Barton Goldenberg, president of ISM and cofounder and cochairman of the DCI CRM and RTE Conferences and Expos, made the announcement during a special keynote ceremony at McCormick Place.

The top 15 software suites include (in alphabetic order):
Amdocs ClarifyCRM v. 11.5--by Amdocs
C2 CRM v. 5.4--by Clear Technologies
Client Management Software 6.0--by Oncontact Software
E.piphany E.6--by E.piphany
ExSellence v. 4.5--by Optima Technologies
iCRM (Applix iEnterprise v. 8.3.1)--by iET Acquisition
mySAP CRM 3.1--by SAP AG
Onyx Enterprise CRM 4.0--by Onyx Software
PeopleSoft CRM 8.8--by PeopleSoft
Pivotal CRM--by Pivotal
S1 CRM Solutions--by S1
SalesPage open.space 4.0--by SalesPage Technologies
Siebel 7.5--by Siebel Systems
Staffware Process RM v. 9.0--by Staffware
Worldtrak v. 5.6--by Axonom

"In today's environment--now more than ever--companies need to optimally manage their relationships with customers," Goldenberg said. "With [these] leading CRM software packages companies have many options for comprehensive CRM solutions."

Goldenberg said during the ceremony that he expects a 10 to 15 percent growth rate for the CRM industry from 2003 through 2007. "We are seeing a positive rebound in the CRM marketplace," he said. "Mergers and consolidations, along with Microsoft's entry into CRM, have meant new market growth and exciting CRM technical features, including wireless components, XML, Web services, and process-oriented architectures."

The top 15 CRM solutions are leading the pack by including many of these features, Goldenberg said.

Winners were selected from among a large number of CRM software packages, which were tested by the ISM software lab at its headquarters in Bethesda, MD. Each package was rated according to 171 selection criteria, including 105 business functions, 48 technical features, and 18 user-friendliness/support features, according to ISM.

In addition to naming the top 15 CRM products, Goldenberg said that based on ISM surveys with CRM vendors, 50 percent of all CRM software applications will work in a wireless environment by the end of 2003. This figure should increase to 60 percent by the end of 2004, and to 90 percent by the end of 2005, according to Goldberg.

"Not only will users benefit from new technical features, but also from new CRM business functionality that incorporates analytics, product configuration, content and knowledge management technology, and graphical workflow mapping tools," Goldenberg said.