CRM is set to jump on the mobile app bandwagon in a big way

Customers can be tricky business at the best of times. Add in the power of blogs and social networks, and customer complaints can turn into a complete nightmare. That’s where customer relationship management (CRM) comes in. Until now though, its application in the desktop space has largely been confined to the desktop.

That’s all changing and is doing so rapidly.

According to tech research company Gartner, you’ll be able to choose from over 1 200 mobile CRM apps by 2014, up from over 200 in 2012. More than 50 per cent of total CRM software revenue for certain types of applications will be delivered as software as a service (SaaS) during 2016, and Gartner predicts salesforce.com will remain the largest CRM vendor by revenue in 2013.

By 2014, the number of mobile CRM Apps will have grown by 500%

To develop a successful mobile CRM apps people need to consider four areas, which are:

• Demand: what customers want and what the business needs
• Supply: what staff and skills are needed to manage external partners
• Control: who owns and manages the strategy
• Risks: what could derail the strategy and the other factors that will affect it.

“Many organisations want to extend their customer service to the mobile platform market. However, the reality is that not all good applications make a good mobile application,” says Johan Jacobs, research director at Gartner.

People building CRM apps will be forced to decide which types of mobile CRM to support, as well as assessing their functionality as suitable to be broken up into bite-size chunks and adopted as apps. The shift to apps will create a competitive advantage for some CRM vendors, but, they will need to decide whether to provide apps free of charge, in paid versions or both.

In the short-term, if there is a rapid rise in demand for CRM apps, there will be a shortage of development skills. “IT leaders should weigh the benefits of accessibility with usability — the choice will depend on corporate policies for smartphones and tablets. Besides, they should focus first on getting the performance right, as it’s critical for users and ensure that the page design and the content does not get crowded with rich media that takes a long time to load,” says Jacobs.

During 2016, more than 50% of total CRM software revenue will be delivered as SaaS

In 2012, almost 39% of the CRM software market revenue was delivered by SaaS. Gartner reckons that will increase to 42% by the end of 2013. During 2016, that number will pass the 50% mark.

The worldwide CRM software market forecast, which includes both SaaS and on-premises, is on pace to grow 9.7% in 2013, while SaaS-delivered CRM will increase almost 18% during the same period.

Depending on the type of CRM application, there is a huge variance in the proportion that is delivered via SaaS. It varies from less than five percent for some types of CRM application to over 98% for others.

Who’s winning at CRM

From a vendor perspective, Salesforce surpassed SAP to become the number one CRM vendor by revenue in 2012. Salesforce reached US$2.5-billion CRM revenue in 2012, a 26% increase from 2011, while SAP grew 0.1% year-on-year and totaled US$2.3-billion in CRM revenue.