2 Companies Breaking New Ground in the CRM Market

Lots of tech companies efficiently produce great products and services, enjoying fast growth and high returns for investors; but every so often, new players emerge with broader “universal” impacts on the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Industry thought leader Paul Greenberg highlighted two such companies in a recent article. I encourage you to read Paul Greenberg’s full article, but in the meantime, here are a few of the highlights:

 

Infusionsoft

Backed by Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs investment, this email marketing company has grown to become a market leader in small business CRM software, by offering their clients a platform designed to streamline CRM and the customer lifecycle. Since their founding in 2001, Infusionsoft has grown to host 25,000 client implementations across 100 countries.

A hallmark of their success has been a robust company culture. For Infusionsoft employees, their work exists as part of their lifestyle, rather than some separate entity. In fact, at the company headquarters in Scottsdale, AZ, there is a board for employees to write their life aspirations. Infusionsoft takes these into account and works with employees to help these dreams be realized.

Infusionsoft’s approach to fostering a healthy internal culture allows them to deliver innovative solutions to customer service. The services the employees provide for their customers go far beyond the sales and marketing software they produce. As a former small business themselves, they understand what a small business needs to evolve organically. For guided help, Infusionsoft trusts WalkMe, a powerful tool crucial to their customer service strategy. They also offer marketing and business development plans for their clients, which highlight ways to integrate their technology into operations and maximize their output.

Greenberg identifies several opportunities for company growth. Infusionsoft has cornered the CRM market for small businesses (up to 25 employees), and Greenberg maintains that Infusionsoft should stick to this niche market for the time being, rather than expand to serve 100 employee businesses. Within this market, Infusionsoft can capitalize on further opportunities that exist there – such as leveraging its service-oriented approach to teaching small businesses how to grow.

 

Coveo

Startups typically strain to be noticed – but Coveo, an enterprise software provider backed by a consortium of technology partners, has enjoyed huge growth with over 700 client implementations since 2004. Backed by a formidable management team headed by CEO Louis Tetu, the personable founder of the cloud company Taelo (cloud company sold to Oracle for $1.9 B), Coveo capitalizes on their understanding of how to create and maintain a vibrant business ecosystem.

For many, Coveo’s product is difficult to classify, so here’s an applicable use case: The contact lens division at Johnson & Johnson has a 3600+ step manufacturing process. To deliver a quality product, J&J has implemented Coveo into each step of that process to search across internal systems, engines, and the web to locate errors in that process, which saves time and money for the firm.

Coveo’s product derives value from its ability to condense massive amounts of data into information that leads to quick, optimal action to respond to these issues in real-time. It can even organize query responses into a stack ranked list of the appropriate subject matter experts that can answer customer service questions.

Greenberg also sees several avenues through which Coveo can grow, noting that their marketing focuses on its use as an enterprise search and customer service tool, rather than customer engagement, but are well positioned to move in this direction.

For Paul Greenberg’s full article, click here.