Involve Entire Organization for Successful CRM

silicon.com on May 23, 2006

Many companies that built huge data warehouses in hopes of extrapolating customer insights abandoned those efforts following the dot-com bust, faulting the timing or the technology. Yet the real problem, says an Atos Origin analyst interviewed here, is that CRM applications were limited to the front office. To yield real business benefits, he says, CRM must be linked with finance, order processing, supply chain, distribution and complaints handling. CRM efforts generally require changes in processes, procedures and back-office operations. In fact, an expert cited here says technology should account for just 30 percent of a CRM implementation. Two other necessities: a strong underlying business goal and board-level backing.