September 2007

Magazine Features

The 2007 CRM Market Awards: Table of Contents and Introduction

The leaders, the winners, and the honorees--the best of the CRM industry over the last 12 months.

The 2007 Market Awards: Influential Leaders

CRM magazine's Influential Leaders are the executives and industry pundits with the strategy, product line, or visionary thinking needed to drive the market.

The 2007 Market Awards: Hall of Fame

This year's inductee has earned his place in the pantheon several times over.

The 2007 Market Awards: Rising Stars

Our Rising Stars this year don't fit any single mold--rather, they reflect the CRM industry's emerging trends, its continuing reach, and its ongoing aspirations.

The 2007 Market Awards: Enterprise Suite CRM

The enterprise suite CRM market is at a critical point in its evolution.

The 2007 Market Awards: Midmarket Suite CRM

The landscape among midmarket suite vendors is loaded with firms vying for increasingly limited technology-budget dollars.

The 2007 Market Awards: Small Business Suite CRM

The small-business themes of this past year have been partnership and verticality.

The 2007 Market Awards: Sales Force Automation

SFA is evolving into something larger and more comprehensive than it has ever been.

The 2007 Market Awards: Marketing Automation

This has been the year of the end user in marketing automation.

The 2007 Market Awards: Business Intelligence

As the market for business intelligence matures and users become more sophisticated, more companies are buying into BI.

The 2007 Market Awards: Data Quality

Data quality applications are making a major transition: from departmentalized point solutions to enterprisewide tools.

The 2007 Market Awards: Consultancies

Demand for CRM professional services remains strong--and steadily increasing.

The 2007 Market Awards: Elite -- Sybase

The right information at the right time, with Eloqua and Salesforce.com.

The 2007 Market Awards: Elite -- Roland DGA

A printing-equipment supplier consolidates on an all-Microsoft platform.

The 2007 Market Awards: Elite -- Voices.com

Three free trials lead to another dulcet-toned Salesforce.com deployment.

Front Office

CRM Continues Its Climb

Salesforce.com and others prove that small oceans can still make big, big waves.

Reality Check

Across the Universe

Not all agents are created equal.

Customer Centricity

Back to the Drawing Board

The real problem with contact centers runs deeper than you might think.

The Tipping Point

The True Drivers of Loyalty

The first mistake? Thinking that loyalty is all about improving customer satisfaction.

Pint of View

The CEO's New Clothes

The polo shirt is great, but the company sucks.

Insight

Software, On and Off

A growing segment of on-demand providers is boasting of offline functionality. Is this an admission of failure, or a stopgap on the way to perpetual access?

Picking Partners

All the happenings from Microsoft Corp.'s Worldwide Partner Conference in July.

Sizing Up the CRM Situation

Software-as-a-service, focus on customer retention and acquisition, and verticalization are factors enabling the market's healthy growth.

Market Focus: Education -- Learning the Recruitment Ropes

Business tactics are helping higher education institutions tackle imminent challenges in recruitment and retention.

Required Reading: Selling What No One Wants to Buy

The Coldest Call author Gerry Cullen explains why some products don't sell, and why you're not to blame.

Re:Tooling

Tech Solution: Mobile Sales Tools

Business problem: Salespeople need on-the-road access to opportunity, lead management, and other sales-force-automation-related functions.