I am about to release the draft of the Customer Engagement Center Magic Quadrant 2014 for review to software vendors. This is the MQ that was formerly known as the CRM Customer Service Contact Center MQ. For two years we’ve been writing about Customer Engagement Strategies, and this new MQ focuses on the role of the agent - the human voice and/or face of the business that the customer and prospect and partner interacts with. There is no beginning or end to the Magic Quadrant – it is not a cycle with a beginning, middle and end. It is not a novel or story with character, setting, plot, problem and resolution neatly bent around a beginning, a middle or an end. Nor are the dots random positions of Brownian Motion. Positions grow, decline, evolve based on the readiness of the market and the prowess of the software suppliers and the consultancies and integrators to bring the vision into reality.
And here the thoughts that I heard long ago from the Dalai Lama, who will be 80 next year, are helpful. (I know, right!) He emphasizes that, as much as we might like, we cannot control all of the variables or conditions in the world. For my clients, that is the reality that the current software and hardware environment, the maturity of knowledge, the embrace or fear of process change are what they are. The results of the CRM vendors’ solutions cannot be better than the customer they serve.
In the process of running an MQ we uncover many aspects of the vendor’s nature, and success or limitations in the MQ process often stem from the vendor’s motivation in engaging us in the process. This is another piece of advice from Tibet: Everything rests on the tip of motivation. It is clear within an hour of working with a vendor if their motivation is to be as disengenuous as possible while remaining truthful, or laying it right on the line candidly.
So the third thought from the Dalai Lama that a CIO and CRM project leader and vendor can keep in mind is ” The true value of an action is not measured by whether it is successful or not, but in the motivation behind it.” Ultimately the Magic Quadrant is a reflection of a moment in time, captured to guide the direction of thinking about both the software/service and the company behind it. Our motivation is not to reward or not reward a vendor, but to frame the discussion around the needs of the Gartner client. You, as a client, are in a specific industry, and have a specific process flow, and hardware/software environment, integration and regulatory requirements and a geographic location.
The MQ is best used when the motivation of the client is to seek, without fixed preconceptions or predetermined outcome in mind, the best match between enterprise need and vendor offering. It is a good thing to remind ourselves of regularly.
We would like to thank the over 250 companies that took part in the 2014 Customer Engagement Center Magic Quadrant process. You have enriched our understanding in so many ways through your honesty and candor. Soon you will also see the results!
Until we meet in London (http://www.gartner.com/technology/summits/emea/crm/ ) or Orlando (http://www.gartner.com/technology/summits/na/customer-360/ )….