Vendor Landscape Plus: Customer Service Management Platforms

Select the right software to resolve customer service inquiries from start to finish.

More Details

Assistly

Oracle Siebel

Salesforce Service Cloud

TeamSupport

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Zendesk

Parature

RightNow CX

SugarCRM

What is a Value Score?

The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product offering and business strength relative to their price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking.

Vendors that score high offer more bang for the buck (e.g. features, usability, stability, etc.) than the average vendor, while the inverse is true for those that score lower.

Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the Value Score more consideration than those who are more focused on specific vendor/product attributes.

Weight: You can adjust the weight to what is more important to you.

Progress Bars:
When both vendor and product weightings are equal to exactly 100%, your custom shortlist will be generated.

View our vendor methodology

Vendor

Product

Viability

Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will be around for the long-term.

Strategy

Vendor is committed to the space and has a future product and portfolio roadmap.

Reach

Vendor offers global coverage and is able to sell and provide post-sales support.

Channel

Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the channels themselves are strong.

Total

You are currently over the vendor limit, please adjust your weightings to equal exactly 100%.

Features

The solution provides basic and advanced feature/functionality.

Usability

The solutions dashboard and reporting tool are intuitive and easy to use.

Affordability

The five year TCO of the solution is economical.

Architecture

The delivery method of the solution aligns with what is expected within the space.

Total

You are currently over the product limit, please adjust your weightings to equal exactly 100%.

What matters more, the vendor score or the product score? As you weigh the importance, we will generate the vendor shortlist to match your needs.

Weight

Assistly

Assistly
Vendor: Product:

Oracle

Oracle Siebel
Vendor: Product:

Salesforce.com

Salesforce Service Cloud
Vendor: Product:

TeamSupport

TeamSupport
Vendor: Product:

Microsoft

Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Vendor: Product:

Zendesk

Zendesk
Vendor: Product:

Parature

Parature
Vendor: Product:

RightNow

RightNow CX
Vendor: Product:

SugarCRM

SugarCRM
Vendor: Product:

View Vendor Shortlist

What is a shortlist?
A shortlist is a personalized list of vendors based on the criteria above.

Your shortlist offers more information about vendor's strengths, weaknesses, price-points, etc, and ranks them according to your needs.

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Your Challenge

Organizations with simple customer service requirements and limited product lines will likely be satisfied with the built-in capabilities of their existing CRM or ITSM platforms. Organizations with more complex product lines and high volumes of service inquiries may need to extend those capabilities by using a best-of-breed CSM suite.
Slow customer service response times, inefficient escalation processes, and limited channel usage leads to customer anxiety and irritation, as well as the potential for customer churn and increased cost-to-serve.
Many firms are unsure of how to successfully leverage social channels for providing customer service.
Effective customer service requires a customer service suite that provides escalation and resolution workflow tools, social sharing and social listening capabilities, mobile applications for both agent and user, Web self-service portals and integration with other enterprise applications, especially sales and marketing.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Limited channel strategies are no longer sufficient. Adopt a hybrid channel strategy that involves traditional, as well as newer channels (social and mobile), in order to meet customers where they prefer to be.
Integrate the CSM suite with all relevant service channels, as well as marketing and sales (CRM) apps, in order to fully optimize its value for the business.
The growing popularity of social and mobile channels is leading to an increased volume of interactions. Vendors are quickly becoming wise to the trend and adding robust social and mobile features to their offerings.

Impact and Result

Understand the benefits of using a standalone CSM platform, as well as identify customer service best practices in order to implement a successful CSM deployment.
Plan for and select a CSM platform that supports your product portfolio, customer segments, and service interaction channel mix.
Save time and money by using Info-Tech’s Vendor Landscape to compare and contrast the major CSM vendors, and then create a shortlist of the most appropriate vendors.
Use Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Template, RFP Scoring Tool and Demo Script to gather vendor and product information, objectively score the responses, and conduct vendor demonstrations, in order to select the right product.

Get to Action

Assess the need for a CSM Platform and narrow down a list of CSM vendors
Create a strong list of vendor candidates.
- Vendor Landscape Plus Storyboard: Customer Service Management Platforms
- CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool
Compare leading vendors and develop a shortlist
Narrow the leading vendors down to the most appropriate few.
- CSM Platform Vendor Shortlist Tool
Contrast and evaluate a shortlist of vendors
Select the right CSM Platform vendor.

Design a Customer Service Strategy that Serves the Social Customer

Drive customer satisfaction & retention with social channels.

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Leverage Social Media for Enhanced Customer Interaction

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If you like this, you may also like:

1. CSM Platform RFP Template
2. CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool
3. Vendor Landscape Plus Storyboard: Customer Service Management Platforms
4. Vendor Landscape Plus: Small Enterprise CRM Suites
5. CRM Shortlist Worksheet for Small Enterprises

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