|
|
|
l product directory |
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Products
When it comes to hype drowning out informed discussion and discourse, nothing in the customer contact/call centre domain quite rivals that which surrounds the technology of customer relationship management (CRM) systems. Pick a brochure from any vendor of what purports to be a CRM product and one is confronted with a series of statements, each of which partially tells you what the product does, partially tells you why you should want it, implies that the product does it well and perhaps includes a very selectively taken extract from the report of one or another respected research company that appears to support the claimed requirement for this product. Such statements appear to have been written in a style that is designed to confuse the reader, not inform him or her. You are expected to get to the end of such a brochure not understanding what the product actually does, but having the impression that the vendor really does understand "this stuff" and that you absolutely need it.
CRM means different things to different people. To most of us, it is a software package that supports the processes of liaising with customers and potential customers and/or of analysing such contacts in a background mode. However, in unvetted directories, one finds all sorts of products listed under the heading of CRM. To complement the above very abbreviated definition of what CRM is, here is a listing of what CRM is not:
| l | Audio call recording Such systems are used for agent assessment allowing the call centre to provide a better service, but they are not CRM any more than training, ergonomic furniture or good coffee. For a list of such products, see the audio call recording systems page. |
| l | IVR systems and speech recognition These are self-service technologies, not CRM. For a list of such products, see the IVR and speech recognition pages. |
| l | Workforce management software Such systems allow call centres to staff to the level of traffic, but they are not CRM. For a tabulation of such products, see the workforce management systems page. |
| l | Knowledge management Knowledge management systems are useful tools in call centres to provide product and service information, but they are not CRM. |
| l | E-mail processing software Like an IVR system, software to process e-mails, either generating automatic responses or routing e-mails to appropriately skilled agents, is software to process contacts via one specific access channel and is covered on the E-mail management software products page, but such software is not CRM. |
| l | Collaborative browsing As with e-mail processing software, collaborative browsing products service one specific access channel and are featured on the Collaborative browsing products page, but such products are not CRM. |
| l | Voice over IP The technology of voice over IP and the relevant products are covered on the VoIP page, but neither this technology nor its products have any connection with CRM. Vendors claiming so are best shown the door. |
| l | Help desk software Although there is some overlap between CRM and help desk software, the relevant products are covered on the Help desk software page. |
Another aspect of this product space that demands comments is the term "eCRM", a term which, given the proliferation of unnecessary name changes to eThis and eThat, immediately brings to mind the name of hypothetical on-line service offered by the sperm bank! Seriously, given that a customer relationship management system is used by an organisation to track and facilitate customer contact independent of the channel used by customers to make contact, the e in eCRM is redundant, unless the product is actually able to service only one channel. Does a vendor of so-called eCRM products also have pCRM, mCRM and cpCRM products? (Ditto for so-called wireless CRM.) As stated above, routing e-mails to appropriately skilled agents is not CRM and it is certainly not eCRM, it is simply skill-based e-mail distribution. Tracking a customer's contacts and analysis of that customer's value, payment history, upsell potential etc. is CRM, whether the customer makes contact in person, by e-mail, by fax or by carrier pigeon.
Further on the topic of so-called eCRM, it is quite likely that some vendors are using this term to refer to automatic on-line payment collection and fulfilment systems. Although such systems may offer some customer tracking capabilities, they are single-channel processing systems in the same category as IVRs and ATMs, but are certainly not CRM products. Don't let vendors tell you they are.
Technology aside, one must not lose sight of the what CRM really is, which has nothing to do with technology, but everything to do with servicing customers. CRM is, above all, a business process or even a philosophy. If there is one really misleading aspect of so much vendor documentation, it is the implication that implementing a particular vendor's software will result in a huge increase in leads being converted to sales, a doubling in revenue from upselling and the retention until death of each and every valuable customer, all without the organisation itself having to make any changes to its approach to doing business. If a vendor waxes about its software alleviated the haemorrhaging of valuable customers, ask for some case studies citing churn rates before and after that vendor's software has been implemented. But also take a good look at the vendors themselves. If a vendor's staff do not return calls and don't respond promptly to e-mails, ask yourself if they are really a suitable partner to assist you better manage the relationship with your own customers.
Turning to the vendor list itself, it should be noted that some of the products listed on this page have capabilities beyond the bounds of operational and analytical CRM support. It should also be noted that as CRM software are software-only products, many companies with an office in only Australia can and do also support customers in New Zealand.
Consulting Projects Involving CRM
Occidental Communications has undertaken one project to specify and acquire a basic CRM capability for a client. Partners of Occidental Communications have considerable experience in this field.
Product Directory
CRM software offering sales lead management and sales force automation.
Clarify from Amdocs
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional e-mail processing and knowledge management.
Xchange 8 from Amdocs
Analytic CRM software offering campaign management, customer segmentation and data mining.
ATG Commerce, formerly named Dynamo e-Business Platform, from ATG
Customer contact tracking and data mining application
ciboodle Process Platform, formerly named GT-X, from ciboodle, formerly named Graham Technology
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, scripting, workflow processing, customer segmentation, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional CTI interface and predictive dialling.
Encompass from Cincom
CRM software offering sales lead management, scripting, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls and optional IVR, predictive dialling and e-mail routing to e-mail skillgroups.
Commence RM from Commence Corporation, distributed by Advanced User Systems
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, asset management and optional limited CTI interface capability, limited routing of e-mails to agents and knowledge management.
Webforce from Cegedim Dendrite
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional IVR, routing of e-mails to agents and knowledge management.
eContact BusinessPro from eContact
CRM software offering customer contact tracking and customer segmentation.
eFrontOffice from Epicor
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, scripting, workflow processing, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls and optional routing of emails to agents and knowledge management.
Mosaic (formerly named Probe SM) from Experian
Analytical CRM software offering customer segmentation and data mining targeted at the finance industry.
GoldMine from FrontRange Solutions (formerly Goldmine)
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining and optional IVR, CTI and knowledge management targeted at small to medium sized enterprises.
Infor CRM from Infor Global Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, asset management, configuration management and optional knowledge management.
InterAction from Interface Software, distributed by Inform Systems
CRM software offering customer contact tracking, customer segmentation and data mining.
i2 Customer Relationship Management from i2
CRM software offering workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management, routing of e-mails to agents and knowledge management.
Jade Call Agent from Jade Systems
CRM software offering sales lead management, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls and optional routing of e-mails to agents and knowledge management.
Lawson M3 CRM (formerly Movex CRM) from Lawson Software
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, call logging and tracking and limited routing of emails to agents. Associated products offer data mining, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management and asset management.
LegrandCRM from Legrand Software
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking and workflow processing.
Maximizer from Maximizer Software
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining and call logging and tracking.
Great Plains Siebel Front Office from Microsoft Business Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, scripting, workflow processing, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management, CTI (using Envox's Envox CT Connect), e-mail processing and some knowledge management capability.
Navision Attain from Microsoft Business Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional CTI interface (used for outgoing calls only).
Navision Axapta from Microsoft Business Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining and optional CTI interface (used for outgoing calls only), and knowledge management.
Navision Siebel Solution from Microsoft Business Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional CTI interface (used for outgoing calls only), routing of e-mails to agents and knowledge management.
Onyx from Onyx
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management and optional knowledge management targeted at medium-sized operations.
CRM 11i from Oracle
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional e-mail processing and knowledge management.
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (formerly J.D. Edwards 5 CRM) from Oracle
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, asset management, configuration management and optional e-mail assignment to agents and knowledge management.
Peoplesoft Enterprise (formerly PeopleSoft 8 CRM) from Oracle
CRM software offering customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation and call logging and tracking.
Siebel CRM Applications (formerly the Siebel software suite) from Oracle
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional e-mail processing and knowledge management.
Hyperion eCRM Analysis Suite from Oracle
Analytical package offering customer segmentation, analytics and reporting, designed to work with other vendors' CRM and ERP software.
Pivotal Relationship from Pivotal, distributed by Eclipse Computing
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls and knowledge management.
AxS from Polk
Customer contact tracking software targeted at the automotive industry.
Prospector from Prospector Customer Software Systems
Sales force automation software also offering sales lead management, customer contact tracking and optional e-mail processing.
Prosper CRM Suite from Prosper CRM Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, e-mail processing and limited knowledge management capability.
ACT! from Sage CRM (formerly Interact Commerce)
CRM software offering sales lead management, customer contact tracking, campaign management, scripting, customer segmentation, and optional CTI interface, call logging and tracking.
Saleslogix from Sage CRM (formerly Interact Commerce)
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, campaign management, customer segmentation, configuration management, and optional CTI interface, call logging and tracking and knowledge management.
ACCPAC eCRM from Sage CRM
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls and optional CTI interface.
mySAP from SAP
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional e-mail processing and knowledge management.
SAS Solution for CRM from the SAS Institute Australia
Analytical CRM software offering customer segmentation and data mining.
StayinFront CRM (formerly Visual Elk) from StayinFront (formerly The Great Elk Company)
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, asset management and optional CTI interface, e-mail processing and knowledge management modules.
eTouchPoint from Streamline Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, scripting, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls, configuration management, and knowledge management.
Teradata Relationship Manager from Teradata
CRM software offering sales lead management, customer contact tracking, data mining and customer segmentation.
Affinium Model from Unica Corporation, distributed by Premier Technologies
Marketing analytics software offering customer segmentation and data mining.
Sales Ace from ZED Data Solutions
CRM software offering sales lead management, sales force automation, customer contact tracking, workflow processing, customer segmentation, data mining, call logging and tracking, historic analysis of fault calls and asset management.
CRM Product Feature Summary
| _ | CRM capabilities |
Help desk capabilities |
Optional capabilities
|
| Product | SLM | SFA | CCT | WF | Sc | CS | DM | CLA | FA | CM | AM | CTI | IVR | EM | KM |
| Clarify | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | O | O |
| ATG Commerce | _ | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| ciboodle Process Platform | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ |
| Encompass | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | O | O | _ |
| Webforce | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | O | O | O |
| eContact BusinessPro | _ | _ | Y | _ | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| eFrontOffice | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | O | O |
| Mosaic | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| GoldMine | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | O | O | _ | O |
| Commence RM | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | _ | Y | L | _ | L | O |
| Infor CRM | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | Y |
| InterAction | _ | _ | Y | _ | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | O | O |
| i2 Customer Relationship Management | _ | _ | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | O | O |
Jade Call Agent | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | O | O |
| Lawson M3 CRM | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | O | _ |
LegrandCRM | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Maximizer | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Great Plains Siebel Front Office | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | O | _ | O | O |
| Navision Attain | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | L | _ | _ | _ |
| Navision Axapta | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | L | _ | _ | O |
| Navision Siebel Solution | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | L | _ | O | O |
| Onyx | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | O |
| CRM 11i | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | O | O |
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | O | O |
| Peoplesoft Enterprise | _ | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Siebel CRM Applications | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | O | O |
| Hyperion eCRM Analysis Suite | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Pivotal Relationship | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | O |
| AxS | _ | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Prospector | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | O | _ |
| Prosper CRM Suite | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | O | L |
| ACT! | Y | _ | Y | _ | Y | Y | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | O | _ | _ | _ |
| Saleslogix | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | _ | Y | _ | O | _ | _ | O |
| ACCPAC eCRM | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | O | _ | _ | _ |
| mySAP | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | O | O |
| SAS Solution | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| eTouchPoint | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | Y | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | O |
| StayinFront CRM | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | O | _ | _ | O |
| Teradata Relationship Manager | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Affinium Model | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | Y | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ |
| Sales Ace | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | Y | Y | Y | _ | Y | _ | _ | _ | _ |
SLM = sales lead management
SFA = sales force automation
CCT = customer contact tracking
WF = workflow processing
Sc = scripting
DM = data mining
CS = customer segmentation
CLA = call logging and tracking
FA = fault analysis |
CM = configuration management
AM = asset management
CTI = CTI interface
EM = E-mail processing
KM = knowledge management
Y = yes (feature supported)
O = optional feature
L = limited capability
|
|
© Occidental Communications, 2008
|
|
