GoldMine®, the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution from FrontRange Solutions, has won its category in the 10th Annual Best of Breed Awards conducted by Computerweek Strategist, South Africa's preeminent IT strategy magazine. Through its various rating studies and awards, Computerweek Strategist identifies IT best practices and best practitioners in its South Africa market, which is home to the parent company of FrontRange Solutions USA Inc. The monthly publication targets senior operating and IT executives and focuses on issues relating to investment, technology selection, cost reduction and containment, and managing outsourcing and consulting relationships.

Computerweek Strategist's panel of judges named GoldMine the undisputed leader in the CRM category in a rare unanimous vote, according to Kathy von Plato, publisher at the Systems IT Group, which publishes Computerweek Strategist. Von Plato called the award a "remarkable accolade for GoldMine particularly because the CRM field is a controversial one."

"The awards generally are highly valued by solution providers and vendors because they are a clear indication to their customers of the products they should be considering," she continued. "The awards, therefore, save organizations the time and money of doing their own initial research into competitor products and enable them to focus on the most relevant options."

Tracey Newman, Managing Director of FrontRange Solutions South Africa, said that the company has "eliminated most of the stumbling blocks to effective CRM because it has 14 years of exclusive experience in the field and its technology vision is straightforward: provide powerful, easy-to-deploy solutions that can be extended to meet the exact needs of dynamic customers."

Acknowledging the role of the Best of Breed Awards in keeping customer organizations abreast of the most feasible, affordable and effective products in a volatile sector, Newman said, "It's the old story of third party, objective validation not just being a superb marketing and sales tool for vendors like us, but also reinforcing the customers' confidence that they do indeed have the best solution for their problem."