The world of CRM systems remains relatively consistent in terms of market share. On the vendor front it is a world dominated (40% share) by Inter-face’s InterAction with a range of vendors (Pivotal, E1Business, Sage) taking most of the rest of the business. But it is also a market that is of increasing interest to huge vendors such as SAP, Siebel and Microsoft as well as the ‘giants’ of practice management like Aderent (formerly Solution 6) and Thomson Elite. There is plenty of competition for law firms’ business, coming from all fronts.
But regardless of market share, it is never easy being a CRM vendor. The CRM failure stories persist despite growing confidence about the benefits. Outsourced CRM supplier Salesforce.com recently released a survey based on interviews with 177 executives in European firms of all types. A huge one third felt their CRM systems had not met expectations and a significant 10% had yet to get their systems up and running 18 months after installation.
