CRM, as a technology, started as a software marketing strategy. The concept was to create a common database between customer service and sales force automation (SFA). The SFA industry picked up on this idea and soon there was massive consolidation among SFA, customer service, and field service software providers. Each vendor (left standing) claimed to have an integrated set of capabilities and the phrase customer relationship management became a bi-word in the world of technology.
On a separate path, Peppers and Rogers (currently a strategic division of Carlson Marketing) popularized "one to one marketing" which established a marketing component in CRM. At the same time, the dot-com era was born and the idea of tracking consumer behaviors at the click level materialized, giving rise to real time marketing. The rush for customer data was soon followed by the realization that there was an ocean of data with few tools to ferret out actionable information.
Since the beginning of this "perfect storm", there has been a quantum leap in CRM tools, but there has been a distinct lag in the management rationale to keep pace. This new set of tools provides the means to integrate the actions of sales, marketing, customer service, helpdesk, field service, and web site design; and it is a way to interface with partners. However, part of the problem is that this spans an enormous amount of resources and responsibility. Since most organizations are structured by function and basically compete for limited resources, each function has a different view of performance, and of CRM for that matter. Therefore, CRM installs have historically involved functional deployments and there has been some success in this approach. The advantage of limited deployment is that it is more manageable in terms of scope and accountability. However, the real leverage for CRM is at the enterprise level.
Key Terms and Phrases
The following terms and phrases are not necessarily inclusive or exhaustive; rather, they illustrate the need to be more precise in our language. From an industry standpoint, there is a need to use terms in a general way, but when it comes to the end user community, the lack of definition generates missed expectations and leads to failure. This discussion is presented to help organizations to better understand these needs and, in some cases, as an admonition to the industry to refrain from using terminology that does not add value to the user community, and as a result, is destructive to the long-term health of the industry.
On a separate path, Peppers and Rogers (currently a strategic division of Carlson Marketing) popularized "one to one marketing" which established a marketing component in CRM. At the same time, the dot-com era was born and the idea of tracking consumer behaviors at the click level materialized, giving rise to real time marketing. The rush for customer data was soon followed by the realization that there was an ocean of data with few tools to ferret out actionable information.
Since the beginning of this "perfect storm", there has been a quantum leap in CRM tools, but there has been a distinct lag in the management rationale to keep pace. This new set of tools provides the means to integrate the actions of sales, marketing, customer service, helpdesk, field service, and web site design; and it is a way to interface with partners. However, part of the problem is that this spans an enormous amount of resources and responsibility. Since most organizations are structured by function and basically compete for limited resources, each function has a different view of performance, and of CRM for that matter. Therefore, CRM installs have historically involved functional deployments and there has been some success in this approach. The advantage of limited deployment is that it is more manageable in terms of scope and accountability. However, the real leverage for CRM is at the enterprise level.
Key Terms and Phrases
The following terms and phrases are not necessarily inclusive or exhaustive; rather, they illustrate the need to be more precise in our language. From an industry standpoint, there is a need to use terms in a general way, but when it comes to the end user community, the lack of definition generates missed expectations and leads to failure. This discussion is presented to help organizations to better understand these needs and, in some cases, as an admonition to the industry to refrain from using terminology that does not add value to the user community, and as a result, is destructive to the long-term health of the industry.
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