Pivotal's acquisitions of the last few years -- MarketFirst in October 2002 and Exactium in 2000 -- have been tightly integrated into the revamped version, according to AMR Research senior analyst Rod Johnson. "Bringing [the] MarketFirst acquisition into the fold gives them by far the best marketing capability of any mid-market player," he told CRMDaily. "What they offer in terms of configuration and guided selling are far and away better than comparable mid-market offerings."

Another benefit of the MarketFirst acquisition, albeit one that Pivotal does not seem to be promoting very heavily, is its hosted capabilities, Johnson said. "In addition to its advanced marketing functionality, MarketFirst brings to the table experience -- and the tech infrastructure and support -- of a hosted model."

This is not an option Pivotal is pushing aggressively, Johnson noted. The company simply wants to have it on hand as another option for a customer that might expect this delivery model.

Enhancing Sales

The primary changes in version 5.0 affect sales operations. "Pivotal customers have a good handle on the sales process now," Andersen said. "The MarketFirst acquisition, which provides much more personalized and sophisticated marketing, allows the sales staff access to more information and data gathered from marketing campaigns."

Another addition is the assisted-selling module, which Andersen describes as innovative. Pivotal has integrated the Exactium technology it acquired in 2000 into the sales module, providing inside sales reps with capabilities that once were limited to customers on the Web. "The mid-market space has a big need for this," he said. "Now, if you combine that with Pivotal's traditional strength in mobile computing, that will be a real product differentiator for us."

Internal Integration Woes

Pivotal has done a much better job tying in the configuration tools that it obtained with its Exactium acquisition into its overall product framework and suite of applications, Karen Smith, research director at Aberdeen Group said.

"While Pivotal recognized back in 2000 the value of being able to provide its customers with Internet-based selling tools built upon a configuration engine," she told CRMDaily, "it is only now that the company seems to have successfully merged the core configuration and interactive selling capabilities of Exactium into Pivotal's original product offering and Internet framework."

In many respects, the initial difficulties Pivotal encountered in trying to fold Exactium into its product line are not that unusual and are sure to be repeated by other vendors in other acquisitions. Over the last 18 months especially, Smith notes, a number of business-application suppliers have been subsumed into broader offerings.

"Aberdeen expects there will be further consolidation and/or mergers/acquisitions," she said. "Pivotal's acquisition of [MarketFirst and Exactium], and its incorporation of e-selling within the Pivotal family of CRM solutions, further validates this consolidation trend."