It is common for CRM providers and direct marketing solution companies to vie for business , each making the argument that they can help make a direct impact on a company's bottom line. However, CRMs and marketing companies can (and should) work together as well, because their services can be an excellent complement. Each brings areas of specialty that when combined can create positive synergies for the hiring company, including closing more deals, attracting and retaining more customers, lowering costs, increasing efficiency and maintaining a competitive edge.

CRM applications allow a company to effectively run day-to-day operations and understand their customers by tracking data about their purchasing behavior, while direct marketing companies allow a store to not only market smarter and more effectively, but also to optimize CRM. Together the two can provide a complete life-cycle marketing solution.

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The company recently announced smartFOCUS, a global provider of multi-channel marketing software as the Gartner's CRM software as a service vendor market guide. An exhaustive list of all the vendors that offer CRM software as a deployment is mentioned in the Gartner CRM SaaS vendor market guide.

Robert P. Desisto, Michael Maoz and Kimberlt Collins published the report titled "Gartner CRM Vendor Market Guide for Software as a Service, 2011" which is now available to Gartner subscribers. Gartner analysts said that SaaS continues to dominate the CRM market, encompassing nearly 24 percent of total CRM software market revenue.

Curt Bloom, the interim CEO of smartFOCUS said the market demands have changed and the company is focusing on some in-house solutions.

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