Amdocs Clarify CRM Sales Solution

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1 Rochelle Shaw, Cynthia R. Lubrano Product Report 3 September 2003 Amdocs Clarify CRM Sales Solution Summary Amdocs ClarifyCRM portfolio offers a compatible line of traditional (ClearSales) and thin-client (ClarifyCRM) sales applications that are particularly popular with the telecommunications market. Table of Contents Overview Analysis Pricing Competitors Strengths Limitations Recommended Gartner Research Insight List Of Tables Table 1: Overview: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions Table 2: Enhancements: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions Table 3: Features and Functions: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions Gartner Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Corporate Headquarters Amdocs ClarifyCRM Division 2570 Orchard Parkway San Jose, CA 95131, U.S.A. Tel: Fax: Internet: Overview Amdocs is a supplier of customer relationship management (CRM), billing and order management systems. Its products are used by wireline, wireless, broadband, electronic, mobile commerce and Internet Protocol (IP) service companies. While its primary market is the communications industry, the company is expanding into other markets as well. When Amdocs acquired Clarify in late 2001, it inherited its highly regarded CRM suite. In June 2003, Amdocs released ClarifyCRM 12, an update with a Webbased focus, a new development environment for ClarifyCRM Web applications, and improvements to its Process Manager and Integration Gateway facilities. The release places emphasis on process management and predictive analysis through its products and is designed to optimize the value of each customer interaction. Table 1: Overview: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions Product Name ClarifyCRM Sales and Order Management, comprising ClarifyCRM ClearSales, ClarifyCRM Sales, ClearSales Commissions, Script Manager and related applications. Current Version 12. Price (US$) From 5,000 for a universal license per concurrent user. Date Released June Target Applications While Amdocs does not brand by vertical, it offers bundled applications targeted to telco, high-tech manufacturing and financial services industries. Table 2: Enhancements: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions New Applications: Browser-Based Products ClarifyCRM Sales Customer Interaction Manager A thin client (browser-based) sales application that is based on, and designed to work with, the traditional ClearSales product (both work concurrently). Serves as dashboard for the customer service agent. In sales applications, allows agents to view, navigate and manage using built-in order management function or option to link to third-party order management systems. 3 September

3 Table 2: Enhancements: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions New Applications: Browser-Based Products Customization A new development environment for creating ClarifyCRM Web client applications Center and data models. Offers what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editing of user interface page layout and controls. Uses wizards to speed customization of established business logic and user interface pages. Navigates ClarifyCRM objects and components through graphical means. Leverages established Java tools and experience. Release 12 Enhanced Products Web-Based Interface ClarifyCRM Billing Manager ClarifyCRM Integration Gateway Process Manager Many of the products within the ClarifyCRM Sales and Ordering, Marketing and Analytics, and Service and Support product lines are now available in thin-client, Web-based versions. Handles billing inquiries and adjustments at the first point of contact. Applies consistent billing rules and guidelines across all interaction channels. Supports integration to third-party billing systems. Allows customers to define and publish ClarifyCRM events for use by third-party systems. Extends channels through XML response delivery to mobile device gateways. Supports asynchronous and synchronous integration using Enterprise JavaBeans technology (EJB), Java Message Service (JMS) and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Supports business-to-business integrations through Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)/Web services. Provides online, visual processing monitoring through any ClarifyCRM desktop application. J2EE process execution engine for heightened performance and scalability. Flowcharting capabilities for process modeling. Drives user interface page display and scripts through model processing. Table 3: Features and Functions: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions ClearSales Opportunity Management Lead Management Pipeline Management Territory Management Captures and monitors the process of securing revenue. Can execute Automated Sales Strategies for an entire sales team based on product or industry focus. Enables assembling contact, account, product and competitive information into a framework for managing leads and revenue opportunities. Allows lead information to be captured from information gathered in the call center, customers browsing a Web site, customers sending for information, or lists of trade shows loaded into the system. Manages leads separately from opportunities. Provides multiple graphical display options of analyzing opportunities by rep, by product, by territory, by sales stage and by quota. Enables management to structure the sales organization by geography, industry, named accounts or products and product lines. Allows rolling up many territories into one territory. 3 September

4 Table 3: Features and Functions: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions Quotes and Provides support for detailed sales quotes with optional configuration capabilities. Proposals Allows quotes to include start/end dates, currency, price schedule, sales order detail and discount constraints. Revenue Generated based on the probability of closures (guidelines established by Forecasting management to ensure data consistency). Forecasts can be modified by the sales rep or manager. Includes support for currency conversion and roll-up/roll-down forecast numbers. ClarifyCRM Sales Thin-client version of ClearSales. Allows sales processes to be accessed from a Web browser at any location. Focused on sales rep functionality. Designed to work in conjunction with the classic client version of ClearSales. Available in 100 percent thin-client format with no downloads or code on the client. Additional ClarifyCRM Sales Products ClearSales Commissions ClearSales Configurator ClarifyCRM Configurator Script Manager Account Manager Enterprise Incentive Management application designed to model compensation plans based on corporate objectives, manage commission pay (allocation and adjustments) and publish results. Supports the creation of multiple compensation plans that reflect varying incentives and objectives for channels, divisions or departments. Offers what if scenarios. Includes a calculation engine to make adjustments, perform multiple posts and process all payment-related activities. Distributes commission reports to a secure Web access site. Designed to provide complete configuration, catalog and proposal functionality when used in tandem with ClearSales. Configures complex products and services. Manages dependencies and interactions between products and options. Includes a price engine to manage pricing and other nonproduct information, including discounts, financing and customer-specific data. Provides an electronic catalog to store competitive knowledge, marketing and other support material. Internet-based, 100 percent thin-client configurator. Enables companies to identify customer needs and configure customized product offerings based on a rules engine. Includes capabilities for flexible discount options and proposal generation. Enhanced in Release 12, it uses dynamic call scripts to cross-sell and up-sell relevant orders for telesales, telemarketing and customer service organizations. Guides agents through personalized calls and assists in information collection. Allows companies to easily create and modify complex scripts through comprehensive design capabilities. Provides a set of tools to test, activate and analyze scripts. Uses drop-down menus, natural language wording and multiple-language support. Permits the inclusion of dynamic branching within a script and between different scripts. Provides a 360-degree view of customer data at account-specific levels, including sites, contacts/contact roles, contracts, locations and customer activity, such as support cases, sales opportunities, literature requests, quotes and forecasts. 3 September

5 Table 3: Features and Functions: Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales Solutions MACD (Moves, Adds, Changes, Deletions) Campaign Management Customer Hierarchies Process Manager Order Management Expands sales and configuration capabilities in the ClarifyCRM suite, with features geared specifically for telecommunications companies. Helps communications providers to coordinate customer orders and services through their life cycles; for example, can handle a customer request to add, change, disconnect or move a product or service component. Designed to handle the effective analysis, execution and planning of marketing campaigns. Specifies campaign factors, prioritizes customer products and services, leverages communications channels and issues sales resources. Helps to manage unlimited hierarchy levels for large corporate customer accounts. Supports such concurrent hierarchy categories as billing, discounts, legal elements and organization. Offers a consolidated customer view from all relevant information sources. Defines, executes and tracks customer-centric business processes that span across all Amdocs ClarifyCRM products and external systems. Automates and streamlines business processes that are used throughout the complete customer life cycle. Manages the complete order process to improve time-to-profit and time-to-market for new products and services. Handles such areas as order and purchase requests/adjustments. Links to third-party order management systems. Analysis The CRM software market is not faring well. Many vendors are dealing with dramatic drops in revenue. To its credit, Amdocs is perceived highly within its core market telecommunications and high-technology manufacturing companies. The company s forte has been in delivering solutions for customer service contact centers where the concentration is on problem resolution and billing integration. Amdocs broke into the CRM market when it acquired Clarify from Nortel Networks in late 2001 for approximately US$200 million. Since that acquisition, Amdocs has steadily improved the ClarifyCRM line. In late 2002, Amdocs released ClarifyCRM 11 with many enhancements and a variety of new applications. In March 2003, Amdocs expanded the marketing capabilities of its ClarifyCRM application suite through the acquisition of the assets of Xchange, a supplier of campaign management and real-time marketing automation software. Amdocs made the purchase of Xchange, a former CRM competitor, for approximately $5.1 million. When Xchange closed its doors, Amdocs purchased the company s Xchange CRM product, intellectual property and trademarks. Gartner estimates Xchange to have around 70 maintenance-paying customers who now deal with Amdocs. In an effort to quickly incorporate the Xchange line, Amdocs included it in its ClarifyCRM 12 rollout in June This release brings a more Web-oriented countenance to the series. Nearly all of Amdocs ClarifyCRM products are now available in thin-client format, with the exception of some lesser-used applications. Improvements have been made to the Process Manager and Integration Gateways to handle J2EE process execution, EJB, HTTP, JMS, SOAP and Extensible Markup Language (XML) Web and development standards. Further, the new Customization Center provides a development environment for the creation of ClarifyCRM Web client applications. With Release 12, Amdocs overriding goal is to support end-to-end customer-focused processes in high-performance and scalable environments. 3 September

6 Amdocs offers a platform co-existence strategy, which enables ClarifyCRM customers on both the fatclient and thin-client sides to interoperate with one another using the same information repository. Amdocs realizes that most companies would probably like to upgrade computing infrastructures to accommodate new Internet architecture applications. However, the vendor also acknowledges that today s sluggish business climate is prohibiting many customers from doing so. Amdocs co-existence strategy allows companies to incrementally move to browser-based systems as business requirements and budget constraints allow. For example, between Clarify CRM ClearSales and ClarifyCRM Sales, the two products share the same data, and server side processes such as routing, rule manager, and a classification engine. The Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales and Order Management line provides sales automation tools for on-site and remote sales professionals. The applications are designed to assist users in communicating with sales personnel, developing quotes and orders, forecasting revenue and managing sales opportunities. The products are also geared to compensation plan development and sales commission management. The solution comprises ClearSales, ClarifyCRM Sales, ClearSales Commissions (provided through a partnership with Centive, a leader in the incentive compensation space), ClearSales Configurator and Account Manager products. Additional products in the line include MACD, Campaign Management, Customer Hierarchies, Process Manager and Customer and Order Management applications. The primary component in the ClarifyCRM Sales and Order Management line is the ClearSales application. It supports a team-selling approach, with considerations for channel partners, field sales, telemarketing and telesales professionals. ClearSales provides contact management, opportunity, lead and territory management facilities. Amdocs ClarifyCRM Sales, released in conjunction with ClarifyCRM 11, is a thin client version of ClearSales. Optimized for Internet use, the product can be accessed through any standard Web browser from any location. ClarifyCRM Sales is designed to work with the classic ClearSales product, enabling established customers to interoperate between traditional sales and browser-based applications. The dual architecture approach enables sales teams/divisions to be migrated to a Web-based environment at the organization s pace. As far as Amdocs mobile sales and field resolution solutions go, the products are adequate, providing basic capabilities. The thin-client product, ClarifyCRM, includes most of the functionality found in ClearSales. It provides account management, contact management, lead management and opportunity management facilities, but not territory management and forecasting. The line includes flexible opportunity management, incentive compensation and sales configuration systems. The Sales Configuration application is based on Amdocs acquisition of Newtonian Software in August 1999 and includes solid quote-to-order capabilities. The configuration engine enables sales reps to configure and quote complex product designs. Pricing Pricing for ClarifyCRM sales products begins at $5,000 for a universal license per concurrent user. ( Universal means that each user can access all ClarifyCRM applications within the suite.) Additionally, the server price typically runs from $20,000 to $100,000. GSA Pricing No. 3 September

7 Competitors The Amdocs ClarifyCRM series competes with those of large enterprise computing vendors, like PeopleSoft, Oracle and Siebel. Amdocs also competes with other CRM vendors, such as Best Software, Chordiant Software, E.piphany, Kana and Pivotal. Best Software SalesLogix The SalesLogix CRM Suite is designed to automate the selling cycle, from marketing campaign and lead capture to product delivery and customer support. Extensive partnerships and integration with third-party products greatly enhance SalesLogix functional reach. These product functions include accounting and ERP integration, alert messaging, application integration, business intelligence, content management, data analysis, cleansing, consolidation, import and storage, event management, project management and sales force automation, among others. In addition to core competency in sales force automation, other product strengths include strong mobile support and the ability for rapid implementation. Oracle Oracle s 11i e-business suite provides a broad portfolio of sales applications, which includes Sales Online, Mobile Field Sales, TeleSales, Incentive Compensation, Sales Intelligence, Partners Online and istore. It provides a strong sales configuration (pricing and product) capability but, like Amdocs, lacks depth of functionality in multiple other areas (for example, PRM, interactive selling and field sales). Oracle still needs to provide strong multichannel sales reference customers, but the solution is improving with each release. PeopleSoft PeopleSoft s CRM significantly enhances the sales solution s interactive selling capabilities and provides a promising but not yet proven mobile sales solution. At the center of the vendor s line is the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture, which is centered on the Internet to support real-time business processes. It provides functionality for secure, scalable Internet-based access and integration. PeopleSoft provides Configuration, CRM Portal Pack, Field Service, Mobile Sales, Order Capture and Telemarketing modules. Pivotal The Pivotal CRM suite includes sales, marketing, service, partner relationship management (PRM) and interactive selling components. The solution is built on an XML-driven Web-based platform and includes portals to provide support for customers and business partners. Pivotal CRM Sales combines territory, opportunity and quote/proposal management with forecasting and team-selling capabilities. It includes traditional sales, wireless and analytical capabilities. Pivotal Interactive Selling provides a personalized online buying or selling experience for customers and sales professionals through interactive needs analysis and intelligent guided selling services. It consists of five integrated components: Pivotal esales, Configurator, eadvisor, Quoter and Catalog. Siebel Siebel, the undisputed CRM leader, offers a comprehensive multichannel sales application suite. It provides Siebel Sales, Sales Forecasting, Sales Analytics, Incentive Compensation, and Mobile Sales products. Siebel is the leading vendor in Gartner s CRM Sales Suite Magic Quadrant and offers a powerful solution for field sales, inside selling, partner sales and Web sales. It includes PRM, e-commerce and content management functionality all aspects that are missing from Amdoc s suite. Siebel s sales solution is also stronger in the areas of core opportunity management, sales configuration and interactive selling. Unlike Amdocs coexisting client server and Web-based platforms, Siebel 7.5 is driven by a pure 3 September

8 thin-client architecture, where all functionality is delivered through a zero footprint browser-based client. Siebel offers 20 vertical market solutions, providing industry-specific data model extensions, segmentspecific functionality and business process, and industry-specific integration kits. This far exceeds Amdocs vertical capabilities, which focus almost entirely on the telecommunications industry. Strengths Leader in the Telecommunications Market Amdocs has staked a strong claim to market leadership in telecommunications. With customers from around the world, its client list reads like a Who s Who of telecommunications providers. This is particularly true in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, where 65 percent to 75 percent of Amdocs revenue is from telcos. The integration of Amdocs telecommunications-focused billing and order management software with ClarifyCRM s portfolio provides an enticing package for telecommunications companies that require a strong service emphasis to their CRM solution with complementary rather than leading sales and marketing functionality. Complementary Classic and Web-Based Products Amdocs offers both traditional (ClearSales) and thin-client (ClarifyCRM Sales) versions of its base sales solution. This allows users of traditional and browser-based applications to work within the same environment with a unified view of the customer. The dual-architecture approach allows customers to migrate to browser-based environments as finances and resources allow. With this compatibility, business activities are not disrupted as a company gradually migrates to a thin-client environment. Limitations Considered a Niche Vendor Amdocs has had its greatest success within the telecommunications market. While this is a plus, the company has expressed a desire to move into other markets. The acquisition of Xchange s CRM business may help Amdocs to expand into the financial services arena. To sell its sales solutions outside the telecommunications market, Amdocs must maintain and even extend the nontelecom relationships it acquired with Clarify. It also must expand its installed base, fill functionality gaps in its sales line and improve its mind share with external consultants and system integrators. Lacks Sales-Focused PRM Functionality Clarify does not provide a dedicated sales-focused PRM capability. In addition to missing core partner lifecycle management functionality (for example, partner profiling, recruitment, registration, planning, matching and analysis), the company does not provide functionality to enhance partner effectiveness (for example, sales training, partner forecasting and interactive selling). Not All Amdocs CRM Products Are Browser-Based Within the past year, Amdocs has introduced browser-based versions of its sales, billing, customer service and support, call center and response center applications. But there are many products that are not available in thin-client form. Until Amdocs migrates the entire client server portfolio across to the e- business architecture, there will be the ongoing requirement for coexisting architectures and multiple toolkits. Recommended Gartner Research Amdocs ClarifyCRM Marketing and Analytics Solution, DPRO September

9 Amdocs Clarify CRM Service Solution, DPRO Amdocs Acquiring Xchange Will Help Telecom, Financial Customers, FT CRM Sales Suite Vendors: 2003 Magic Quadrant, M The 1H03 Direct Sales Technology Magic Quadrant, M CRM Suite Magic Quadrant 2003: Business-to-Consumer, M Management Update: Gartner s 2003 B2B CRM Suite Magic Quadrant, IGG Insight Amdocs ClarifyCRM portfolio provides a strong customer service-focused solution with supporting sales and marketing applications rather than viable stand-alone suites. The sales suite provides what can be deemed as basic functionality across the main components (for example, opportunity management, sales configuration, incentive compensation via OEM agreement, and field sales). However, it lacks depth when compared to leaders in the multichannel sales application market, such as Siebel and other strong ERP vendors. As part of an integrated CRM-billing solution with adequate rather than leading functionality, the portfolio has strong appeal for telecommunications-based companies. The challenge for Amdocs will be to make a move into other markets. 3 September