IDC's CRM Applications service keeps product, marketing, and strategic planning professionals informed of leading and emerging vendors, trends, and new market opportunities in the marketing, sales, service, and contact center applications markets. An organization's CRM implementation is the technological manifestation of its go-to-market strategy and must be dynamic and flexible to embody the changes that organizations make daily in how they sell, market, and service their customers. Suppliers must be in tune with the changing requirements and demands that end users place on them from both a technological and strategic perspective. In addition to competitive intelligence, this service provides in-depth analysis of trends within the user community through its quarterly end-user survey, AppStats. The blend of supply- and demand-side perspectives will help technology vendors and suppliers make informed decisions to best address customer needs and market opportunities. Subscribers to this service receive direct access to IDC's top industry experts, who can supply competitive analysis and positioning advice, identify strategic partnering opportunities, assist with speaking to the investment community, provide press quotes, and more.

This service covers the following segments of the CRM applications market:

• CRM analytics applications
• Marketing and sales automation applications
• Customer service applications
• Contact center applications

Throughout the year, this CRM applications service will address the following topics:

• CRM application priority investments
• On-demand, hosted and on-premise models
• Closed-loop customer interaction management: integration with back-office data sources
• Mobile, open source, and midmarket trends
• Partnerships, acquisitions, and mergers
• Profiles of leading vendors and technology offerings
• Optimizing sales, marketing, and service activities to improve customer relationships and profits
• Customer data management

1. What is the market size and five-year forecast for CRM applications, and who are the major players?
2. What delivery models for CRM applications are end-user organizations adopting?
3. What role do CRM application suppliers play in helping customers create CRM strategies?
4. What is an effective strategy to reach mid-market organizations?
5. What are the best methodologies for implementing analytics within a CRM framework?
6. What technologies and usage models will drive mobile CRM adoption?

IDC's CRM Applications service examines how software providers are positioning themselves to compete in the CRM applications market. This service reviews strategies, market positioning, and future direction of several providers in the CRM applications market, including:

Altitude, Aprimo, Aspect, ATG, Avaya, BroadVision, CDC, Cegedim Dendrite, Chordiant, Cisco, Cognos, Consona, CoreMetrics, eGain, Eloqua, Epicor, FrontRange Solutions, Genesys, Google, i2, Interactive Intelligence, Intervoice, Infor, Kana, Made2Manage, Marketo, Microsoft, Motive, NCR, NEC, NetSuite, NICE Systems, Nortel Networks, Omniture, Onyx, Oracle, PROS Revenue Management, Reynolds & Reynolds, RightNow, Sage, salesforce.com, SAP, SAS, Siemens, SugarCRM, Unica, WebTrends, and Zoho.

This service focuses on the following core research. In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct additional research on specific topics, or emerging market segments, via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.

These documents analyze the customer relationship applications market or its submarkets, including marketing automation, sales automation, CRM analytics, and customer service and contact centers. Each document features market trends and forecast data within a five-year forecast period. A forecast and analysis for each market in this service is published annually.

These documents research emerging or quickly evolving market segments. Examples include but are not limited to on-demand and hosted CRM offerings, field service, marketing resource management, lead management, and mobile CRM applications.

This study presents user perspectives on CRM application evaluation, implementation, and buying intentions based on the quarterly AppStats end-user survey research.

These documents examine the rapidly growing market of CRM analytics and Web analytics, focusing on the evolution of the technology and the methodologies for incorporating CRM analytics within transactional systems. Web site analytics is covered as a separate document.

IDC offers a complete market intelligence solution customized to meet your business requirements. The array of products and services available to you includes:

• The opportunity to have your specific questions answered through personal interaction with industry experts who cover the topics and markets in your service
• Around-the-clock access to our market intelligence on idc.com, IDC's personalized Web experience
• A view of the market's future with 12 months of continuous intelligence about its direction and the reasons behind it, along with actionable advice for taking advantage of existing and emerging opportunities
• Special client discount pricing on purchases of research from other services
• Complimentary admission to IDC's annual Directions conference, where you'll hear our latest forecasts and network with IDC analysts and other industry professionals
• Complimentary invitations to monthly executive telebriefings, interactive forums designed to provide you with insights about research and strategies directly from IDC analysts

To find out how our flexible packaging options can meet your specific business needs, please contact your IDC sales executive.

As a privately held company, IDC believes that our customers are our primary constituency. A large percentage of every revenue dollar is reinvested back into our products, including more analysts, more geographic coverage, and extensive primary research.

Our steady growth over the past 10-plus years reflects our commitment to investing in our customers.