This type of CRM facilitates smooth business operations, by focusing on the automation of three main areas: sales, marketing and after-sales service. It automates the customer record creation process and daily tasks such as scheduling meetings, transitioning leads and generating sales reports. These CRMs also include marketing automation tools for complex email marketing campaigns. Customer service is also automated by the provision of self-service options via phone or laptop. This type of CRM is particularly useful for businesses involving heavy customer interaction.

This type of CRM collates, stores and analyzes customer data, which includes basic information, marketing data, sales data and customer service records. Using this information, users can get a better idea of customer demand trends and purchase behaviour. Further, companies can track leads and identify which marketing campaigns generate the highest ROI. Sales data helps users identify which products/services are best sellers, seasonal trends, highest revenue generating sales representatives and most profitable locations. Moreover, service data helps businesses assess three main areas: customer service, customer satisfaction and employee performance. This type of CRM is ideal for companies which have sales processes driven by account management and end-users who value metrics and are encouraged by data transparency.

This type of CRM can also be known as Strategic CRM as it allows businesses to collect, organize and share valuable customer data among multiple teams across the company, which enables them to work coherently to increase customer lifetime value and thereby profitability. 
The two main aspects of Collaborative CRM are: 1) Interaction management, and 2) Channel management. The former allows businesses to analyze all customer interactions to proactively identify issues and resolve them efficiently. The latter enables businesses to identify and record the communication preferences of customers. This type of CRM is ideal for a business which has multiple departments and stakeholders, offices/branches in various locations and a heavy focus on customer data being transparent and easily accessible by everyone.

Old CRMs were complicated, expensive, and limited. Simpler, cheaper CRMs targeting SMEs have arrived.

SME CRM

Overview

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  <h3>
    Flexible and more affordable CRM apps look to capture the vast SME market
  </h3>
  <p>
    Customer relationship management (CRM) platforms for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) form a sub-segment of the larger CRM market and cater to smaller companies (less than 500 employees). These SME-focused CRM platforms (offered mostly by relatively small vendors) are differentiated by their more affordable pricing and many free features, focus on essentials, basic customization, and simplicity. Some SME CRM vendors also provide social media integration, automation, and extensive customer support.
  </p>
  <p>
    Considerable market opportunity remains for SME CRM providers because SMEs account for more than 99.9% of all businesses, 45% of economic activity, 47% of the labor force in the US, and have a comparatively lower market penetration. SME CRM penetration for SMEs stands at around 44% versus around 91% for regular CRMs for all enterprises with more than 10 employees. 
  </p>
  <p>
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SME CRM market in the US could reach USD 7.2- 9.3 billion by 2026

Market Sizing

<div>
  <p>
  </p>
  <ul>
    <li>
      <p>
        CRM user penetration among employer SME firms in the US has jumped to 50% by September 2020 (from 35% a year ago).
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        This faster adoption comes from the increased rates of remote work, with more companies relying on online marketing and sales. These factors demand a ramp up of digitalization to manage client relationships, which businesses can achieve through the adoption of Small and Medium Enterprise Customer Relationship Management (SME CRM) platform adoption.
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    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        Further, 40% of SMEs are focusing on investing on marketing while 20% of SMEs are looking at increasing employee strength to improve customer interaction and service. This provides a positive outlook for the SME CRM market in the short to medium term.
      </p>
    </li>
    <li>
      <p>
        However, with the second wave of the pandemic in full force, nearly 14% of SMEs are planning staff reductions, while 74% are seeking further government assistance, which could partially offset the positive impact coming from the rising SME adoption rates.
      </p>
    </li>
  </ul>
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COVID19-IMPACT

Market Mapping

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  <p>
    Majority of the incumbents focus on the collaborative segment and have entered the SME CRM space through in-house development. While most of the disruptors are pure plays, there are a few that operate in multiple segments, such as Pipedrive and Insightly. Overall, the majority of the players are involved in the operational and collaborative segments, as these are areas in which SMEs would require the most help.
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The Disruptors

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  <p>
    Among small and medium enterprise customer relationship management (SME CRM) vendors, Bitrix24 leads in terms of active users (~10 million users), mainly due to their strategy of offering a core CRM service for free. The other disruptor companies also differentiate themselves in terms of product strategy or target market. Some are either focused on local level interaction only (e.g. Podium), targeting non-employer SMEs engaged in professional services (e.g. Keap) or including additional features such as lead generation tools and modern designs (e.g. Pipedrive).
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Disruptor Funding History

The Incumbents

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  <p>
    The incumbents consist of leading enterprise customer relationship management (CRM) players Salesforce Essentials, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle, and Zoho. The incumbent list also includes Hubspot, one of the leading and oldest SME CRM system providers, which had a user base of nearly 121,000 as of November 2021. 
  </p>
  <p>
    Although user data from the incumbent operators is not readily available, it appears that Microsoft Dynamics and SalesForce Essentials have a considerable user base within the small and medium enterprise (SME) CRM market. This is evident from these two products being ranked No. 1 in the 2018 and 2019 SME CRM awards, respectively. 
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  <p>
    One of the leading enterprise players, SAP, entered the SME space in 2018 by launching the SAP Sales Cloud platform, which was formed by combining three acquisitions made by SAP since 2013—Hybris in 2013, Gigya in 2017, and CallidusCloud in 2018. However, in September 2020, two years after launch, SAP announced it would be exiting the CRM space, conceding it’s 5.3% market share to existing leader Salesforce. 
  </p>
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