Banks top CRM software spending

Manufacturing and financial services companies will be the big spenders on enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) in the short term.

European banks, along with transport, communications and utility companies have the highest CRM penetration but will continue to offer the best opportunities for CRM vendors, driven by a high rate of new implementations and upgrades, according to research by analyst house IDC.

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By contrast, manufacturing remains the industry with the richest pickings for ERP vendors in Europe - despite its already large installed base. Manufacturing has the highest share of companies building or implementing a new system, with just over half of manufacturers planning to invest in the next 12 months, the analysts said.

And the analysts found that while the trend towards software as a service is on the rise, in the short term there are limited plans to use it to replace existing ERP, CRM or industry-specific software.

Resellers and direct sales are still the primary sources for packaged software purchases across most verticals. But many companies are now purchasing their software from firms that only accept orders online or by phone.