ISMM survey shows organisations value CRM but prefer home-grown systems

A survey of customer relationship management (CRM) systems - organised by the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (ISMM), the UK's association for sales professionals - reveals that some 77 per cent of organisations in the UK now use a CRM system. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) August 23, 2011 - Moreover, 60 per cent of organisations are satisfied or very satisfied with their CRM system.

Of those not currently using CRM, 45 per cent said that they plan to use a CRM system in the future; while 34 per cent were interested in CRM systems but said they needed more information about their value.

However, some 50 per cent of those polled by the ISMM along with information specialists Infogroup (which markets OneSource) said that it was difficult to implement their CRM system.

A 'home-grown' CRM system (used by 30 per cent of respondents) proved more popular than any of the commercially available CRM systems. Of these, however, the most popular were:
• ACT!
• Salesforce.com
• Microsoft Dynamics
• SAP
• Goldmine
• SageCRM
• Siebel
• Pivotal
• SugarCRM

While 94 per cent of respondents said that they use CRM for contact management, the other key applications for CRM are:
• Contact management
• Opportunity management
• Sales analytics/ forecasting
• Telesales/ inside sales
• Customers service
• Lead generation
• Mobile working
• Territory management

Although many users said that they use CRM for such activities as organising webinars and email campaigns, very few are using 'social CRM' - for example, in terms of integration with LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Writing in the ISMM's magazine, Winning Edge, Marc Beishon - a specialist writer on sales and marketing issues - commented: 'Since CRM burst onto the software scene in the 1990s, there has been a good deal of fallout and consolidation in the market, and some user organisations are now on their third or fourth implementation, having switched suppliers and abandoned projects.

'But the market is now seen as a mature sector where the vast majority of larger companies are using a CRM system for at least some aspect of their operations in the spectrum of functions from frontline sales to marketing to customer service.'

In Beishon's view, the advent of cloud computing enables processes that were, previously, not feasible but, instead of consolidation leading to a few strong CRM vendors, there is now a greater choice of CRM offerings than ever.

Further details of the ISMM/ Infogroup's CRM survey can be found in Winning Edge (July/August 2011 edition) or from the ISMM.

About The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management
The Institute of Sales & Marketing Management (ISMM) is the UK's association for sales professionals. Founded in 1911 to promote standards of excellence in sales and sales management and to enhance the status and profile of sales as a profession, the ISMM supports, represents and promotes the sales profession. It has been the authoritative voice of selling and the custodian of sales standards, ethics and best practice for many years.

The ISMM is also responsible for establishing benchmarks of professionalism in sales. It is the only membership body recognised by the UK Government regulatory body Ofqual as an awarding organisation to offer qualifications in sales, marketing and sales management.

The ISMM's annual British Excellence in Sales & Marketing Awards (BESMA) are the most prestigious awards for the sales profession.

Further information from:
Ben Turner, ISMM, +44 (0)1582 840001; bturner ( @ ) ismm dot co dot uk

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405; bob.little ( @ ) boblittlepr dot com

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