The worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) market grew last year, new research has shown.

In figures which may interest those looking at IT outsourcing, industry analyst Gartner revealed that the global CRM market achieved revenues of $9.15 billion (?5.59 billion) in 2008.

According to the group, this represents a 12.5 per cent increase on the $8.13 billion revenue which was reported in the previous year.

Sharon Mertz, research director at Gartner, commented: “Despite financial market volatility, the worldwide CRM market enjoyed its fifth consecutive year of double-digit growth as businesses continued to invest in solutions across all sub-segments.”

The organisation also revealed that software-as-a-service accounted for almost 20 per cent of the CRM software revenue, making it the market’s main driver, while interest in social networking and social software also rose over last year.

In addition, the analyst revealed that the Western economies are the main market for CRM software, although emerging nations are increasing their use of the applications.

Earlier this month, Stuart Lauchlan, technology editor at MyCustomer.com, recommended that firms looking to implement CRM speak to other users of the technology first.