the impact of CRM on the organisation

 Implementing a CRM strategy will have far-reaching implications across your
organisation, from back-office functions (such as finance and logistics) through
customer-facing activities (such as sales, marketing and service) and beyond to
suppliers and partners. The enterprise-wide implications must be fully understood
before organisations embark on a CRM project.

 The cultural implications of CRM are significant. Historically,many projects have failed,
despite effective IT implementations, because people-related issues have not been
tackled.



 CRM projects will fail, unless they have board-level buy-in and are driven from the top.
 Fundamentally, CRM is a business philosophy; not a technology. All projects should be
approached from a corporate, strategic perspective. As such, technology is merely the
tool which allows your organisation to achieve its strategic goals.

 There are several practical steps which can be taken to ensure that a CRM-related
project runs smoothly. While some of these are common to all IT projects, front-office
implementations bring unique challenges.With less of a legacy in systems
implementation than the back office has, there is additional pressure for speedy,
tangible returns.

 Outside of greenfield sites, the big bang approach to implementation is rarely
recommended. Early adopters typically favour incremental projects which offer quick
wins. Front-office implementations bring unique challenges, as there is less of a tradition
of systems implementation, compared with the back-office.

THE IMPLEMENTER/PROJECT LEADER’S PERSPECTIVE

CRM is fundamentally a business philosophy: technology is the tool which allows the
business goals to be achieved. Unless an organisation understands the business drivers
and the implications of embarking on a customer management strategy, no amount of IT
expertise will bring success. IT developments must be closely aligned to business needs.

 The key to successful customer management is to build a unified view of each client,
drawing together data from a wide variety of sources, making it available in a relevant
format to business managers and users. The IT implications are vast because, ultimately,
CRM will touch every system in the organisation, as well as the systems of suppliers and
partners. As a result, integration is one of the biggest challenges which IT departments
face in the CRM arena.

 Implementing a CRM strategy does not affect just customer-facing employees. Because
of the need to transmit information both within the organisation itself and externally to
customers and suppliers, every function is likely to be affected by a CRM project. This
means that every department should have a representative involved in planning and,
where necessary, rolling out a major CRM project.
 Ongoing training for users is essential and may eventually make the difference between
success and failure.
 The introduction of CRM systems is likely to have some degree of impact on every job in
an organisation. At an individual level, the aim is to provide each person with better
information, allowing him/her to operate more effectively.At a departmental level, by
monitoring the effectiveness of different activities, organisations can better achieve
their strategic goals.

THE IT PERSPECTIVE
Glossary of termsBack-office: financial applications which automatically manage the transaction part of
customer interaction

Call centre: centralised telephone contact centre
Database marketing: the basis on which enterprises can start to engage in the process of
one-to-one marketing

E-marketing: based on using information gathered from interactions deriving from customers’
activities on a commercial Web site

Field service: applications which automate the service provision for personnel who are not
office-based

Front-office: sales and marketing applications which have an immediate and direct impact on
customer interaction

Integration: the requirement to have all applications running seamlessly together, so that
individual application components are invisible to the user
Marketing automation: a method by which marketing activities may be streamlined

Personalisation: software which allows the marketer to interpret customers’ lifestyles, needs
and preferences, facilitating the use of one-to-one marketing via the Web
 
Product configuration: a system which allows customers to build complex products where
there are choices over product components

TAS – technology-assisted selling: applications which track and manage the sales process
automatically, from inception to order placement

TDS – technology-driven support: applications which automate the service delivery aspect of
the customer relationship
Web self-service: a method of delivering service, using Internet technology