It's a turning point year for CRM, according to speakers at the Gartner CRM Summit in the US, with enterprise scale deployments making a comeback.
Departmentally focused initiatives characterised the past five or six years, but these are being replaced by new enterprise scale roll outs. "CRM is in a watershed year right now," said Scott Nelson, vice president and distinguished analyst. "In the last five or six years, CRM has focused on small, departmental initiatives. What we're seeing is a return to large-scale initiatives with a return to the enterprise view.
"Technology is no longer considered a necessary evil, it's a way to grow business," Nelson said. "Isolated incidents are not working synergistically. What we're seeing is firms saying: 'Stop the madness, let's figure out what we're trying to accomplish.'"
Spending is set to boom, but the money will be going on new attempts to achieve the same old ambitions. For example, spending on projects that enable a single view of the customer will double this year.
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