Chapter 6. CRM Business Application Trends
Over the past year, there have been a number of new CRM business application trends that have made a significant impact among users. Here are eight major trends that currently are affecting the business functional evolution of CRM systems:
Increased consolidation and mergers among CRM vendors.
Increasing product and marketing focus on the small to mid-market niche.
Movement toward CRM solutions with Web-based architectures.
Increased use of analytical tools (e.g., predictive modeling) in CRM solutions.
Increased integration with Geographical Information Systems in CRM solutions.
Increased availability of customer lifetime value tools.
Increased capability for lead management (e.g., incubation, qualification, etc.).
Increased availability of supply chain management functionality (e.g., e-procurement, logistics management, etc.).
When evaluating a vendor, make sure that you compare their current business application offering against this trend list. Below is a detailed description for each of the eight trends.