For companies considering the purchase of a CRM system, choosing one that is tailored to their industry's best practices and business processes is a no-brainer.

"Purchasing a vertical CRM application can only help you meet your business goals faster because most applications have to be tailored or customized anyway," AMR Research senior analyst Joanie Rufo told CRMDaily.com. "Every industry relates to its customers differently. In pharmaceuticals, you need to be concerned about clinical trials. If you are a CPG (consumer product goods) manufacturer, then your CRM process lives and breathes on the trade promotions management process."

Consider the Alternatives

The decision to opt for an industry-specific application is not right for every CRM buyer, though. As Gartner research director Walter Janowski noted, generic CRM apps tend to be less expensive, "although if a company is planning to customize it to meet its industry's needs, it will probably wind up spending just as much money as it would have for a vertical application," he told CRMDaily.

Much depends on the particular company's needs. "In the financial services industry, for example, fraud management is always a concern -- but it can be more problematic for some service providers than others," Janowski said.

Ultimately, even taking into account cost and specific needs, "a company should have a good reason not to consider this type of [vertical] functionality," he added.

Company Follows Concept

The risk for a company seeking to purchase an industry-specific application lies more with vendor selection than with the decision to take such a route in the first place. Companies need to spend substantial time to make this assessment, Rufo advised.

Siebel is the furthest along in developing such expertise, she noted, although other vendors are catching up. There are even robust offerings in the mid-market -- Onyx, for example, offers healthcare and financial services apps -- as well as in the small business space.

The problem is that vendors see vertical apps as the next big moneymaker, and many are rolling out products that do not necessarily offer deep industry knowledge. "Some might deliver best practices bundled with some vertical capability, but the application has not necessarily been rewritten or customized," Rufo said. (continued...)

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