UK leads Europe's CRM boom

The UK and the Netherlands are leading a CRM charge, representing 40 per cent of the rapidly growing European market.

But according to a new study by the Hewson Group, Europe only accounts for a relatively small proportion of the world CRM market, standing at $1.67bn. The global market is worth $7.6bn in sales to vendors, but closer to $25bn if you include associated services and technology. Growth rates are looking healthy for vendors. Europe's CRM spend rose 87 per cent in the year 2000, while the global CRM market grew exactly 100 per cent. Nick Hewson, head of market analysis and vendor services at the Hewson Group, said: "I think UK technical culture is more open than other parts of the European Community. There is a much more developed service culture than in Germany or Italy." However, Hewson expects Germany to be the largest European market in due course. European vendors are still underrepresented in the market, which is dominated by Siebel, representing 23.5 per cent, and other US companies such as Broadvision, Vignette and Oracle. However, the survey predicts that European CRM players may still be able to thrive, particularly in specialist sectors. SAP is the largest of the European vendors, sixth largest in Hewson's list with four per cent of the global market. But it has seen the largest growth, with 750 per cent growth in sales between 1999 and 2000.