The first pundit of note as a decent excuse – Charles Knight has made a name for himself raising awareness of hundreds of alternative search engines. He’s done a phenomenal job building that list and gaining a following on his altsearchengines blog, part of the Read/Write Web group where his columns first appeared. He comes off as this Don Quixote figure, even if on occasion he comes off as a bit like a cult leader, as he once wrote a number of people, myself included, seeking someone with "a passion for the cause of the alternative search engines." I’m all for the education, but for causes, I’ll stick to City Harvest and the like. Still, I applaud the work he’s doing, as he’s single-handedly raised visibility for dozens of search engines that deserve to find an audience (and hundreds more that don’t).

Not only have I declined to enter into the "true believer" camp of Mr. Knight, but I’ve been routinely quoted as the defender of the status quo, sort of like Aaron Eckhart’s character in Thank You for Smoking. It all started by a brief comment responding to an altsearchengine post on a "Day without Google," where readers were encouraged to break their Google crack habit and try another search engine drug of choice. My comment signaled how crucial the major engines are for allowing me to function:

"I might as well take it as a vacation day. The top 5 are the top 5 for a reason."

A quick Google search (yes, I’m evil) relating to that quote showed 10 mentions, or 97 if you show the omitted and potentially duplicate results, including a mention in the UK’s Register. Word travels fast.

I found the quote come up once again in a post on Search Engine Land by none other than the Sultan of Search Engine Marketing himself, Danny Sullivan (maybe Kevin Ryan can be the Shah). He’s inspired by Mr. Knight and is publicizing Google-Free Fridays. Yet rather than trying to use this to promote usage of truly alternative engines, he wants his readers to try Yahoo, Windows Live, Ask, and AOL.

I’m not sure my response to Mr. Sullivan’s post will get as much play (it’s not as pithy), but it’s worth sharing here:

This blog caters [Search Engine Land] to search engine marketers, right? Whether one is client-side, at a search engine marketing agency, or even from another search engine, it’s in everyone’s best interest to check out other search engines from time to time. If you only use one engine, no matter what that engine is, you’re not doing your job. Why we need a schedule for this is beyond me.

Full disclosure: I have the Google toolbar and use it religiously. In the Firefox search bar, however, I routinely have one of the other engines as the default so an alternative is easily accessible, and I often take deep dives on the others to see if anyone’s offering improvements over the Google standard (see the recent column on Ask.com as an example). I also routinely check out vertical and specialized search engines relating to shopping, health, and other categories.

No matter which of the major engines you use, odds are it’s good enough. comScore’s rankings of search engine market share don’t even include an "other" category. It’s great to dive into that "other" category, but if you’re already working with search engines in any significant way, you better be using more than one already or you’re doing a disservice to your clients.

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Time tracking tool Harvest is now integrating with Basecamp. From the Harvest Gazette:

If your organization currently uses Basecamp in conjunction with Harvest for time tracking, things just got a whole lot easier. Harvest admins can now avoid any form of double-entry when it comes to setting up users, clients, or projects. Simply pick the people or projects you’d like to import from Basecamp and you are ready to go. Imported users will receive an automatically-generated Harvest welcome message along with their temporary password.

Basecamp is in many ways set to be what SalesForce’s AppExchange is becoming in the CRM space – one of the definitive places for project management based integrations.

related: SalesGenius Integrates with SalesForce’s AppExchange

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Ken Yarmosh is a consultant who helps organizations get the most out of their technology investments. He works with technology users and creators across various industries, focusing on technology education and strategy. With over 7 years IT experience, Ken has worked with small businesses, non-profits, federal agencies, and multi-million dollar companies.

His online efforts include acting as the Editor for the Corante Technology Hub and authoring the TECHNOSIGHT blog.

Since then, I’ve reviewed 14 Dayz and Harvest, heard about FreshBooks’ investment into a more feature filled time tracking system, and now have come across Toggl. Toggl is another online time tracking solution.

Straight off the bat, Toggl does not seem as intuitive or polished as 14 Dayz or Harvest. The AJAX interface is much slower and to be quite honest, there appeared to be a couple of bugs or perhaps serious usability issues. For example, when I tried adding a new Customer, an error was thrown stating it already existed. Similarly, the only way I can initially add time is by starting the timer and then editing a hh:mm:ss format, meaning if I needed to add in .5 hours (for example), I need to do so as 00:30:00 for the system to accept it. That’s incredibly annoying plus who needs to keep track of seconds anyway?

Toggl does do something a bit different in managing time via “Workspaces” – but I’m not exactly sure why I’d need multiple workspaces. They promise to allow unilimited projects and unlimited users in Workspaces indefinitely for the free service. At the moment, Premium Toggl features do not seem available and neither are pricing figures.

All in all, in light of how this space is heating up, I fear Toggl is going to have to make significant improvements if it is going to considered a legitimate contender. One last note, it seems Toggl is not supposed to officially launch until August 1st but I obviously got in just fine.

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Ken Yarmosh is a consultant who helps organizations get the most out of their technology investments. He works with technology users and creators across various industries, focusing on technology education and strategy. With over 7 years IT experience, Ken has worked with small businesses, non-profits, federal agencies, and multi-million dollar companies.

His online efforts include acting as the Editor for the Corante Technology Hub and authoring the TECHNOSIGHT blog.

Harvest is a web based time tracker – no software installation is necessary and it is available from any computer that has an Internet connection.

In my experience, time tracking can be a real pain. Typically, time tracking “software” (which often amounts to a spreadsheet) is developed and maintained in-house. The maintenance side of things can be a job in and of itself. But it usually falls under one of the many projects the “tech guys” are managing, meaning that it doesn’t get the attention it deserves. That’s especially true for smaller businesses.

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Ken Yarmosh is a consultant who helps organizations get the most out of their technology investments. He works with technology users and creators across various industries, focusing on technology education and strategy. With over 7 years IT experience, Ken has worked with small businesses, non-profits, federal agencies, and multi-million dollar companies.

His online efforts include acting as the Editor for the Corante Technology Hub and authoring the TECHNOSIGHT blog.

They say: “We were tired of having different unread items between multiple machines. We needed a centralized location to read our RSS feeds. We wanted it clean. We wanted it simple. And shortly, we will be bringing it to you.”

Damn, I want it now. Sign me up!

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Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.

He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.

These vendors are working diligently to provide midmarket firms with highly targeted products and services. These efforts translate to more choice and better options for midmarket companies than ever before.

Enterprise Players Harvest Low-Hanging Midmarket Fruit

The proof of the midmarket’s power is how focused enterprise giants like Siebel Systems have been on introducing new or improved midmarket solutions to expand their market share. For midmarket users that means the cream of the CRM software crop is working hard to cater to their special business needs and desires.

Last fall CRM market leader Siebel launched CRM for Everyone, its strategy to deliver CRM applications to enterprises and medium-size businesses in both hosted and traditional client/ server options. Part of its approach is to offer products that support a variety of standards and open source protocols, including J2EE, .NET, and Web services.

Integral to the CRM for Everyone strategy is Siebel CRM OnDemand. Also launched last fall, OnDemand is Siebel’s reentry into the hosted space. (The company pulled its initial foray into hosting, sales.com, two years ago.) Hosted in partnership with IBM, OnDemand offers customers sales, marketing, and service functionality.

With the goal of gaining a “commanding lead” in the midmarket, shortly after launching OnDemand, Siebel acquired CRM application service provider (ASP) Upshot. Siebel plans to integrate the Upshot and OnDemand offerings.

According to CEO Tom Siebel, this demonstrates the company’s commitment “to provide CRM solutions for every segment of the market.”

“CRM for Everyone is about letting companies of all sizes and industries decide what’s best for them,” says Keith Raffel, Siebel’s vice president, CRM OnDemand. “We don’t presume to decide whether an on-premise solution or a hosted one or a mixture of the two is best for the customer. Siebel offers them all and lets the customer choose.”

In 2003 Oracle released its Oracle E-Business Suite Special Edition, a midmarket solution comprising 15 of Oracle’s most popular applications, including financial, order management, purchasing, and inventory. Sold in a way that many midsize companies prefer to buy technology, the Special Edition includes software, hardware, support, and implementation–and is sold through a distribution channel rather than directly through Oracle.

“Oracle continues to hear from its small and medium-size customers that what they really need from enterprise software vendors isn’t slimmed down versions of core products marketed to the midmarket,” says Robb Eklund, Oracle’s vice president of CRM marketing. “Instead, SMEs are telling us that they need the same scalable, secure, functionally rich solutions that larger companies use, delivered to them in cost-effective packages.”

Recognizing the varying needs of the midmarket, SAP is aiming its SAP All-in-One product at companies at the higher end of the midmarket, while its Business One solution targets smaller midmarket firms. In addition, SAP is offering 23 vertical versions of its midmarket solutions. “We have really focused on rapid implementation of the type of capabilities found in mySAP, and [have] a strong focus on microvertical approaches,” says Bill Wohl, vice president of product public relations at SAP America. “These smaller businesses need solutions specifically tailored to their operations, but need them up and running within weeks.”

SAP has teamed with more than 300 channel partners to reach the midmarket. According to Wohl, SAP expects 15 percent of its overall licensing revenue will come from the midmarket by 2005.

PeopleSoft has placed reaching the midmarket among its top three initiatives. Although the company has been serving the midmarket for more than six years, it wasn’t until spring 2003 that the company began a series of aggressive moves to get the attention of users. The first push was PeopleSoft Mid-Market, 13 new products aimed at businesses with annual revenue between $50 million and $500 million. The products, specially designed for the midmarket, focus on CRM, finance, human resources, and procurement, and most of the processes are more than
70 percent preconfigured.

Shortly after launching PeopleSoft Mid-Market the company acquired midmarket vendor J.D. Edwards. PeopleSoft has integrated its original offering with J.D. Edwards’ applications under the new PeopleSoft EnterpriseOne umbrella. “We are taking certain functionalities, like PeopleSoft’s call center solutions, and building that out on the EnterpriseOne line,” says Les Wyatt, vice president and general manager of EnterpriseOne.

This past January PeopleSoft released a hosted, full-suite solution built from the ground up for the midmarket, according to Bill Henry, vice president of marketing and strategy, PeopleSoft Global Services. The offering includes hosting and application-management services for all of its front- and back-office applications, as well as database, storage, and hardware solutions. The company has partnered with application provider Surebridge to deliver the hosting service.

“About one half of our customers are midmarket companies, and we recognized that these firms have very unique needs,” Henry says. “They have all the complexity of an enterprise-level organization, but with limited IT staff. Now, with our midmarket hosted offering, these companies can devote their IT resources to projects that drive growth, not to maintaining software.”

Hosting Vendors Serve Up Hot Solutions

Some industry watchers claim that the action in the midmarket is being fueled by hosted CRM solutions. “Siebel would not be interested in that space if it were just small business or stagnant,” says Ian Jacobs, principal analyst for CRM with Current Analysis. “Hosted solutions are where the midmarket growth is real. In other areas of the midmarket, enterprise vendors use those sales as replacement for high-end sales that are not happening. It makes sense, but it’s not the huge sales that were expected. That is coming.”

Gartner CRM Research Director Wendy Close predicts that by year-end 2004, online CRM application service revenue will account for more than 25 percent of the CRM application market for SMBs. Most industry watchers attribute the boom to the lower cost, decreased maintenance, and quicker deployment of hosted offerings.

Salesforce.com paved the way for much of the ASP market via its evangelical approach to marketing. Over the past few months the company has been very busy with product upgrades. This past fall Salesforce.com unveiled major upgrades to its hosted CRM service (Winter ’04) and its on-demand application server (sforce 2.0). The company also recently released a version of its product that integrates with Microsoft Office.

In addition, Salesforce.com has continued its rapid growth. The company has about 9,000 customers and at press time was finalizing its initial public offering, valued at $115 million.

Even rival Mike Doyle, chairman and CEO of Salesnet, cheers the IPO, noting that it is further validation of the ASP market. But Salesnet has its own plans.

Last fall Salesnet began offering a private-label edition of its application, which can be fully preconfigured to meet the needs of its OEM customers. Through the application syndication model, Salesnet’s online CRM solutions can be rapidly deployed by partners and bundled into their own offerings.

In March Salesnet announced Guided Performance Selling, a hosted solution that includes three components: software-as-a-service (its delivery model), configuration-as-a-service (preconfigured sales solutions), and integration-as-a-service (more than 200 prebuilt application connections). “Better salespeople equal better sales, so everything we do is to help salespeople,” Doyle says.

NetSuite has also been busy. The company changed its name (it was NetLedger) to reflect its fully integrated front- and back-office applications. “Midsize companies are moving beyond internally focused CRM features like tracking forecasts to implementing advanced features like order management so they can more effectively sell and service customers,” NetSuite President and COO Zach Nelson says.

In January the company launched version 9.5, which has a heavy emphasis on embedded real-time analytics, and is preparing for its major 10.0 release. The company also added customization capabilities, including NetSuite Custom Records and NetSuite Custom Code. Custom Records allows users to manage complex data relationships; Custom Code allows users to define business logic that is industry and process specific. Not only is this a boon to users but it also quiets skeptics who have long criticized ASP solutions as too generic.

Although Salesforce.com also offers customization, NetSuite is taking a slightly different tack by requiring code changes to be done inside the NetSuite application using JavaScript. This makes the NetSuite code changes platform agnostic.

Midmarket Mainstays–and Microsoft Mania

Sales, support, and distribution of CRM products into midmarket firms are very different from enterprise companies. Midmarket companies are often looking for more training, complete product sets, and vendors that can hit time and delivery objectives. So, incumbent midmarket CRM vendors like Onyx, Pivotal, and SalesLogix may be better positioned to take advantage of the boom. But the increased competition makes it harder to get noticed and easier to be squeezed out by vendors that have more money and resources.

That may have more midmarket players merging, according to Sheryl Kingstone, CRM program manager at the Yankee Group. She predicts that larger firms may eat up point solution vendors, and midmarket vendors may merge to expand their opportunities.

One of Pivotal’s moves is to merge: In February the company was acquired by CDC Software, a wholly owned subsidiary of chinadotcom. The deal, valued at nearly $57 million, will give Pivotal increased R&D, tech support, and marketing resources. The company is also looking to simplify customers’ initial implementations. Pivotal launched its FastPath services program, which is designed to help users deploy Pivotal in as few as 20 days. The company has also released enhancements to its vertical offerings, like new lead and marketing management capabilities within its Pivotal Healthcare Insurance offering. And it plans to release two major upgrades this year.

While Pivotal is in a state of flux, Onyx officials say the company intends to woo Pivotal customers. Onyx has put in place a formal program to help Pivotal users migrate to the Onyx solution.

Onyx also introduced its own quick-start option, called CRMExpress, which is a fixed-price, out-of-the-box application. It is designed to be up and running in under 90 days. Customers that prefer a hosted model can select the IBM eBOD CRM On Demand solution, which delivers Onyx enterprise CRM functionality via ASP.

Onyx is not without its own uncertainty. Brent Frei, the company cofounder, chairman, and CEO, announced earlier this year that he plans to step down as CEO. Frei will remain chairman of the board. The company is currently in the process of a CEO search.

Meanwhile, SalesLogix continues to add to its partner channel. This allows the company to have a network of resellers and third-party add-ons to help strengthen its position and reach. To support both partners and customers, SalesLogix’s parent company, Best Software, has launched the QuickStart program, which bundles software, support, services, and training into one solution that has been designed around best practices.
QuickStart allows users to implement SalesLogix in 30 days, and comes with a guaranteed upfront, fixed price.

To give customers more choice, this past December Best Software’s parent company, Sage, reached an agreement with Computer Associates to purchase ACCPAC. According to Best CEO Ron Verni, the acquisition will enable the company to offer CRM via an ASP option, and will increase its reach through the ACCPAC reseller channel. At press time the companies were still awaiting regulatory approval to close the deal.

FrontRange has been quietly planning big changes the company will launch later this year. Its GoldMine and Heat products will move to one platform, and the company will introduce additional products, functionality, and delivery channels.

Many observers claimed that Microsoft’s reputation as the 800-pound gorilla sparked the shake up of the CRM space. The software giant announced its entry in 2002 and over the next 12 months rivals scrambled for position while they waited for Microsoft’s product to be released in February 2003. Although Microsoft’s MS CRM caters to the lower end of the midmarket, many competitors still fear Microsoft will move up into their territory. However, while Microsoft’s channel partners are diligently selling and promoting MS CRM, the company itself has been relatively quiet.

“Regardless of what Microsoft says, everyone is concerned [it] will make a big push up into the higher end of the midmarket,” Current Analysis’ Jacobs says. “That, coupled with Siebel and others coming down, has most true midmarket players, including SalesLogix, Onyx, and Pivotal, pondering their ultimate fate. The question is, will they just get squeezed until they pop?”

Midsize Companies, Giant Opportunities

Definitions of the midmarket vary widely. Some say it comprises companies with less than $1 billion in annual revenues, while others use employees as the yardstick and say midmarket companies have between 25 and 500 employees. Regardless of how it is defined, analysts agree that the midmarket is the CRM sweet spot.

Andy Bose, CEO of research firm AMI Partners, estimates that there are 100,000 midmarket companies, with fewer than 20 percent already having CRM solutions.

Karen Smith, research director of CRM at market research firm Aberdeen Group, estimates that there are almost six million companies needing CRM in the SMB and midmarket segments.

Jupiter Media Metrix estimates that the purchases of CRM, e-commerce, and financial management applications by small to medium-size businesses in North America will grow to $3.4 billion in 2006, up from $971 million in 2001.

AMR Research says the midmarket, combined with divisions of enterprises, is a $44.1 billion CRM opportunity over the next 10 years.

The sharpest increase in CRM deployments will occur in companies with revenues ranging from $500 million to $1 billion, according to Gartner Dataquest.

*Originally published at destinationCRM.com/CRM magazine

Lisa Picarille is a 14 year veteran high tech journalist, who started out as beat reporter with PC Week. She has also been a Senior Editor at InfoWorld, MacWeek and ComputerWorld. Lisa also has extensive experience running online high tech new sites. She was the managing editor of CRN.com., the online site for Computer Reseller News, before becoming the executive editor of TechWeb.com and the night news editor for Wired.com. Most recently she was the executive producer of TechTV.com. In addition, Lisa has freelanced for many print and online publications including Iconocast.com, Wired, Rolling Stone Magazine, CNN.com, Schwab.com. A graduate of Northeastern University, Lisa began her career as a sports writer and working as a producer and voice over artist in Boston radio.

Picarille can be contacted at 415-642-1863 or lpicarille@destinationcrm.com