[December 08, 2003] Small and Mid-Sized Businesses Are Vital to CRM Industry The small and midsize business (SMB) segment has emerged as one of the most hotly contested markets in today's customer relationship management industry, according to a new report by Aberdeen Group, an IT market analysis and consulting firm, and CRN, a subsidiary of CMP Publications. The report, "Mainstream CRM: Through the Lens of a Partner Channel," reveals that since the large application and service providers such as Siebel Systems, IBM Global Services, SAP, Accenture, PeopleSoft, and others, have saturated the enterprise markets, the channel, small and independent value-added resellers (VARs), partners, or distributors have shifted attention to the SMB markets in the hopes of recapturing the double-digit growth of the late 1990s. The SMB market is defined by Aberdeen as companies with between $50 million and $250 million in annual revenue, as well as divisions of larger organizations with revenue in this same range. "Our research reveals that the large, dedicated sales and support organizations that work effectively with large enterprise customers do not translate to the SMB space," says Chris Fletcher, vice president and managing director at Aberdeen Group and co-author of the report. "As this market continues to recognize considerable cost-savings opportunities through the use of CRM solutions, the partners that sell, install, and provide services for a broad variety of applications and technologies." "The results from this research highlight the strategic importance that the partner channel place on the value and importance of CRM solutions today," says Karen Smith, research director of Aberdeen Group and co-author of the report. "The results also serve as a strong indicator of what the partners believe are leading issues in growing the key market, and of what the CRM vendors themselves face in attempting to recruit these partners into their camp." [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]