CRM vendor Maximizer Software has announced its support for the Open Data Initiative unveiled by Jigsaw, a provider of business information and data services.

 

Advancing an open-source approach to company data, Jigsaw's Open Data Initiative is designed to makes it easier to search, select, and import company data for free into CRM and Contact Management products.

 

With this announcement, Maximizer Software will use the free company data provided through Jigsaw's Open Data Initiative for their customers to search, select, and import Jigsaw's company data into their own database of contacts.

 

Maximizer Software and Jigsaw also worked together to develop a native CSV file format that maps to Maximizer CRM, allowing their customers to populate any of the four Maximizer CRM editions — Enterprise, Group, Professional and Entrepreneur — with Jigsaw's free company data.

 

"The jury may still be out on whether the UK really is heading into a recession, but there is no doubt that the economy is slowing down across EMEA and that spending on IT will be hit,."

 

So said officials of Maximizer Software last month, referencing a recent AMI-Partners Research study.

 

One segment that is predicted to grow is Customer Relationship Management (CRM), with AMI-Partners Research estimating that the global CRM market will increase at an average annual rate of 13 percent from 2007 to 2012, to reach $3.7 billion in 2012 -- and that's despite the current financial downturn.

 

Vivek Thomas, Managing Director, Maximizer Software, believes that CRM is increasingly being seen as a valuable tool not just in helping organizations to win new customers and keeping them satisfied, but also delivering on business goals when times are tough.

 

"Even during boom times, CRM should be at the heart of an organization's business development and growth strategy, and is vital in an uncertain economy," says Thomas. "Gaining new customers is imperative but must not result in neglect of the existing business base. CRM's ability to focus on best practice and optimize customer relationship processes is invaluable."