Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Customer Service Contact Centers

Gartner has released its 2011 Magic Quadrant for CRM Customer Service Contact Centers research report and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 finds itself ranked in the Leaders quadrant alongside recognizable names like Siebel, RightNow, Salesforce.com, and Pegasystems.

Gartner views Dynamics CRM 2011's customer service contact center capabilities as "nontraditional". 

Whereas Oracle's Siebel solution is "the standard for large-scale call/contact centers", and Salesforce.com was commended for its improvements through acquisitions like the social CRM capabilities of Radian6, the report notes the ability of Dynamics CRM 2011 to extend into scenarios like public sector, higher education, and other situations where customers, students, citizens, and others need information or assistance that can be derived and provided based on the visibility of CRM data and processes. Improvements in CRM 2011 that won praise included strong Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint, and Office integration, improved workflow support, and the flexibility of the system in creating new entities and workflows.

Gartner also expressed caution on Dynamics CRM (as it does with all packages it analyzes in the report) in a few areas, including a lack of industry experience in complex customer service contact center environments and its ability to provide support for real-time decisions, knowledge management, social CRM for customer service, and mobile customer service. 

The announcement coincides with a recently released version of Microsoft's Customer Care Accelerator for CRM 2011 - on-premise and online.  The accelerator adds a basis for contact center functionality by providing an integrated desktop that aggregates information from diverse business applications, streamlines data entry, adds telephony integration, and adds activity reporting for call center managers. It also includes hooks for ...