Worldwide customer relationship management (CRM) software totaled $20.4 billion in 2013, up 13.7 percent from $18 billion in 2012, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

"High levels of end-user investment in digital marketing and customer experience initiatives were the primary growth drivers of the market in 2013," said Joanne Correia, research vice president at the research group. "CRM will be at the heart of digital initiatives in coming years. This is one technology area that will get funding because digital business is critical for companies to remain competitive." 

Strong demand for software as a service (SaaS), which represented more than 4% of CRM total software revenue in 2013, was driven from organizations of all sizes seeking easier-to-deploy alternatives to replace legacy systems, implement net-new applications or provide alternative complementary functionality. 

Competition intensified as major players continued to vie for broader market penetration internationally, and more widespread functionality adoption within midsize to large enterprises. The top five CRM vendors accounted for 50% of CRM software revenue in 2013.

Salesforce.com continued to be the largest vendor overall in the CRM market with 16.1% of the market. SAP remained in the No. 2 position in the overall CRM space, but is still the leader in terms of revenue and market share for the subsegments of customer service and e-commerce.