SalesLogix scored the best CSI score of 66.0 and was the only vendor that rated "higher than average" overall. The software maker managed to stave off the most customer dissatisfaction by combining affordable pricing, relative ease of implementation, and surprisingly good functionality

Mid-market players tended to fare better than enterprise system providers. Chris Fletcher, vice president and managing director, CRM, of Boston-based Aberdeen Group, finds it logical that the mid-market has less atrocious customer satisfaction ratings, since "smaller and focused packages are going to be easier to install than the big enterprise projects. Customer satisfaction can be affected by that."

Bill Bunker, Onyx's vice president of product management, agrees, saying if you're selling to the mid-market, "you don't get a couple tries at it--you get one shot." Onyx, although average overall with a score of 65.54, was the leader in customer focus.

Pivotal, the other mid-market player evaluated, came in third overall, with a CSI score of 65.51 and average ratings in each of the five categories.

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PeopleSoft, which announced a new version of its CRM software at the time the survey was under way, finished in the middle of the pack, with an overall CSI score of 62.96. "These sorts of surveys tend to look at your history, which could be different from what's going forward, or even the current situation," says Robb Eklund, PeopleSoft's vice president for CRM product marketing. "The survey accurately put forth where we were with our products, but going forward I think you'll see stronger numbers."

Siebel wound up with an average overall CSI score of 62.6. It ranked highest in functionality and second-highest in support, but racked up low scores for price and implementation.

GoldMine, the lone small-business package rated, also struggled, achieving a "lower than average" overall rating of 60.02 despite strong showings in the pricing and implementation categories.

Oracle brought up the rear with the only "much lower than average" CSI score of 58.1. The large database and application software maker, apparently still trying to "find its game" in the CRM industry, received below-average scores in every area except customer support. SAP didn't do much better, with a lower-than-average CSI score of 58.57 and a "much lower than average" rating for implementation.

Independent analysts accepted the study's numbers as reliable. "In terms of my own non-quantitative research, the findings run close to what I expected to find," says Aberdeen's Fletcher. "I think the numbers accurately reflect the state of the products of each of these companies."

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