CRM revenues grow despite troubled economy

Despite the economic troubles affecting the technology industry, CRM revenues grew 84 per cent in 2000 to $US6.2 billion, according to research firm International Data Corp.

Furthermore, the CRM market by 2005 will generate more than $14 billion in revenues, with growth driven by new products, companies, and technologies, IDC said.

End-users continue to rate CRM as critical to their organisation's ongoing business strategy, despite the current economic slowdown, according to IDC. The response to market conditions is to plan an ongoing implementation strategy over an extended period of time rather than purchase a complete solution up front, which will fuel CRM applications growth over a longer time period, IDC said.

Robust growth was experienced across all three CRM application market segments: sales automation, marketing automation, and customer service and contact centers. Sales automation garnered $2.6 billion in worldwide revenues, making it the largest of the three markets.

The leading CRM vendor is Siebel Systems, with 23 per cent of the market in 2000, according to IDC.