The market for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is expected to be worth more than $7.4bn (£3.65bn) by the end of the year.

The forecast predicts a growth of 14 per cent on the $6.5bn (£3.2bn) value recorded at the end of 2006, according to analyst firm Gartner.

The CRM market is benefiting from the growing success of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, where applications are hosted by an independent third party and accessed in real time using the internet.

The SaaS sector is expected to be worth $1bn (£493m) by the end of the year, and is forecast to grow at twice the rate of the total CRM market.