Europe increases its CRM investments

European companies are increasing their investment in customer relationship management (CRM) software to increase revenues and grow their customer bases, according to Gartner.

The analyst firm says the European market grew to $1.9bn (£1bn) in 2005, a 9.7 per cent increase on the previous year.

This rise in spending on CRM software correlates strongly with the state of the economy, says Chris Pang, senior research analyst at Gartner .

'Growth in countries such as Italy and Germany remains lower than the rest of the world, while market growth in countries such as the UK, Sweden, Norway and Denmark has been more consistent,' he said.

'This means we are seeing CRM growth rates ranging from a slight negative to more than 27 per cent depending on the individual country.'

The focus on growing customer bases is leading to certain types of CRM software becoming more popular than others, the report says.

Marketing automation gets the largest share of the market (18.6 per cent) and sales automation also taking a big portion (12.1 per cent).

Pang says there is increasing focus in Europe on reforming business processes and concentrating on where businesses can be grown.

'This means businesses require assistance with integration or migration initiatives as well as process expertise,' he said.

What do you think? Email us at: feedback@computing.co.uk

Further Reading:

• Microsoft promises more focus on business applications
• CRM software makes a splash at aquarium
• Fashion chain completes IT overhaul