Winning CRM Companies Reflect the Industry's Growth

The CRM industry is evolving and growing, and this year's Top 15 CRM Software Awards reflect these trends. Since 1992 ISM, a CRM and real-time enterprise consultancy, has presented the Top 15 CRM Software Awards as one category of vendors, no matter what part of the market they serve. This year for the first time, the awards are divided into two categories: enterprise CRM and CRM for SMBs. "The awards reflect the changes and growth of the CRM marketplace," says Barton Goldenberg, president and founder of ISM, and cochairman of DCI's CRM Conference & Expositions. ISM presented the awards yesterday during the DCI CRM Conference & Expo, held at Chicago's Navy Pier. Before revealing the winners Goldenberg explained the criteria to a packed house. ISM invites hundreds of vendors to participate (at no cost); any invited company that chooses to apply then goes through the rigorous testing process at ISM's Software Lab. Each software solution is rated according to 202 criteria: 105 business functions, 47 technical features, 33 implementation capabilities, and 17 user-support features. The enterprise and SMB categories are rated using the same criteria, but different weighting, to reflect the differences is such areas as implementation time and depth of functionality, according to Goldenberg. Two vendors, Clear Technologies and OnContact Software, won for the same product in both categories. One vendor, Siebel Systems, won in both categories, but with two different products. Winning companies hailed from numerous countries, including Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, and the United States. In alphabetical order by vendor the winners are: ISM Top 15 CRM Combined Winners (Enterprise and SMB) C2 CRM v.7.05, by Clear Technologies Client Management Software 7.0, by OnContact Software ISM Top 15 CRM Enterprise Winners Amdocs ClarifyCRM v.12 by Amdocs E.piphany E.6 v.6.5, by E.piphany Onyx Enterprise CRM 4.0, by Onyx Excellence 4.7, by Optima Technologies PeopleSoft CRM 8.8, by PeopleSoft Pivotal CRM Suite 5.0, by Pivotal S1 CRM Solutions, by S1 SalesPage v.4.5, by SalesPage Technologies mySAP CRM 4.0, by SAP AG Saratoga iAvenue v.6.2, by Saratoga Siebel 7.5.3, by Siebel growBusiness Solutions v2.1, by Software Innovation Staffware Process RM v9.0, by Staffware ISM Top 15 CRM SMB Winners ACCPAC CRM v.5.6, by ACCPAC International Ardexus MODE v.4.1.1, by Ardexus Powertrak v6.2, by Axonom SalesLogix v6.1, by Best Software Firstwave CRM, by Firstwave Technologies GoldMine v.6.5 and HEAT v.8.0, by FrontRange Solutions iETSolutions Enterprise v.9.4.1, by iETSolutions Maximizer Enterprise for Notes 2003.7, by Interchange Solutions Maximizer Enterprise 7.5, by Maximizer Software NetCRM v.9.1 and NetSuite v.9.1, NetSuite Salesforce.com, by Salesforce.com Siebel CRM OnDemand, by Siebel StayinFront Visual Elk v.9.1, by StayinFront marketing.manager 6, by update Software AG