Paul HoekstraITSM Transformation Program Manager| OracleSan Jose, Ca, United States
More and more business managers are asking the IT department to justify the money spend. This question is transfered to the consultants helping the companies determining the strategy, requirements, tools, etc. I am trying to come up with a list of the value drivers for CRM.
So if anyone has any input, please let me know. Thanks in advance, Paul Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
I love this question. There are no value drivers for any end user application that should be defined by IT. Stakeholder Value Gaps and improvement targets should be established by management as part of their strategic objectives and business plans. CRM does not inherently offer any added value. Before CRM or any major initiative is pursued there should be a set of clear, quantified improvement objectives in place. In the case of CRM management or Sales and Marketing should provide a business case that demonstrates that the implementation of CRM into the organization has a suitable ROI and will improve Customer retention, frequency of purchase and/or reduction in receivables. CRM is more than an application. It represents a major shift in the organization’s culture; a new way of thinking and doing. If your organization is looking to IT to justify CRM it will most likely regret its implementation. Saving Changes...
I agree with everything Michael Wood said, however I would like to add a thought of my own.
Todays organizations NEED a blend of Business & Technical knowledge to formulate strategies, processes and technical solutions.
Business knowledge helps to identify problems or area of improvement (customer acquistion or retention etc) they can also help formulate marketing strategies to handle the problem. However, IT knowledge is increasingly important to recommend the "how" more so when businesses are looking to technology to solve business problems.
In short business units and IT orgnizations can not afford to work in "silos". Saving Changes...
Amen to that Vyom. You must be a fan of Dr. Michael Hammer. His whole concept of reengineering is about the elimination of silos. Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Death to silos :)))) Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Our customers are pushing us to on-line bidding for their business. Turning our value added engineering and manufacturing into commodities. It is all automated. The actual selection is computerized; (lowest bid, with require qual & volumes, etc...). Is there any value to attempting development of customer relationship in this scenerio? What strategies should be implemented in such an environment? Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
WOW - you hit a nail on the head with your realization that most companies are treating products like commodoties. The dehumanization of relationships is upon us. And much of it in the name of CRM.
I believe this cycle will end in the not too distant future. Buying purely on spec and price sounds good but does not always work. Just look how messed up government procurement is. When it comes to procuring mission critical services and assets there needs to be more than a sterile bidding process. Saving Changes...
Reynold, those are all nice and well, but from a former CRM user and current CRM advocate, there are many real, yet many times intangible benefits for CRM. First, we all understand CRM is a broad-brush term. But for an area, I think is most valuable to companies in the vain of CRM, SFA has many valuable, business benfits:
- Centralized storage and communication client information (the classic case of a sales person walking off with valuable knowledge and contacts of client details is mitigated)
- Sales person awareness of issues within their account base (most common example is client customer service issues not being notified to sales person)
- Order history, self service (cut down on emails and inquiries with account data at sales peoples fingertips)
- The big whopper of them all, executive reporting (sure there is sales person reporting, but sales managers and up are a paranoid bunch, they like to see the account activity and sales activity, not to mention morre accurate sales pipelines/forecats, et al. You can think of all kinds of nifty reporting ways, based on the ability to collect and centralize information)
SFA can lead directly to better customer relationships if implemented correctly, and supported by the higher-ups. Saving Changes...
