Customer relationship management is becoming a commonplace technology. Soon, two-thirds of all U.S. companies will have deployed a CRM system, according to a recent CIO Insight survey of 341 IT executives.
Lower prices, due in part to hosted, Web-based systems, and the desire to analyze customer data and satisfy clients are driving adoption. Interest in CRM for sales force and call-center automation remains strong, too.
But CRM has disappointed many IT executives, especially those at large companies. CIO Insight found that one out of three companies that have deployed CRM have failed to achieve the ROI and business goals they hoped for—especially when these projects run over time and budget.
The most common reason for delays: Data integration issues. The key success factor is to win the acceptance of business managers and users by bringing them into CRM projects from the get-go. Unfortunately, many companies now deploying CRM havent gotten the message.
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