With cloud emerging as the dominant deployment model and vendors promoting vertical expertise, CRM is supplanting ERP as an enterprise’s most valuable application.
ERP vendors with industry-specific solutions continue to push out unique CRM capabilities, but the market is also well represented by niche CRM vendors addressing vertical markets, particularly in financial services and life sciences. The emphasis on CRM is so pronounced that CRM may be replacing ERP as an organization’s most valuable application.
One interesting development in CRM is the value that can be generated when combining verticals. This hybrid approach can unlock unique and unseen opportunities that might be missed in a horizontal approach, or in one that drives deeply into a single industry.
“An exciting opportunity we are looking to move into involves an overlap between our financial services and healthcare offerings,” said Paul DeVriendt, senior VP of products at NexJ Systems, a Toronto-headquartered provider of cloud-based CRM solutions. “We are looking to enable wealth client firms to leverage NexJ Connected Wellness to differentiate on service and deepen relationships.”
Connected Wellness is NexJ’s software for managing chronic conditions. In effect, the company is looking to tie-in its healthcare solution with its high-value financial services clients. Experts expect to see more cross-industry CRM linkages like these as market capabilities expand, and as the cloud emerges as the dominant platform.
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