CRM's Phenomenal Growth - Fact or Fiction?

Customer Relationship Management although a recent customer strategy has evolved into a perquisite for most organizations.

Witnessing its phenomenal growth the advocates of CRM have forecasted even bigger dimensions for this management tool. It is only certain that organizations will continue to do as much as possible to woo the customer. From that point of view CRM demand has a sure growth. The only disturbing factor is the cost involved. Organizations need to get past that inhibition and when they do they will surely opt for CRM implementation.

What Growth has the CRM Industry evidenced?

CRM is Soaring

Across the world industries like insurance, pharmaceuticals, real estate and even offbeat ones like the advertising field are fast learning the fact that CRM can be lucrative. CRM spending is estimated to increase to an astounding $17.7 billion in 2006. The annual rate of growth in the CRM industry is 6.7 percent. Revenue from hosted CRM solutions alone is expected to reach an all time high of $2.8 billion. However the perpetual license model has evidenced a sharp decline hitting almost $ 2 billion resulting in a decline of 18%.

The U.S. is definite to be the leader of the pack accounting for more than 50% of the CRM market. The total revenue for the CRM industry from the U.S is scheduled to be almost $ 10 billion.

CRM Around the Globe

CRM the customer strategy of the decade despite its amazing kick off, has still to grow in most countries. Areas that need improvement in the world wide market for example include the government sector. The government sector like the private sector needs to realize that CRM has a lot to offer and start availing of it. Since the public sector often works with vast amounts of data, CRM will prove to be very beneficial.

Small and medium industries throughout the world take a different view. As surprising as it may sound in most countries across the world, SME's have almost no or if they do very little knowledge about CRM benefits and they are unclear about the reasons behind its implementation. Most of them seldom measure customer satisfaction and are uneducated about what CRM offers them. However most of them have evidenced a clear need to know more about CRM technology.

India Realizes CRM Importance

Indians have realized the importance of better customer service and this has resulted in better business processes inculcated with customer strategies. CRM is still in the infant stages here although there is evidence that it will soon be a full fledged thriving industry. The main concern in this region is the cost structure. Here it is a question of getting organizations to understand that despite the heavy costs involved RM can and will prove profitable. However overall India has warmed to the idea that CRM is crucial to business success and that it needs to be implemented in order to harness customer retention and loyalty.

China Needs More CRM Information

Despite the fact that the economy is soaring organizations prefer to wait and watch all due to the enormity of the costs involved. Here although the pressure from competitors is high, customer focus is seldom important to organizations because firms tend to rely on the strength of their existing popularity. This in turn yields a very poor culture for customer centred strategies to grow. CRM in China is stilted because of improper understanding of CRM processes and wrong implementations. However there is a clear indication that they would like to know more about this customer centric strategy and are eager to grow in this field.

Europe is Good Soil for CRM Planting

In Europe on the other hand a considerable increase in CRM demand is evidenced. However this is due to the fact that there are far more organizations willing to take part in what CRM has to offer. The growth in this part of the world is the most promising yet and will undoubtedly keep increasing. Second only to the U.S this market offers profound opportunities for the CRM industry. It has also born witness to several new CRM trends and has ample opportunity for growth prospects. Prospective CRM vendors should look to this area as it will prove very lucrative in the long run.