Chapter 27. The Future Direction of CRM

How is CRM likely to evolve in the coming years? In Chapter 1, “Customer Relationship Management (CRM)—An Overview,” I suggested that the CRM market is currently in transition. Industry growth has slowed from a 40 percent annual rate but still remains strong at a 20–30 percent annual clip. New players/products/services are abundant leading to an at times overwhelming feeling about which CRM solution(s) are best for them. Butting life cycles between client/server and Web-based e-customer vendors create complexity for the user. Doom and gloom findings from leading IT analysts are misleading but are catching the ear of their busy executives.

In Chapter 6, “CRM Business Application Trends,” and Chapter 7, “CRM Technology Trends,” I described a total of 23 trends that will impact the future direction of CRM. On the business side, there are eight business application trends that range from increased consolidations and mergers to increased availability of lead incubation and supply chain management functionality. On the technical side, there are 15 technical trends that range from the growing role of XML to increased use of EAI tools, portals, and Web services software infrastructure.

Here are an additional 12 CRM trends that are likely to shape the future the industry. Each of these trends are detailed below.