The world's absolute worst buying guide on CRM systems, from an unexpected source

Last week I received the July issue of CRM Magazine, and the cover story is about Microsoft CRM (more on that later). Bundled with the magazine was a 30+ page supplement labeled as "2008 Annual Buyer's Guide". I assumed this document would outline the various CRM systems available and what each of these systems offer. As I expected, their Index lists the companies/products and if their solution meets these categories:

• Analytics/BI
• Business Strategy
• Contact Center
• Customer Service
• Data Quality
• E-Commerce
• Industry Solutions
• Integration
• Knowledge Management
• Large Enterprise CRM
• Marketing
• Mobile CRM
• Open Source
• Partner Management
• SaaS / Ondemand
• Sales
• Self-Service
• SMB / Mid-Market CRM
• Social Media

This is pretty standard list of CRM functionality by topic, so you would think that prospective buyers could use this document to map up their CRM needs to potential vendors. However after looking at this actual listings, I noticed something interesting:

I found it hilarious that this "Buyer's Guide" doesn't include two of most popular CRM applications on the market in Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Salesforce.com. This gaffe is particularly bad because Microsoft is on the COVER OF THE MAGAZINE talking about their CRM solution. I can only assume that this Buyer's Guide is pay-to-play, where if you don't pay the magazine they won't include your solution in their listings. If that's the case, that's a shame because it obviously severely limits its value to companies considering purchasing CRM solutions! No customer can take this Buyer's Guide list seriously if it excludes the CRM offerings from Microsoft and Salesforce.com.

If you're interested in finding out how Microsoft CRM maps to these topic centers, here you go:

• Analytics/BI: Yes
• Business Strategy: Yes
• Contact Center: Yes
• Customer Service: Yes
• Data Quality: Yes
• E-Commerce: Customization required
• Industry Solutions: Yes
• Integration: Yes
• Knowledge Management: Yes
• Large Enterprise CRM: Yes
• Marketing: Yes
• Mobile CRM: Yes
• Open Source: No
• Partner Management: Yes
• SaaS / Ondemand: Yes
• Sales: Yes
• Self-Service: Yes
• SMB / Mid-Market CRM: Yes
• Social Media: Customization required