DPRO-118222 Product Report

Jim Davies 30 October 2003

Pivotal CRM v5

Summary

Pivotals merger with Talisma and acquisition by Oak will help ease the companys established financial
concerns and enhance its mid-market CRM portfolio, already strengthened by the recent v5 release.

Table of Contents
Overview
Analysis
Pricing
Competitors
Strengths
Limitations
Recommended Gartner Research
Insight

List Of Tables
Table 1: Overview: Pivotal CRM
Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM
Table 3: Features and Functions: Pivotal Architecture
Table 4: Features and Functions: Business Server Specifications
Table 5: Features and Functions: Mobile/Disconnected User Specifications
Table 6: Pricing Scenario: Pivotal CRM

Gartner
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved.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.
Pivotal CRM v5

Corporate Headquarters

Pivotal Corp.
858 Beatty Street
Vancouver, BC, V6B 1C1, Canada

Tel: +1 604 699 8000

Fax: +1 604 699 8001
Internet: www.pivotal.com

European Headquarters

475 The Boulevard Capability Green

Luton, Bedfordshire

LU1 3LU, U.K.

Tel: +44 1582 406650
Fax: +44 1582 453305
Overview
Pivotal is one of the leading customer relationship management (CRM) suite vendors for midsize
organizations (100 to 1000 employees). The company has offices in 20+ locations around the world, has
over 375 employees and 1,600 customers and generated $65.2m in revenue in 2002 (down from $95.3m
in 2001).
On 8 October 2003, Pivotal announced a definitive agreement under which Oak Investment Partners will
pay US$1.78 cash per share for all the outstanding shares of Pivotal. Oak may also pay additional
consideration of up to $0.03 per share, depending on the companys financial performance to 16 October
2003. Concurrently, Pivotals business will be combined with complementary e-service vendor Talisma.
Oak Investment Partners will be the controlling shareholder of the combined business.
This report focuses on Pivotals current CRM offering (v5.0, released 29 April 2003). The proposed
merger and acquisition will undoubtedly change the situation, but this transaction is not expected to close
until the end of 2003. For more information on the proposed transaction, please read Gartners
complementary report: Venture Capital Firm Gives Lifeline to Pivotal and Talisma, FT-21-3170.
Table 1: Overview: Pivotal CRM
Product Name Pivotal CRM
Product Type CRM Suite
Current Version 5.0
Date Released 29 April 2003
Pivotal 5: 29 April 2003.
Price (US$) From $200,000
Average deal size $158,000 in 1H03 (excluding deals under 50K).

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 2
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 1: Overview: Pivotal CRM

Target Market Midsize enterprises and divisions of large enterprises with revenue between $100
million and $3 billion.
Provides sub-vertical offerings for investment banks, healthcare insurance firms and
real estate/construction companies.

The Pivotal CRM suite includes sales, marketing, service, interactive selling and partner relationship
management (PRM) components. The solution is built on a three-tier meta-data-driven architecture and
includes portals to provide support for customers and business partners.
Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM
Sales-Force Automation

Lead and Qualify and distribute leads based on territory or product specialty to sales team
Opportunity and business partners.
Management Track new, unqualified leads.
(Pivotal Sales)and Track customer referrals and lead referrals.
Team Selling Capture a leads interest in multiple products.
Assign account managers to contracts, companies and opportunities based on
territory definition.
Notify account managers when a new account is assigned.
Apply a pre-defined sales action plan to opportunities.
Apply custom milestones for pipeline tracking and reporting.
Analyze won, lost, on-hold or abandoned opportunities.
Determine each opportunitys estimated rating, potential revenue, close date and
close probability.
Track competitors position on opportunities.
Collaborate with team members on opportunities and leads.
Analyze each opportunitys needs analysis, qualification criteria and buying
criteria.
Track key influencers and levels of support.
Link external business partners to opportunities.
Flag potential closing obstacles.
Access online sales and presentation materials.
Notify and alert employees to important plans, events or customer interactions.
Catalog Generation Manages the product, product information and product attributes database or
and Management catalog for products and parts data.
(Pivotal Interactive Full multilingual support for products and their descriptive data and attachments in
Selling) a single production instance.
Catalog supports internationalization or localization of catalog items.
Supports unlimited number of product attributes.
Object-oriented data model to record and present products and services.
Multimedia product catalog.
Single-source shipping and tracking.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 3
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Quote and Proposal Provides full flexibility in the quoting process.

Management Creates quotes and proposals or orders templates as products and sales initiatives
(Pivotal Sales) change.
Updates available items, products and prices as they change for accurate
quotation generation.
Multistage quoting process.
Enables users to generate multiple quotes for each opportunity to compare pricing
and alternative offerings.
Intelligent recommendations.
Consolidated revenue forecast.
Sales Collateral Fulfill collateral request automatically from within the contact form.
(Pivotal Sales) Designate contacts to receive marketing collateral.
Prepare proposals, quotes and sales contracts using product, service descriptions
and pricing maintained within the solution.
Sales Efficiency Team-selling methodology.
Tools Solution-selling methodologynew in Pivotal Assisted Selling.
(Pivotal Sales/Pivotal Miller Heiman sales methodologies for Strategic Selling, Conceptual Selling and
Assisted Large Account Management Process (LAMP).
Selling/Pivotal
SalesMiller
Heiman Edition)
Wireless Support XML-based interface.
(Pivotal Wireless) Provides mobile employees with real-time access to Pivotal business logic and
customer data.
Out-of-box forms, searches and Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) style
sheets.
Fully customizable searches and forms.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) compliant.
Supports wireless handheld devices, such as Web-enabled cell phones, personal
digital assistants (PDAs) and two-way pagers.
eSales Provides the core application to enable enterprises to leverage the Internet as a
(Pivotal Interactive selling channel.
Selling) Supports use by partners and customers.
Sales Configuration Provides customers and partners with a configuration engine.
(Pivotal Interactive Used externally via a companys Web site to help guide buyers through product
SellingPivotal selection and customization.
Configurator) Uses data, rules, constraints, relationships and options to model products,
services or processes.
It enforces business rules while delivering context-based messages that facilitate
up-selling and cross-selling.
Ensures complex orders and quotes are accurate, complete and valid.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 4
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Online Guided Designed to help customers select and purchase the best products and services
Selling via multiple channels to meet their needs.
(Pivotal Interactive Performs needs analysis via guided question and answer scenarios that analyze
SellingPivotal needs and suggest optimal configured solutions or product alternatives.
eAdvisor)
Quotations Provides the ability to automatically generate quotations and proposals.
(Pivotal Interactive Allows users to copy, save and delete quotations as well as to store quotation
SellingPivotal templates for future use.
Quoter)
Catalog Manages the database and publishing of product or solution offerings, their pricing
Management and attributes, as well as the necessary sales encyclopedia of applicable product
(Pivotal Interactive information.
SellingPivotal Organizes and displays product information based on role-based rules and
Catalog) language parameters.
Complex Selling With the release of Pivotal 5, Pivotal provides a new product, Pivotal Assisted
Solution Selling, for complex solution selling. This product includes features from across the
(Pivotal Assisted established Pivotal Sales portfolio. Features include:
Selling) Combined sales automation, guided selling, complex quote creation and
price/product configuration in a single out-of-the-box application.
A browsable catalog gives salespeople up-to-date product and service
descriptions/pricing and content, including specifications and attachments.
Interactive questions and answers are designed to analyze the needs of a
prospect or customer in order for the system to suggest the most optimal solution
and product configurations.
Automated cross-/up-sell recommendations continuously update users on
alternatives to their established solution selections.
Automatic pricing calculations are performed and adjusted based on complex
dependencies, interactions and factors.
Proposals are automatically generated and attached to each opportunity within
Pivotal Sales.
Enhanced discountingfixed amount or percent discounting capabilities can be
made at both the line item and quotation levels.
Create, propose and automatically expire multiple quotes per opportunity that
contain up-to-date products, services and pricing.
Once a quote has been accepted, orders are created and passed on to order
fulfillment.
Configurator capabilities that allows product managers to model the way in which
products, services and solutions can be assembled, packaged and sold.
Smart Form wizards take product managers and marketers through the step-by-
step process of updating and expiring product/service descriptions and pricing.
The same assisted selling functionality and user experience is available across all
channels, including disconnected environments.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 5
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Customer Service and Support

Call Management Provides an employee-facing customer service application that automates the
(Pivotal Service) capture, management and resolution of customer service and support requests
across multiple channels.
Call routing matches each customer to the most appropriate resource.
Real-time alerts highlight most valuable customers.
Escalation Management: Supports escalation of incidents and tasks based on
user-defined business rules and multiple notification methods, including e-mail,
pagers and screen pops.
Request Management: Supports automatic request routing, escalation
management, quality management, contract management and entitlement
verification.
Integrates with Pivotal Sales and Marketing.
eService Provides a self-service Web site for customers.
(Pivotal eService) Allows customers to create, review and update incidents, escalate to service
agents or register products for future service needs.
Provides self-services reports for customers to keep track of orders, incidents,
contracts and service-level agreements.
Supports product registration and feedback.
Includes an online knowledge base and FAQ capability (uses full-text searches to
return the most relevant responses to the most commonly asked questions).
E-mail response management functionality includes the auto-acknowledgment of
e-mails, queuing to live agents, auto-recording of the e-mail and attachments
directly in the customer record or support incident, and escalation so e-mails are not
lost.
Personalized message center that presents customers with alerts and time-
sensitive information.
Supports ability to add attachments to service incidents.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 6
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Contact Center Provides a stand-alone desktop application, which combines sales, marketing,
Support service and support functionality within a single unified interface.
(Pivotal Contact Supports both Microsoft Windows and Web-based environments.
CenterVarious Pivotal Contact Center With CPS Connector
Editions) Adds Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) capabilities, driven by Intel Call
Processing Software (CPS) platform (v6.), to the Pivotal Contact Center desktop
application.
Major enhancements in r6.0 of the Intel CPS platform include:
Supports Computer Supported Telecommunications Applications (CSTA) phase
III protocol
Enhanced Security
Enhanced Management InterfaceVersion 6 provides a graphical user interface
(GUI) for more user-friendly configuration and management support
Server EnhancementsAutomatic re-establishment of link after server/switch
reconnect
CTI screen pops deliver customer information to the agent along with the
customers call.
Provides desktop call control via a telephony toolbar.
Includes out-of-the-box integration between the Pivotal Contact Center desktop
application and Nortel, Avaya and Siemens switches and all the most popular
Interactive Voice Response (IVRs).
Static rules-based routing is available with out-of-the-box support for Automatic
Number Identification (ANI) and Dialled Number Identification Services (DNIS).
Supports integration with other telephony infrastructure components via a
connector.
Pivotal Contact Center With Customer Interaction Center (CIC) Connector
Provides a multichannel Internet Protocol (IP)-based contact center that combines
the Pivotal Contact Center desktop product with Interactive Intelligences latest CIC
solution.
All telephony hardware is located on a single PC server (that is, the solution is
connected to both the Internet and phone channels via a software switch).
Driven by technology original equipment manufactured (OEMd) from Interactive
Intelligence.
Provides universal queuing for true multichannel interaction support.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 7
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Marketing Automation

Campaign Synchronize offline and online marketing programs.

Management Multichannel multiwave/multistep campaigns; event-, time- and rule-based
(Pivotal triggering of campaign steps, allowing continuously running marketing campaigns.
MarketFirstCore Campaign portal and collaborative workflow tools to address the needs of
Platform and extended marketing teams, such as regional marketers, sales, partners, vendors,
Campaign Portal) resellers and the like.
Point-and-click, drag-and-drop graphical no-coding approach to creating
campaigns.
Campaign blueprints based on best practices.
Customer satisfaction surveys.
Supports campaigns that integrate e-mail, Web, fax, direct mail, wireless and rich
media.
Dynamic progressive customer profiling.
Dynamic content management: personalized content based on contact profile,
conditional content across multiple media.
Program resource management for managing and maintaining mailing lists using
reports that include detail about inaccurate e-mail addresses, bounced messages
and other errors.
E-mail Marketing capabilities including high-speed dynamic personalized e-mail
server, e-mail sniffing, text/HTML capabilities, e-mail response/bounce/open/click-
through tracking, Surveys in e-mail.
End-to-end marketing tracking, click-through.
Localization capabilities to for regional offers.
247 access to lead qualification and distribution and communication campaigns.
Query and segmentation tools.
Rule-based scoring ability based on all profile and behavioral (history) data.
Comprehensive list management functionality.
Segmentation based on all profile and historical data, random sample lists, split
segments and so on.
Testing methodologies.
Campaign return-on-investment (ROI) calculations.
View marketing programs by month, quarter or year and across department,
geography, type, product line or any number of user-defined categories.
Out-of-the-box reports.
Save campaign best practices as blueprints for later reuse.
Integration capabilityboth real-time and batch, allowing integration with other
enterprise systems.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 8
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Prospecting Tools Web-based, self-service prospecting portal.

(Pivotal Prospecting templates.
MarketFirst Guided prospecting.
Prospecting Direct access to assigned leads.
Assistant) Creation of HTML prospecting communication.
Access to the latest corporate collateral and message, ensuring consistent,
relevant communication.
Personalization of content.
Dynamic content/content management.
Referral capabilities.
Click-through tracking of links.
Track and measure interactions with prospects.
Real-time reporting and drill-down reports.
Lead Management Integration of online and offline leads.
(Pivotal Automatic qualification, scoring and distribution of leads.
MarketFirstLead Wireless lead distribution.
Manager) Call scripting.
Lead follow-up tracking, retraction and redistribution.
Access to leads through personalized sales portals.
Lead tracking and reporting.
Event Management Event planning, budgeting, tracking and logistics. Workgroup and vendor
(Pivotal collaboration to produce each event.
MarketFirstEvent Manual task scheduling and tracking.
Manager) Multiwave campaigns to promote to the highest-priority list first, followed by lower-
priority lists.
Controlled test management, response tracking to optimize messaging.
Online event invitations and registration through personalized e-mails or a
personalized Web page.
Event confirmations and scheduling.
Dynamic content.
Real-time measurement.
Event follow-up surveys.
Direct Marketing Consolidates multichannel marketing activities.
(Pivotal Run multiwave/multistep campaigns.
MarketFirstDirect Media-, source- and offer-based response tracking.
Marketing Manager) Track and nurture leads.
Profiling database that enables segmentation of customers and prospects.
Real-time measurement of campaigns.
Collateral request and fulfillment capabilities.
Referral capabilities.
Integration subscription and opt-out capabilities.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 9
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Partner Relationship Management

Partner Management Allows creation, modification and sharing of sales leads and opportunities.
(Pivotal Partner Provides sales activity and forecast reporting.
Manager) Allows creation, modification and sharing of information on contacts, competitors,
companies and quotations.
Capability to integrate to configuration and online advisory services.
Enables conversion of sales opportunities to orders.
Provides order-status checking.
Enables production of analytical order reports.
Participation in co-marketing projects.
Competitor information creation, modification and sharing.
Marketing collateral ordering.
Collaborative and self-service support.
Online Partner Provides a solution for exchanging knowledge, managing relationships and
Management synchronizing marketing, sales and service processes. Features include:
(Pivotal ePartner) Web-based partner self-service.
Allows partners to create and maintain multiple quotes per opportunity.
Enhanced user interface.
Partner recruitment management.
Closed-loop lead management.
Support for attachments.
Partner profiling.
Sales tools and literature fulfillment.
Knowledge base.
Support incident submission.
Role-based security.
Partners can attach files (for example, screenshots) to new and established
support incidents to aid in problem resolution.
Reporting and Analysis

Sales-Focused Produce sales forecasts and activity reports by territory, sales representatives or
Analytics company.
(Pivotal Sales Generate sales forecasts by product for manufacturing departments.
Analytics) Analyze sales pipeline by territory, sales representatives, product or expected
revenue date.
Capture sales processes in Milestoneseach milestone includes a list of
activities that need to be completedan opportunitys probability to close is
determined by the completion of specific milestones.
Create what if scenarios based on variable probabilities of closing sales in the
pipeline.
Track sales costs.
Assess sales process efficiencies.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 10
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 2: Features and Functions: Pivotal CRM

Sales-Force Automation

Service-Focused Provides service managers with the ability to analyze historical service request
Analytics data over various channels.
(Pivotal Service Provides insight into customer preferences, resource utilization, service activity
Analytics) and performance.
Marketing-Focused Provides customer profiling and intelligence capability.
Analytics Track and analyze customer trends, behaviors and preferences in real-time.
(Pivotal Marketing Power-targeted marketing campaigns with meaningful customer information.
Analytics) Data mining.
Ability to integrate with all leading business intelligence providers and an OEM
relationship with E.piphany.
Partner-Focused Produce partner sales forecasts and activity reports.
Analytics Analyze partner pipeline by region, product or expected revenue date.
(Pivotal Partner
Analytics)

Pivotal Architecture

Pivotal CRM is built on a three-tier meta-data-driven architecture consisting of a presentation tier, a

business services tier and a data services tier. The data services tier stores and retrieves data. All Pivotal
CRM system data is collected in two separate databases: the business module database (form
definitions, business rules, workflow) and the enterprise customer data database (companies, contracts,
orders and so on). By separating the data from the metadata, Pivotal applications can be customized with
no disruption to the rest of the system or to end users because its only the meta data stored in the
business module thats modified when changes are made to the presentation services tier or the data
services tier. Outgoing changes are managed centrally and then automatically deployed to various
satellite systems (if applicable) and end users from a central location.
The business services tier contains the application logic. This tier receives input from the presentation
services tier and interacts with the data service tier to perform data-level transactions and then sends the
results back to the presentation tier. The Pivotal Business Server supplies the underlying structure that
maintains system integrity, providing business logic and data retrieval services for the entire Pivotal CRM
suite of applications. Pivotal Business Server is an XML-based, three-tier transaction-processing platform
powered by a modular COM+ environment. The Pivotal Business Server logs and tracks all transactions
and manages the workflow of a customer throughout the customer life cycle. Pivotals Extended Servers
work in conjunction with the Pivotal Business Server to deliver the application-specific functionality
required by Pivotal MarketFirst and Pivotal-Assisted Selling.
Pivotal CRM is designed to give companies the choice of implementing the solution on the Oracle 8i or 9i
databases, the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database or a combination of both Oracle and Microsoft. The
solution is optimized for the Microsoft.NET platform and enterprise servers, including Windows 2000, SQL
Server 2000, Exchange 2000, BizTalk 2000, CommerceServer 2000 and Oracle 9i and 8i.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 11
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 3: Features and Functions: Pivotal Architecture

Pivotal Business XML-based, transaction-processing platform that logs and tracks all transactions.
Server Manages the workflow of a customer throughout the customer life cycle.
Enforces business logic and rules.
Pivotal SyncStream provides distribution and synchronization for all facets of the
Pivotal system, including data, meta data and application code.
Pivotal Tools Allows the customization of all three tiers from a single location.
Graphical and user-friendly toolkit.
Uses familiar metaphors, such as forms, tables, lists and queries to represent the
key elements that customers interact with.
Pivotal Extended Pivotal Assisted Selling Server: provides personalized needs assessment, guided
Servers selling, online catalog services.
Pivotal MarketFirst Server: provides high volume eMarketing capabilities.
Intellisync for Pivotal Provides a consistent view of information between the Pivotal CRM system and a
Connectors users personal information manager, allowing users to synchronize their Pivotal
activity and contact information with Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook.
Pivotal Integration A set of tools including an extensible markup language (XML) adapter, an
Connectors integration interface and a configuration client to facilitate database connectivity and
enterprise business application mapping.
Pivotal has Integration Adapters for MS Great Plains, Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft and
J.D. Edwards.
Supports the bi-directional routing of documents and data synchronization
between Pivotals solutions and ERP applications.

Pivotal recommends installing the Lifecycle engine on a dedicated Internet Information Server (IIS).
Table 4: Features and Functions: Business Server Specifications
Operating Systems Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server Service Pack 2
Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server Service Pack 3
Database SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4 or higher (mobile database for Oracle
Management System deployments); SQL Server 2000 SP2 or higher; Oracle 8i/9ion the Sun Solaris 8 or
HP-UX 11i platform
Web Server and Included in Windows 2000 and Advanced Server
Transaction
Processing
Processor and RAM 50MHz Pentium or higher, 512MB RAM (minimum), recommend a dual processor,
1.4GHz machine with 1GM RAM
Application Disk Pivotal Business Server 60MB
Space

The presentation layer supports access for employees, customers and business partners. Employees
have access to the solution through five client options: Windows, rich, thin, wireless and mobile:
The Windows Client provides a traditional Win32-based interface for users working in a client-server
LAN environment.
The Rich Client (formerly named Active Client) provides a Web browser-based user interface for
LAN/connected users. Pivotal Rich Client takes a Document Object Model (DOM) approach,
incorporating both Dynamic HTML and Visual Basic scripts to allow for rendering of Web pages on

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 12
Pivotal CRM v5

the client, thereby reducing trips to the server. LAN/connected users deploying the Rich Client option
require a workstation with Internet Explorer 5.01 installed. Access to Word 97 to Word 2000 is
required for LetterExpress, and access to Excel 2000 is required to view SmartPortal graphs.
Pivotal Thin Clienta zero-footprint client that provides portal access to Pivotal CRM for partners and
users that require interactivity and more structured database access, without the full transactional
support that other users may require.
The Pivotal Wireless Client gives mobile employees with real-time read-and-write access to customer
data using wireless handheld devices, such as Web-enabled cell phones, personal digital assistants
and two-way pagers. Pivotal Wireless is a server-side solution requiring the devices browser to be
pointed at the correct URL. There is no client-side software required on the wireless device, other
than the micro-browser.
The Pivotal Mobile Client allows disconnected use of the Pivotal CRM system, including read/write
access to data, quote creation and offline product catalogs. All synchronization with the master
database is carried out via Pivotal SyncStream, a component of the Pivotal Business Server that
synchronizes master database changes with satellite and mobile systems and vice versa. This
synchronization system is available as an MS Exchange-based solution or as an HTTP-based
solution, which has the advantage of being independent of any e-mail or messaging infrastructure,
and features a one-step synchronization process that automatically alerts mobile users to
synchronizeprotecting the system from synchronization backlogs.
Table 5: Features and Functions: Mobile/Disconnected User Specifications
Operating System Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 3
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1
Windows 2000 Server and Advanced Server Service Pack 3
Database SQL Server 2000 Personal Edition SP2
Management System SQL Server 7 Desktop Edition Service Pack 4
Browserfor Active Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.5 SP2
Client Option Only Internet Explorer 6.0 and Internet Explorer Service Pack 1
Microsoft Office Excel 2000 and XP
Components Word 97, 2000 and XP
Outlook 98, 2000 and XP Service Pack 1 or Lotus Notes 5.0.11 and 6.0.1
Visio 2000 and 2002
PowerPoint 97, 2000 and XP
Messaging Two options:
Application Any Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI)- compliant mail
application (for example, Outlook 98, Outlook 2000, Outlook 2002)
HTTP-based system, independent of any messaging application
Web Server and Included in operating system
Transaction
Processingfor
Active Client Option
Only
Processor and RAM 650MHz Pentium or higher, 256MB RAM
Modem 28.8 bps (minimum)
56 bps (recommended)

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 13
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 5: Features and Functions: Mobile/Disconnected User Specifications

Application Disk Pivotal Applications Suite175MB
Space SQL Server Desktop Edition180MB
Office 2000178MB

Pivotal MarketFirst

Pivotal acquired MarketFirst in 4Q02 for its marketing automation solution. In version 5.0, Pivotal has
integrated MarketFirsts platform and product suite with its own; however, users will still require two
different development platforms for system customization and maintenance. Pivotal MarketFirst is a Java-
based solution, which supports both Windows 2000 and Sun Solaris and is designed to run on both MS
Structured Query Language (SQL) Server 2000 and Oracle 8i and 9i databases.
Analysis
Pivotal is one of the leading CRM suite providers for midsize businesses (MSBs). The April 2003 release
of version 5.0 brings numerous enhancements to the companys already-rounded CRM suite. Built on a
Microsoft technology platform favored by MSBs, and with over 1,600 customers, Pivotal is an established
and proven vendor within this segment of the CRM market. However, the daunting but potentially lucrative
mid-market the company serves is complex and generates numerous challenges that Pivotal, like all other
MSB-focused vendors, need to overcome in order to survive.

Company Viability

Pivotal has experienced financial challenges for some time, and Gartner estimated that due to the
competitive MSB CRM market, by 2005 Pivotal would either be acquired (0.6 probability), remain
independent but constrained by viability issues (0.2 probability) or cease trading on a public market (0.2
probability). The announcement on 8 October 2003 that venture-capital firm Oak Investment Partners
plans to acquire the company supports this analysis and will provide a much-needed financial lifeline for
Pivotal. The deal is expected to close before the end of the year.
Pivotal will still have to cope with the entrance of Microsoft CRM into the market, the re-focus of Onyx on
the mid-market (previously was trying to push up into the large enterprise market) and the renewed
activity of the large enterprise vendors. SAP, Oracle, Siebel and PeopleSoft are all enhancing their
solutions for midsize organizations in an attempt to gain market share in this theoretically lucrative market.
The same reasons Pivotal found itself financially challenged will still exist, and the company will have to
ensure its strategy moving forward is enhanced to the point where it can carve itself a niche position in the
mid market. Organizations should assess Pivotals new strategy and determine if they think its one that is
likely to sustain them over the difficult years to come. If profits and growth do not start materializing,
Pivotal may find itself up for sale and with an uncertain future yet again.

Vertical Market Strategy

Pivotals approach to verticalization wisely focuses on the provision of tailored solutions for sub-verticals
or micro verticals. For example, rather than just offering a solution for financial services, Pivotal provides
templated versions of its CRM suite tailored for use in capital markets, commercial banking, private
banking and asset management environments. The company also provides sub-verticals for healthcare
insurance, real estate and construction and medical-device manufacturing. Each offers pre-configured
business rules and workflow, adaptable data models and application functionality. However, the solutions
do not include prebuilt connectors for associated legacy systems (for example, legacy banking systems),
although Pivotal does have an XML-driven Integration Engine to aid this process. The company

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 14
Pivotal CRM v5

predominately works with MS Biztalk for the XML-middleware link layer, and Scribe. However, Pivotal
may add a connector for SeeBeyond in the future.
Pivotals vertical portfolio is growing but still limited to six vertical products and is not particularly well
suited to the European market at this time. Pivotal has customers in a much broader range of industries
than its vertical portfolio supports, such as manufacturing, pharmaceutical and high technology, but its
ability to meet future prospects out of the box demands within these and other verticals will be a big
challenge for the company. Organizations within most industries are demanding solutions tailored to meet
their specific industry needs, and although Gartner does not condone provision of a vast vertical portfolio,
Pivotal has limited resources to enhance its portfolio due to its poor financial performance, workforce
reduction and internal structure. The companys new research-and-development center in India will
provide some scope for enhancement, although the majority of vertical diversification will come from its
partner network.

Implementations

In addition to introducing Pivotal 5, the companys first major product suite release in three years, Pivotal
has also introduced new services to reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) and help customers get started
quickly with their CRM projects. Pivotal provides its products in both hosted and on-premises modes,
offers standard licenses or monthly payments, and can deliver services for a fixed price. In August 2003,
the company announced Pivotal FastPath, a quick start implementation program that allows customers to
deploy one module of the Pivotal CRM suite in as little as 30 days.
Pivotal continues to sell direct in North America and major regions in Europe, including the U.K. (50
percent direct), France (50 percent direct) and Germany (10 percent direct). Outside of these regions, 100
percent of Pivotals business is driven through partners. These partners are also responsible for the
implementation of the solutions. The limited distribution of Pivotals professional services staff restricts the
companys ability to cope with several multisite/geography implementations at any one time. Pivotal does,
however, partner some of the top external service providers (ESPs), such as Atos Origin, IBM, CGEY and
KPMG, to both enhance business and drive implementations.
Pivotals recent deals tend to be regionalthat is, in subsidiaries of large global organizations, lured by
the companys strong 1:1 license/service ratio. Over 80 percent of deals worldwide are sales-and-
marketing focused. Pivotal wants to address this imbalance and has enhanced the customer service and
support capability in v5.0. Pivotal continues to offer two architecturesthree-tier browser-based and two-
tier client server. Since the start of 2002, over two-thirds (over 90 percent in North America) of Pivotals
customers have adopted the Rich Client (three-tier) product. Viewed across the entire 1,600-plus
customer base, about 70 percent are still running the Windows Client (two-tier) version. Pivotal states that
within the call center, it sees the majority of customers wanting the zero-latency environment provided by
the Windows Client (two-tier) solution, whereas for sales and marketing, the desire is for the flexible,
browser-based Rich Client (three-tier) solution. Both of Pivotals employee-facing Clients utilize the same
underlying database schema and business logic allowing for different departments to make use of a
different client interface. Over 75 percent of business in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) comes
from the U.K., France and Germany. Pivotal is particularly strong in France, where it has a strong sales
team and support from the leading ESPs.

Enhancements in Pivotal CRM v5.0

Pivotal 5 incorporates a range of functional enhancements, such as a new assisted selling application,
enhancements to the e-service and contact center capabilities, and the integration of MarketFirsts
marketing automation solution. In addition, it includes a redesigned user interface designed to enhance

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 15
Pivotal CRM v5

user adoption and productivity, enhanced customization capabilities, improvements to the companys
SyncStream technology, new diagnostics and troubleshooting tools and support for .NET scripting. The
functional capabilities and enhancements are discussed in the three sections below:
Sales Force Automation

Pivotal CRMs sales portfolio combines traditional sales, assisted selling, e-sales and sales intelligence
components. It provides a solid opportunity management system (OMS) for midsize enterprises. It allows
companies to monitor the progress of opportunities, guide sales representatives to the correct next
actions, enable team selling across multiple sales channels and generate accurate forecasts. The solution
supports multiple add-on sales efficiency tools, including various Miller Heiman sales methodologies.
However, the product lacks key features that most large enterprises will require, such as global strategic
account management, better product forecasting capabilities, territory management and systems
administration tools for territory administration, development tools (for business administration and
development) and data cleansing.
The Pivotal Toolkit for the Windows 32-bit client option provides a flexible, easy-to-use, drag-and-drop-
based development environment for trained power users. Pivotals newer Web-based slim client (called
Pivotal Rich Client) solution uses a Visual Basic Script-based open standards development environment,
instead of the proprietary Agent technology used with the 32-bit product. This provides increased power
and flexibility, but does require additional IT expertise. The newest version of the Pivotal Rich Client
released in April 2003 addresses some of the feature gaps between the Windows and browser-based
clients (for example, automatic LAN notifications to users) that were missing in the previous version.
However, functional parity is not expected to be achieved until version 5.1, due in early 2004.
With the release of Pivotal 5, the company introduced Pivotal Assisted Selling, a new product based on
the technology it acquired from Exactium in April 2000. Pivotal Assisted Selling combines sales
automation, guided selling, complex quote creation and price/product configuration in a single out-of-the-
box application. Although Pivotal previously offered interactive selling capabilities, this new product is now
tightly integrated with the rest of the Pivotal CRM suite. Sales users can move customers through the
purchasing process step by step using an automated quote-building procedure that applies product
configuration, pricing and discounting rules to ensure that the customer receives the optimal solution
every time. In addition to providing interactive questions that are designed to analyze the needs of a
prospect or customer, the system can also simultaneously suggest cross-/up-sell recommendations. The
same assisted selling functionality and user experience is available across all channels, including
disconnected environments, a critical requirement for field sales. Pivotal does not, however, support Web
collaboration systems, which require the sales representative and customer to jointly control the
interactive selling system over a shared browser session.
Pivotal continues to offer Pivotal Interactive Selling for customers that want to develop customer-facing,
customer-driven guided selling systems where there is no sales representative interaction. It provides a
thin client-based administration environment for simplified configuration rules maintenance and supports
both constraint-based and relationship-based reasoning. This solution presents a viable proposition to
order product configuration solutions, such as PC configuration.
Sales Incentive Compensation Management (ICM) systems automate, manage and integrate sales
performance tracking, reporting and analysis. This is accomplished through the management of sales
representative compensation plans, quotas and transactional crediting augmenting traditional territory
management capabilities. Pivotal relies on a partnership with Synygy for prebuilt ICM integration or
through standard integration with other best-of-breed ICM vendors.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 16
Pivotal CRM v5

Marketing Automation

The platform-level integration of MarketFirst has significantly enhanced Pivotals marketing automation
capability. The new solution, called Pivotal MarketFirst, replaces Pivotals established capability in this
area. It is the companys preferred marketing automation proposition for new and established customers.
Pivotal acquired the best-of-breed Marketing Automation vendor MarketFirst in October 2003. Integration
between the two products was achieved at the data level in December 2002 and was enhanced to the
platform level ready for the v5 release in April 2003. Further integration will continue through 2003, but
complete unification as a single product is unlikely due to the different architectural designsPivotals
.Net focus and MarketFirsts J2EE compliance (via Macromedia/Allaire J2EE Jrun application server).
However, Pivotal claims that due to Pivotal CRMs multitiered Web services-based architecture, it is
immaterial what language a service is performed in. All services will be able to interoperate to deliver
consistent results to the customer, and both systems use relational databases (Oracle and MS SQL
Server) to ensure data-level integration.
The initial data-level integration used Databridge (MarketFirsts extract, transform and load [ETL] tool) and
real-time XML services-based connectors enabling bidirectional data exchange between the two systems
in real time. This enabled the feeding of marketing-generated leads into Pivotal Sales for opportunity
tracking and for updating contact-status information back into Pivotal MarketFirst system for information
such as closes, orders and open service incidents. The information fed back into the Pivotal MarketFirst
system could then be used for segmentation and analysisto be used in the next campaign. The second
platform-level integration extends the integration to other applications, such as Pivotal Interactive Selling
and Pivotal Service, to provide a much better (theoretically seamless) user experience across all Pivotal
CRM applications. However, Pivotals overall CRM solution will effectively continue to exist as two
integrated systems with separate midtier servers, databases and toolkits until Pivotal migrates the
marketing automation functionality from MarketFirsts J2EE platform to its own .Net platform. MSBs that
favor Microsoft technologies (the vast majority) should carefully assess the level of additional skills
required to support a part-J2EE application environment. Pivotal will continue to support customers using
the established Pivotal Marketing application but claims to have a strategy in place to migrate established
customers to the new application if they choose.
Pivotal MarketFirst enables marketers to plan, design, define, test, execute, evaluate, measure and
analyze marketing programs and processes. Automated interaction and marketing dialogue is
personalized to offer an enhanced customer experience, and the ROI from marketing activities can be
measured in real time, enabling managers to fine-tune campaigns and optimize marketing resources.
Event triggers are an important part of campaign management, and the Pivotal MarketFirst solution
includes advanced workflow capabilities to support the detection, creation and management of event-
trigger situations. Prior to the acquisition of MarketFirst, the ability to detect complex trigger situations not
linked to a specific campaign (that is, not a direct response trigger, like a prospect replying to an e-mail
campaign) was not directly supported in the solution. Similarly, previously the solution did not support
customer profile-based event triggering, where deviations from a profile would result in the activation of a
campaign. Pivotal MarketFirst provides the ability to generate event triggers based on contact profiles,
user-defined rules and external events. In addition, the campaign designer allows marketers to define
event trigger conditions through a query by example kind of interface and can be based on customer
profile, survey data, campaign interaction history or Web click-through behavior.
The use of customer profiles to define a customers entire personalized experience with the enterprise
based on preferences, patterns of interaction and behavior is an important component of a leading
vendors solution. This ability to interact with customers and prospects on an individual and optimized
basis requires advanced personalization capabilities, which were, again, previously missing from Pivotals
DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 17
Pivotal CRM v5

suite. Pivotal MarketFirst contains a dynamic content presentation capability where, based on a
customers profile (preferences, demographics, psychographics), interaction history or survey data, every
interaction content can be personalized. The solutions conditional content capability lets a marketer
design a single campaign that provides appropriate and personalized communications depending on each
individual customer/prospect profile and language preference (to create multilanguage campaigns with
integrated data/response).

Customer Service and Support

Pivotals customer service and support (CSS) capability is one of the suites weaker aspects and is
currently being strengthened. A leading CSS portfolio combines multichannel interaction management
with advanced e-service and a proven field-service capability. In addition, emerging requirementssuch
as the deployment of real-time analytics to add intelligence to customer interactions, workforce
optimization solutions to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of agents and motive and retain quality
agents, and PRM functionality to embrace the extended enterprisefurther add to the complexity of a
complete solution.
In August 2002, Pivotal announced a new contact center product with three options to suit the various
contact center needs of MSBs: Option 1 provides the actual desktop application (Pivotal Contact Center),
Option 2 adds basic CTI capabilities using Intels CPS platform and Option 3 provides a complete
Greenfield implementation based on I3 (Customer Interaction Center):
Option 1: Pivotal Contact Center provides a desktop application for high-volume/inboundhigh-
volume/outbound and low-volume/high complexity (inbound/outbound) call-center environments,
which runs exclusively on Pivotals C++-based Win 32 client. The solutions dynamic call-scripting
capability allows agents to follow a predetermined script optimized for the particular situation. It
provides a fairly simple capability designed for guided lead qualification. The application supports
agent prompting (that is, dynamic alerting) and, for example, can query the database to identify red
flags (for example, a credit rating issue). These alerts can then be popped up onto the agents
screen. However, this capability is not yet driven by analytics. The solution has not been well
received in high-volume call-center environments or in blended sales and service call centers, where
Pivotals established competitors, including PeopleSoft and Siebel, dominate. In addition, it is not yet
multilingual. Consequently, Pivotal targets midsize call centers, where its shallower functionality is
better-suited.
Option 2: Pivotal Contact Center with the CPS Connector adds basic CTI support to the desktop
application. Pivotal has OEMd Intels CPS platform to enable support for phone-based interactions
by providing screen pops and a soft-phone capability. This allows integration to enterprises
established legacy automatic call distribution (ACD) investments from Avaya, Nortel and Siemens. It
is intended to provide a competitive price point for the low end of the market and consequently does
not provide advanced functionality, advanced routing or IVR capabilities. It does not support
advanced features, such as the ability to promote higher-value customers within the queue, or
additional channels, such as Web chat. With the merger of Talisma, Pivotal will gain new contact-
center features, such as Web chat.
Option 3: Pivotal Contact Center with the CIC Connector provides a complete multichannel contact
center solution through an IP-based environment. The solution comes with the Pivotal Contact Center
Desktop application and software that replaces the functionality of an organizations established
telephony hardware. It consolidates all telephony hardware (for example, switch, ACD, IVR) on a
single NT server that is connected to both the Internet and phone channels via a software switch.
Pivotal 5.0 benefits from the fact that I3 has broadened its integration capabilities to allow support for
DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 18
Pivotal CRM v5

other PBXs. This option is intended for customers with no established hardware investments (that is,
greenfield sites) or departments within companies that are interested in deploying a brand new
telephony solution. Based on I3s technology, Pivotal has embedded I3s OEMd customer interaction
platform into its solution and has transformed I3 to a value-added reseller (VAR) relationship. This
embedded capability formed the heart of Pivotals contact-center offering prior to the newer
multioption strategy. This option allows enterprises to identify, prioritize, route and queue inquiries
independently of the communication channel, using business information stored in the data
repository. The solution supports routing based on longest available agent, agent skills, priority and
media type. However, due to the engines third-party heritage, some additional administration is
required, as it is a separate system. In addition, only I3s telephony control options (that is, not Web)
are embedded into the solution. This does, however, allow the relevant Pivotal desktop application
screen to be seamlessly updated with interaction information following the routing of a telephone
inquiry.
Providing a rounded e-service capability is an important part of a leading customer service and support
solution. Pivotals e-service functionality, however, is weak compared to leading vendors in this market,
such as Siebel, Kana and Firepond. The companys CRM suite provides portal access for customers and
partners with a range of standard tools and self-service capabilities. It allows them to register online,
request product information and ask for an agent to call them back. Self-service functionality includes
provision of a database of previous support incidents and a knowledge base of answers to product-
specific questions. This functionality is available not only to customers but also to partners (through
Pivotal Partner Management) and employees through the core service functionality in the CRM suite. The
solution supports basic e-mail management functionality but lacks advanced e-mail response
management system (ERMS) capabilities. Version 5.0 of Pivotal Service provides an enhanced e-service
user interface and improved personalization and support capabilities. However, at this time the solution
will still lack linguistic analysis and artificial intelligence techniques, required to provide a more
sophisticated e-mail management capability. In addition, the self-service knowledge base will still be
missing advanced natural language search capabilities, which aid problem resolution by determining
solutions using intuitive question-and-answer sessions. The merger with Talisma (part of the Oak
acquisition deal), a niche e-service solution provider, will greatly enhance Pivotals capability in this area.
The integration will be simplified due to both companies Microsoft-focused architectures.
Field Service/Dispatch (FS/D) is an often-overlooked area of customer service and support. In June 2002,
Pivotal announced a partnership with Metrix to deliver a joint CRM/field service solution. Pivotal claims
that it has integrated Metrixs solution and that a number of joint opportunities are being pursued, although
none are live. The joint solution supports a variety of mobile devices including RIM BlackBerry, Palm and
Pocket PC, through Pivotal Wireless. It allows field-service professionals to access and share critical
customer information and provides customer-facing employees with insight into what is happening in the
field.

Reporting and Analytics

Pivotal s analytical capability is based on technology OEMd from E.piphany (version 5.0). Pivotal has
extended E.piphanys embedded business intelligence capabilities with pre-configured Pivotal-specific
templates for sales-, marketing- and service-oriented operational insight. These three modules allow
organizations to generate a range of useful operational reports, such as the production of activity reports
by territory, sales representatives or company, the ability for service managers to analyze historical
service request data over various channels, and the ability to provide insight into customer preferences for
marketers. The only administration required for this engine is for the SQL database (as would be
necessary for any intelligence engine) and for authoring/configuring the data mart and report templates. In

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 19
Pivotal CRM v5

addition to this embedded capability, Pivotal also now claims to be able to integrate to several other
leading business intelligence vendors (due to the MarketFirst acquisition), which consequently enables
organizations to leverage their established analytical investments.
In addition to operational analytics, there is a growing demand for real-time analytics as enterprises look
to add real value to their operational investments. Propensity modeling of customer behavior is of growing
importance for customer-relationship optimization and a key requirement to be a leading vendor in this
market. The use of predictive analytics is already being used in the telecommunications industry to help
reduce customer churn and in the financial services industry to help cross-sell to established customers.
The ability to score a customers likely responsiveness to a given proposition (such as a new credit card
offer) based on complex predictive and optimization models is not supported in Pivotals solution.
However, Pivotal supports scoring and branching in its marketing workflow based on rule- and condition-
based logic. This enables the ability to act on the information in real time (for example, provide a call
center agent with an appropriate script). Pivotal also claims it can integrate with third-party predictive
analysis tools, such as SAS or SPSS and use the real-time scores generated from these systems to
personalize the next communication. Data obtained from external systems can immediately be made
actionable in Pivotal MarketFirst system to not only drive proper conditional content, but also to branch
out to appropriate process flow in a multistep campaign. In addition, although the solution does not
include a predictive analysis tool for sophisticated scoring and modeling, it does allow rule-based scoring.
Pricing
Due to the multiproduct nature of the Pivotal 5 product line, detailed line-item pricing was not provided for
this report. However, we have provided a sample client scenario. Pricing is based on usage and company
size. The key pricing components are clients, applications, servers and connectors:

Usage price for clients ranges from $600 to $2,000 per user
Applications range from $15,000 to $75,000
Servers range from $30,000 to $175,000
Connectors (that is, integration and contact center), Microsoft SQL licenses and extra Crystal Reports
are an additional cost.

As a pricing example, below we have developed a three-year cost scenario for a sample Pivotal client:
Table 6: Pricing Scenario: Pivotal CRM
Company 1,000 employees; $400 million in revenue
Sales Requirements 100 salespeople of which 75 need mobile offline capabilities
Features: Simple sales, tracking, forecasting and account management
Marketing 5 marketing people
Requirements Features: Campaign and list management
Customer Service 50 customer service and support users
Requirements Features: Case/trouble ticket management
Managerial 10 managers
Requirements Features: Management, reporting and analysis
Executive 5 executives
Requirements Features: Reporting and analysis
Other Requirements 1 system administrator
1 customizer (requires knowledge of integration connector)
Integration connector

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 20
Pivotal CRM v5

Table 6: Pricing Scenario: Pivotal CRM

Total Project Costs Total costs were approximately $1.44 million or about $233 per user, per month.
for Three Years This included:
Leasing all hardware required from Dell (including servers, laptops, desktops and
support for maintenance for three years)
The software
Software maintenance and support for three years
Services including Pivotals FastPath implementation (including data conversion)
Integration (assumes one connector to legacy system)
Minor customization and training (train-the-trainer approach only)
The salaries of two in-house administrators for support and maintenance of the
CRM system
Note: We did not include telecommunications charges or services to upgrade the
software during the three years.

GSA Pricing

No.
Competitors

Onyx

Onyx and Pivotal both offer strong CRM suites for MSBs, built on Web services-driven .Net architectures.
Onyxs solution provides a stronger and more established contact center capability but lacks Pivotals
advanced assisted/interactive selling functionality and depth of marketing automation (acquired from
MarketFirst). Both companies have extended database support to Oracle and provide portals tailored for
employees, customers and partners. Onyx excels in its embedded CRM strategy, which promotes the use
of Onyx-based Web services within third-party applications, and it launched a hosted offering with IBM,
giving it an alternative to Salesforce.com and Siebel On Demand, although it has not been well received
in the MSB market so far. Both companies are struggling somewhat in the current economic environment
(Pivotal slightly more so than Onyx before the Oak Investment), making viability a critical selection criteria.
Like Pivotal, Onyx users report spending $3,500 on average per user to deploy and maintain Onyx.

Siebel

Siebel provides CRM solutions for both large organizations (Siebel 7.5) and midsize businesses through
its MidMarket Edition (MME). Siebel is the market-share leader in MSB CRM software. It offers a CRM
portfolio of such depth and breadth that Pivotal is unlikely to ever come close to matching its capabilities.
However, the Siebel solution has not been well received by many MSBs due to cost and complexity.
Users report spending on average $12,000 per user to deploy and maintain Siebel Midmarket, whereas
Pivotal users report spending $3,500 on average per user to deploy and maintain Pivotal. However, on 1
October 2003, Siebel announced its re-entry into the hosted CRM market in partnership with IBM. The
product, Siebel CRM OnDemand, is a streamlined version of its CRM system, delivered in a hosted
environment, at a monthly subscription for a price of $70 per user. The product will be hosted by IBM, sold
by both Siebel Systems and IBM and generally available by YE2003. This gives Siebel another option for
MSBs willing to use an application service provider (ASP), while Pivotal lacks a good ASP option today.
Unlike Pivotal, Siebel has vertical solutions for all main industries.

Best Software/Sage

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 21
Pivotal CRM v5

In 2001, Sage acquired Interact Commerce for its midmarket CRM application suite, SalesLogix, and its
low-end contact management product, Act! In July 2002, Sage merged Interact with another acquired
company (Best Software) to create a CRM division within Best. This consequently improved its position as
a provider of integrated front- to back-office application solutions (that is, integrated CRM, accounting and
business management solutions) for the MSB market. Saleslogix has numerous strengths, including
strong and mature sales functionality across multiple customer interface points, support for hundreds of
disconnected mobile users, its ease of use, high configurability and back-office integration capability. The
CRM solution is, however, fairly unbalanced in its functionality and, unlike Pivotal, is far weaker across
service and marketing. It is also much less expensive compared to Pivotal, with users reporting spending
a little over $2,000 per user to deploy and maintain SalesLogix.

Microsoft CRM

In January 2003, Microsoft released the first version of Microsoft CRM, a .Net based CRM solution
providing satisfactory sales and service functionality for most small and midsize businesses. The
company provides Standard and Professional editions of the Sales and Customer Service applications.
The professional edition adds workflow capabilities and enhanced integration via an embedded BizTalk
partner server. The solutions marketing automation capability is only rudimentary but due to be enhanced
in version 2.0. Pivotal is much stronger in this area. Microsoft plans to release an international version
with support for additional languages by YE2003, but unlike Pivotal, this edition will not support value-
added tax (VAT) and multicurrency capabilities. Microsoft does not yet provide vertical solutions, although
the company will do so eventually through its partner network. Key differentiators for Microsoft CRM are
its familiar look and feel (Outlook), viability and cost. MS CRM users report spending $3,000 on average
per user to deploy and maintain MS CRM.
Strengths

Sales Solution Breadth

Pivotals CRM suite contains deep sales functionality, such as opportunity management, sales
configuration, interactive selling, incentive compensation and mobile synchronization capabilities that
compete at the best-of-breed level and will easily meet the needs of sales organizations in many midsize
businesses.

Architecture

Pivotals Web-based solution is built using the latest Microsoft .Net technologies. With full support for
Web-services, a high degree of flexibility and a choice of database configurations, it provides a highly
viable proposition for midsize organizations.

CRM Suite

The strong sales solution, integrated marketing solution and improving customer service and support
solution combine to provide a portfolio that is competitively priced and that will likely meet the needs of all
but the most demanding midsize organizations.
Limitations

Viability

The most important limitation by far is Pivotals viability. The company, like many other MSB-focused
CRM vendors, has been struggling considerably in the current economy. The purchase of Pivotal by Oak
Investments reduces its short-term financial concerns, but if things do not improve, Pivotal could be put up
for sale again within the next 18 months, raising new concerns over its future.
DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 22
Pivotal CRM v5

Suite Unification and Gaps

Midsize organizations requiring a complete CRM solution from Pivotal currently require two separate (but
tightly integrated) solution stacksone for sales and service and one for Pivotal MarketFirst (the
marketing automation components). With the purchase of Talisma, a third set of tools will need to be
supported for features such as enhanced eService.

Industry Solutions

Pivotal currently provides templated solutions for only a few niche vertical markets. The industries
covered are more akin to a U.S. audience and limit its appeal within Europe. In addition, these solutions
do not come with prebuilt integration connectors for the main associated legacy systems.
Recommended Gartner Research
The Gartner CRM Software Vendor Guide: 2003, R-20-4194
CRM Suites for North American MSBs: 1H03 Magic Quadrant, M-19-3669
Insight
Midsize organizations should consider Pivotal CRM v5 when they require strong sales and marketing
functionality with support for multiple customer interface channels built on a Microsoft technology focused
platform. In particular, it should appeal to organizations within the companys target industriesfinancial
services (specifically, capital markets, asset management, private banking, commercial banking),
healthcare insurance and real estate construction. Organizations requiring advanced features not
supportedsuch as marketing resource management, predictive analytics and sophisticated interaction
managementshould investigate Pivotals large enterprise competitors. However, the costs associated
with obtaining advanced features not typically associated with MSB initiatives may be prohibitive. Finally,
organizations concerned with Pivotals financial viability should consider alternative solutions from
companies such as Microsoft, Salesforce.com, Best Software (SalesLogix) or Onyx, or the large
enterprise vendors (SAP, Oracle, Siebel and PeopleSoft), which are all aggressively trying to penetrate
the mid-market through specifically tailored solutions.

DPRO-118222
2003 Gartner, Inc. and/or its Affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 30 October 2003 23