Ahhh, fall is in the air. It's getting rather lovely out – at least in Virginia, where the weather is settling into that nice autumn 65-70°F, the days are infused with that bright sun that only the fall can provide and football – pro and college – are in the air.
While unfortunately, my Yankees aren’t going to be making the playoffs barring a miracle, I can happily say that the preseason for CRM Watchlist 2014 truly begins today – with the arrival of fall and, oddly enough, the advent of Oracle OpenWorld.
What does this mean? It means that as of September 23, we begin the 9-week countdown to the submission of CRM Watchlist questionnaires.
Let me dial it back as we take a look at where the industry is and why I think – or at least I hope – that this year, the Watchlist takes on a slightly added importance.
As I outlined in my five part series on Diginomica last week, we’ve reached another crossroads in the evolution of CRM – one that, like all others that came before it, is a bit messy, a tad unsteady, but a clear nodal point.
For the last almost decade we have seen what was traditional CRM morph into what we called Social CRM for the last 5 years or so. This morphing is part of a bigger business transformation going on toward digital transformation that was driven by customers who had also dramatically changed in their ability to leverage tools, to communicate with more “people like them” enmasse, and in the intensity and nature of what they demanded and expected from businesses. Businesses have moved from traditional operating models to what was a social business model for a short transformative period to what is now a digital transformation.
All of this doesn’t exist because of a business revolution however. It is part of something far more sweeping, far more expansive than that. It has been triggered by a communications revolution, one that transformed not only how we interact and communicate with each other and with institutions but one that altered the way we create, distribute and consume information forever.
On the business side, in the midst of this digital transformation, make no mistake about one thing, however. It is still driven by the concerns of business over this refreshed, new, more demanding customer. In August, McKinsey released its Global Survey, taking a look at digital strategies, and the use of digital tools. Here are a couple of paragraphs from that report:
“We found that despite organizational and talent challenges, executives remain optimistic about digital business...They report, for example, that their companies are using digital technologies more and more to engage with customers and reach them through new channels. What’s more, growing shares report that their companies are making digital marketing and customer engagement a high strategic priority.
…Executives say that each of the five digital trends we asked about is a strategic priority. Of these the trends that rank the highest is customer engagement: 56 percent say digital engagement is at least a top-ten company priority.”
In other words, we are seeing a digital transformation that is being driven by customers, with engagement (as I pointed out in my “Stake in the ground – moved” report) being customer strategy’s core.
What this means, in a nutshell for CRM is that the “S” in SCRM has run its course. What we now know as CRM, we did know as Social CRM. CRM without the integration of these digital channels, without the capture of knowledge, the identification of insight and the personalization of customer experience, is not CRM – it is deficient. With it, it is what CRM now is. It drives the strategies companies have to focus on and the programs associated with these strategies and thus the technologies that enable those strategies and programs.
I could say a lot more, but I suggest you go to here and fill out the form at the bottom of the page to read the full document. It’s a lot more comprehensive.
What makes this fascinating for the technology world and particularly the so-called software industry is what it means for the creation and delivery of the applications and services needed to enable this customer-driven digital transformation.
I guess the only way I can put it is, the stakes for them are higher than they have ever been and the opportunities are greater than they have ever been. But to make this work, to compete in this changed world – especially at the enterprise level, but at all levels, really – they have to do things right all the time. Which, of course, isn’t easy.
What exactly do I mean by “do things right all the time?
The best way to do this is by a list.
What does this have to do with the CRM Watchlist for 2014?
Everything. Which you’ll see if you’re patient enough to get through another long-winded piece.
For those of you who don’t know anything about the Watchlist, here’s a very brief synopsis.
It’s an impact award that I’ve been doing for the last five years that seems to have gained some serious industry traction, despite my best efforts to screw up on a regular basis. I am the sole administrator and judge though I’m considering expanding that for next year (2015) not this year (2014).
Any CRMish technology company is welcome to participate. That means that under my definition of CRMish, you could be an SFA, marketing automation or customer service technology provider, an enterprise software provider, a social analytics provider, a tool that extracts the deeper meaningful and hidden relationships in a business, a knowledge management tool, a feedback system, a gamification system, ad infinitum. The only real criterion is that your applications and services are customer facing. That means that financials and HR etc. don’t apply here. Additionally, you can be a consulting company that has a customer facing practice. If you are that, my concern is your company AND the customer facing practice – not one or the other.
This year, so far, I have 141 companies that have asked for the questionnaire, which given the time frame is on the same pace as last year, where I ended up with 173 who requested it. My expectation is that they will ALL send it back because I told them prior to registration that because I start tracking the companies that I send the questionnaire to, I expect that in return they will do me the courtesy of treating this seriously since tracking a company consumes time. Thus they won’t request the questionnaire if they aren’t going to fill it out. Last year, of that 173, 153 returned the questionnaire. Of the 20 who didn’t, none of them are welcome back except two who actually contacted me and told me that they weren’t going to be able to. They are welcome back anytime. Just sayin’.
Because of the dramatic shift, my criteria are somewhat different for the 2014 version. Don’t worry. If you’re a participant, the questionnaire you have will be the one that I’m going to use, still. That doesn’t change.
But what does change is what I’m going to be looking for. Remember, the CRM Watchlist is an impact award. You win, if you are large or small or in-between if I think that you will have a significant impact in the marketplace – not just in the CRM industry. There is a lot that goes into that – all reflected in the questions of the questionnaire. Yeah, but (and I don’t remember if I ever told you this before), there are 20 other criteria that go beyond those questions that I’m looking for that are as important as the answers to the questions. Some of them are outside the scope of the questionnaire and require me to, uh, track you and the others require some research. This year, I’m adding three more. While I’m not willing to tell you what they specifically are, let me conclude this piece with an eighth thing that technology companies have to do. (See the first list of 7)
My newly rejiggered definition of CRM is the following: “CRM is a business science with a defined philosophy and a set of strategies and programs, supported by systems and technologies, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment. Its purpose and its value are to make the customer’s experience with the company good enough to provide a mutually beneficial outcome over time, even as expectations change.”
Prove it.