September 11, 2002

Software firms converge on midmarket

CNet/Reuters - Competition among software shops that sell to midsized businesses is heating up, and the temperature promises to continue rising as big companies look down-market for new customers and little ones look up-market in search of growth and profitability. (full story)

My spin:This article will sober up executives fighting in the "CRM" trenches. As more and more companies start blending the line between contact management (like Front Range's Goldmine), finance (Net Ledger), and CRM (Microsoft's upcoming product, SalesLogix, Salesforce.com and others)...this field will not only get crowded but confusing.

Those companies who have a sizeable audience will be in a better position as once companies invest the time to create their back ends they are going to be reluctant to change everything - it's not like switching word processors.

In addition, larger companies who may have only targeted large customers are going to be moving into the mid-market, as this article reads for more revenue. Smaller companies are going to have to fight and fight hard.

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