CRM failures on tap
Customer relationship management is an interesting and important part of the enterprise technology landscape. Given the significance of CRM, this blog is long overdue devoting attention to CRM failures. I'm now rectifying that problem.
CRM is a broad domain that encompasses an organization's entire set of relationships and interactions with customers. Although technology plays a large role, developing effective customer relationships is really a corporate "lifestyle" decision that values customer satisfaction, retention, and loyalty.
Fellow ZDNet blogger and true CRM guru, Paul Greenberg, captures this spirit in a definition on his personal blog. The major theme is relationship and shared value:
CRM 1.0 (2003): "CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a system and a technology, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment."
CRM 2.0 (2008): "CRM 2.0 is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules and processes, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation to improve human interactions and provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company's response to the customer's ownership of the conversation."
Since customer interactions extend in many directions, the supporting technology must also be diverse. Forrester Research principle analyst, Bill Band, describes an "Extended CRM Application Ecosystem" that brings order to the many technology areas comprising CRM.
The diagram shows how the tentacles of CRM reach across many technologies:
In the coming days, weeks, months, and (hopefully) years, I will incorporate CRM into the IT Project Failures blog landscape. Don't worry, nothing will change, except the addition of another focal point.
I'm currently planning posts on these topics, among others:
- CRM failure statistics
- Interviews with key CRM thought leaders
- Analysis of CRM failures
- Success tips
- Discussion of SaaS and cloud computing vs. traditional on-premise applications
Please let me know what kind of CRM coverage you'd like to see in this blog. What's important to you?