Customer relationship management (CRM) software revenue in Asia Pacific is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.8% from 2006 to 2011, according to Gartner. With Australia leading adoption in Asia Pacific with 42.8% of the region's CRM market in 2006, growth will continue to be buoyant in this market, with a forecast CAGR of 15.5% to 2011.

The strong performance of the CRM software market across Asia Pacific is being fuelled by growth across all subsegments and in particular marketing which accounted for 23.5% share of CRM software revenue. Unlike the U.S., where the explosive growth of software as a service (SaaS) solutions has driven demand, the Asia Pacific region is still driven by more traditional deployment of CRM applications.

Denise Ganly, Symposium research director for Enterprise Applications commented, "The CRM market in Asia Pacific is comparatively immature compared to North America and EMEA. The SaaS and on demand segment has not taken off in the same way, and in some North Asian countries this is not likely to change, as there are clear cultural barriers to uptake."

"Even in Australia the CRM market is relatively immature, with a lot of potential for organic growth. Companies across the Asia Pacific region are focusing on analysing customer data and trying to gain whole of customer view rather than embarking on deploying sales force automation (SFA) modules to their sales force. As such, many current implementations are focused on marketing and campaign management."

Denise Ganly will speak about the future of enterprise applications including CRM at Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo, to take place 20-23 November 2007 at the Sydney Convention Centre.