The CRM market remains an important and crowded one. And, like so many areas of customer service, marketing, and sales – and our world in general – it’s increasingly moving to the cloud.
The market for CRM software is expected to grow at a 14.7 percent compound annual growth rate, according to Gartner. SaaS-based deployments represent more than 40 percent of CRM deployments, the firm says, and are poised to reach 50 percent next year.
North America is the largest CRM regional market, while emerging markets like the Asia Pacific and Latin America are positioned for the strongest growth in the next five years.
Here’s a look at efforts and offerings that CUSTOMER and TMC have deemed as winners in this space.
3CLogic Cloud Contact Center Solutions
3CLogic is a leading provider of inbound, outbound, and blended cloud contact center solutions. Offering next-generation multichannel communications, business intelligence, dynamic scripting, as well as seamless third-party integrations (with CRM solutions from such suppliers as Infusionsoft, LeadMaster, Microsoft (News 
- Alert) Dynamics, Salesforce, SugarCRM, and Zoho), it builds products to meet today’s needs and tomorrow’s challenges. The company prides itself on the ability to facilitate client engagements and improve sales and marketing initiatives, while providing the highest levels of customer service to enhance your business and client relationships.
Ameridial Inc.
Regional Healthcare Plan Customer Service and Support Implementation
Ameridial and this client collaborated to quickly deploy a solution that resulted in continued marketplace success of Regional Healthcare Plan during the 2015 Open Enrollment period. Several key factors played into the success of the partnership: Ameridial was able to provide a geographic solution having an established call center in the client’s state of operation. The established solution for the 2015 Open Enrollment period resulted in Ameridial handling, assisting, and supporting the call activity generated from the Marketplace Open Enrollments whereby its client plan had been selected. Existing members of the CO-OP would be supported by the internal call center. Ameridial provided a project management and executive team with significant health care industry experience and a deep understanding of the client business objectives. In close partnership with the client, Ameridial assembled a team of customer service representatives who were formally educated on all aspects of the client health plan and business processes. There is an ongoing and open partnership and exchange of information and idea sharing.
Benbria Corp.
Loop Mobile Customer Engagement
Loop is a real-time communications and onsite operational solution that empowers national retail, hotel, and restaurant brands to improve customer satisfaction, foster positive online reviews, and drive operational excellence. Using a variety of mobile, in-store, and on-property technologies – including SMS, email, Web, mobile app and kiosk – Loop helps brands to capture and direct real-time customer requests, concerns, suggestions and positive input to management and employees for action and closure. Closing the loop through on-the-spot staff action helps brands to save dissatisfied customers, improve in-store sales conversion rates and foster positive reviews.
Bpm’online
Bpm’online CRM
Bpm’online is a premium vendor of process-driven cloud based software for marketing, sales, and service automation. The bpm’online products are based on out-of-the-box processes that guide users through the most effective actions to accelerate results. Bpm’online was been named a Strong Performer in The Forrester Wave: CRM Suites For Midsize Organizations, Q1 2015 evaluation. According to the report, bpm’online received the highest overall score for the current offering among Strong Performers.
CallidusCloud
SURVE by Clicktools
CallidusCloud is a provider of sales and marketing effectiveness software that enables organizations to accelerate and maximize their lead to money process with a complete suite of solutions that identify the right leads, ensure proper territory and quota distribution, enable sales forces, automate configure price quote, and streamline sales compensation — driving bigger deals, faster. Last year the company bought Clicktools, a cloud enterprise B2B survey provider. Formerly known as Clicktools survey software, SURVE offers a powerful set of enterprise-class capabilities, most notably the first and best feedback-in-CRM integration available.
Confirmit
Confirmit Genius (News - Alert)
Confirmit Genius mines for customer and market insights in social media, email and more and puts it into context using wider data sources. It provides richer insight into employees, customers and markets, so businesses can respond in real time. In an Amazon review test, the sentiment analysis technology achieved nearly 90 percent accuracy. Confirmit Genius incorporates both social analytics and text analytics. It integrates with Confirmit Horizons, a flexible, multi-channel platform for customer experience, employee engagement, and market research programs. Confirmit SmartHub, Authoring, Instant Analytics, Reportal, Active Dashboards and Action Management are all modules of Confirmit Horizons.
Expert Global Solutions
Customer Experience Transformation
Expert Global Solutions Inc. is the holding company for APAC Customer Services Inc. and NCO Financial Systems Inc. APAC Customer Services Inc. focuses on customer care solutions and NCO Financial Systems Inc. offers financial care servicing. Spanning multiple vertical markets across North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia, EGS operates via a technology and operational delivery platform that provides end-to-end, multi-channel customer lifecycle support. EGS offers clients the unique complement of scale and a customized service delivery platform.
FinancialForce.com
FinancialForce ERP
Built on the Salesforce1 Platform, FinancialForce ERP equips customer-centric businesses with a unified platform that delivers ERP and CRM on a single cloud. It Financial Management, Human Capital Management, Professional Services Automation, and Supply Chain Management apps allow businesses to increase the speed at which they operate and be more responsive along every touch point of a customer’s journey.
Infinite (News - Alert) Convergence
Enterprise Messaging Service
Infinite Convergence Solutions Inc., provides next-generation messaging and mobility solutions to carriers and enterprises globally, including an Enterprise Messaging Services suite, secure messaging through its standalone app NetSfere and SMS, MMS and RCS solutions. The company’s technology supports more than 130 million subscribers by sending nearly one trillion messages per year. Infinite Convergence Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Infinite Computer Solutions.
IntelliResponse
IntelliResponse Virtual Agent
The IntelliResponse Virtual Agent technology platform is a next generation self-service software that automates the process of delivering answers to customer questions posed across a variety of interaction channels. IntelliResponse technology also acts as a 24×7 online research agent, delivering real-time, actionable voice of the customer insights to its clients.
Minacs
Minacs Helps New Media Maverisk Create a Market
Minacs is being recognized by CUSTOMER magazine and TMC for helping a major dotcom new media company improve customer care to its rapidly growing subscriber base, and to reduce its service, infrastructure, and capital costs within its care network in the process.
Moxie
Moxie Mobile Chat
Moxie enables enterprises to provide guided, relevant engagement to their customers throughout the entire digital journey. Through Moxie’s solutions, companies can anticipate intent, connect in real-time and engage with customers to increase total customer value. More than 600 of the world’s leading brands in financial services, health care, high-tech, retail and travel and hospitality rely on Moxie to build loyalty and drive customer conversion and revenue.
NetSuite Inc.
NetSuite CRM
NetSuite Customer Relationship Management software is a cloud solution that delivers a real-time 360-degree view of the customer. It provides a seamless flow of information across the entire customer lifecycle from lead through to opportunity, sales order, fulfillment, renewal, upsell, cross-sell, and support. In addition to traditional CRM capabilities like SFA, customer support and marketing automation, NetSuite CRM delivers quotes, order management, commissions, sales forecasting, and integrated ecommerce capabilities.
NICE Fizzback and NICE IVR Journey Analytics
Fizzback, the company’s voice of the customer solution, solicits real-time feedback at each touch point along the customer journey. Using the solution, organizations can engage with customers across all channels, including SMS, mobile app, email, online and IVR, and immediately analyze these interactions in order to reduce churn, increase customer loyalty, and improve operational efficiency. IVR Journey Analytics solution helps organizations sequence and visualize the customer journey to understand why customers are contacting them, predict their next move, and personalize the customer engagement.
Pegasystems
Pega Customer Service, Pega Marketing, and Pega Sales Automation
Pegasystems develops strategic applications for sales, marketing, service and operations. Pega’s applications streamline critical business operations, connect enterprises to their customers seamlessly in real-time across channels, and adapt to meet rapidly changing requirements. Pega’s Global 500 customers include the world’s largest and most sophisticated enterprises.
Philly311
Philly311
Philly311 is the City of Philadelphia government’s centralized non-emergency contact center that is accessible to all residents, businesses and visitors. Serving as the gateway to city government information such as how to start a business, contact the local police district, get information about trash and recycling collection day, how to get a smoke alarm, etc. and requests for services including broken traffic signals, pothole repair or other street defects, graffiti removal, report of abandoned vehicles, unsafe/improper residential maintenance conditions, complaints, etc.
Salesforce
ADP
For ADP, a leader in human capital management, Salesforce is key to maintaining strong relationships throughout the lifecycle of its more than 600,000 customers. The company started using Salesforce when it wanted to bring together 11 business units so that employees could easily see complete customer views and track every interaction. ADP consolidated all of its customer data in Salesforce, creating cross-divisional records and standardizing the way it manages leads, territories, and customer information.
Microsoft
Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM enables organizations to deepen customer loyalty by providing personalized, proactive, and predictive experiences across all channels. Agents are empowered with a single unified experience, enabling them to connect with customers effortlessly.
SmartAction
Intelligent Voice Automation
Intelligent Voice Automation is powered by SmartAction’s artificial intelligence engine. While most speech IVR solutions use application-specific programs or scripts, only IVA uses an AI Brain that reasons and learns from experience.
SugarCRM
Sugar Professional
Sugar Professional is a CRM solution that simplifies how companies organize and track people, companies, and sales opportunities.
Tigerpaw Software
Tigerpaw
Tigerpaw recently introduced a new and expanded mobile version of its business automation software that now includes major CRM functionality, including real-time access to accounts, contacts and opportunities.
Velocify
Velocify for Salesforce
Velocify for Salesforce is designed to help high-velocity sales teams rapidly respond to new prospects, prioritize daily sales activity, drive more consistent selling practices, and generate more revenue.
Verint Systems Inc.
Verint/KANA LAGAN Enterprise Customer Service Suite
The LAGAN Enterprise customer service suite for public sector organizations is designed to address the demands of the digital customer and the continued tightening of government budgets.
Vocalcom
Vocalcom Cloud
The cloud contact center from Vocalcom includes a multi-channel automatic call distributor, and interactive voice response to route all inbound contacts across channels including voice, email, chat, text and social media messaging – and a Quality Management suite, featuring multimedia audio recording and desktop screen capture to improve customer experience with better agent monitoring and training.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
