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06.22.06
‘Tis The Season – Of CRM Mergers
 By Doug Caverly
The research firm Gartner thinks the rash of mergers and acquisitions in the customer relationship management sector has only just begun, according to its latest findings. The company believes "the CRM market will continue its consolidation unabated."
As reported by Colin Barker of Silicon.com, Gartner listed 12 important acquisitions that have occurred in the past two years. Among these were the purchases of Siebel and PeopleSoft by Oracle. Gartner explained these transactions, saying, "Oracle determined itself unable to cost-effectively develop a CRM solution likely to generate maintenance revenues as high as PeopleSoft and Siebel."
Gartner's predictions for Oracle corresponded with its forecast for the rest of the industry. "Oracle has not finished purchasing CRM vendors," it stated. "[Oracle] will look at adding analytics, industry-specific solutions, workforce automation and a software as a service (on-demand) vendor."
The research firm also spoke of "a pattern of technology purchases when gaps have been identified" common to both Microsoft and SAP. SAP is, according to numbers also originating from Gartner, the CRM market leader.
Another competitor, Salesforce.com, could also resort to mergers and acquisitions, because it "has the resources and desire to gain scale and close the gap with two market leaders."
Gartner suggested that many CRM founders and corporate board members "are selling out in capitulation," or are "growing frustrated by the slow (or negative) pace of growth." The CRM seas have indeed grown treacherous lately. Gartner noted that even Oracle, which is third in the market, "determined itself unable to cost-effectively develop a CRM solution likely to generate maintenance revenues as high as PeopleSoft and Siebel."
About the Author:
Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.
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