Software > CRMEssentials

Global spending on CRM (customer relationship management) software surged in 2007 to roughly US$8.1 billion, a 23.1 percent jump over 2006's total of about US$6.6 billion, according to the research firm Gartner.

For the mid-market, an integrated CRM solution improves business productivity at a low total cost of ownership.

The worldwide market for CRM (customer relationship management) software will grow 14.2 percent to US$8.9 billion in 2008, according to a Gartner estimate.

Importer and distributor Synergy Audio Visual has ditched its manual CRM reporting database for an off-the-shelf CRM to centralize the data of more than 300 suppliers and customers.

Hasso Plattner of SAP and Marc Benioff of Salesforce.com squared off in a debate last week over which company has the best platform to run a company's business.

With the announcement on Tuesday that Microsoft will open its datacenters for hosting of its Dynamics CRM solution, the obvious conclusion might be that Salesforce.com will have a major competitor to contend with.

BT said Tuesday it will sell enterprise software products from NetSuite and SugarCRM to its small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers.