News & Views

December 7, 2009 from CRM Daily – “…Worldwide CRM market revenue totaled $9.15 billion in 2008. That’s a 12.5 percent increase from 2007 revenue of $8.13 billion, according to Gartner. Enterprise investments in technologies focused on customer retention, analytics and on-demand solutions drove the growth even as new strategies emerged in 2009…

CRM continued to grow through 2009 because it adds value to the bottom line of enterprises looking to do more with less. Three keys to CRM success in a down economy are perfecting low-cost customer service, analyzing and optimizing marketing, and finding warm sales leads through social-networking platforms. This combination, experts agreed, is making CRM software an indispensable tool in the enterprise…

Dow Jones has created a comprehensive mapping of key executives based on their work histories. When coupled with contacts listed in an organization’s in-house e-mail such as Microsoft Outlook or opt-in social networks, including LinkedIn, the company said this mapping can provide a path of connections to decision makers. The relationship maps highlight connections of varying degrees of separation, from a mutual contact to a third-degree relationship…”

180 View – We included this article partly because of the metrics related to CRM’s continued growth but also because of the new trend re social networking such as the one described above with Dow Jones. We have not used this tool but it does sound interesting.