Customer Relationship Management (CRM) – just like ERP Software – remains high on the business agenda for CIOs in 2010.

Attracting and retaining new customers will be the No. 5 business priority for CIOs in 2010, according to a Gartner (News - Alert) Group study undertaken earlier this year.

Some of Gartner’s other predictions for CRM in 2010 and beyond include:

By the end of 2010, Facebook (News - Alert) will be the No. 1 social network in all but 25 countries.

Through 2010, marketing budgets will remain flat in more than 90 percent of companies, despite a return to growth.

CFOs are demanding increased accountability from marketing departments, often exerting unprecedented pressure to link programs to sales results and return on investment (ROI).

By the end of 2010, more than 80 percent of market growth in social applications will center on a business-use case for improving external customer relationships, rather than improving internal collaboration.

Although the hype around any and all social media activities will continue through 2010, companies are struggling to find a business case, including hard metrics and specific business outcomes, using general social activities and generic social applications.

Social projects evaluated by Gartner show that those with a clear and direct mutual purpose (with benefits for both company and customer) were the ones likely to show measurable results.

Gartner said that the social application vendors that make the transition from general purpose to support for specific business, with use cases and key performance indicators, will see double- or triple-digit growth in 2010.

Ed Silverstein is a contributing editor for TMCnet's InfoTech Spotlight. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Ed Silverstein