Nearly half of companies in DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) plan to increase their expenditure on CRM and ERP software, according to a recent survey conducted by Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC).

Companies are planning to mainly invest in ERP, CRM and business intelligence (BI) solutions in the period until 2011 (see figure below).

According to the survey, applications for financial accounting, enterprise resource planning (ERP), human capital management (HCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) are among the most frequently used business solutions.

While smaller firms concentrate on introducing one application at a time, larger enterprises mostly intend to invest in several applications.

Companies with 500 to 1,000 employees are particularly interested in CRM solutions. More than half of them are planning to invest in this area by 2011 – either by purchasing a new CRM software, or by expanding an existing application.

Another finding from the survey is that CRM applications are very common among banks and insurers.

The survey interviewed around 240 IT decision makers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland hailing from a variety of sectors including manufacture, banking/insurance, retail & wholesale, public/healthcare, telecommunications & utilities, transport/logistics and services & media.