Going Mainstream: Customer Relationship Management has Evolved

CRM or Customer Relationship Management is as old as commerce itself. However, in the last couple of decades, the meaning of CRM has changed to CRM software. The concept of CRM has evolved to a large extent, especially in Indian context. A couple of decades before it was predominantly used by the large enterprises and was also limited to the basic functionality, generally customer database only. However, in recent years even SMEs have started to take advantage of CRM, “ says Limesh Parekh the, CEO of Enjay IT Solutions.

MARKET DYNAMICS

At the end of 2017, worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) software revenue overtook that of database management systems (DBMSs), making CRM the largest of all software markets, according to Gartner, Inc.

Worldwide CRM software revenue amounted to $39.5 billion in 2017 overtaking DBMS revenue, which reached $36.8 billion in the same year. “In 2018, CRM software revenue will continue to take the lead of all software markets and be the fastest growing software market with a growth rate of 16 percent,” said Julian Poulter, research director at Gartner.

Poulter added that the strong growth rate of CRM software revenue is driven in particular by the segments of lead management, voice of the customer and field service management, each of which is achieving more than 20 percent growth.

Gartner has witnessed the rise of marketing technology and a recent resurgence in sales technology in the CRM market. This growing market is attracting many new entrants. However, the major vendors offering CRM suites covering sales, commerce and service are showing stronger than average growth and are successful at cross-selling additional modules to existing customers.

“Organizations are keen to avoid silos of information and to obtain a 360 degree view of the customer,” said Mr. Poulter. “The 360 degree view allows better application of artificial intelligence to make the users of the CRM system more effective.”

GDPR & CRM

Cost of GDPR Compliance Expected to Increase Budget for Information Security, CRM and CX. CRM systems typically contain vast amounts of (sensitive) personal data and are kept for a considerable amount of time, making them a more likely source of noncompliance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) than other applications.

The cost of GDPR compliance is expected to increase the existing budget for information security, CRM and customer experience (CX) in the next three years. Areas for technology investment include marketing technology, data loss prevention, security information and event management, and security consulting, especially in Western Europe.