Sixteen providers that were assessed as being appropriate in terms of their contact center capacity and other business characteristics (e.g. financial power, number of existing and new customers, geographical spreading, etc.) had been involved in the Gartner research. The research aimed to examine what companies are likely to survive on the market in the years to come.

Besides being dependent upon the functionality of the solution, the assessment was reliant on the company’s sales structure, technical know-how, price and offer, a sustainable strategic orientation, technical innovations, international presence as well as experience.

The findings of the research are summarized in the ‘Magic Quadrant’ that is a graphical matrix of the contact center market illustrating how the providers in question perform in comparison to the specific criteria defined by Gartner.

You can access the detailed research report “Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers, 2007” at the 'Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers, 2007’ Gartner Homepage.
 
Microsoft
The strengths of the Microsoft Solution can be traced back to the company’s strong financial position, the management support, and the openness towards innovations as well as product developments. Another positive aspect derives from the firm’s well-established network of dealers and business partners enabling a rapid implementation and hosting of the solution with an on-premise or hosted offering. Microsoft is working on a end-to-end process support by integrating the CRM products with, for instance, Outlook, BizTalk and Office, in order to foster a tight integration, internal collaboration around the customer and, later, to support customer communities.

However, a need for action exists in the following areas: role-based case assignment, integration with logistics or legacy systems, multichannel capabilities, and complex contact centers. No industry-specific capabilities are demonstrated by references, or predictive analytics, real-time offers or integrated marketing. Another negative aspect can be traced back to the fact that the integration with knowledge management systems is not possible and that the solution cannot yet handle multi-currency.
 
Salesforce.com
The Gartner research shows that salesforce.com enhances its share on the contact center market. Salesforce customers particularly benefit from the B2B area, from the good customer service and support centers. The solution offers an excellent graphical user interface, simple design and intuitive navigation. Salesforce.com is going to realize strong corporate investments in customer service products. Another advantage derives from the low upfront IT investments as no Hard- or Software is required for the salesforce.com On-Demand Solution.

However, the salesforce.com solution is unproven in the retail and B2C sector and thus in large-scale and high-volume call centers. Another negative aspect derives from the fact that the salesforce.com Offline Edition does not comprise the same functionalities as the Online Version. Moreover, the company has limited industry vertical knowledge (for example, retail mortgage processes, loan origination, insurance policy administration, bill processing and fraud management).
 
Conclusion
It is certain that customer service is a key success factor for each company. CRM solutions need to be creative and efficient.

With the right strategy and the implementation of a solution that is customized and specific to your business, the ClientHouse Team would like to show you how such CRM solutions can work in your company.

Source: Gartner, Inc., Michael Maoz (2007). „Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers 2007“