A Mclean, Va.-based government business consultancy firm and technology reseller, immixGroup, and a Stockholm-based business consultancy, Accept of Sweden, are being recognized this week as finalists for the Gartner CRM Excellence award in the small and medium-size business category for pursuing customer-enabling strategies designed to make their organizations more efficient and profitable though their implementation of Microsoft CRM.

The Gartner CRM Excellence Awards are dedicated to promoting excellence in customer relationship management. Each year for the past six, Gartner CRM analysts and representatives from 1 to 1 Magazine have evaluated and recognized the most successful recent CRM implementations by end-user organizations. This year’s winner will be named later this week at the Gartner CRM Summit in San Diego.

immixGroup and Accept of Sweden have earned their spot in the limelight by posting outstanding results in their Microsoft CRM implementations. immixGroup’s new Microsoft business management system enabled its sales representatives to create a complex quote and process an order for a customer in less than 30 minutes –less than half the time needed under the previous system. After Accept’s CRM implementation, the IDC group of Europe studied the company’s business and concluded that the time it took from sales pitch to deal closing improved from 10 percent to 21 percent and the average deal improved by 87 percent. Payback for the investment is expected within 16 months.