Literature review and an analysis of the state of the market of Anything Relationship Management (xRM): xRM as an extension of Customer Relationship Management

In this paper we want to point out the importance of Anything Relationship Management (xRM) as an extension of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Therefore we will describe the historical development of xRM and give a detailed and comprehensive literature review as well as an own definition. After that we want to point out the key aspects of xRM compared to CRM. Finally the results of a state-of-the-art market analysis about xRM platforms are presented and evaluated. This market analysis demonstrates the variants of xRM platform offers. The literature review, the xRM CRM comparison and the state of the market analysis will help future research activities towards a general xRM concept and platforms which enable relationships to and the management of any stakeholders or entities.