NETTING IT OUT

3Q2009 was a good quarter for KM-based customer service.

Customer growth improved and good financial performance resulted for six of our ten suppliers. The other four suppliers were flat or down just a bit.

Product activity was very high in 3Q2009. There were new products or major new versions from Attensity Group, Consona CRM, eGain, InQuira, IntelliResponse, RightNow, and Salesforce.com. The hot product trends are integration of social media as both a customer interaction channel and a knowledge source and support for assisted-service.

From a company perspective, there were two major M&A items. RightNow acquired social networking provider HiveLive. KANA went private.

Four of our ten suppliers earned Customer Service Stars for 2Q2009: Consona CRM, IntelliResponse, RightNow, and Salesforce.com. All of them demonstrated strong customer growth and strong financial performance. All of them introduced innovative new products and new product versions.

KM-based customer service is positioned for a very good 4Q2009 and a strong 2010.

KM-Based Customer Service

3Q2009 was a good quarter for KM-based customer service. After a run of seven excellent quarters, growth in KM-based customer service slowed in1Q2009. Business rebounded in 2Q2009 and increased in 3Q2009 with improved customer growth and resulting good financial performance. In 3Q2009, there were many significant product announcements and two significant M&A events. Social media and contact center assisted-service are the important trends.

Customer Growth for Six of Ten Customer Services Suppliers

Customer growth and financial performance were up in 3Q2009 for six of the ten suppliers that we cover: Astute Solutions, Consona, IntelliResponse, nGenera CIM, RightNow, and Salesforce.com. For the other four, Attensity Group, eGain, InQuira, and KANA, customer growth and financial performance slipped only a bit. There were no major slips among the four, and all four had good customer growth quarters in 3Q2009.

Remember that both InQuira and KANA currently offer only on-premise deployments. Also, while both Attensity Group and eGain do offer hosted deployment, most of their customers have deployed on-premise. Inconsistent customer growth has been a characteristic of KM-based customer service suppliers who offer on-premise deployments as deals that slip out of quarters have significant impact on growth and performance. Given the improving economy and seasonally strong fourth quarters in software, we expect improved customer growth and financial performance for all four in 4Q2009.

iUSask iPhone Applications

© 2009 IntelliResponse, Inc.

This illustration shows three screens of the iPhone application from IntelliResponse.

Social Networking

A key trend in KM-based customer service to include...