This is it. We’re at now running the last couple of laps. Today, we are announcing the 2013 winners of the CRM Watchlist. I’m doing a lot differently than I’ve done in the past – and for the first time, will do the complete list of winners including:

The vendors
The consulting/systems integrators
The Ones to Watch
The Ready to Leap
The Lifetime Achievement

All of them are here – a departure from last year when I did the list after I had started the reviews. So, here’s what will happen from here:

I publish the list of winners here
Then, I do the review of the Lifetime Achievement Winner in the next post.
Following that, I do the vendor reviews categorically (the categories depend on how I group them so they are very fluid). That will take several posts.
After the vendors are done, I’ll do the consulting/SI reviews
I’ll then produce a yearbook in PDF form for free distribution that will have the 2014 criteria – a sneak peak so to speak.
In late February, registration for 2014’s questionnaire starts. The whole thing starts all over again.

I hope this helps those of you out there who asked about why they didn’t know about 2013 – which was a decent sized number. I wasn’t shy about publishing details. If you want to know about 2014’s CRM Watchlist, either read this blog or follow the #crmwatchlist hashtag on Twitter. I can’t do much more than that.

Finally, if you want to see the criteria for 2013, and the format, please read this January 7 blog post.

Okay, enough of the preliminary chatter. Without further ado…..

THE WINNERS OF CRM WATCHLIST 2013!!

The Lifetime Achievement Award Goes to….

The IBM INSTITUTE FOR BUSINESS VALUE

There will be much more on them in the initial review post next week. They are an amazing outfit and, like the charter lifetime achievement award winner last year, Peppers and Rogers, have a body of work that is truly extraordinary over many years. Because this is an impact award, they have managed to have an impact over all that time that goes above and beyond. Just know they won. They do – and we’ll hear from them – and me about them – next week.

The Vendor Winners for 2013 are……

This was an incredibly difficult set of choices but ultimately the revised numbers ruled and these are the winners. There were mitigating circumstances that affected some of the choices. For example, finalist VirtuOz was acquired by Nuance. That, because of multiple factors including some uncertainty on how long it will take to merge cultures, the integration into the Nuance customer base, etc. and just the plain amount of time it takes to effect a transformation like this, took them out of the running. On the other hand Eloqua has been a market leader for a long time in the marketing automation/revenue performance management/revenue marketing world (take your pick of names) and will stand strong even as they make the transformation, so they become a winner. Eloqua’s offering will likely remain a strong viable part of Oracle’s portfolio over 2013 and in their case, the time it will take to integrate works to their advantage. For 2014, however, they will be just part of Oracle and I will treat them as such.

But, as I said, the numbers were revised and some of the choices for finalist didn’t quite have the winners mantle in their cards yet. However, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t great companies, just that they need something else to make them the impact champs they are likely to be. A few barely missed – thus the other two categories of awards. More on them when you get to them.

This year, Blackbaud barely (and I do mean barely), retained its number one status – which means it scored the highest of any company on the list. Its impact in its non-profit market is even stronger than it was last year for reasons which will be revealed in its review. To tease you all a bit more, the companies you see in italics are the top 10% of the winners (after Blackbaud which is bold and italics) – and one of them came VERY close to unseating Blackbaud this year.

Here are the vendor winners in alphabetical order (except for Blackbaud – though I guess that’s obvious, isn’t it?)

The Ready to Leap companies for 2013 are…..

These are the companies that are about a year from becoming real players on the scene. They each were finalists but they aren’t quite there enough to make winners circle. But in 2014, watch out.

Vendor

Consulting

ITC infotech

The Companies to Watch for 2013 are…..

These are the companies that have a 2015 (most likely) arrival date for a true impact player. Let me be clear. Their products and services are purchase-worthy right now. They are exceptional companies. But they are being compared with much longer standing companies in many cases and what they are missing is several of the other components they need to actual impact the market and customers the way the winners of the Watchlist do. For the most part, its because they are young. With some seasoning, increased revenues spent on various aspects of their strategy and of course a good gameplan, these are poised to make a mark in 2015 even as you buy their products or services today. That’s why you should be watching them now and getting in while you still can.

Vendor

Consulting

DRI Consulting

And last but not least…

The Consulting/SI Winners for 2013 are…..

The standards for the consulting/SI winners are different than the vendors. Similar categories, marginally different questions, different weights and values assigned, and different “secret things” that I’m looking for. These winners should be damned proud of themselves because it was easy to be eliminated in this category. The reviews will speak for themselves when they come out. Here too, we had an acquisition that affected the result – Innoveer was acquired by Cloud Sherpa – which raises all the uncertainties that acquisitions have. However, the acquisition makes Cloud Sherpa a possible contender for 2014 – if they register.

What Next?

Now comes the good stuff. All the reviews begin with the next post, starting with the lifetime achievement winner, the IBM IBV. The fun is just starting.

So….