According to Gartner, Microsoft is “Moving on Up to the Top” of their Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation.
In their recent article they speak of how Microsoft has joined the other 800 pound Gorillas in the sales automation space. See chart:
Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation
- Has at least 100 customers that have deployed opportunity management systems in its last two versions of the software
- Has at least five new named customers that have actively deployed opportunity management functionality during the past 12 months
- Is actively selling or marketing to multiple industries and geographies an SFA solution with opportunity management as the primary application
- Has proved that it can be deployed in sales organizations of more than 100 user
A successful vendor selection strategy will assess providers that support data requirements, access modes and functionality for each sales role. The sales processes will dictate the functional components that best satisfy organizational and individual sales requirements.
- Consultative solution selling will require rich-content process support to tie proposals, bids, configurations and quotes together with authorizations and order-capture systems.
Market Definition/Description
SFA applications enable B2B organizations to automate sales activities, processes and administrative responsibilities for sales professionals. Core functionalities include account, contact and opportunity management. Additional add-on capabilities focus on improving the sales effectiveness of salespeople, such as sales configuration, sales coaching, guided selling, proposal generation and content management; and sales performance management support, including incentive compensation, quota and territory management.
http://www.gartner.com/technology/media-products/reprints/microsoft/vol10/article18/article18.html