Gartner estimates Microsoft Dynamics CRM revenue rose 23 percent in 2013

The worldwide market for customer relationship management (CRM) software hit $20.4 billion last year, up 13.7% from $18 billion in 2012, according to Gartner.

Competition heated up as vendors continued to vie for more of the CRM market and more widespread functionality adoption within midsize to large enterprises, according to Gartner's Market Share Analysis: Customer Relationship Management Software, Worldwide, 2013.

The top five CRM vendors accounted for 50% of CRM software revenue in 2013, the researchers stated, with Microsoft sitting fourth, as it did in 2012.

According to the report, Salesforce.com continued to be the largest vendor overall in the CRM market with revenue growth 30.3% to nearly $3.3 billion for a 16.1% of the market. SAP remained in the second position overall, with CRM revenue reportedly growing 12.7% to $2.6 billion and 12.8% market share. Third place Oracle had CRM revenue of $2.1 billion, up 4% in 2013, and 10.2% market share.

With a market share of  6.8%, Gartner estimated Microsoft's CRM revenue for 2013 at $1.3 billion, up 22.8% from 2012. Based on the reaction to their Microsoft CRM estimates for 2012 performance, these numbers are likely to be met with skepticism by some. Analysts and Microsoft-watchers last year criticized Gartner's Dynamics CRM numbers, saying they couldn't possibly be right. Despite those questions, the 2013 report builds on those 2012 figures, as the new Dynamics CRM revenue number climbed from $1.1 to $1.3 billion.

Another recent point of market performance data on Dynamics CRM came out around Convergence 2014, and it doesn't add any support to Gartner's findings. Microsoft stated in March 2014 that it currently has 40,000 Dynamics CRM customers, up from 39,000 the year before at the same time.  The company also stated that it grew its user base ...