August 26, 2021
By the Editors , CRM magazine

The Best CRM Software and Solutions: The 2021 CRM Industry Leader Awards

We once again asked our stable of experts in the three areas of customer relationship management (CRM)—customer service, marketing, and sales—to put on their consultant hats and pretend they’ve been approached by a client looking for an enterprise CRM platform, or contact center infrastructure, or a business intelligence solution. What would they recommend, and why?

These analysts gave us their top five picks in 10 categories, and the results show an industry on an upward trajectory, with healthy growth projected for most sectors, spurred on by the imperatives of digital transformation (which, in no small part, has been accelerated by a global pandemic). The list of winners yielded some dependable stalwarts but also some relative newcomers with names both big and small.

But before we get to the winners, a shout-out to those experts; CRM’s annual Industry Leader Awards wouldn’t be possible without their contributions. This year’s panel includes the following: Dick Bucci, founder and chief analyst at Pelorus Research; Jim Dickie, partner at Sales Mastery; Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting; Andy Hayler, president and CEO of the Information Difference; Ian Jacobs, vice president and research director at Forrester Research; Marshall Lager, independent CRM industry analyst and consultant; Kate Leggett, vice president and principal analyst for CRM and customer service at Forrester Research; Laurie McCabe, cofounder and partner at SMB Group; Sheila McGee-Smith, president and principal analyst at McGee-Smith Analytics; John Ragsdale, distinguished researcher and vice president of technology ecosystems at the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA); Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research; and Rebecca Wettemann, principal at Valoir.