Increased Integration with GIS in CRM Solutions

There is a trend among CRM vendors to integrate their software offering with Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which provide, for example, a demographic map with an overlay of where the company's customers are located. The GIS can show an overlay of actual customers to potential customers on a map for market analysis. For example, if a user is a coffee buyer, he/she can use the GIS software to determine where all the cafes are located within a certain area. Alternatively, a user can place a red dot on all of his/her current customers. The cafes without red dots may signal potential sales opportunities. Alternatively, the GIS can also show prospects based on user-defined criteria, e.g., prospects with sales of over $60K within a certain area. A good example of this trend is Firstwave eCRM v.6.1, which integrates with MapInfo and MapLink for GIS functionality.

Likely impact of this trend: New capabilities to identify opportunities for territory management.