This IDC study presents a newer, smarter way to conduct lead and opportunity management that is better adapted to the reality of how customers buy today: IDC's 21st Century Pipeline Management Model. A full description of this new model is included, as well as best-in-class insight based on interviews with marketing executives in major technology companies including Avaya, CA Technologies, CSC, Datacore, Dell, Fairchild Semiconductor, HP, Juniper Networks, MathWorks, NetApp, PerkinElmer, Rackspace, Red Hat, Taleo, and VMware. Insights are also based on IDC's Marketing and Sales Operations Leadership Board Meetings, IDC surveys, and the collective experience of IDC's Executive Advisory Group.

"The Internet has revolutionized B2B buyer's behavior, knowledge, and expectations," says Kathleen Schaub, vice president of research, IDC's CMO Advisory Service. "Only those companies that aggressively invest in lead management as a fundamental enterprise process grounded in management science will be able to meet today's market demands and outpace their competition. IDC's new pipeline management model will best enable companies to abandon the dusty, 100+ year-old funnel and move into the 21st century."