Up to 60 percent of projects to install customer relationship management systems fail, Gartner says. This startling assessment seems to run contrary to vendors' claims that highly integrated, Web-enabled CRM systems provide sales and customer support personnel with unparalleled access to the information they need to get the job done.
Stories of delays, clunky programs and unfulfilled expectations are making companies hesitate before plunking down six- or seven-figure investments in the software. And at a time when companies are re-evaluating their priorities in light of the economic downturn, this is a report card the industry can do without.
Brent Duncan, now a director of marketing at Cleanscape Software International, which sells software for developers, tells the story of a US$125,000 CRM package installed at a former employer. "It became shelfware," Duncan says. The former employer purchased new customer service software for its entire organisation, but didn't install it beyond the customer service department. Marketing and production modules were bought, but went unused after management considered how to integrate the new software. "It became an infrastructure question. We could not get management support for implementing those modules. Everyone used their own systems," and productivity gains were lost, he says.
There are plenty of success stories for vendors to point to, though. Siebel Systems, for example, recently published a half-inch-thick booklet detailing its customer success stories. Press Access, a public relations firm, used a CRM platform to create a sales application that now accounts for about 80 percent of new revenue, says Rochelle Nemrow, vice president of product strategy at Press Access.
The Limited, which operates a number of online stores, including Lane Bryant and Victoria's Secret, has used analytical CRM software to link separate product databases. It achieved a return on investment of 400 percent when it tested the software to see if Victoria's Secret's apparel customers will buy beauty products as well, says Bill Lepler, vice president of CRM at The Limited.
But if the industry is to truly achieve the financial returns and improved levels of service that CRM systems promise, changes must take place. CRM vendors say customers must take more responsibility in the implementation process.
At a roundtable interview with 12 award-winning CRM vendors that were named last month as having the best overall products in the industry by consulting agency ISM, vendors also admit to playing a role in the problem as well. Here are excerpts from that discussion.
