IDC: Asia-Pacific CRM Sales Poised for Growth

Australia, Korea, Singapore -- oh my! Quick, where's the fastest growing region for CRM sales? Asia-Pacific, of course. IDC predicts that the market for CRM products in the Asia-Pacific will grow at a whopping 24 percent compound annual growth rate from 2000 to 2005. IDC surveyed 2,500 IT managers across the Asia-Pacific. The key finding: 38 percent of the respondents selected CRM as a critical application in their organizations, followed by ERM (25 percent) and SCM (15 percent). But only 30 percent of the respondents have implemented some form of CRM, which means there's room for hyper growth. The CRM market should benefit from vendors providing stronger vertical solutions, claims IDC, as well as broader delivery channels such as wireless and the Web. "We are also seeing more integrated CRM solutions," said Alan Tong, senior analyst of Asia-Pacific enterprise applications at IDC, in a statement. "CRM solutions now include more varied tools such as procurement and business performance." The hot spots for CRM in the Asia-Pacific are, in order of sales: Australia ($79 million), Korea ($30 million) and Singapore ($25 million). Surprisingly, Asia-Pacific companies are buying marketing management and customer support management applications more so than sales force automation.