CRM Technology Value Matrix 2021

The competition among CRM vendors remains fierce to snap up the remaining green field territory while still boxing out competitors and continuing to reduce customer churn. Recently the space has experienced an overhaul expanding from primarily sales-focused to be customer-centric and focused on the full customer life cycle, from first impressions with a brand to post-sale service and follow-up. As a result, the most successful vendors are offering an integrated platform that is customer-centric rather than role-centric. Additionally, investment this year focused on automation, integration with other applications and tools to reduce overall IT complexity, continued progress with integrated analytics and AI-based functionality, and enabling remote collaboration, training, and data access to accommodate the workforce-wide shift to adopt remote work en masse.