix.

8. Info-Tech evaluated a range of features: basic points were awarded for table stakes, more for advanced functionality
Feature
Basic/Adv.
What we looked for:
Social Media Support
Basic
Integration with Facebook and Twitter, ability to create tickets out of social media inquiries, inbound response capabilities.
Advanced
Proactive listening and analysis of social channels.
Mobile Support
Mobile-optimized web portal for customers.
Dedicated mobile application for customers; mobile agent-facing desktop, touch optimization.
Queuing
Can route and prioritize calls/interactions.
Queues support and can prioritize by different interaction channels.
Reporting & Analytics
Static or snapshot view of key customer service metrics (e.g. average resolution time).
Real-time analytics and an interactive dashboard is provided.
Collaboration
Supports live agent to customer collaboration.
Supports collaboration among customers (e. g. forums) as well as collaboration among service professionals (e. g. team-based customer service).
Scoring Methodology
Info-Tech scored each vendor’s features on a granular scale. Vendors were given partial marks for basic and advanced features, summing up to 1.0 if all the advanced criteria were satisfied.
For an explanation of how Advanced Features are determined, see Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stop Lights) in the Appendix.

9. Identify leading candidates with the CSM Suites Vendor Shortlist Tool
The Info-Tech CSM Suites Vendor Shortlist Tool is designed to generate a customized shortlist of vendors based on your key priorities.
Overall Vendor vs. Product Weightings
Individual product criteria weightings:
Features
Usability
Affordability
Architecture
Individual vendor criteria weightings:
Viability
Strategy
Reach
Channel
This tool offers the ability to modify:

10. Turn the tables around and issue an RFP to ensure that the vendor fits your needs!
Use Info-Tech’s CSM Suite RFP Template to conduct this critical step in your vendor selection process.
The Statement of Work
Proposal Preparation Instructions
Scope of Work
Basic Feature Requirements
Advanced Feature Requirements
Sizing & Implementation
Vendor Qualifications & References
Budget & Estimated Pricing
Vendor Certification
Approval Sign-Offs
Info-Tech’s CSM Suite RFP Template is populated with critical elements, including:
Issue RFP
Score RFP
Conduct Vendor Demo

11. Use Info-Tech’s CSM Suite RFP Scoring Tool to:
The RFP process involves more than collecting information, use the CSM RFP Scoring Tool as a benchmark for evaluation
Standardize your process for scoring individual vendor RFP responses in order to ensure minimal internal biases.
Use Info-Tech’s CSM Suite RFP Scoring Tool to:
Evaluate RFP Responses!
The CSM Suite RFP Scoring Tool is pre-built with essential criteria complementing the CSM Suite RFP Template.
Use the tool to drive the selection meeting with your procurement department.
Issue RFP
Score RFP
Conduct Vendor Demo

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