Article

CRM job market improving

Barney Beal, News Director
Things are looking bright for CRM professionals over the next year, according to a number of recent reports, job boards and industry developments.

Companies looking for people with CRM skills may be in a bind, however. Speaking at the

in September, Scott Nelson, managing vice president with the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm, predicted that through 2008, 25% of CRM projects will be cancelled or postponed because of the skills shortage in consultants and systems integrators. Analytics skills particularly will see a significant skills shortage, and many marketers are unprepared to capitalize on Web 2.0, he added.

That shortage of skills seems to be translating into increased pay for those that have them. According to the latest quarterly IT skills and certification pay index from Foote Partners LLC, a Vero Beach, Fla.-based IT research consultancy, the average pay for noncertified IT skills has topped certification pay for the first time since 2000. According to the research, which monitors 74,000 IT professionals, enterprise business application skills are paying 3.2% higher than six months ago and 11.6% higher than a year ago. Oracle and SAP application skills in particular are "hot skills," according to Foote Partners. The report also identifies management, process and methodology skills as "hot," including project management, CRM, Business Intelligence and ITIL.

In addition,

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Some key CRM job statistics from the last quarter from odinjobs.com in the United States:

  • CRM applications consultants with functional/technical roles saw the most postings in the last quarter, with 10,279, followed by business analyst roles at 6,075, and developers at 4,921.
  • Applications consultants also had the highest average salary at $80,650, followed by business analysts in process, functional roles at $77,090, and CRM developers at $75,030.
  • The financial services industry had the most demand for CRM jobs last quarter with 5,846 postings, followed by manufacturing at 1,164 and healthcare at 850.
  • Among states, California led the way in demand for CRM jobs with 12,789 and median salary at $84,670, followed by Texas with 5,541 advertised jobs and average salaries of $80,140, and New York with 4,939 jobs and an average salary of $83,610.

    Demand for career development

    Sensing a vacuum in career development opportunities for CRM professionals, particularly with Web 2.0 technologies, three industry veterans have launched a website that offers social networking, a career management center and CRM news.


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