Over one quarter of European companies will invest in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution during 2002 according to a six-country survey into IT spend and trends by analysis company, Datamonitor and PeopleSoft, the world's leading provider of business enterprise software.
Almost one-third of the 200 respondents questioned stated CRM as being the most prominent area for investment in 2002. Application integration was seen by 22 per cent of those asked as a key investment area.
Enterprise Service Automation, Enterprise Resource Management, Supplier Relationship Management were seen as less important.
Geographically, the breakdown for companies looking to implement CRM solutions was UK (29 per cent), Spain (33 per cent), Scandinavia (40 per cent), Italy (38 per cent), France (29 per cent) and Germany (16 per cent).
The survey revealed that the telecommunications and consumer goods sectors were biggest growth areas for CRM applications, followed by healthcare and automotive.
Martin Atherton, Datamonitor analyst, said "The survey revealed the ability to increase customer loyalty and the potential for real ROI are seen as the main drivers behind investing in CRM, while the concern for integrating existing technologies more deeply into internal operations is the main driver behind the investment in application integration."
Commenting on the results, Charles Grover, International CRM business development director at PeopleSoft, said: "This survey shows unequivocally that CRM is a real business driver for European businesses. Being able to see immediate ROI in a tight and difficult economy is vital."
"Companies understand the need for cutting edge technology and are constantly reviewing their IT systems. PeopleSoft is 12 to 18 months ahead of its competitors. with its pure Internet applications that connect a company's customers, suppliers, and employees and partners directly into their business processes, dramatically improving performance while lowering cost. Our integration capabilities mean that customers can have the best-of-breed applications so they operate in real-time to achieve unparalleled performance" he added.