This IDC study segments the Western European CRM applications market by vertical industry at the Western European level and for five major countries, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the U.K.

The study reveals that Siebel and SAP each lead five vertical industries. "SAP has successfully sold its CRM solution in the industries, where it has a strong ERP installed base, such as manufacturing, transport, and utilities. Siebel maintains strong leadership in those industries for which it has developed very industry-specific offerings such as in finance and communications. Future leadership will be determined by factors such as ability to transition to a service-oriented architecture, by their ability increase usability and ease of deployment of their CRM solution, and their ability to construct a powerful ecosystem of services and software partners," said Bo Lykkegaard, program manager, European Enterprise Applications.