I love lists. Rolling Stone’s list of the Beatles Top 100 songs, baseball statistics like the Top 100 Hitting Charts, Bridget’s list of things to know, biggest cities, top 10 towns named after elements, lists of lists (those would be meta-lists, I believe)…they’re just so much fun to read, memorize, forget, and use as fodder for cocktail party conversation.
Building lists, on the other hand, can be a lot of work. So I’m always grateful when somebody else takes the time to create a good one. And better yet when it’s about a CRM topic. For example, Lauren Carlson of the Software Advice Blog recently published an excellent article containing a list, Microsoft Dynamics CRM Industry Solutions: Our 20 Favorites
I provide a summary version next, but you should read Lauren’s article. She actually researched the industries, surveyed CRM ISVs to find out who had developed CRM add-ons for each vertical, and wrote excellent summaries of the ones she included.
| Industry | Vendor | Application |
| 1. Advertising | InterDyn | DynamicsADvantage |
| 2. Agriculture | Atrio Systems | CRM for Livestock |
| 3. Automotive | Quorum | Exellerator auto dealer management system |
| 4.Construction | KMS | Project-CRM 4.0 for the construction industry |
| 5. Distribution | Infosys | CRM Wholesale Distribution System |
| 6. Financial Services | Galeforce | Microsoft CRM for Financial Services |
| 7. Healthcare | ePartners MD | Dynamics CRM for Healthcare |
| 8. Hospitality/Travel | IQubz | Hospitality CRM |
| 9. Insurance | VUE Software | IncentivePoint for insurance companies |
| 10. Legal | Client Profiles | CRM4Legal |
| 11. Non-Profit | Axem | Vital DB CRM solution |
| 12. Pharma | ePartners | contact management and call center support |
| 13. Public Sector | Eskel Porter | Public Records Tracker |
| 14. Real Estate | Ascendix | Real Estate Advantage |
| 15. Retail | Nodus Technologies | CRM Charge for retail organizations |
If you or your firm provides services around Dynamics CRM, you’re probably aware that Microsoft’s current big push is to “verticalize” its partner community. Lauren’s research is timely in this regard. At the risk of sounding like a cheesy Convergence pickup line, what’s your vertical?
Personally, my verticalization is still a work in progress. I want to service a vertical that is fast-growing, enjoys high margins, has not yet widely adopted CRM, and in which there is very little competition. I’m conducting an exhaustive search and I haven’t yet found just the right one. If you’ve already found the perfect vertical and want to share it with me, I promise I won’t tell anybody else. In the meantime, if you’re still searching like I am, here’s my own personally compiled meta-list of my favorite top 5 articles containing lists of the fastest growing industries:
- Kelly Services, Top 25 Fastest Growing Industries for 2010 to 2011
- Career OneStop, Top 50 Fastest Growing Industries
- Daily Finance, Nine for the ’10s: Fast-Growing Industries for the Next Decade
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Fastest Growing…and Fastest Declining
- Fortune Magazine, Top 52 Fastest Growing Industries (Profits)
