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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: surfbaron who wrote (40301)	8/16/2001 9:50:20 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 65232

Report: Global CRM Burning Up the Road Wednesday August 15 07:05 PM EDT By Erika Morphy, www.CRMDaily.com The infotech industry may be idling in neutral as the economy teeters near the edge of recession, but CRM applications are proving to be the exception, according to a new IDC study. The consultancy reported that CRM application revenue grew by 84 percent to US$6.2 billion last year. The biggest winner thus far, according to IDC, is Siebel Systems (Nasdaq: SEBL - news), which sits on 23 percent of the market. But that may change as the industry develops over the next few years. By 2005, IDC said worldwide CRM revenue is expected to reach $14 billion -- in large part due to a steady stream of new products, companies and technologies. "The rise of new market players and products indicates the many fronts on which end-users are fighting the CRM battle," said Mary Wardley, program director of IDC's CRM Applications and eCommerce Applications Software programs. "Despite the current economic downturn, end-user organizations continue to rate CRM as critical to ... business strategy." Ongoing Implementation Indeed, many say the toughening economic situation is boosting CRM applications: Simply put, companies cannot afford to lose any customers these days. And industry statistics show it is far easier and cheaper to keep a customer than to woo a new one. CRM's growth is also due to the nature of the software itself. Users of CRM tools and products tend to implement them over a period of time, rather than all at once as with, for example, an enterprise resource planning system or a supply chain management product. This predisposition to ongoing implementation "will fuel CRM applications growth over a longer period of time," Wardley said. All Categories Top 70 Percent Sales automation is still the largest market among the three CRM applications, grabbing some 42 percent, or $2.6 billion, of global CRM revenue. Marketing automation applications and customer service and contact center applications also experienced robust growth, with no single category registering less than 70 percent revenue growth. Marketing automation, although it has the smallest market of the three categories, experienced the largest growth in 2000. IDC also found that CRM is making inroads in the global marketplace. North America still dominates, and IDC said it expects the region will ring up $8.6 billion in revenue in 2005. However, IDC said, companies in Western Europe are catching on to the benefits that these applications provide. "CRM revenues in Western Europe have accelerated due to an increased understanding of CRM issues and the internationalization of product offerings," Wardley said. The result, the consultancy concluded, is that CRM revenue in Western Europe likely will increase by 22 percent over the next four years -- a much faster clip than is expected across the pond.