Articles
| A Fragmented Approach to CRM: An Oxymoron? | |
| Today’s success stories tend to center on a single function that leverages the capabilities of CRM to achieve a competitive advantage and quantifiable results. But CRM is an enterprise concept that is intended to embrace the efforts of all customer facing functions. This White Paper discusses the pitfalls of pursuing CRM within one function without a vision for the entire organization. | |
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| Alignment | |
| The track record for organizations seeking strategic change initiatives is dismal. One can identify many reasons for this failure including the promise of a silver bullet that will fix whatever is ailing the company. However, at the heart of the problem is inertia that is inherent in the philosophy of functionally structured organizations. In a world where customers exercise significant buying power and competition is fierce, can organizations afford to be slow in adopting change? This white paper suggests that the alignment of effort is key to success/failure of change initiatives and offers an alternative format that is market focused. | |
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| Back To The Future | |
| CRM, as a technology, is often viewed as a new phenomenon, but its roots go back to the mid-1980s. Over this period, the technology has literally exploded but the lessons that have been learned along the way somehow have not been internalized by the industry or the user community. This white paper reviews this evolution and discusses what we must do to bring success to this industry. | |
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| Best Practices and Customer Relationship Management | |
| This is a six page discussion document that describes the sources of confusion in understanding the nature of CRM and the challenges organizations face in implementing this technology. The document outlines the key areas of implementation that have the strongest impact on ultimate business success and represent a rationale for the CRM Best Practices book. | |
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| CFO as CRM Advocate | |
| This is an article that was published in Sales and Marketing Automation. It positions the CFO as an important advocate of CRM. Historically the CFO has essentially played the role of a gate keeper for authorizing the funding of initiatives. In today’s drive for profitability, the CFO has a vital interest in the successful deployment of CRM. | |
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| CRM Requires CFO Leadership | |
| This is an unpublished article that addresses the need for leadership from the CFO to successfully deploy CRM. The article defines CRM in operational terms and dispels the notion that this is a technology inititiative. | |
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| Empower Mentor Abdication | |
| This is a scan of an article published in Sales and Field Force Automation that addresses the role of senior management in the successful deployment of Sales Automation. | |
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| Getting The C Back Into CRM | |
| This is an article that was printed in Sales and Field Force Automation. The article deals with the tendency to become enamored with the power of technology and lose track of what CRM is intended to accomplish. The article emphasizes the change management aspects of the concept and admonishes the reader that CRM is all about achieving business results. | |
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| Legacy of Your CRM Project | |
| This is a copy of an article that appeared in Sales and Field Force Automation. The article addresses the reality that any system that is installed today will most likely be replaced in five years. That implies that four years or less from now you will create another project team to essentially plan the next iteration. The organization has choices, the project team can properly document what it did and why plus key learning or this input to the next team may never be created. How the organization supports the project team and handles the post installation integration re-entry into the fabric of the company will influence the ability to get quality people into these positions in the future. It must be recognized that CRM is a journey; how the current initiative is handled will influence future capabilities. | |
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| Link Strategy and SFA | |
| This document is positioned as an executive briefing because when it was released (1993) it sold for $1000. It is a 20 page document that lays out the rationale and foundations for sales force automation. It was a seminal piece of research that is equally valuable and valid today. | |
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| ROI and Metrics | |
| This is a brief article that discusses the need to have meaningful operational metrics tied to the statement of ROI. Without this linkage, ROI is a hope not a strategy. | |
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| ROI A Right of Passage | |
| Due to the soft economy, companies are placing increased emphasis on ROI to approve IT expenditures. But this knee jerk reaction suggests that ROI is simply a right of passage, in other words, it is a gate that one must pass through to implement. A well defined ROI is more like a road map in that it defines the destination and provides signs that keep the project on course. This short article provides an expansion on this argument. | |
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| ROI Customer Performance Metrics | |
| This article discusses the need to link ROI with customer behavior metrics. This argument is particularly appropriate if the ROI is dependent on claims of improvement in revenue generation or margin levels. Without this linkage, senior management has no basis for establishing accountability for actual versus claimed results. | |
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| ROI Gateway Or Road Map | |
| This is an article that was written in 2002, at a time when the industry was bemoaning the fact that approval would not come without an acceptable ROI. The purpose of the article is to link the idea that a well defined business case is critical to success. The rationale is that unless success is defined, the initiative cannot be managed toward a business goal other than on-time and on-budget. Therefore it can be effectively argued that ROI is like having a road map that provides vital and essential road signs that guide implementation and decision making. | |
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| ROI Training and Leadership | |
| The budget for training is a commonly under funded element of most CRM initiatives. When project teams and senior management are confronted with this situation, there is a tendency to take the easy way out, i.e. shortcut training. The right decision is to ensure proper levels of training because to not do this, risks the success of the entire investment. | |
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| The CEO and CRM | |
| This is the text from a published article that discussed the lack of CEO involvement in CRM initiatives. The article creates an argument as to why the CEO must be involved but also leading this type of initiative. | |
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