New Forrester report ranks Salesforce and Oracle as top leaders in CRM. Below are some interesting Salesforce references. Link to the original article at the end, and I included a PDF version for download.

Key Takeaways: Salesforce And Oracle Lead The Pack

Salesforce lays a foundation for smarter engagement on a broader scale. In keeping with Forrester’s age-of-the-customer theme, Salesforce puts the customer at the center of its vision, where its products connect customers and companies to enable success. It urges companies to think about the “art of the possible.” This, in combination with its vast application ecosystem (AppExchange), its low-code platform, and its approach to interactive learning (Trailhead), has allowed it to penetrate an installed base of more than 150,000 customers both large and small. Customers like Salesforce. A third of its customer base use more than one CRM product. Its road map is deeply focused on increasing user productivity, making AI consumable within its products, and broadening its portfolio. It recently acquired a B2B commerce solution (CloudCraze) and an integration framework (MuleSoft), which has special appeal to the enterprise.

Salesforce’s strength is in its broad end-to-end portfolio that caters to both B2C and B2B organizations. However, it especially excels in B2C marketing and commerce compared with its B2B product counterparts. Salesforce has done well at operationalizing intelligence scenarios across the suite so that users can quantify results. The vendor offers six industry-specific solutions (financial services, healthcare, government, education, nonprofit, and philanthropy). Weaknesses include Salesforce’s current product integrations and tooling consistency, which are fragmented as a result of its myriad acquisitions. Customers also find Salesforce expensive and cite account management struggles, which Salesforce is addressing by revamping its customer success processes.

Salesforce best suits enterprises looking for a vendor to help actualize a front-office business transformation.

Why Read This Report
In our 33-criterion evaluation of CRM suite providers, we identified the 11 most significant ones — Aptean, bpm’online, CRMNEXT, Infor, Microsoft, NetSuite, Oracle, Pegasystems, Salesforce, SAP, and SugarCRM — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps application development and delivery (AD&D) professionals select the right CRM provider for their needs.

The Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites, Q4 2018
The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up
October 22, 2018