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Published on: January 2005
Type of content: ANALYST REPORT
Format: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)
Price: FREE

Overview:
Any technology closely tied to the financial health of a business generates heated debate, and customer relationship management (CRM) is no exception. CRM, as a concept and a technology set, has both bolstered and burned, been praised and maligned. One of the most animated arguments over the last couple of years has centered on the "where" of CRM: whether to deploy the technologies in-house or "rent" them, outsourcing their implementation to an application service provider. It's a case, the arguments go, of cost vs. customization, time to productivity vs. control, accessibility vs. security, on-tap vs. on-premise, and so on.

Whatever options customers choose, CRM deployments are moving beyond the less-than-stellar early years to deliver some real, provable ROI. These improvements are due to a number of factors, including the success of on-tap CRM and a more incremental, modular approach to on-premise implementations. Both traditional suite vendors and hosted service providers are adding analytics functionality - through development, acquisition and third-party partnerships - that's becoming critical to getting more from operational CRM investments. Both camps are also continuing to add vertical-specific functionality to their applications, providing individual industry segments with functions and business process automation specific to them.