That’s what Forrester just discovered in a study of CRM project risk, done in partnership with CustomerThink.
Why is this “good news?”
Well, CRM technology has gotten a bad rap, in my opinion. First, the reports of 50, 60, 70 percent failure rates took on a life of their own in CRM’s heydey, about 10 years ago. These reports were never proven out. In fact, in a survey of our community we found the opposite to be true: about two-thirds of projects were successful, whether measured by ROI or perception.
Second, CRM vendors were usually blamed for the failures. While it’s true that the last generation of on-premise CRM software was harder to install and use, technology wasn’t the main reason for CRM failures.
That was true then, and it’s still true now, according to a new study by Forrester. As you can see from this chart, problems with business processes (44%), people (42%) and strategy/deployment (40%) were cited more often as CRM implementation problems.
Thare are big categories that Forrester analysts Bill Band and Mark Grannan break down nicely in their report, followed by useful advice on how to improve your odds of CRM success.
You’ll need to buy the complete report for all the goodies, but I’ll share this bit of advice that I think would help most CRM project leaders:
Lock down process designs before applying technology. Sound business process designs are the foundation of effective workflows. Those with business process expertise must validate designs before the firm incorporates requirements into technology release plans. Otherwise, as the VP of information systems at a public sector company told us, “The software is working as advertised; we just haven’t taken advantage of it because we haven’t aligned our business processes.”
For more information, please visit Mitigate CRM Risks By Using Sound Deployment Practices.
