Top 5 On-Demand CRM Software Systems

Microsoft Dynamics 2011 Overview | Reviews | Pricing | Demo | FAQs | Selection Assistance [Restricted Access]   Oracle On Demand Overview | Reviews | Pricing | Demo | FAQs | Selection Assistance [Restricted Access]   RightNow Overview | Reviews | Pricing | Demo | FAQs | Selection Assistance [Restricted Access]   Salesforce.com Overview | Reviews | Pricing | Demo | FAQs | Selection Assistance [Restricted Access]   SAP Business ByDesign Overview | Reviews | Pricing | Demo | FAQs | Selection Assistance [Restricted Access]

Aplicor at a glance	Microsoft Live CRM at a glance	RightNow at a glance	SAP Business ByDesign glance	Salesforce.com at a glance
New Silverlight interface Unique workflow automation Great business intelligence Strong back-office ERP Strong midrange solution .NET/SQL/SOA technology Moderately priced	Microsoft backing Strong VAR channel Strongest Outlook sync Multiple hosting options SharePoint integration .NET/SQL technology Economically priced	Strongest customer support Fabulous self service Computer telephony (CTI) Smart Client Highly reputable company Various technologies Priced at the high end	Unique Silverlight interface Very intuitive application Strong broad based features Good workflow Head to head with salesforce.com Excellent ERP integration Strong global solution	SaaS market share leader Excellent small business solution Apex Development platform AppExchange Several product editions Java/J2EE/Oracle technology Priced from low to very high

On-demand CRM Software Leaders by Market Segment

For additional perspectives, the below summary points illustrate how the Top 5 CRM hosted solutions best line up with customer market segments.

Small Business CRM Leaders Oracle On Demand and Salesforce.com Team Edition and Professional Edition are strong small business solutions and have been adamant competitors in this market space. While Salesforce.com is the dominating small business leader, Oracle carefully selects its deals and wins many of the competitions it selects. Microsoft CRM 2011 is the up and comer software as a service kid on the block. The newest release CRM hosted solution gains major functionality and maturity, offers multiple hosted distribution options and has the best global business partner behind it.

Middle Market CRM Leaders Salesforce.com is all over the map when it comes to identifying a market sweet spot. Despite the company's all-things-to-all-people marketing message and near schizophrenic identity crisis, an independent Salesforce.com CRM review demonstrated the application actually does work across the board. The most recent CRMsearch.com RightNow Technologies CRM review shows that RightNow has emerged as a midmarket CRM software leader—primarily in customer service and customer experience management for contact centers and large B2C environments.

Fortune 2000 / Enterprise CRM Leaders Salesforce.com Enterprise Edition and Unlimited Edition command a high percentage of the enterprise hosted market. Despite a hefty subscription fee, the Salesforce.com Unlimited Edition is becoming the flagship product for the company. SAP Business ByDesign is a newer entrant and trails Salesforce.com in large (multi-thousand) user accounts, however, is the only Top 5 hosted CRM application which also offers integrated back-office and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The addition of financial, distribution, human resources and/or manufacturing applications (at no additional cost) is a very compelling advantage for companies looking for enterprise-wide hosted business systems.

Top Market Share Leader With over 1 million user customers, a strong platform as a service (PaaS) play, a vibrant AppExchange partner community and a marketing budget that knows no ends, Salesforce.com is the clear hosted Software as a Service CRM market share leader. Gartner CRM analysis reveals that Salesforce.com is the third largest CRM solution overall (behind number 1 SAP and number 2 Oracle).

Top Global Hosted CRM Solution While Salesforce.com also leads the global category, SAP's Business ByDesign is clearly the challenger. Both companies have customers located in the majority of countries, global solutions (multi-language, multi-currency, distributed regional support) and redundant globally diverse data centers with hosted delivery from more than one country.

Next Vendor Rankings in Two Quarters

Software as a Service Customer Relationship Management

On-Demand is In Demand
There is no question whatsoever that the most dramatic CRM software industry growth is being experienced by the software as a service (SaaS) CRM software solutions - and most of that growth is occurring with the above Top 5 On-Demand CRM software vendors. There is near endless speculation as to how long this growth will continue and what is the eventual SaaS plateau in terms of market percentage using SaaS and on-premise solutions. Identifying the customers currently subscribing to SaaS solutions from a Crossing the Chasm perspective, we believe this hosting industry is departing the Early Adopters phase and barely beginning the Early Majority phase - which suggests that the most significant growth is yet to come.

On-Premise Responses to On-Demand Software
There is also little doubt that the majority of CRM SaaS growth is achieved at the expense of the more traditional on-premise CRM software solutions. We see no reversing of this clear trend and no recovery for the on-premise software manufacturers. However, what we do see are two clearly defined reactions and business strategies implemented by on-premise software manufacturers in response to the SaaS market growth. The first response executed by many of these vendors is to attempt to vigorously protect their large up front licensing cash cow business models by simply battling SaaS. Their battle strategies normally include introducing FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) or chastising their much smaller competitors. These attempts are becoming less and less effective. A second strategy we see repeatedly executed is for the on-premise software manufacturer to launch an additional product line SaaS solution. While at the surface, this can be a complimentary and valid go to market strategy, this approach is often executed as a defensive tactic whereby the SaaS solution is an inherently weak product that is given little more than lip service and is used in order to attract market demand that can then be shifted to the more strategic on-premise software product. While this strategy would appear obviously ill-advised, its popularity by some of the largest and most recognized CRM and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software manufacturers suggests that it will linger for the foreseeable future.

CRM Software Evaluation Criteria
The CRM software analysis process consists of a two step review procedure. In step one, the business software systems must excel in several key areas to be viable in the on-demand CRM software competition.

• First, their product offerings must include impressive releases for each of the three pillars of CRM - Sales Force Automation (SFA), Marketing and Customer Service.
• Second, the solution must offer a truly thin-client hosted delivery that permits good browser performance and an enjoyable user experience. Several hosted solutions are now offering a zero footprint client and leveraging AJAX technology which truly maximize user speed and interactivity.
• Third, the product must have unique capabilities that drive business value.
• Fourth, since these are hosted CRM solutions, the hosting vendors must be able to demonstrate comprehensive information security, continuous uptime and iron clad Service Level Agreements (SLA). To gauge vendors capabilities for uninterrupted hosting software delivery, we focused on data center redundancy, operations resiliency, disaster recovery, business continuity and uptime/downtime history.
• Lastly, the software manufacturer behind the software solution must show viability, longevity and impressive customer support.

In step two, we apply the Sales Force Automation (SFA), Marketing and Customer Support criteria (which are included in the RFP Kit available for download) in order to achieve a relative and weighted comparison for each of the CRM applications.

CRMsoftware360.com delivers a 360 degree view of the Customer Relationship Management software market	Home | Contact | Search | Site Map | FAQ | Careers | Privacy | Terms