EDS enters growing CRM market

Services giant EDS is targeting the growing $35bn customer relationship management (CRM) market with a set of strategic alliances.

The company's so-called digital CRM offerings include consulting services and products in the areas of business intelligence and knowledge management. The aim is to help companies plan, design, manage and operate customer-oriented systems.

To deliver the services, EDS has partnered with technology vendors Avaya, McHugh, NCR, Retek, Servicesoft, ServiceWare Technologies and Siebel Systems. EDS will also help businesses to develop enterprise CRM strategies through its A T Kearney consultancy subsidiary.

Mark Coggin, an analyst at Meta Group, said: "Research shows that CRM is an ongoing journey for most customers, not simply a destination." He explained that core components, such as contact management and sales force automation, are implemented first, with other components added over time.

CRM represents a massive opportunity for vendors. Oracle, for example, is creating CRM applications tied to its own database, while IBM is giving away WebSphere in certain partner bundles. Computer Associates is expected to roll out a CRM initiative later this month.

Industry analyst IDC has predicted that the worldwide CRM services market will grow from $34.4bn in 1999 to $125.2bn in 2004.