Social CRM: The Conversation

Paul Greenberg

CRM Watchlist 2012: A Few More Make It as Candidates

By Paul Greenberg | November 30, 2011, 5:37am PST

If you remember my original CRM Watchlist 2012 Preseason posts on the vendors and the consultancies, I had an opportunity for those not on the list to request and then submit a questionnaire by November 26. The idea was that I would review the questionnaire and based on the answers in the questionnaire would add companies that I felt had enough to impact a market potentially (based on their answers, not on my research per se) enough to be a CRM Watchlist 2012 Winner. That said, a candidate is just that - a candidate, not a finalist, not a winner. There’s a long way to go before we get to the winners.

What I requested was that each of the companies that submitted the questionnaire answered the questionnaire in full and that the questionnaire itself was answered sufficiently to give me what I need to decide on whether or not the company belonged as a candidate. Supplemental material not on the questionnaire was fine but answering a question with links wasn’t.

Well, here’s the numbers. In the week that I gave to request the questionnaire I got 35 requests. Twenty-six of the requestors were sent questionnaires (the others just didn’t fit). Twenty-one sent the questionnaires back by the deadline (several tried to send it late. No dice). Of the 21, seven made the list - 6 on the vendor list; one on the consultancy/SI list. It wasn’t easy and is tougher this year than ever before. So congrats to the new candidates. Here they are. Again, since they are candidates, no links, just names of the companies.

To those of you who didn’t make it, I’m sorry, truly. Five of the 14 were very very close and another year of seasoning and/or growth and you have a really good shot. Some not so close were companies that I had heard of already but honestly, did such a poor job on the questionnaire that there was no way to consider them. If its meaningful to you, please give me more to work with.

If you didn’t make it, feel free to email me at paul-greenberg3@the56group.com and, when I am able (I’m slammed this week and away for the next two on business travel), I’ll respond and tell you why you didn’t to the extent I am able to without giving away too much.

The additions to the candidates list are (in alphabetical order):

Vendors

Cloud9
DoubleDutch
Loopfuse
NexJ
The TAS Group
Yammer

Consultancies/SI

Congrats to the new candidates! All well deserved and I won’t be overlooking you throughout 2012 for sure, whether you win or not. I’m just one person so I can’t do everything but getting proactive information makes me aware of companies and people I should have been already. So this is really, really cool when it happens.

Next step will be publication of the finalists list by….umm, I don’t think I’ll commit to anything but before the end of the year. It might be sooner though. Winners will follow a week or two after that.

Good luck to everyone!

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Consultancy, CRM, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Business Agility, Enterprise Software, Software, Paul Greenberg

In addition to being the author of the best-selling "CRM at the Speed of Light: Social CRM Strategies, Tools, and Techniques for Engaging Your Customers," Paul Greenberg is President of The 56 Group, LLC.

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Biography

Paul Greenberg

In addition to being the author of the best-selling CRM at the Speed of Light: Social CRM Strategies, Tools, and Techniques for Engaging Your Customers" Paul Greenberg is President of The 56 Group, LLC, a customer strategy consulting firm, focused on cutting edge CRM strategic services and a founding partner of the CRM training company, BPT Partners, LLC, a training and consulting venture composed of a number of CRM luminaries that has quickly become the authority for the CRM industry.

His book, CRM at the Speed of Light: Essential Customer Strategies for the 21st Century, now in its fourth edition, is in 8 languages and been called "the bible of the CRM industry". It is used by more than 70 universities as a primary text. It was named "the number 1 CRM book" by SearchCRM.com in 2002 and is one of two books recommended by CustomerThink. The Asian edition of CIO Magazine named it one of the 12 most important books an Asian CEO will ever read. Paul has also authored two other books including "E-Government for Public Officials" (Thompson Publishing, 2003).

Paul is also the Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management CRM Centre of Excellence, and the Executive Vice President of the CRM Association.

Paul is considered a thought leader in CRM, having been published in numerous industry and business publications over the years and having traveled the world speaking on cutting edge CRM and topics geared to the contemporary social customer. He has been called "the godfather of CRM", the "Walt Whitman of CRM" and even "the Bob Dylan of CRM" by analysts and organizations throughout the industry. He is known particularly for his work on the use of social media, such as blogs, podcasts and wikis and social networks/communities in CRM as tools and channels for customer collaboration with a company. He is seen often as the "voice of the customer" and is well known within the CRM industry for this work. His blog, PGreenblog has been named the #1 CRM blog every year from 2005-2010 by all industry award providers. He also has a podcast, Experience on the Edge, that has garnered a myriad of industry kudos and his collaboration with Brent Leary on the always funny, often cutting, CRM Playaz" is the most popular broadcast in the CRM world.

Paul was also named one of the most influential people in CRM by CRM Magazine in August 2008. In 2010, he was inducted into CRM Magazine's CRM Hall of Fame.

He is a member of the Destination CRM Board of Experts and the SearchCRM Expert Advisory Panel as well as a member of the Board of Advisors for GreaterChinaCRM for many years. He also sits on the Board of Advisors of the CIE Institute and and multiple other companies.

Currently, Paul lives in Manassas, Virginia with his wife and five cats. To reach Paul, please email him at paul-greenberg3@the56group.com. You can follow him at Twitter or join up with him on LinkedIn or Facebook.