March 26, 2007
By Marshall Lager, founder and managing principal, Third Idea Consulting; contributor, CRM magazine

ISM Announces Its Top 15 (or 16 or 17)

CRM vendors are embracing the power and flexibility of Web 2.0, search engine marketing, and predictive modeling as technologies become more robust and reliable, and as customers call for greater capabilities to support their business processes, according to industry consultancy ISM. The CRM strategy advisory company today released its 18th annual ISM Top 15 Awards to recognize the leaders in the field who provide the best combination of business functionality, technical features, ease and flexibility of implementation, real-time capabilities, and user support.

"The winners are to be praised for obtaining the Top 15 honor given ISM's strenuous and comprehensive software selection process," said Barton Goldenberg, founder and president, in a written statement. The awards, bestowed upon the best performing CRM products for both the enterprise and SMB segments, are based on more than 217 separate criteria. Despite the award name, the 2007 awards list includes 16 winners in the enterprise category and 17 in the SMB category.

The winners, in alphabetical order, are:

ISM Top 15 CRM Enterprise (16 winners)

Amdocs CRM v. 6--Amdocs Limited

C2 CRM v. 8.0--Clear Technologies

CMS/Oncontact V, Version 5.2--Optima Technologies

ExSellence 5.0--Optima Technologies

Firstwave CRM v. 3.1--Firstwave Technologies

growBusiness Solutions v. 3.1--Software Innovation

Infor CRM--Infor

mySAP CRM--SAP

Onyx v. 6.0--Onyx Software

PeopleSoft CRM--Oracle/PeopleSoft

Pivotal v. 5.9--Pivotal

Salesforce.com--Salesforce.com

Saratoga CRM 6.5.3--Saratoga Systems

Siebel 8.0--Oracle/Siebel Systems

Tibco Process RM v. 9.0--Tibco

update 7.0--update software

ISM Top 15 CRM SMB Winners (17 winners)

Ardexus MODE v. 5.5--Ardexus

C2 CRM v. 8.0--Clear Technologies

CMS/Oncontact V, Version 5.2--Oncontact Software

Goldmine v. 7.0.3 and HEAT--FrontRange Solutions

Maximizer Enterprise 9.5--Maximizer Software

Microsoft CRM 3.0--Microsoft

NetSuite CRM v. 11.0 and NetSuite v. 11.0--NetSuite

Powertrak v. 8.02--Axonom

Relavis CRM 7.0--Relavis

RightNow CRM v. 8.0--RightNow Technologies

Sage CRM 100/200 v. 6.0--Sage Software

Sage SalesLogix v. 7.0--Sage Software

Salesforce.com--Salesforce.com

Salesplace 2006.3.2--Interchange Solutions

SalesPage CRM--SalesPage Technologies

Siebel CRM OnDemand--Oracle/Siebel Systems

StayinFront CRM v. 9.3--StayinFront

Goldenberg identified a number of trends emerging in the CRM space in terms of applications and technology. These include greater online collaboration and sharing among users through Web 2.0 applications; the merging of business intelligence tools with CRM for greater profitability; the increased availability of search engine marketing functionality; and an increased number of mobile CRM offerings.

Goldenberg also noted that the SMB market in particular is continuing to grow, due to smaller businesses coming to realize the potential of effect of CRM software on their operations. "We see real improvement in the CRM offerings for SMBs, more in tune with the needs of smaller companies."

Related articles:

The State of CRM: Strong and Healthy

A Real-Time CRM Software Capabilities Test

ISM Reveals Its Top 15 Award Winners