CRM has not always been independent and robust software that many companies rely on today. Over the past four decades, it has developed from a variety of other business programs. During that time, CRM industry has undergone sea changes-and shakeups that could have derailed the whole concept.
The 1980s: Digital rolodexes and database marketing
Pioneered by Robert and Kate Kestnbaum, marketing database compiled and analyzed customer information. Using statistical models, the data was used to help personalize communications with other potential clients.
In 1986, ACT! introduced the world of business contact management software. Essentially a digital card holder, ACT! allowed for the efficient storage and organization of customer contact information. Goldmine and other manufacturers also launched CMS programs throughout the 80s.
Near the end of the decade, the proliferation of personal computers and the advent of client / server architecture paved the way for explosive growth in software development.
The 1990s: Birth of an acronym and growth of an industry
The beginning of the 90s brought the first major step towards true CRM software. Innovative early as Brock Control Systems helped drive the evolution of contact management software to the sales force automation (SFA). SFA took many of the characteristics of marketing databases, including automated and combined with contact management. This provides companies with more useful information customers. It also automates business tasks such as inventory control and sales tasks such as tracking customer interaction.
In 1993, Tom Siebel left Oracle to create Siebel Systems. While at Oracle, Siebel tried unsuccessfully to convince Larry Ellison, CEO of package and sell their implementation of internal sales as a standalone product. Siebel Systems quickly became the leading provider of OSS in the market.
By 1995, SFA and contact management had evolved to look a lot like a modern CRM software. However, this emerging product had not yet a proper name. A number of terms such as managing enterprise customers (ECM) and customer information system (CIS) were in use. In late 1995, CRM won. Some attribute this to the technology research firm Gartner, while Tom Siebel is also named as a possible source. However, CRM industry finally had a name.
The last half of the decade brought great changes in the CRM industry. Enterprise resource management (ERP) and Oracle and Baan entered the CRM market, hoping to use his size and ERP on the roads to dominate the industry. Unlike other software companies were the transition to CRM, SAP entered the market with the sole purpose of the capitalization of emerging applications. All this competition pushed CRM vendors to provide a broader set of services. More marketing, sales and service applications were added to CRM almost constantly.
1999 was a busy year for the CRM industry. A number of notable, high-value acquisitions strengthened the overall market, while emerging e-CRM vendors provide fierce competition. The use of intranet, extranet and Internet, e-CRM providers offer a level of collaboration within the organization that had not been available earlier in the CRM industry. CRM also made its first foray into the mobile market with the introduction of Siebel Handheld.
The 90 came to an end with the debut of the first major as a service (SaaS) vendor Software. Aimed at smaller companies, Salesforce was initially ignored by the larger vendors. Under the direction of Mark Benioff, Salesforce eventually grew to rival industry giants such as Siebel CRM Systems.
The 2000s: From Near Death to floating on clouds
Like most industries software, CRM industry was greatly affected by the bubble burst of the dot-com. All retracted industry, with giants like Oracle license reporting losses of more than twenty five percent. Because of the reluctance to use technology "dot-com" e-CRM vendors were most affected.
In the early years of the decade of the 00 book "CRM at the Speed of Light" by Paul Greenberg suggested a more complete CRM system that handles all business relationships. At the end of the decade, this became the common thought in the CRM industry.
Over half of the decade, interoperability with legacy software became more important. The software giant Microsoft entered the CRM market with Dynamics CRM and Oracle acquired Siebel and many other providers of enterprise applications.
In 2007, Salesforce created the next big change in the CRM industry. Introduced the world Force.com cloud-based CRM. Force.com addressed the criticism that cloud-based applications were not customizable.
Social CRM burst onto the market with the introduction of ComcastCares-an application that focused more on the interaction of transaction. Most large corporations quickly followed suit Comcast, consolidating the place of social CRM.
Until the end of the first decade, and even today, SaaS CRM solutions based on cloud and continue to integrate more functions such as customer service and social CRM. Based on the cloud and SaaS CRM solutions continue to gain popularity, largely because of lower initial cost and easy integration with mobile devices.
No comments:
Post a Comment