This study draws from the results of IDC's European Vertical Market survey, carried out in November/December 2003 in the top 5 Western European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Span, and the U.K.) among 1,686 companies with more than 20 employees.

The survey looks at vertical market IT spending directions, solution priorities, investment plans, adoption of new technologies and mobility, infrastructure enhancement (servers, Web services, storage), the role of IT within the organization, and customer satisfaction.

The focus of the study is on CRM adoption and plans for adoption, channel selection, and the decision-making process by vertical market.

Results are given for total Western Europe for the following vertical markets: discrete manufacturing; process manufacturing; transport, communications and media; utilities; retail and wholesale; finance; business services; government; health and education.

"Finance and telecoms/media will continue to represent the largest revenue venues for CRM vendors. Nevertheless, new opportunities will also be found in government, transport, and manufacturing, with survey results showing more than 10% of companies in these verticals starting to invest for the first time in CRM in 2004," said Giuliana Folco, research director, European Vertical markets.