The total global customer relationship management (CRM) software revenues totalled $18 billion in 2012, up 12.5 per cent from $16 billion in 2011, according to a Gartner study.
“Competition among CRM software vendors really heated up in 2012, as major players continued to vie for broader market penetration internationally and more widespread adoption within mid-size to large enterprises,’’ Gartner Vice-President Joanne Correia said.
“Market growth in 2012 was three times the average of all enterprise software, highlighting how CRM is at the eye of the Nexus of Forces storm,” Correia added.
Vendors benefited from strong demand for software as a service (SaaS), which represented nearly 40 per cent of total CRM software revenue, as organisations of all sizes sought easier-to-deploy alternatives to replace legacy systems, as net-new applications or to provide alternative complementary functionality.
The top five CRM vendors accounted for nearly 50 per cent of CRM software revenue in 2012.
Largest vendor
Salesforce.com replaced SAP as the largest vendor in the CRM market as its direct sales pushed CRM revenues to more than $2.5 billion.
SAP’s growth was less than one per cent in dollar terms, largely because currency headwinds were stronger in 2012 and the euro was weak. While SAP was not the worldwide leader in CRM for 2012, it was still the largest vendor in terms of revenue in Western and Eastern Europe.