Customer relationship management continues to be a vital strategy for achieving higher profitability, improved productivity, lower costs, stronger customer retention, and greater insight into customer and prospect behavior. CRM technology and outcomes over the past two decades, it is also true that many companies still struggle to implement their CRM system effectively and achieve the results they expect from these powerful information systems. The critical nature of human factors at work in a CRM initiative demands that you focus as much attention on the people using the system as you do on the software.
Crm mc kinsey on marketing organizing for crmMarcus Vannini
This document provides a summary of an article about organizing for customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. It discusses three key points:
1. More than half of companies investing in CRM consider it a disappointment, not due to issues with technology or business cases, but because of failures to address organizational challenges of implementing new initiatives.
2. CRM initiatives should be treated like products targeted at internal customers, with clearly defined value, appropriate pricing, marketing, and support. Clear accountability and incentives are needed to motivate frontline users.
3. Building and running a CRM solution involves many roles that must collaborate, creating accountability and change management challenges. Success correlates with addressing these long-term organizational issues.
The document discusses challenges facing mid-sized businesses and how customer relationship management (CRM) software can help address them. It provides advice for mid-sized businesses on selecting a CRM vendor, highlighting features like flexibility, configurability, low total cost of ownership, and support for incremental implementation. Soffront Software's CRM suite is presented as offering all necessary sales, marketing and customer service functionality in a highly configurable and low-cost package designed specifically for mid-sized companies.
Pivotal CRM for Financial Services offers comprehensive, integrated, industry-specific capabilities that increase insight into operational performance, streamline processes across the firm, and improve responsiveness to client demands
This document discusses key factors to consider when evaluating customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. It outlines a 5-point checklist for organizations to use in determining whether an on-premise, on-demand, or hybrid CRM deployment option can meet their unique needs. The checklist examines whether solutions can satisfy operational requirements, enable a dynamic workforce, ensure data security, facilitate user adoption, and provide necessary flexibility. The document emphasizes the importance of choosing a CRM that can scale and adapt over time to support new users, processes, roles and business needs.
Crm increasing user adoption ensures successful crm projectsMarcus Vannini
This document discusses how health insurers can ensure successful customer relationship management (CRM) projects by managing user adoption challenges. It states that CRM projects often fail because users' needs are not taken into account in the design and implementation. The key to success is delivering applications that users want to adopt. The document recommends five best practices for maximizing user adoption: 1) involve end users in planning and implementation, 2) ensure projects produce clear user benefits, 3) continually highlight user benefits, 4) involve employees' supervisors from the start, and 5) introduce new functionality in stages. Following these practices can help drive rapid user adoption and achieve CRM goals more quickly.
This document provides an overview of CRM solutions from ZY Connect, including their offerings of Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementations. ZY Connect is a business management solutions specialist that designs and implements CRM processes and systems to help companies stay connected across departments and with customers, vendors, and partners. They offer CRM implementations, customizations, upgrades, training, and third-party plug-ins. Their team of Microsoft-certified professionals have extensive experience implementing on-premises and online/cloud versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Crm imperatives for success cover page feature may, 2003tjabali
1) Planning and execution are often at fault for CRM failures. A lack of clear vision and poor execution can hinder CRM initiatives.
2) To successfully implement CRM, organizations must define a strategic vision and translate it into operational imperatives by examining customer expectations, processes, and performance metrics.
3) Implementing CRM also requires preparing employees for change and galvanizing the organization around the new vision through prototypes, super users, and quick wins to fuel momentum.
This document first appeared in Defying the Limits: The CRM Project, A Thought Leadership Project from Montgomery Research, Inc., Sponsored by Accenture.
It includes an executive overview of the makeup of a CRM system, as well as advice for choosing a system, Key Benefits and Best Practices for successful implementation.
Crm mc kinsey on marketing organizing for crmMarcus Vannini
This document provides a summary of an article about organizing for customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives. It discusses three key points:
1. More than half of companies investing in CRM consider it a disappointment, not due to issues with technology or business cases, but because of failures to address organizational challenges of implementing new initiatives.
2. CRM initiatives should be treated like products targeted at internal customers, with clearly defined value, appropriate pricing, marketing, and support. Clear accountability and incentives are needed to motivate frontline users.
3. Building and running a CRM solution involves many roles that must collaborate, creating accountability and change management challenges. Success correlates with addressing these long-term organizational issues.
The document discusses challenges facing mid-sized businesses and how customer relationship management (CRM) software can help address them. It provides advice for mid-sized businesses on selecting a CRM vendor, highlighting features like flexibility, configurability, low total cost of ownership, and support for incremental implementation. Soffront Software's CRM suite is presented as offering all necessary sales, marketing and customer service functionality in a highly configurable and low-cost package designed specifically for mid-sized companies.
Pivotal CRM for Financial Services offers comprehensive, integrated, industry-specific capabilities that increase insight into operational performance, streamline processes across the firm, and improve responsiveness to client demands
This document discusses key factors to consider when evaluating customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. It outlines a 5-point checklist for organizations to use in determining whether an on-premise, on-demand, or hybrid CRM deployment option can meet their unique needs. The checklist examines whether solutions can satisfy operational requirements, enable a dynamic workforce, ensure data security, facilitate user adoption, and provide necessary flexibility. The document emphasizes the importance of choosing a CRM that can scale and adapt over time to support new users, processes, roles and business needs.
Crm increasing user adoption ensures successful crm projectsMarcus Vannini
This document discusses how health insurers can ensure successful customer relationship management (CRM) projects by managing user adoption challenges. It states that CRM projects often fail because users' needs are not taken into account in the design and implementation. The key to success is delivering applications that users want to adopt. The document recommends five best practices for maximizing user adoption: 1) involve end users in planning and implementation, 2) ensure projects produce clear user benefits, 3) continually highlight user benefits, 4) involve employees' supervisors from the start, and 5) introduce new functionality in stages. Following these practices can help drive rapid user adoption and achieve CRM goals more quickly.
This document provides an overview of CRM solutions from ZY Connect, including their offerings of Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementations. ZY Connect is a business management solutions specialist that designs and implements CRM processes and systems to help companies stay connected across departments and with customers, vendors, and partners. They offer CRM implementations, customizations, upgrades, training, and third-party plug-ins. Their team of Microsoft-certified professionals have extensive experience implementing on-premises and online/cloud versions of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
Crm imperatives for success cover page feature may, 2003tjabali
1) Planning and execution are often at fault for CRM failures. A lack of clear vision and poor execution can hinder CRM initiatives.
2) To successfully implement CRM, organizations must define a strategic vision and translate it into operational imperatives by examining customer expectations, processes, and performance metrics.
3) Implementing CRM also requires preparing employees for change and galvanizing the organization around the new vision through prototypes, super users, and quick wins to fuel momentum.
This document first appeared in Defying the Limits: The CRM Project, A Thought Leadership Project from Montgomery Research, Inc., Sponsored by Accenture.
It includes an executive overview of the makeup of a CRM system, as well as advice for choosing a system, Key Benefits and Best Practices for successful implementation.
Vendor Landscape: CRM Suites for SmallEnterprises
Adopt a dedicated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite for
integrated automation of sales, marketing, and service processes. Be sure
you don’t cut corners when it comes to social media, it’s today’s true market
differentiator.
Implementing CRM doesn't have to be painful if companies avoid common pitfalls like viewing CRM as only a technical problem, driving it from the top-down without involvement from impacted teams, or trying to do too much at once. The document outlines seven common pitfalls and strategies to address each one, such as defining customer processes before choosing technology, targeting areas with the highest adoption potential first, and ensuring business leaders rather than IT drive the initiative.
The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we do business, and it has created huge opportunities for entirely new business models, from Web portals to e-commerce. Many of these new companies have succeeded, and many have failed, but this first wave of the Internet economy has set the stage for even more innovation and success throughout all sectors of business. As exciting as the dot-com revolution was, the Internet continues to provide an even greater opportunity for more traditional businesses.
1) Organizations are placing renewed emphasis on customer retention and cost cutting due to economic challenges, leading them to examine contact management (CM) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions.
2) CM solutions are designed for individual or team productivity and sales automation, while CRM solutions are multi-module systems of record for all customer interactions.
3) The choice between CM and CRM often depends on a company's sales interaction model and key business challenges - for example, a one-to-many model may prefer a CM, while many-to-one may choose a CRM.
New Sourcing Strategies: The role of Outsourcing and Homeshoring in Contact C...EightyTwenty Insight
Are Mixed Model Operations an opportunity for contact centres to access skills,
capabilities and lower costs in harsh times? Or an overly complex solution which risks
damaging service and brand?
The challenges faced by organisations with large-scale contact centre operations have
recently become more acute and complex and the balance between cost containment
and customer needs has never been more difficult to achieve. Web 2.0 (consumer to
consume) behaviours will reduce the amount of contact and make the remaining quality
of interactions even more vital to customer retention. More radical thinking is required to
achieve this balance. The Contact Centre has to have Board level support and
organisations have to think more like their customers. Alternative Sourcing Models and
new technology (often hosted) will need to be embraced to keep pace.
Even the largest companies will benefit from partnering with external providers as
technology becomes the key driver of value and savings. Outsourcing, Shared Services
and Homeshoring pose less risk and offer real value and will continue to grow but
companies must get smarter about how to exploit them to their full potential. Sourcing
strategies need to be better thought through and become more sophisticated if these
alternative models are to be fully exploited.
This paper provides an informed and independent view on the evolution and value of Outsourcing and the Mixed Sourcing Model in contact centre operations, particularly in light of the current, urgent need to reduce costs and the rapidly changing consumer demands. It further highlights many of the current Contact Centre trends and issues, both strategic and operational, and focuses on the use of Alternative Service Delivery Models (ASDM’s) such as outsourcing and home-shoring in meeting these challenges.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy focused on developing and managing long-term relationships with customers to increase their lifetime value and profitability for the organization. The philosophy of CRM recognizes that maintaining strong customer relationships provides a competitive advantage through increased customer retention, loyalty, and repeat business. CRM uses customer data, technology, and processes to better understand customer needs and provide personalized customer service across sales, marketing, and service channels.
Gain Business Insight & Sales Success with CRMTroyMuise
White paper to grow Sales through gaining a better understanding of your customers, and how they buy and interact with your business through the entire customer lifecycle.
Customer relationship management (CRM) involves using technology to organize a company's interactions with customers and prospects across marketing, sales, service, and support. The goals of CRM are to attract new customers, retain existing customers, regain former customers, and reduce costs. CRM requires measuring customer relationships and implementing a company-wide strategy. Challenges to effective CRM include complex systems, poor usability interfaces, and fragmented implementations across departments.
The document discusses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) including definitions, functions, stages, business processes, technology aspects, challenges, and difficulties. It defines CRM as an enterprise approach to understanding customer behavior through communications to improve acquisition, retention, loyalty and profitability. CRM involves operational, analytical and collaborative functions to listen to customers and optimize relationships. Successful implementation requires integration across systems, consistent multi-channel management and end-to-end business process alignment.
This document discusses the customer relationship management (CRM) market among small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India. It notes that while CRM is widely used, adoption has lagged among SMBs due to limited awareness, understanding, budget and prioritization of IT. However, the document argues that a strategic CRM implementation aligned with business goals could significantly impact SMBs by providing customer insights to improve satisfaction, sales and service delivery. The CRM market in India for SMBs remains largely untapped but is growing as their recognition of CRM's benefits increases amid competitive pressures.
This document discusses how an eXtended Relationship Management (XRM) system can help businesses manage relationships with customers and other stakeholders. It notes that traditional CRM systems focus only on customers, while an XRM system allows businesses to track relationships with suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders. The document promotes TechBlocks as a provider of XRM systems based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM that are affordable and customizable for small and medium-sized businesses.
CMS Cameron McKenna implemented Pivotal CRM to support its client-focused culture and management processes. As the first major European law firm to adopt a second-generation CRM system, CMS Cameron McKenna replaced basic contact management with a holistic business relationship management approach. Pivotal CRM provided functionality for pipeline management, marketing campaign tracking, and client relationship building. The customized system integrated with existing software to automate processes and provide a unified view of business opportunities.
The document discusses social customer relationship management (Social CRM). It defines Social CRM as a business strategy supported by technology that is designed to engage customers in collaborative conversations to provide mutually beneficial value. Social CRM encompasses a broader range of online customer interactions than traditional CRM, including social media platforms. The document outlines different Social CRM software vendors and use cases, and discusses how Social CRM can complement and enrich traditional CRM approaches by engaging customers externally.
Can You Avoid These 5 Common CRM Implementation Mistakes?Redspire Ltd
This document discusses 5 common mistakes made during CRM implementation and how to avoid them. The mistakes are: taking an unplanned approach, believing CRM will handle all data needs, assuming employees will automatically like CRM, introducing CRM as a plug-and-play solution, and thinking the implementation can be done alone. It provides tips to define goals and metrics, maintain high quality data, involve and train employees, integrate legacy systems, and hire experts to ensure a successful CRM implementation.
This document summarizes 8 trends of successful CRM projects:
1. The right solution is selected that can be reasonably implemented within timelines and existing work schedules.
2. Choosing the right, smaller implementation vendor focused on results and timeframes rather than large consulting firms.
3. Negative people are not included on the core project team to avoid damaging energy.
4. Hybrid teams of internal and external resources yield better results with counterparts from client and vendor.
5. Bad existing business processes are eliminated or reengineered as part of CRM readiness before project begins.
Social CRM is an extension of traditional CRM that is focused on customer engagement and relationships through social media and other online and offline channels. It recognizes that customers want to interact with companies based on their own needs and through social networks. Social CRM aims to optimize the customer experience by leveraging customer interactions and feedback across various touchpoints. It involves focusing on people, processes, and technologies to understand and engage customers throughout their relationship with a company.
Learn about the foundational components of Social CRM and lays the groundwork required for your company to build and maintain long and valuable
customer relationships. We build a strong case as to why Social CRM is relevant to companies today and why it is one of the most pivotal concepts to understand in business today. It is intended to meet the needs of both someone new to the
concepts, as well those requiring a comprehensive guide. Our hope is that you will find this paper serves as a starting point for your company to begin engaging deeply with your customers.
The document provides a guide for evaluating and selecting a CRM solution. It discusses key areas to focus on, including an intuitive user experience, effective workflow automation, aligning business processes, and choosing an appropriate platform. The guide emphasizes that modern CRM solutions should be easy for employees to use, put relevant information in front of users to enable quick decisions, automate tasks to improve productivity, and align processes across the organization. It also stresses the importance of evaluating solutions based on factors like interface design, automation capabilities, customization options, and deployment choices.
This document summarizes the key considerations for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) when selecting and implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. It discusses that SMBs have unique needs compared to large enterprises, including lower budgets and the need for quick implementation. An effective CRM solution for SMBs should improve business efficiencies, drive increased revenues, be easy for business users to customize, and grow with the business. The document evaluates cloud vs on-premise CRM solutions and recommends searching for a complete cloud solution from a vendor experienced in SMB solutions that is easy to use, customize, integrate across departments, and implement at a low total cost of ownership.
Vendor Landscape: CRM Suites for SmallEnterprises
Adopt a dedicated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite for
integrated automation of sales, marketing, and service processes. Be sure
you don’t cut corners when it comes to social media, it’s today’s true market
differentiator.
Implementing CRM doesn't have to be painful if companies avoid common pitfalls like viewing CRM as only a technical problem, driving it from the top-down without involvement from impacted teams, or trying to do too much at once. The document outlines seven common pitfalls and strategies to address each one, such as defining customer processes before choosing technology, targeting areas with the highest adoption potential first, and ensuring business leaders rather than IT drive the initiative.
The Internet has fundamentally changed the way we do business, and it has created huge opportunities for entirely new business models, from Web portals to e-commerce. Many of these new companies have succeeded, and many have failed, but this first wave of the Internet economy has set the stage for even more innovation and success throughout all sectors of business. As exciting as the dot-com revolution was, the Internet continues to provide an even greater opportunity for more traditional businesses.
1) Organizations are placing renewed emphasis on customer retention and cost cutting due to economic challenges, leading them to examine contact management (CM) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions.
2) CM solutions are designed for individual or team productivity and sales automation, while CRM solutions are multi-module systems of record for all customer interactions.
3) The choice between CM and CRM often depends on a company's sales interaction model and key business challenges - for example, a one-to-many model may prefer a CM, while many-to-one may choose a CRM.
New Sourcing Strategies: The role of Outsourcing and Homeshoring in Contact C...EightyTwenty Insight
Are Mixed Model Operations an opportunity for contact centres to access skills,
capabilities and lower costs in harsh times? Or an overly complex solution which risks
damaging service and brand?
The challenges faced by organisations with large-scale contact centre operations have
recently become more acute and complex and the balance between cost containment
and customer needs has never been more difficult to achieve. Web 2.0 (consumer to
consume) behaviours will reduce the amount of contact and make the remaining quality
of interactions even more vital to customer retention. More radical thinking is required to
achieve this balance. The Contact Centre has to have Board level support and
organisations have to think more like their customers. Alternative Sourcing Models and
new technology (often hosted) will need to be embraced to keep pace.
Even the largest companies will benefit from partnering with external providers as
technology becomes the key driver of value and savings. Outsourcing, Shared Services
and Homeshoring pose less risk and offer real value and will continue to grow but
companies must get smarter about how to exploit them to their full potential. Sourcing
strategies need to be better thought through and become more sophisticated if these
alternative models are to be fully exploited.
This paper provides an informed and independent view on the evolution and value of Outsourcing and the Mixed Sourcing Model in contact centre operations, particularly in light of the current, urgent need to reduce costs and the rapidly changing consumer demands. It further highlights many of the current Contact Centre trends and issues, both strategic and operational, and focuses on the use of Alternative Service Delivery Models (ASDM’s) such as outsourcing and home-shoring in meeting these challenges.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy focused on developing and managing long-term relationships with customers to increase their lifetime value and profitability for the organization. The philosophy of CRM recognizes that maintaining strong customer relationships provides a competitive advantage through increased customer retention, loyalty, and repeat business. CRM uses customer data, technology, and processes to better understand customer needs and provide personalized customer service across sales, marketing, and service channels.
Gain Business Insight & Sales Success with CRMTroyMuise
White paper to grow Sales through gaining a better understanding of your customers, and how they buy and interact with your business through the entire customer lifecycle.
Customer relationship management (CRM) involves using technology to organize a company's interactions with customers and prospects across marketing, sales, service, and support. The goals of CRM are to attract new customers, retain existing customers, regain former customers, and reduce costs. CRM requires measuring customer relationships and implementing a company-wide strategy. Challenges to effective CRM include complex systems, poor usability interfaces, and fragmented implementations across departments.
The document discusses Customer Relationship Management (CRM) including definitions, functions, stages, business processes, technology aspects, challenges, and difficulties. It defines CRM as an enterprise approach to understanding customer behavior through communications to improve acquisition, retention, loyalty and profitability. CRM involves operational, analytical and collaborative functions to listen to customers and optimize relationships. Successful implementation requires integration across systems, consistent multi-channel management and end-to-end business process alignment.
This document discusses the customer relationship management (CRM) market among small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India. It notes that while CRM is widely used, adoption has lagged among SMBs due to limited awareness, understanding, budget and prioritization of IT. However, the document argues that a strategic CRM implementation aligned with business goals could significantly impact SMBs by providing customer insights to improve satisfaction, sales and service delivery. The CRM market in India for SMBs remains largely untapped but is growing as their recognition of CRM's benefits increases amid competitive pressures.
This document discusses how an eXtended Relationship Management (XRM) system can help businesses manage relationships with customers and other stakeholders. It notes that traditional CRM systems focus only on customers, while an XRM system allows businesses to track relationships with suppliers, contractors and other stakeholders. The document promotes TechBlocks as a provider of XRM systems based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM that are affordable and customizable for small and medium-sized businesses.
CMS Cameron McKenna implemented Pivotal CRM to support its client-focused culture and management processes. As the first major European law firm to adopt a second-generation CRM system, CMS Cameron McKenna replaced basic contact management with a holistic business relationship management approach. Pivotal CRM provided functionality for pipeline management, marketing campaign tracking, and client relationship building. The customized system integrated with existing software to automate processes and provide a unified view of business opportunities.
The document discusses social customer relationship management (Social CRM). It defines Social CRM as a business strategy supported by technology that is designed to engage customers in collaborative conversations to provide mutually beneficial value. Social CRM encompasses a broader range of online customer interactions than traditional CRM, including social media platforms. The document outlines different Social CRM software vendors and use cases, and discusses how Social CRM can complement and enrich traditional CRM approaches by engaging customers externally.
Can You Avoid These 5 Common CRM Implementation Mistakes?Redspire Ltd
This document discusses 5 common mistakes made during CRM implementation and how to avoid them. The mistakes are: taking an unplanned approach, believing CRM will handle all data needs, assuming employees will automatically like CRM, introducing CRM as a plug-and-play solution, and thinking the implementation can be done alone. It provides tips to define goals and metrics, maintain high quality data, involve and train employees, integrate legacy systems, and hire experts to ensure a successful CRM implementation.
This document summarizes 8 trends of successful CRM projects:
1. The right solution is selected that can be reasonably implemented within timelines and existing work schedules.
2. Choosing the right, smaller implementation vendor focused on results and timeframes rather than large consulting firms.
3. Negative people are not included on the core project team to avoid damaging energy.
4. Hybrid teams of internal and external resources yield better results with counterparts from client and vendor.
5. Bad existing business processes are eliminated or reengineered as part of CRM readiness before project begins.
Social CRM is an extension of traditional CRM that is focused on customer engagement and relationships through social media and other online and offline channels. It recognizes that customers want to interact with companies based on their own needs and through social networks. Social CRM aims to optimize the customer experience by leveraging customer interactions and feedback across various touchpoints. It involves focusing on people, processes, and technologies to understand and engage customers throughout their relationship with a company.
Learn about the foundational components of Social CRM and lays the groundwork required for your company to build and maintain long and valuable
customer relationships. We build a strong case as to why Social CRM is relevant to companies today and why it is one of the most pivotal concepts to understand in business today. It is intended to meet the needs of both someone new to the
concepts, as well those requiring a comprehensive guide. Our hope is that you will find this paper serves as a starting point for your company to begin engaging deeply with your customers.
The document provides a guide for evaluating and selecting a CRM solution. It discusses key areas to focus on, including an intuitive user experience, effective workflow automation, aligning business processes, and choosing an appropriate platform. The guide emphasizes that modern CRM solutions should be easy for employees to use, put relevant information in front of users to enable quick decisions, automate tasks to improve productivity, and align processes across the organization. It also stresses the importance of evaluating solutions based on factors like interface design, automation capabilities, customization options, and deployment choices.
This document summarizes the key considerations for small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) when selecting and implementing a customer relationship management (CRM) solution. It discusses that SMBs have unique needs compared to large enterprises, including lower budgets and the need for quick implementation. An effective CRM solution for SMBs should improve business efficiencies, drive increased revenues, be easy for business users to customize, and grow with the business. The document evaluates cloud vs on-premise CRM solutions and recommends searching for a complete cloud solution from a vendor experienced in SMB solutions that is easy to use, customize, integrate across departments, and implement at a low total cost of ownership.
This document discusses how companies can improve employee buy-in for CRM implementations to increase their chances of success. It recommends addressing employee fears about new systems upfront. It also suggests phasing implementations to automate existing processes first before making major changes. Companies should provide incentives and assurances to shift ownership of customer data to the system from employees. Ensuring pilot programs are successful and employees see benefits is also important for adoption.
The document summarizes common pitfalls that companies face with customer relationship management (CRM) projects and strategies to avoid them. It discusses that many CRM projects fail due to lack of executive support, poor alignment between business units, and inability to link CRM goals to business strategies. The document then recommends developing a CRM strategy and roadmap that involves identifying the company's strategic context, assessing CRM capabilities, developing business cases, and creating an implementation plan to address key areas and ensure CRM investments create business value. This approach can help companies avoid common CRM project failures and better realize benefits.
This document summarizes key considerations for choosing a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. It discusses that CRM is about more than just software - it changes how a company relates to and understands its customers. It then provides 5 tips: 1) be careful of overly complex or limited CRM options, 2) see CRM as a journey not destination, 3) view it as an investment in business results not just software, 4) know your own business needs best, and 5) choose a CRM that can adapt as the business changes. The document emphasizes the importance of a CRM with breadth of functionality rather than just depth of features.
Integrated Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Benchmark 2013Gleanster Research
This document provides an overview of integrated customer relationship management (iCRM). It discusses the evolution of CRM/SFA platforms and their widespread adoption. While many organizations see ROI from CRM implementations, failure rates remain high due to lack of integration with other systems. Leading users are focusing on this integration challenge, which is driving the next evolution in CRM technology. The document outlines reasons for implementing CRM, key value drivers focused on by companies, challenges faced, and metrics for measuring success. Ultimately, it provides a roadmap for achieving success with iCRM.
1. Pipeliner CRM can be onboarded significantly faster than competitors like Salesforce, Oracle CRM, Sugar CRM, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which typically claim onboarding times of weeks or months. In contrast, 41% of Pipeliner CRM customers reported onboarding taking 1-5 days.
2. Pipeliner CRM training is also much faster due to its intuitive interface designed for salespeople. Most training can be completed in a few hours or days rather than the weeks required by some competitors.
3. Pipeliner CRM allows for highly flexible and dynamic customization of sales processes, which can be changed in just minutes unlike competitors that require hours of work or
International Journal of Business and Management Invention (IJBMI)inventionjournals
The document summarizes customer relationship management (CRM) strategies used by Airtel and Zain in the telecommunications industry. It finds that:
1) Airtel divides its customer care cell into four departments to handle different customer segments. It also implements CRM through customer care executives and measures effectiveness through a third party.
2) Airtel designs special loyalty programs and incentives, especially for privileged customers. It has a complaint handling system and incorporates customer feedback.
3) Zain collects customer personal information through its website to perform data mining and convert data into useful business insights. It aims to improve capabilities to acquire and retain customers to increase market share.
customer relation management presentation roadmap what is known andMohamadIbrahim86
CRM represents the evolution and integration of marketing ideas enabled by new technologies. It focuses on creating value for both customers and the firm through understanding customer needs. Effective CRM requires integrating processes across the firm and considering issues like consumer trust, fairness, competition, and coordinating channels. While sophisticated analysis is not always needed, appropriate metrics that assess dual value creation are important for long-term success.
This document provides guidance on planning for a successful CRM implementation and selecting the right CRM solution. It discusses:
1. The importance of planning for CRM success by aligning the CRM system with your business strategy and goals for growth, rather than just automating current processes.
2. Common business growth strategies that a CRM system can support, such as generating more leads, improving conversion rates, increasing customer retention and lifetime value, and leveraging customers for referrals.
3. The need to consider both high-level strategies and specific activities/changes required before selecting a CRM system, to ensure it can effectively support your plans for growth.
Gartner issued a statement that more than 50% of CRM implementations will be viewed as failures from a customer's perspective. The document lists reasons for CRM failure as including a lack of business objectives, planning, commitment at all levels of an organization, user resistance, and resources. It provides tips for ensuring CRM success such as establishing business objectives and a plan, gaining executive commitment, allocating dedicated resources, focusing on user adoption, and leveraging the technology appropriately.
The executive Guide to CRM architechturePivotal CRM
Explains the importance of flexible software architecture, and how the right CRM solution can support and even advance an organization’s ability to evolve in lock-step with changes as they occur—enabling them to attain and maintain a competitive advantage.
This document provides an overview of key principles for successful customer relationship management (CRM). It discusses that CRM is first and foremost a business strategy, not just a software purchase, and companies must define their CRM strategy based on their goals, customers, and environment. The document outlines that a CRM strategy should aim to effectively manage the customer lifecycle from acquisition to retention. It also notes that common CRM goals among companies include obtaining a 360-degree view of customers, automating sales processes, and gaining insights to improve customer experiences.
This document provides a guide for planning a CRM project with the goal of helping companies develop comprehensive customer relationship management strategies and solutions. It outlines key steps for planning a CRM project including conducting a current and desired state analysis to identify goals and objectives, selecting appropriate people, establishing a timeline, and taking a technical inventory. The guide emphasizes involving users, prioritizing needs, and taking a phased implementation approach to avoid overwhelming the organization with changes. Overall, the planning process aims to set organizations up for a successful CRM project and realization of expected benefits.
This document examines why CRM systems often fail to meet expectations. It outlines 8 common reasons for CRM failure, including that CRM systems are complicated, labor intensive, often provide more features than needed, and success is difficult to quantify. It also notes that turning a business into a truly customer-centric one is key to CRM success. While CRM can help when implemented correctly, lead management systems may be better suited and less costly for many companies to track and convert leads into customers.
CRM is a model for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service, and technical support. Samsung uses CRM to expand their global marketing programs and develop a digital network to improve compatibility between products and provide the best solutions for customers. Samsung places consumer needs as their top priority to build trust as a leading market company.
With the right CRM comes the opportunity for Along the way, IT managers need an integratedcompanies to really get to know their customers, set of technologies—from websites to databasestheir needs, preferences and their buying and data mining tools—to make it work.patterns.
Customer relationship management software is designed to help companies and their customers communicate effectively. The primary goal of any CRM is to earn and keep
customers’ loyalty and trust by effectively managing business touchpoints. A well-tuned CRM secures long-term revenues and underpins company operations.
The document evaluates 18 leading CRM suite solutions for large organizations based on 516 criteria related to the vendors' current offerings, strategies, and market presence. It finds that Oracle Siebel and SAP still offer the most complete solutions for large enterprises, though other Leaders like Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and RightNow are gaining ground with more flexible options. The evaluation also identifies Strong Performers like Oracle E-Business Suite, Pegasystems, and Sword Ciboodle that bring specific strengths in areas like analytics, customer service, and business process management. The report aims to help business professionals choose between the various options for meeting their organizations' CRM needs.
Pivotal Mobile Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications provide a range of solutions that ensure a sale is never delayed because of limited access to critical data.
The Pivotal CRM team at CDC Software is a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) software applications. Pivotal CRM is the only CRM solution offering rich functionality, a full application suite, and best-in-class customization capabilities, all with a low total cost of ownership
The Pivotal Service suite has been designed to drive improvements in customer service while reducing operating and maintenance costs throughout the customer lifecycle — while improving the quality of customer interactions.
Pivotal CRM for Home Building and Real Estate is a clear choice for single- and multi-family home builders and other real estate industry firms looking to increase operational efficiency, gain competitive advantage, and meet the challenges of a market slowdown.
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Pivotal CRM - CRM Initiatives
1. W H I T E
P A P E R
The Top 3 Reasons CRM Initiatives
(Still) Fail—And How to Avoid Them
Executive Summary
Customer relationship management continues to be a vital strategy for achieving
higher profitability, improved productivity, lower costs, stronger customer retention, and
greater insight into customer and prospect behavior—whatever the economic environ-
ment. But while CRM success rates have risen dramatically over the years, many
companies still struggle to achieve the return on investment they anticipated. This white
paper looks at the top three reasons that CRM initiatives fail to achieve their goals and
provides clear, practical recommendations for ensuring that your CRM initiative avoids
these pitfalls and delivers desired returns.
2. CRM Success Fundamentals their products. Nothing gets their prospects’ attention faster
than a distinctive product feature their competitors can’t
In spite of global economic challenges, many businesses match. But discussing features and functions is the easiest
continue to make investments in customer relationship part of CRM. When it comes to the actual features of
management (CRM) systems a high priority, recognizing CRM software, there is only a limited number of variables
that strong customer relationships are vital to their that come into play, and in fact platform and architecture
business success. These organizations seek higher are probably bigger success factors and differentiators
profitability, improved productivity, lower costs, stronger between CRM solutions than the features themselves.
customer retention, and greater insight into customer
However, when you look past the ones and zeroes, you
and prospect behavior. These companies’ confidence
start to see the truly complex side of CRM: the human
in CRM’s value confirms the business community’s
side. Diverse and sometimes vast teams of individual
consensus that the early age of bloated CRM projects and
users have to be considered for a company to reap the
high-profile failures has been superseded by an era of
full benefits of CRM. At that point, the number of variables
success stories and widespread evidence of CRM’s ability
a company must account for in CRM selection and
to generate returns on investment.
implementation can grow exponentially.
Yet, although it is true that major improvements have been
The key issue at the heart of the “human side” of CRM
made in CRM technology and outcomes over the past two
implementation is user adoption. Even the best CRM
decades, it is also true that many companies still struggle
system will fail to deliver significant ROI if the end users
to implement their CRM system effectively and achieve
aren’t able or willing to use it correctly—or worse yet, if
the results they expect from these powerful information
they don’t use it at all. Many organizations select and
systems. In fact, in response to a recent Forrester survey,
implement a terrific software solution, only to struggle with
only one third of enterprise-class organizations indicated
getting their employees on board with the new system,
that their CRM applications significantly improved
not to mention the customer-centric culture required to
their end users’ productivity. And only half responded
support it, which in many cases is also a major change for
that their CRM vendor’s professional services team
the organization.
could offer significant technical skills to help move the
implementation forward.1 Change management is clearly an associated key issue.
There’s only one thing more difficult than getting a person
This same survey documented over 200 specific problems
to change the way he or she works, and that’s getting
companies had with their CRM implementations. But
entire teams of people to change the way they work.
the real attention-getting finding concerned the types of
Change—even the positive kind—is challenging and
problems it uncovered—a
requires astute planning and leadership to gently guide it
finding that sheds some
though to fruition, especially in larger corporations.
Only 33% of the problems interesting light on the
true challenge of CRM
companies experienced These people issues are just as important—if not more
implementation. Only 33% so—than the technology issues CRM customers face,
had anything to do with of the problems companies and they can as easily cause a project to fail. So it makes
technology experienced had anything to sense that CRM providers should not only offer a solid
do with technology. The lion’s software product, but also a world-class professional
share focused squarely on services team and full complement of supporting services
problems concerning people, process, corporate strategy, to help their customers deal with these very complex user
and other non-software types of issues. issues. With the right mix of technology and services, the
human factors of CRM can be effectively managed with
These results warrant further investigation. Could it be
profitable results.
that companies implementing CRM could improve their
success by focusing less exclusively on the software and Sadly, many CRM vendors completely overlook this critical
more on managing the organizational change necessary aspect of CRM. Their organizations are designed to sell
to implement it? This white paper will focus on exactly software licenses and (often costly) technical implementation
that: the top factors—completely above and beyond the services, not to manage a customer’s overall transition and
software itself—that cause companies to struggle to reap ongoing success. When a greater range of CRM services
the rewards of their investment in CRM, and what they can is available, the customer is often rightfully wary that CRM
focus on to improve their odds of success. vendors and consultants may be determined to prolong and
over-complexify a CRM project simply in order to generate
The Most Overlooked Factor in the greatest number of billable hours.
CRM Success: People Such short-sighted tactics do little to genuinely ensure
CRM success. The critical nature of human factors at
As you would expect, CRM providers spend a lot of work in a CRM initiative demands that you focus as much
marketing effort promoting the technological features of attention on the people using the system as you do on
the software. It’s not the software that will give you the
1. Band, William. Risk-Proofing Your CRM Initiative.
DestinationCRM.com. March 1, 2009. URL:
http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/?ArticleID=52945
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 1
3. ROI you want; it’s the people who implement it, use it, and adequately calculate the value the enterprise will
manage by it. gain from a new CRM system, they must establish
a baseline measurement of what current CRM
With this in mind, let’s take a look at some of the top processes are, whether they are implementing
reasons CRM implementations fail, even when they their first CRM system or replacing one they have
involve excellent CRM solutions and are driven by savvy, outgrown. Then they will have a valid way to
well-intentioned technology and business professionals. measure the enhancements the CRM system will
bring. But because many executives feel like they
Reason #1: Companies Can’t know their company so well, they tend to disregard
this very important practice. Just because there
Effectively Define Success is a documented customer relationship process
in place today doesn’t mean it’s being followed
Strategic CRM implementations are often major projects, properly, and seldom does a company have an
requiring significant corporate commitment. Given this, accurate record of the rate and costs of errors and
it is reasonable to suppose that all companies pursuing redundancies, or of the time it takes to perform
CRM initiatives have sound and well-articulated goals certain tasks or processes. But without this
and rationales for their CRM projects. Yet almost 20% of information, measuring the efficiency, productivity,
Forrester’s survey respondents cited strategy and poorly and accuracy gains from CRM can be very difficult.
defined requirements as significant barriers to return on Documenting current CRM processes can take
their CRM investments.2 The extra time and effort, but you will never know if your
unfortunate result is that most CRM practices have truly improved unless you can
executive leaders have no way document what those practices look like today.
If you haven’t agreed on a
to prove their CRM systems
definition of success, how have produced the ROI they
3. Establish Success Metrics. When executives
will you know whether you’ve have a clear picture of the current state of their
had hoped for—or any ROI at
CRM practices, the improvement goals become
achieved it? all, for that matter—because
much clearer. So do the metrics they should use
they neither defined their
to objectively measure their progress toward
targets in advance nor
those goals. And because no single metric can
determined how they would be measured. If you haven’t
adequately measure ROI from a complex CRM
agreed on a definition of success, how will you know
system, executives must decide which metrics
whether you’ve achieved it?
would have the biggest impact on their company’s
Executive leaders must take the time up front to decide strategic goals. There are input metrics that
what successful ROI would look like for their specific measure the accuracy and validity of data entered
situation. They must know what their customer relation- by system users. Also available are process
ship processes are today, as well as how they hope to metrics, which measure the execution of individual
change them for the future and how they will evaluate their sales team members on a more qualitative scale.
progress against these goals. Laying the groundwork for Finally, outcome metrics measure the desired
CRM success in 3 key areas can help ensure you get the outcomes of the CRM process: customer calls,
ROI you expect: presentations, demonstrations, and orders, for
example. Top managers should use a mix of
1. Craft a Clear Business Case. Crafting a solid these metrics to gauge their company’s overall
business case may sound simple. It’s not. Many performance toward meeting their CRM goals.
companies try to shortcut the process by assem- Because these metrics have differing levels of
bling a business case from basic rules of thumb granularity, it will become clearer where managers
or by simply mirroring another organization’s CRM need to spend their time to correct CRM problems
initiative. This almost always proves to be a costly early in the process. There is no single “right
mistake. Every organization is unique, with unique answer” in prioritizing CRM goals and metrics—in
processes and considerations, and thus every fact, many companies find that the qualitative
CRM implementation is unique. Executives must “soft” returns are infinitely more meaningful to their
recognize the idiosyncrasies of their organizations business than the quantitative “hard” returns—as
that might affect the outcome of their CRM initia- it is all dependent on the company’s unique goals
tive. Having a clear problem statement goes a long and strategy.
way toward keeping the implementation on track.
And while constant steering corrections will still be No CRM system will deliver significant ROI without a clear,
required, those navigational changes will be much overarching strategy to guide its implementation and
more effective when guided by the proper execu- use. That means everyone in the enterprise—from top
tive vision of the problem to be solved. management down to the end users of the system—must
clearly understand what they are trying to accomplish with
2. Document the Current CRM Condition. the tool.
Business process engineers know that in order to
2. Ibid.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 2
4. This direction must come from the top. Executive • What is my budget for getting the software installed,
sponsors must develop a clear business case for their and will I have to hire expensive outside consultants
new CRM software. They have to agree on strategic and to help?
tactical goals for what they hope to accomplish and a
The CIO’s concerns are every bit as valid as the CEO’s.
realistic timeframe for getting it done, then work to gain
But the CIO is measured by technology concerns instead
buy-in throughout the organization.
of business issues. Without constant steering corrections
in the interests of the business goals of a CRM project,
Reason #2: Companies View the final product is at risk of becoming an IT solution, but
not a business solution. It may be on time and on budget
CRM as an IT Project, Rather and meet a range of technical criteria, but whether it
aligns with corporate strategy is another matter entirely.
Than a Business Initiative
Armed with an effective business case and a clear problem
statement, your enterprise can generate a great deal of
Reason #3: Companies
CRM momentum. The corporate vision and core company Automate a Misaligned Process
values set the course for a successful implementation. Yet
As powerful and helpful as CRM software can be, at its root,
we still see many CRM systems
it is not performing any feats of magic. Ultimately, like other
end up as little more than a
forms of software, CRM simply streamlines and automates
Without constant steering management reporting tool,
what would otherwise be time-consuming, challenging, or
corrections in the interests leaving the actual customer
repetitive processes. If these processes are misguided or
experience virtually unchanged.
of the business goals, the broken to begin with, automation will not fix them.
final product is at risk of Why is this? It has very little
to do with the software. But it Therefore, in order for an enterprise to garner a significant
becoming an IT solution, but return on its investment in CRM technology, its customer
has everything to do with the
not a business solution focus of the organizations who relationship processes must be sound, well documented,
implement the system. and precisely aligned with the mission of the enterprise itself.
When evaluating a CRM system, most executives start out Process alignment is an area in which most businesses
asking exactly the right questions: have room for improvement. The majority of enterprises
find it difficult to agree on what their current processes are,
• How can the system make doing business with us much less what they should be. Or worse: they discover
more positive? their processes are misaligned only after a new system is
• How can we use the system to drive repeat sales and implemented and end-user training has begun.
encourage customer loyalty?
If your organization attempts to implement a strategic CRM
• How can the software streamline our processes and system without having your existing or desired processes
increase business insight? well aligned and documented beforehand, you will be in
These are very good questions to ask. And if they stay for a rough ride. Without process clarity and alignment,
at the forefront of the actual execution, they will guide automation is unlikely to produce clear benefits.
the enterprise toward a successful implementation
In many ways, business process alignment is actually
and positive ROI. However, once these questions are
more important than the software itself. Once a process
answered to top management’s satisfaction, that’s where
has been aligned, understood, agreed to, and well
their guiding force tends to lose steam. For at this point,
documented, the technology requirements tend to flow
many executives mistakenly assume their job is done.
naturally from the process. Conversely, no software
So they take their hands completely off the steering
product can deliver business value from a process that
wheel and hand it to the IT department for selection and
was off-kilter from the start.
implementation. Now CRM has been demoted from
“corporate strategy” to “IT project.” This is not to say that the software is unimportant—in fact,
the importance of process clarity and refinement under-
Naturally, IT departments are crucial to successful CRM
lines the value of having a highly adaptive and malleable
implementations. But many top executives tend to forget
CRM software solution that can precisely model your
that the CIO operates from a much more granular set
desired processes—but it does suggest that even the
of job concerns—concerns that focus more on software
best technology will fail to deliver results if the processes
packages than customer relationships.
themselves are misaligned. Approach CRM initiatives
The CIO’s questions sound more like: as an opportunity for greater process clarity, alignment,
definition, and refinement, rather than an excuse to lay
• What is our deadline for implementation and can we software on top of existing processes—or worse, to allow
meet it with current IT staff? technology to impose new cookie-cutter “out of the box”
• How can I get our other 10 data repositories to talk to processes that don’t fit your business—and you will
this new system? experience far greater success.
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 3
5. The Solution: The 3-Legged Stool CRM implementers realize how flawed this approach
is. Because each company’s business processes
of CRM Professional Services are different, their usage of a CRM system will
always be unique. Generic training materials and
The three components that always impact a successful courses will therefore always fall short. CRM vendors
CRM implementation are people, process, and know this, and those who are genuinely committed
technology—the famous three-legged stool (if any leg to their customers’ success take the time to
fails, the stool collapses). People need to embrace and understand your unique needs and processes and
use the system in order for the company to achieve its design customer training programs and tools to best
goals. Process must be effectively defined and mapped address your company’s specific demands.
within the system for it to generate results. And finally, the
technology must be sound, with all the right features in 3. Proper Metrics and Rewards. It’s been said,
place, the right fit to your business, and the right ties to “Show me how you’re compensated, and I’ll show
other enterprise systems and data sources. you how you behave.” As much as we would like
to think users will embrace a CRM system just
Many CRM implementations fail because both the because it has been launched, reality proves
implementing company and the CRM vendor assisting otherwise. Many organizations report deficiencies
them focus too narrowly on the “technology” leg of the in the areas of inter- and intra-organizational
stool alone. In contrast, the most effective CRM software collaboration, business–IT collaboration, and
vendors build on these three performance measurement aligned with customer-
principles jointly and never facing goals. A lot of this comes down to setting
Many CRM implementations losing sight of the all-important out clear ways of measuring and encouraging
people and process factors. usage of the CRM system. It’s important to provide
fail because both the
They help customers build a incentives to end users in a way that aligns their
company and the CRM stable three-legged stool by behavior to the goals of the enterprise. The
vendor assisting them supporting and assisting in most astute companies find creative ways to tie
focus too narrowly on the all three elements. With this adoption incentives to employee compensation—
“technology” leg of the stool robust, threefold approach the straightest line between the desired behavior
to CRM services, they can and actual performance. Then users know exactly
advise customers not just "what’s in it for them" and gladly exhibit the
on the technical elements of the implementation, but behaviors needed to achieve CRM success. But
on every facet that might impact user adoption and as with other elements of CRM implementations,
ultimate success. CRM vendors that understand this there is no single “right way” to do this—there are
principle will not just offer great software, but also provide many organizational culture and process factors
a comprehensive portfolio of supporting services that that must be considered in setting CRM metrics
can help companies succeed in all areas of their CRM and incentives. A good CRM vendor will provide
implementation, including: strategic assistance to your company to help you
find a program that will work best to achieve your
1. A Comprehensive Communications Strategy. unique business goals.
Understanding your CRM goals and strategy is
crucial, but communicating this to users is just Because this human element is so crucial, it pays to
as important. That’s why the most successful choose a CRM provider with a strong professional
companies start communicating with CRM end services philosophy and organization to mentor you and
users early in the process, preferably before your leadership team through the process. Look for a
they select a CRM system or even define its CRM vendor that is also a services leader with a strong
requirements. All stakeholders and eventual track record of implementing successful CRM systems
end users need to have some kind of role or with companies your size. The professional services team
representation in CRM planning and roll-out should comprise seasoned experts in the areas of user
to have a sense of ownership in the project’s adoption, process guidance, and change management.
success. Clear, two-way communication about a
CRM project’s goals and all efforts to incorporate The benefits to this kind of experienced guidance are
and address the needs of diverse user groups immeasurable. Working with experts invested in your
must start early and continue throughout success lays the groundwork necessary to dodge the
implementation and beyond. A vendor that costly mistakes that plague so many unwary CRM
understands the importance of CRM user adoption customers. You’ll have a clear picture of success. There’ll
and buy-in will offer assistance with planning and be no question whether or not you’ve achieved what you
implementing a comprehensive communication set out to accomplish with CRM. And you’ll be on your
strategy to complement the software project. way to enjoying a real advantage over competitors in your
market space.
2. Effective End-User Training. Training is an area
where many CRM vendors tend to cut corners.
In an effort to achieve an economy of scale, they
standardize their end-user training with cookie-
cutter materials and methods. The most effective
Pivotal CRM | White Paper 4