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Aberdeen Group: CRM Spending and Satisfaction
The Aberdeen Group recently released "CRM Spending and Satisfaction Report," based on a survey it conducted with RealMarket in Q4 2002. The survey reached a broad cross-section of the CRM, respondents were from all levels of decision-making authority and from company's with revenues less than $10 million to more than $1 billion. Thee survey reflected the state of the business world in general. With global uncertainty and a sluggish recovery as a backdrop, many organizations will look to prove the benefits of existing CRM implementations before adding new capacity. Others will be on the lookout for concrete signs of returns on their existing investments and similar projections on any new acquisitions. Some key findings include: CRM spending will pick up significantly in 2003 - most organizations have increased their budgets and have specific purchase requirements.
In a significant sign of pending consolidation in the industry for full suite products, 64 percent of those surveyed said that their CRM purchases would be made at the enterprise level. In comparison, only 44 percent of the respondents said that over the previous five years they had purchased CRM at the enterprise level as opposed to the department or division level. This apparent shift of purchase decisions to enterprise-wide from smaller acquisitions should not be seen as an absolute shift to larger deployment, however. Given that slightly more than three- quarters of those surveyed represented SMB and mid-market companies and that such companies may view any CRM acquisition as an "enterprise" deployment, the change may indicate a subtler trend. Users of CRM technology are relatively more satisfied with sales applications that with marketing and customer service applications.
Sales force automation (SFA) and related sales applications continue to be the modules most in demand, and more respondents report having sales tools than any other CRM Technology. SFA is usually the first and frequently, the only CRM module installed at many organizations, and nearly twice as many organizations have only SFA than organizations that have only marketing modules. Users see different benefits depending on their primary orientation (i.e., sales, marketing, customer service).
There is a significant difference between the benefits that people expect and what they actually get according tot he survey data. Most often, prospective users of CRM applications indicate that they expect the technology will help them drive new business and top-line revenue growth. In contrast, existing users of CRM report that the biggest benefit the have observed is in the area of productivity improvements. More end-user organizations are seriously considering acquiring CRM as hosted solutions or services. Questions about hosted solutions provided the most surprising findings of the survey. Although only 24 percent of the respondents indicated that they were currently using CRM delivered as a hosted service, a simple majority (52 percent) indicated they would consider using a hosted solution in the future; that number was slightly higher (56 percent) among C- level officers. When prospective CRM users were asked if they would subscribe to hosted CRM services, more than 88 percent said they would. This finding stands in contrast to the industry-wide assumption that CRM customers, in general, are unhappy. Although many people find CRM solutions challenging to deploy, they continue to purchase these solutions because they find the long-term benefits reward their efforts.
There are several areas where users fell CRM can be improved. However, the fact that there are several areas and that no single area scored a significant majority of responses indicates general satisfaction with the product class. CRM continues to deliver value, although at a high price relative to other IT solutions organizations purchase. ............................................................................... For more information on related topics visit the following related portals... CRM. This piece has been brought to you by the DM Review Editorial staff.
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