February 8th 2025

CRM software ‘at the heart’ of digital initiatives

 

Organizations are leveraging CRM (customer relationship management) technologies as a major part of their digital initiatives to enhance the customer experience, according to Gartner, Inc. Gartner said that demand for modern technology customer relationships is driving refreshed or expanded integration and usage of all areas of CRM software. The outlook continues to be positive for CRM as buyers focus on technologies that enable more-targeted customer interactions in multichannel environments.

 

“CRM will be at the heart of digital initiatives in coming years. This is one technology area that will definitely get funding as digital business is crucial to remaining competitive,” says Joanne Correia, research vice president at Gartner. “Hot areas for CRM investment include mobility, social media and technologies, Web analytics and e-commerce.”

 

Gartner expects CRM market growth to stay moderate in 2014, following three strong years of investment. CRM software revenue is forecast to reach $23.9 billion in 2014, with cloud revenue accounting for 49 percent. SaaS- or cloud-based CRM deployments currently represent more than 40 percent of all CRM deployments, and look set to reach 50 percent during 2015.