Customer relationship software spend in New Zealand reached $79 million in 2013, according to Gartner.
That figure is a 1.5% increase on 2012's $69.2 million – but well below the 13.7% increase seen globally, where worldwide CRM software totaled $20.4 billion.
Joanne Correia, Gartner research vice president, says high levels of end-user investment in digital marketing and customer experiences were the primary growth drivers for the market in 2013.
“CRM will be at the heart of digital initiatives in coming years.
“This is one technology area that will get funding because digital business is critical for companies to remain competitive.”
Software-as-a-service accounted for more than 41% of CRM total software revenue for the year, as organisations of all sizes sought easier-to-deploy alternatives to replace legacy systems, implement net-new applications or provide alternative complementary functionality.
Gartner says the top five CRM vendors accounted for 50% of global CRM software revenue, with Salesforce.com continuing to be the largest vendor overall in the market with a 16.1% share.
SAP remained in second position, with 12.8% share of the overall CRM market, but is still the leader in terms of revnue and market share for the sub-segments of customer service and eCommerce.
Oracle, with 10.2% of the market, Microsoft (6.8%) and IBM (3.9%) rounded out the top five.
The research company says competition between vendors intensified throughout 2013, as major players continued to vie for broader market penetration internationally, and more widespread functionality adoption within midsize to large enterprises.
The communications, media and IT services verticals are the largest spenders on CRM because they focus on large groups using call centre technologies, Gartner says. “They also invest more to improve analytics-related areas and improve/provide more consistent customer experiences.
“Maufacturing, including consumer packaged goods, is in second place, with these companies using CRM for product and channel management.
“Third-ranked is banking and securities, in which customer service and upselling to other financial products are core to growth.”
And for those wondering about the state of play across the Tasman, our Aussie neighbours clocked up CRM spend of AU$740.2 million, up 12%.
