— Leading CRM Players Fine-Tune Strategy as Challengers Fight with Aggressive Pricing, Says AMI-Partners —

NEW YORK--US medium businesses (MBs, 100-999 employees) will spend over $1 billion this year on customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, as they increasingly recognize the need to improve and extend their CRM capabilities. The US medium business market is still under-penetrated in terms of CRM adoption, with just 35% of these businesses currently using CRM solutions. However, MB spending on CRM is set to grow at a 9% CAGR over the next five years.

That comes from a new report, “Mid-Market CRM: Vendor Strategies for a New Frontier” from Access Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc. The report takes an in-depth look at some established CRM players as well as newcomers’ products, packaging, pricing and channels strategies to win in the coveted mid-market.

Over the past few years, an increasing number of CRM solutions have come to market aimed at the MB segment. Most MBs look first to brand name market leaders, such as salesforce.com, Microsoft CRM, Sage and RightNow, who are all enjoying strong growth. Because they’re not as well known as their rivals, MB CRM challengers have a tougher time enticing consideration. However, challengers, including Entellium, Maximizer, NetSuite and SugarCRM, often provide customers with very attractive alternatives, offering more aggressive pricing, extra services or other value-added differentiators to entice customers to their solutions.

According to Laurie McCabe, author of the report, and AMI-Partners’ Vice President for SMB Insights & Solutions, MB CRM requirements range along a spectrum from simple to sophisticated. Vendors need to understand these requirements, and clearly communicate a unique value proposition to their “best-fit” MB segments, optimally tuning their product, channel and service offerings to these customers.

By staying focused on these objectives, vendors can continue to help MBs overcome many of the barriers that have stalled productive CRM adoption in the past, and differentiate their solutions in a very competitive market.

About the Study

The study Mid-Market CRM: Vendor Strategies for a New Frontier

• Examines U.S. MB market dynamics, based on data from our 2005-2006 Medium Business Survey and most recent Global Model forecasts.
• Analyzes data and trends regarding MB adoption of CRM solutions, and key differences between CRM and non-CRM MBs.
• Assesses eight CRM vendors (Entellium, Maximizer, Microsoft, NetSuite, RightNow, Sage, salesforce.com and SugarCRM) mid-market strategies.
• Compares core product offerings and trends; delivery models; packaging and pricing; service and support; integration, mobility and industry-specific offerings; and marketing and channel strategies.
• Provides an appendix with detailed vendor profiles for Entellium, Maximizer, Microsoft, NetSuite, RightNow, Sage, salesforce.com and SugarCRM.

For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, please call AMI-Partners at 212-944-5100, e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , or visit the AMI Web site at www.ami-partners.com.

About AMI-Partners

AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence — focusing on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business planning and “go-to-market” solutions. AMI was founded in 1996 under the name of Access Media International (USA), Inc. by Andy Bose, formerly group vice president at IDC. Since its inception, the firm has built a world-class management team, each with ten to fifteen years’ experience in IT, telecom, online communications or multimedia.

AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets; its annual retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 20 countries; and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.