That said, it's nice to know there are other people out there who have the resources to do a competent business and technological analysis of software solutions and pick some winners.

CRM consultancy ISM has published details of the 2005 edition of its Guide to CRM Automation, highlighting not only a total of 32 recipients of its Top 15 award for excellence in SMB or enterprise-class CRM (or both), but also sketching out a laundry list of business and technology trends that the organization believes are driving the next wave of customer relationship management strategy and software.

Many of the longest-standing names in CRM make the lists, including Siebel, Onyx, and Pivotal, along with stalwarts such as onContact and Maximizer, and fresh upstarts. One name leaping off the ISM Top 15 Enterprise winner list is Tibco, recognized not for a specific CRM suite but for its integration capabilities bringing business processes together to allow companies to act as a more cohesive unit. "I think the reason why BEA and Tibco are making a mark is that a certain amount of people over the last five years have made investments in CRM systems but now they [BEA and Tibco] are giving them the ability to bring them together. It's a crossover market," says Damon Ross, director of technical services at ISM.

As for technology trends, ISM points to a clear and accelerating tendency to offer strong wireless capabilities, along with more accessible and streamlined XML data schemes. "A couple that come to mind are Siebel and Amdocs Clarify, who are taking a very holistic approach in areas of wireless and remote capabilities," Ross says. "They have opened their CRM to [resemble] a portal, a very friendly, information-rich environment... which is not to say they are necessarily the easiest to implement."

To no industry watcher's surprise, ISM highlights the growing tendency for CRM and indeed other enterprise software vendors to merge, while CRM specialists and units try to expand their reach downmarket to SMB providers as well as horizontally to encompass more vertical and analytical capabilities. With SAP, Oracle's PeopleSoft CRM, and SSA/Baan all appearing on the enterprise leader's list alongside Tibco, has the point been reached when enterprise technology is no longer divided into "front office" and "back office", but is simply viewed as a way all business gets done? "I don't think we're at that point yet, but we're approaching it," says ISM president Barton Goldenberg. "With the consolidations, partnerships, and nontraditional players [such as Tibco] competing, that tells me we are still fighting for a clear definition of the space."

Goldenberg has gone on the record before saying he expects CRM vendors to continue to step into the integration and implementation role that so often in the past has been the primary domain of the channel. According to ISM, most of its SMB top 15 and all but one of its enterprise top 15 vendors now perform at least three of every five client implementations, and all of the SMB leaders said they were trending upward in that area.

ISM applies different weighting to the enterprise and SMB contenders, holding enterprise providers more accountable for technological functionality across a wider range of business processes, while SMB specialists are more strongly scored on implementation, usability, and support. ISM's website publishes a complete list of winners.