CRM software has come a long way from its early days as a desktop-based sales tool. And each year, it seems, there’s some hot new flavor of CRM – social CRM, cloud CRM, mobile CRM, vertical CRM – with new vendors and apps constantly entering the market.

More and more companies recognize the importance of direct / personal customer contact and invest in solutions that allow them to communicate with customers through multiple channels.

So what will be the big trends in CRM in 2016? Here are six predictions.

• CRM software will become even more social
• Mobile CRM will become a must-have
• Native integrations with other platforms will be of great importance
• More CRM platforms will be equipped with predictive analytics capabilities
• Vertical CRMs* will give traditional CRM solutions some serious competition

* A real estate salesperson has different needs than a medical device salesperson, and companies are increasingly realizing that they could benefit from using industry-specific CRM solutions. These vendors’ built-in best practices and processes provide a level of expertise that companies just don’t get with a generic CRM solution.

Source: CIO.com, by Jennifer Lonoff Schiff.