The market for customer relationship management (CRM) software is due to increase significantly this year, as businesses plough investment into front-office IT.

According to figures from Gartner, CRM revenue will increase by 14 per cent to more than $7.4 billion in 2007, up from $6.5 billion last year.

Looking further ahead, this figure is due to reach $8.3 billion next year and a staggering $11.4 billion by 2011. Businesses need to ensure that they have the necessary IT network support in place.

"In late 2008 and 2009, forward momentum will return to the market as buying decisions become clearer and customers undertake platform migrations to service-oriented architectures," said Gartner research director Sharon Mertz.

"Increasing demand for analytics, marketing automation and a focus on SaaS solutions will also drive growth during this time."

In fact, SaaS (or software as a service) is growing explosively within the sales subsegment. SaaS solutions are due to amount to 14 per cent of total CRM software revenue this year.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'.