Analysis & Commentary:

CRM INDUSTRY'S FIRST INDEPENDENT SATISFACTION STUDY

Companies considering a CRM investment will be pleased to learn that the industry's first independent research report evaluating CRM software satisfaction just rolled off the presses.

Multi-function CRM Software: How Good is It? is a comprehensive report intended to help executives learn from the experiences of other CRM software users and evaluators. The research study was motivated by the high failure rates of CRM implementations, reported by analyst firms and the media as reaching up to 70 percent, coupled with the lack of objective third-party information about CRM solutions on the market.

Members of CRMGuru.com, a large worldwide community of business people interested in CRM, rated popular multi-function CRM software packages. Data was gathered through an Internet-based survey conducted in June and July 2001, which generated over 2,200 software profiles from individuals who have used or evaluated CRM software. Using a rigorous methodology, vendors were rated on functionality, implementation, pricing, customer focus, and support. GoldMine, Onyx, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Pivotal, SalesLogix, SAP, and Siebel Systems garnered enough responses to allow vendor-specific ratings.

Contradicting CRM vendor marketing hype about high customer satisfaction, some of the key findings and conclusions were:

• Overall, CRM users and evaluators are not very satisfied with CRM software, giving an average Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) of 63.13, quite low compared to other industry CSI studies.
• Industry-wide, "ease of implementation" and "customer focus" were the top two issues. Both scored below 60 in satisfaction ratings. "Pricing" fared only marginally better.
• SalesLogix achieved the best CSI rating of 65.99 due to relatively low prices, ease of implementation, and no below-average ratings in other areas.
• Market-leader Siebel Systems finished fifth overall, with strengths in functionality and support undercut by below-average ratings in pricing, implementation, and customer focus.
• Oracle's CSI rating of 58.07 placed it in last place of the eight vendors, with below-average satisfaction ratings in every area except customer support.
• Contrary to some vendor strategies, most customers don't want standardized products offering less adaptation to their unique requirements.
• Based on these CSI ratings, there is no dominant leader in customer satisfaction, which provides a growth opportunity for more innovative, customer-focused competitors. The study was sponsored by two of the industry's leading CRM authorities: Dick Lee, Principal of High-Yield Marketing; and Bob Thompson, president of Front Line Solutions and founder of CRMGuru.com. Market research expert David Mangen, founder of Mangen Research Associates, also partnered in the study.

Priced at US $195.00, Multi-function CRM Software: How Good is It? is available in hard copy. For more information or to order the full report, visit www.crmguru.com/crmstudy.

About Mangen Research Associates (www.mrainc.com)

Minneapolis, Minnesota-based Mangen Research Associates Inc (MRA) was founded in 1983 by David Mangen. Ph.D., to provide full-service research and analysis services for clients needing to better understand customers and customer behaviors. MRA is among very few research firms nationally skilled in applying multivariate statistical analysis to identify issues and find answers in the marketplace. Clients retain MRA for support in product development, identifying emerging markets, developing and maintaining closed-loop customer satisfaction and retention systems, mining corporate databases, accurate sales forecasting and price point optimization. MRA has developed many statistical analysis tools that are now used industry-wide, particularly in the financial services sector. The firm works with clients in business-to-business and business-to-consumer environments, with a bias toward B2B and high customer value B2C environments.

About High-Yield Marketing (www.h-ym.com)

St. Paul, Minnesota-based High-Yield Marketing provides consulting and mentoring services to help clients successfully implement CRM. HYM provides assistance in developing CRM master plans, identifying organizational obstacles to CRM implementation, redesigning workflow, re-engineering work processes and selecting CRM software. HYM's four-step methodology for successfully implementing CRM -- described in two training manuals, The Customer Relationship Management Planning Guide and The Customer Relationship Management Deployment Guide -- has become an industry model used worldwide as well as the backbone of college and university CRM courses. HYM Principal Dick Lee is among the founders of the relationship marketing movement, dating back to the early 1980s, and among the first to take CRM beyond traditional sales automation and call center boundaries.

About CRMGuru.com (www.crmguru.com)

CRMGuru.com provides online resources to unite a worldwide community of business managers spanning a broad range of disciplines -- all wanting to learn more about Customer Relationship Management by exchanging ideas and perspectives with others. Launched in January 2000, each month CRMGuru.com serves over 75,000 members from 70 countries and distributes over one-half million opt-in email newsletters. CRMGuru.com founder Bob Thompson is also president of Burlingame, California-based Front Line Solutions, an independent consulting and research firm focused on CRM in the extended enterprise. Mr. Thompson is the editor and publisher of CRM.Insight, an award-winning CRM newsletter published since 1998. For more information visit www.frontlinehq.com.

Contact for Front Line Solutions, thE Connection Inc, Elizabeth Fairleigh, 404-874-4562, EConnection@worldnet.att.net.