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It's Siebel in the Service and Support Leader Corner Siebel Systems is once again the sole vendor in the leader quadrant in Gartner's "Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service and Support (CSS) Applications, 2006." Gartner states that Siebel's Version 7.7 continues to demonstrate the highest complexity and broadest functionality in the industry, and is the only system in the market to demonstrate the ability to support large-scale implementations. Michael Maoz, vice president and research fellow at Gartner, says that if Siebel wants to remain the leader of this market, it must focus on delivering more intelligence to the desktop by "delivering decision support for the interaction with that customer."

CRM Will Sustain Its Uptake The CRM software license segment is maintaining a stretch of moderate growth, continuing its rebound after suffering a skid in 2003, according to Gartner's "Forecast: CRM Software, Worldwide, 2005-2010." License revenue grew by 4.8 percent in 2005 (based on early reporting); this preliminary figure is up from initial forecast quotes of 2.7 percent, and equates to $3.6 billion in 2005.

SAS Buys a Build Out in the MRM Market SAS Institute has acquired Veridiem, a privately held company in Maynard, MA, which provides marketing resource management (MRM) software. The acquisition is intended to augment SAS's Customer Intelligence product line, the company's enterprise marketing management solution. The product line focuses on marketing automation, event-based marketing, campaign optimization, and Web analytics, but Veridiem's software provides feedback across a broader spectrum. "We do a lot of work with marketing and marketing automation," says Jim Davis, senior vice president and CMO of SAS Institute. "Veridiem optimizes a company's entire marketing efforts, across the board, including trade promotion and public relations." The acquisition is a good fit, because SAS has a strong partnership with Aprimo, which competes directly with Veridiem in the MRM market.

Decisions, Not Data, Drive CRM Improvements Companies should employ analytics and use the information to make business changes to benefit from continual improvement on CRM projects, Gartner research director Gareth Herschel told attendees at the Gartner Business Intelligence Symposium 2006 in Chicago early in March. Companies should perform analysis in the context of decisions, not in the context of data, according to Herschel. Collecting data alone does little, and even analysis of the data is a waste of time unless an enterprise uses the analysis to drive business decisions.

Siebel and SAP Dominate Western European CRM Siebel and SAP dominate the majority of industry verticals throughout Western Europe, according to a recent study by IDC. "Western European CRM Applications Vertical Competitive Analysis, 2005" also found that the Western European CRM applications market has reached $2.55 billion. Five countries, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, comprise 72 percent of the total market.

Mobile CRM Is Warming Up for Spring Several recent deals have invigorated the mobile CRM market. In mid-February SugarCRM joined with Sona Mobile Holdings to enable wireless access to the popular open-source CRM software, and Sage Software and Vodafone announced a partnership to develop the ACT! Mobility Suite for Australia. These announcements, along with recent product launches and research reports, suggest that mobile CRM will be a compelling argument in 2006. (For the full stories and more news, visit destinationCRM.com)

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