Einladung: Gartner Customer Relationship Summit 2008, 18. bis 19. März 2008, London

In addition, Hugh Wilson will host a book signing on his latest book, The Multichannel Challenge

Journalists on-site will be able to:

Attend any of the 21 Gartner presentations taking place over three days

Schedule 1-1 interviews with any of the 12 Gartner analysts on-site

Interact with more than 400 senior IT and business decision-makers on-sit

Meeet with technology providers and discuss their latest products

The latest CRM tools will be demonstrated by 20 vendors that will be exhibiting at the conference. A listing of current sponsors is available on the sponsors’ page at www.europe.gartner.com/crm

For further information on the Summit, please visit the Gartner CRM Summit Web site at www.europe.gartner.com/crm

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In October 2007, Gartner surveyed more than 250 business and IT leaders who influence the customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in their business across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

The survey revealed that the overall mood and intent for CRM investments remains buoyant in Europe with more than two thirds of respondents citing CRM in their top three priorities.

Gartner estimates the license and maintenance revenue in the European CRM software market reached $2.5 billion in 2007 and predicts the market will grow approximately 12 per cent in 2008 to generate $2.8 billion in revenue. ”The market optimism is also reflected in the 44 per cent of respondents who expect their budget for CRM projects to increase in 2008,” said Chris Pang, principal analyst at Gartner.

The survey also showed that:

Key areas of CRM business focus:

Becoming more customer-centric and improving the customer experience

Managing organisational and cultural changes

Key areas of CRM technology focus:

Becoming more sophisticated in the integration of customer data between CRM, ERP and SCM software systems

Making better use of data for the benefit of the business