Oracle notches up CRM services score - META Group

In its South African market analysis of vendors` ability to provide value to customers in CRM consulting services, METASpectrum has rated Oracle as one of the clear leaders. The report cites highly trained CRM project managers and the use of a formal methodology to ensure CRM integration project and programme success as key performance areas.

Graeme Yates, Oracle`s CRM product manager, says areas of improvement for the company included, among others, channels and partners, geographic coverage, industry focus, services performance and agility.

"The scope of CRM services was clearly defined across sales, service and marketing with vendors required to demonstrate an understanding and distinctive service across the collaborative, analytic and operation scope of CRM services, with a tangible value to customers," he adds.

The leaders in this survey demonstrated a solid and well experienced existing CRM practice with established overall methodologies that address the business issues in addition to the technology implementation.

The services evaluation focused on the diversity of the integrator`s capabilities to provide expertise ranging from application hosting to technology benchmarking. The evaluation also focused on the existence of a formal project management approach in delivering integration services.

In its market summary, METASpectrum went on to say that the CRM services market in SA is mostly represented by a number of integrators that are providing product-related services on behalf of international CRM product companies. CRM services usually include strategy, software selection, software implementation, business process improvement, team and end-user training and deployment. Increasingly, CRM services are combined with ERP and or SCM services where operational CRM overlaps with these domains.

With most large client organisations having already purchased CRM products, they are now focusing on integration. "According to META, most of the growth is expected in the mid-market where organisations are looking for innovative, well-priced solutions and services. In terms of capabilities, collaborative CRM and operational CRM are well covered by most vendors but very few vendors are focusing on analytical CRM," says Yates.

Oracle`s performance was also noted in terms of technology expertise. The evaluation did not focus on any specific CRM technology but, rather, on the depth of CRM expertise. "A further key area was the ability of the integrator to associate itself with and use the processes of the client. Oracle was rated one of the most flexible in adapting clients` processes as their own," Yates adds.