Cross-industry
Worldwide CRM market grows
20 July 2009
Worldwide CRM market revenue totalled US$9.15 billion in 2008, a 12.5 per cent increase from 2007 revenue of US$8.13 billion, according to Gartner. Analysts said that market growth was driven by enterprise investments in technologies focused on customer retention, analytics and on-demand solutions.
“Despite financial market volatility, the worldwide CRM market enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth as businesses continued to invest in solutions across all sub-segments,” said Sharon Mertz, research director at Gartner. “Actual market growth was moderated by a stronger dollar but reflects higher contributions from emerging markets.”
Software as a service continued to drive the market forward, representing nearly 20 per cent of total CRM software market revenue in 2008, up from just over 15 per cent in 2007. Interest in social networking and social software also escalated in 2008 as businesses were confronted with the sales, marketing, and serviceability impact of increasing consumer participation in online forums.
Despite financial market volatility, the worldwide CRM market enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth
Sharon Mertz, Gartner Microsoft experienced the strongest growth rate among the top five vendors of CRM software, as its revenue increased 75 per cent in 2008, although Gartner said that most vendors remain cautiously optimistic for continued growth for the worldwide CRM market. “Investments in technologies which enhance productivity, provide better visibility and insight into customer behaviours and grow online commerce, sales and marketing activities are expected to grow through 2010,” said Mertz. “However, while we expect overall CRM growth prospects to remain positive in 2009 we do anticipate them declining to mid single-digits due to continued economic uncertainty.”
Additional information is available in the Gartner report Dataquest Insight: CRM Software Market Share Analysis, Worldwide 2008.
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