Top of the Wave; Microsoft Dynamics CRM Ranked as a Leader in Three Different 2012 Forrester CRM Reports

Forrester recently published its three 2012 CRM Waves:  The Forrester Wave: CRM Suites For Large Organizations, Q3 2012, The Forrester Wave: CRM Suites For Midsize Organizations, Q3 2012 and The Forrester Wave: CRM Suites for Customer Service Solutions, Q3 2012 and Microsoft is ranked a Leader in all three.  The reports notes that “Microsoft Dynamics CRM shines with strong usability and compelling value.”  The highlights from the different reports are below.

CRM Suites for Large Organizations

This vendor ranking was focused on organizations with 1,000 employees or more.  The highlights:

• Microsoft Dynamics CRM has been growing quickly as a result of the “power or choice”, which means customers can choose deployment options (on-premises, online, or hosted), and user interface options (Outlook, browser, mobile).
• The report notes that Microsoft Dynamics CRM appeals to organizations that have a commitment to other Microsoft products.  These customers generally feel this creates a lower total cost of ownership. “Buyers also like Microsoft Dynamics CRM’s lower price and its quick time-to-value compared with traditional CRM applications.”  Conversely, Salesforce.com buyers are beginning to question economics of their subscription model, especially for large numbers of users.

 

CRM Suites for Midmarket Organizations

Focused on CRM suites marketed to organizations with between 250 and 999 employees.  These CRM packages often have more-limited capabilities in specific areas and are focused on simplicity. 

• Microsoft offers strong support for mobile CRM compared to other CRM vendors.
• “Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers strong marketing, business intelligence, and customer data management capabilities as well as a strong architecture and platform”.
• The report notes that this solution does not generally offer industry-specific solutions.  These solutions are generally developed and managed by partners like Customer Effective.  Microsoft’s ecosystem allow partners like us to focus directly in vertical areas such as financial services.

 

CRM Suites for Customer Service

This report focuses on CRM vendors that offer multifunctional application suites, have strong presence in the customer service market and provide functionality that spans multiple functional areas for customer service.  Highlights from the report:

• Key trends in customer service are empowered agents, engaged customers across channels, and rapidly changing customer technology landscape.
• The report gives Microsoft Dynamics CRM high marks for flexibility and value.  “The primary buyers of
  Microsoft Dynamics CRM are upper midmarket and enterprise customers that require easy-to-
  use, flexible customer service solutions that yield productivity gains for their customer service organizations”.
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM offers strong support for native business process management (through MSCRM processes, workflows and dialogs), and provides strong support for agents and collaboration.  Knowledge base, customer service analytics and data management also received high marks.