Trends 2010: Customer Relationship Management

As the economy recovers, what are the key trends that will drive customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and technology adoption in 2010? Business and IT professionals who support customer-facing business processes must take into account 11 key trends: 1) companies return to investing in their most important asset — customers; 2) CRM evolves to become the extended CRM application ecosystem; 3) SaaS CRM solutions become the default choice; 4) social CRM hype reaches a crescendo, but projects remain in pilot mode; 5) customer service embraces real-time methods; 6) next-generation customer intelligence solutions emerge; 7) the struggle to integrate customer data continues; 8) mobile CRM becomes a must-have capability; 9) price/value trumps functionality in purchase decisions; 10) scrutiny of business cases remains intense; 11) best practices continue to separate the winners from losers. Use Forrester CRM data and tool kits to capitalize on the on the emerging economic upturn.