SAP America

To get a sense of just how much the supply-chain planning market has changed during the past year, you only have to look at the top of the 2003 Best of Breed rankings.

Selecting an enterprise suite is a little like choosing between an exotic sports car and a mid-priced sedan, according to research published by Gartner (www.gartner.com).

Continuing a trend THAT started last year, the results of this year's CGT Best of Breed survey on the customer relationship management (CRM) market once again shows that consumer goods firms are far from unanimous in their choice of the top provider.

Two of the three new e-business integration players roared to the top of this year's Best of Breed list, with Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) taking first place and IBM (www.ibm.com) second.

Selecting an enterprise suite is a little like choosing between an exotic sports car and a mid-priced sedan, according to research published by Gartner (www.gartner.com).

While these companies didn't make the best-of-breed lists in their respective categories, they certainly deserve a look as you put together your RFPs for the coming year.

Imagine sitting in the hot seat of a game show and plowing through questions on popular songs and history, when the silver-tongued host hits you with this one, "Give me the correct names of the top five global IT services companies."