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FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT & DELIVERY PROFESSIONALSThe Forrester Wave : Customer ServiceSolutions For Midsize Teams, Q4 2015Due Diligence Required: These Vendors Are Great At Supporting Midsize Teamsby Ian Jacobs and Kate LeggettDecember 16, 2015Why Read This ReportKey TakeawaysIn Forrester’s 36-criteria evaluation of customerservice vendors for enterprise organizations,we identified the 11 most significant solutionproviders — Astute Solutions, eGain, Freshdesk,Microsoft Dynamics, Moxie, Oracle ServiceCloud, Parature, Salesforce, Sap Service Cloud,SugarCRM, and Zendesk — in the category andresearched, analyzed, and scored them. Thisreport details our findings about how well eachvendor fulfills our criteria and where they standin relation to each other to help customer serviceprofessionals select the right partner for theircustomer service initiatives.Customer Service Is The Cornerstone Of AGreat Customer ExperienceHowever, delivering good service is difficult.Organizations must navigate rapidly changingcustomer expectations and look for vendorsolutions that enable the business capabilitiesnecessary to deliver differentiated experiences.The Customer Service Vendor Landscape IsConsolidatingThe landscape of customer service solutions hasmatured and converged as a result of mergerand acquisition activities. These vendors offersolutions replete with features and functions.Every vendor can just about tick every box.Customer service leaders must understand thecore focus areas of each vendor to make the rightbuying choices.Keep An Eye On This SpaceMicrosoft, Oracle Service Cloud, and Salesforcelead by driving productivity through ease-of-useand simple deployment models that appeal tomidsize organizations. Yet, change in this spacewill continue: Up-and-coming vendors focusingon rapid-time-to-value will make heavy plays forrapid growth brands and the companies in thelower reaches of the enterprise market.FORRESTER.COM

FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT & DELIVERY PROFESSIONALSThe Forrester Wave : Customer Service Solutions For MidsizeTeams, Q4 2015Due Diligence Required: These Vendors Are Great At Supporting Midsize Teamsby Ian Jacobs and Kate Leggettwith Stephen Powers, Danielle Geoffroy, and Tyler ThurstonDecember 16, 2015Table Of Contents2 Good Customer Service Boosts Revenue,Poor Service Increases CostsGood Customer Service Is Hard To Deliver2 The Customer Service Market Is On TheCusp Of Significant Change3 Bigger Does Not Always Equal Better In AMature MarketDrill Into The Customer Service FunctionsThat You Need To Be Successful5 The Customer Service Vendor EvaluationProcess ExplainedNotes & ResourcesForrester conducted vendor survey evaluationsin September 2015 and evaluated 11 customerservice solutions worthy of consideration bylarge organizations. We also surveyed vendorcustomers.Related Research DocumentsTechRadar For AD&D Pros: Contact CenterSolutions For Customer Service, Q1 2015Transform The Contact Center For CustomerService ExcellenceTrends 2015: The Future Of Customer ServiceEleven Vendor Solutions Offer A DiverseRange Of Capabilities8 The Results: Buyers Have Many Choices ToSift Through10 The Results: Vendor ProfilesLeadersStrong PerformersContenders15 Supplemental MaterialForrester Research, Inc., 60 Acorn Park Drive, Cambridge, MA 02140 USA 1 617-613-6000 Fax: 1 617-613-5000 forrester.com 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester ,Technographics , Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of ForresterResearch, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. Unauthorized copying ordistributing is a violation of copyright law. Citations@forrester.com or 1 866-367-7378

FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT & DELIVERY PROFESSIONALSDecember 16, 2015The Forrester Wave : Customer Service Solutions For Midsize Teams, Q4 2015Due Diligence Required: These Vendors Are Great At Supporting Midsize TeamsGood Customer Service Boosts Revenue, Poor Service Increases CostsIn the age of the customer, executives don’t decide how customer-centric their companies are —customers do. And providing good customer service is a win-win for customers and companies. Infact, recent Forrester data shows that customer service technology investments is one of the top fivemost focused on investments that companies are making in 2015.1 Why? Because good customerservice boosts long-term loyalty.2 Conversely, poor customer service leads to increased operationalcosts, customer defection and revenue loss.3Good Customer Service Is Hard To DeliverCustomers expect easy and effective service interactions. Over half of US online consumers willabandon their online purchase if they cannot find a quick answer to their questions and 77% say thatvaluing their time is the most important thing a company can do to provide them with good service.4Customer service leaders must balance customer needs against cost of operations. They must offeromnichannel service, support customers through their entire journeys, and deliver personalizedresponses to keep customers satisfied.5 At the same time, they must ensure that agents are efficientlyscheduled, are productive and deliver consistent answers in line with company and regulatory policy.The Customer Service Market Is On The Cusp Of Significant ChangeThe customer service vendor space is a mature space. Yet there have been many changes in the lastfive years and clearly more to come. Two driving factors will accelerate these changes:›› Big fish eat little fish, and each bite broadens the reach of the big fish. The customer servicemarket has consolidated in the last five years. For example, Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforcehave made acquisitions to round out their core customer service broader CRM portfolios.6 SAPhas also made a few key acquisitions.7 In addition, Kana has been acquired by Verint Systems, acompany that has a vision to unify customer service, agent utilization, and performance capabilitiesfor a higher quality of service delivered. This cross-category acquisition indicates the start of theconsolidation of two mature software spaces.8›› Vendors from adjacent markets emerge as competitors. The most interesting disruptor to thecurrent customer service market is coming from cloud contact center providers. They provide anend-to-end solution for customer service: a unified communications infrastructure, routing, andqueuing engines for omnichannel interactions. Many offer integrated workforce optimization foragent quality management, scheduling, and forecasting.9 They also have lighter-weight agentdesktops that can be easily hardened or acquired. These vendors may well be candidates in thenext update of this evaluation. 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.Citations@forrester.com or 1 866-367-73782

FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT & DELIVERY PROFESSIONALSDecember 16, 2015The Forrester Wave : Customer Service Solutions For Midsize Teams, Q4 2015Due Diligence Required: These Vendors Are Great At Supporting Midsize TeamsBigger Does Not Always Equal Better In A Mature MarketCustomer service technology buyers must remember that more is not better; many times more is justmore. In fact, when you don’t need or can’t use extra features, more is sometimes worse. Customerservice solutions fall into two primary groups to choose from, although the distinctions between thesecategories have become less pronounced over the past three years (see Figure 1):›› Customer service solutions for enterprise organizations. Customer service vendors focusedon large organizations with typically 1,000 or more primarily phone agents offer robust casemanagement capabilities. Their products are primarily deployed on-premises, but vendors nowalso offer hosted or software-as-a-service (SaaS) options. Many vendors offer vertical solutions,and have pre- and post-sale resources dedicated to their support. Some also target midsizeorganizations, with prepackaged versions at more affordable price tags. The leading vendors inthis category are highlighted in The Forrester Wave : Customer Service Solutions For EnterpriseOrganizations, Q4 2015.›› Customer service solutions for midsize organizations. Vendors primarily target these solutionsat teams with hundreds of customer service agents or fewer who support inquiries over a breadthof voice, digital, and social communication channels. Other vendors target their solutions atdivisions of customer service organizations that have dedicated teams for digital and socialcustomer service within a larger contact center.These solutions are highly usable and have a broad, deep set of multichannel customer servicecapabilities. They are predominately SaaS solutions, offering a rapid time-to-value. Some vendors in thiscategory have upgraded their solutions to be more suitable to enterprise-class buyers and are gainingacceptance in this segment. The leading vendors in this category are highlighted in this report.FIGURE 1 Customer Service Solutions Fall Into Two Distinct CategoriesMidsizeAgent number:10sEnterprise100sChannel mix:Primarily omnichannelDeployment:SaaSMixed, buttrending to SaaS1000s10000sTrending to on-premises On-premisesPrimarily voice-basedOn-premises 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.Citations@forrester.com or 1 866-367-73783

FOR APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT & DELIVERY PROFESSIONALSDecember 16, 2015The Forrester Wave : Customer Service Solutions For Midsize Teams, Q4 2015Due Diligence Required: These Vendors Are Great At Supporting Midsize TeamsDrill Into The Customer Service Functions That You Need To Be SuccessfulBusiness-to-business (B2B) companies do not have the same customer service needs as a businessto-consumer (B2C) company. Likewise, the needs of a phone customer service agent are not the sameas that of a customer service agent supporting digital or social channels. As you refine your vendorselection, carefully evaluate the customer service Forrester Wave criteria to pick a solution that is theright size for your needs. In many cases, too many features can be overkill for an midsize organizationwith lighter-weight requirements than what is needed for an enterprise organization. Consider a numberof capabilities to right-size for strategy (see Figure 2).FIGURE 2 Right-Size Your Customer Service Solution For Your NeedsCategoryConsider your requirement to supportCase management CTI integration Incident management Process guidance for agents Next-best actionOmnichannel management Support for digital channels Support for social channels Feedback managementKnowledge and content Customer-facing and agent knowledge base Configurable knowledge authoring andpublishing processes Forums Virtual AgentsBusiness intelligence Reports and dashboards Analysis tools such as statistical analysis,predictive modeling, simulationsUsability and cost Consistent role-based user experiencesacross touchpoints Mobile support Total cost of ownership 2015 Forrester Research, Inc. Unauthorized copying or distributing is a violation of copyright law.Citations@forrester.com or 1 866-367-73784