CRM is back.

Yes, despite reports of the death of CRM, the marketplace is hotting up again and CRM is back on the agenda. Why? And, this time, is it likely to provide the success that was so lacking before. What is driving the current investment round? Simon Davis MD of MarketDeveloper investigates.

CRM is back but it is back for two principal reasons and they are 1) the vendor marketplace has changed and 2) even now CRM still doesn’t really mean Customer Relationship Management in the true sense.

 

The current marketplace is driven by the growth in and maturing of hosted applications which have proved themselves more cost-effective (both in terms of lower initial and running costs and in term of their ability to show ROI through back office integrations and the integration of the sales channels) and better tailored to end users. Hosted apps are maturing just like the on-site systems did 10 years ago, they are moving into verticals and they are capable now of being customised by third party integrators.  It will be interesting to see whether Salesforce.com actually make money ultimately when it will be the integrators who cream off the real value added. (Haven’t we been here before? In the old days it was the Management Consultants who creamed it!)