Gartner: CRM Market Totaled $20.4B in 2013

A new Gartner, Inc. (IT) report reveals an increased demand for customer relationship management (CRM) software.

According to the study, “Market Share Analysis: Customer Relationship Management Software, Worldwide, 2013,” the CRM software market totaled $20.4 billion in 2013, up 13.7 percent from $18 billion in 2012.

“High levels of end-user investment in digital marketing and customer experience initiatives were the primary growth drivers of the market in 2013,” Gartner Research Vice President Joanne Correia said in a statement

With software-as-a-service (Saas) solutions taking more than 41 percent of CRM total software revenue share, cloud-based CRM companies such as Salesforce.com (CRM) continue to reap the benefits, the report suggested.

For example, Salesforce grew more than 30 percent from 2012-2013 and snagged more than 16 percent of the market in 2013, making it the largest vendor in the market.

The IT research firm believes this strong demand for SaaS-based CRM is driven by organizations seeking replace legacy systems with new alternatives.

The report revealed that the communications, media and IT services vertical industries are the largest spenders on CRM software, mainly because they focus on large groups using call center technologies.

Other noted leaders in the CRM market include SAP, Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT)  and IBM.

Follow CJ Arlotta on Twitter @cjarlotta and Google+ for further updates on the story above.