Business and IT analysis firm, IDC, has used a new report, 'Worldwide CRM Applications 2004-2008 Forecast Update', to predict that the customer relationship management (CRM) applications market will reach $11.4bn by 2008. The firm's CRM analysts say that they expect big specialist firm, Siebel, to maintain its leadership position in the marketplace, albeit receiving a smaller share than it has now. They also note that SAP has effectively established itself in this market and solidly occupies the number 2 position. The report goes on to comment that return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) will remain crucial requirements for vendors to push and develop in their products and offerings, and may in fact become even more important.
The CRM environment is set to change in fundamental ways with respect to purchasing patterns in the next few years, going from a period of optimistic buying to a time of increased requirements for a clear return on investment and benefits, says Mary Wardley, vice president of IDC's CRM applications research. 'The consolidation trend in the CRM analytics space is not only due to the rapid growth of big producers like Siebel, SAS Institute, and NetIQ, but also due to the rapid growth of smaller players like Coremetrics and DoubleClick,' added Robert Blumstein, the firm's research director for CRM analytics. |
