Customer Relationship Management Systems

...

In 2014, The National Bank of Canada (NBC) installed SAP CRM system and reaped benefits within the company. NBC has managed to improve their productivity by speeding up their credit card decision process by 50%,[34] increase their “cross-sell rate for lines of credit by 173%,[35] and reduce “process lending cost by 30%.[36] Also, SAP is exemplary in their role of integrating CRM with a service business. Compared to Salesforce, SAP delivers better CRM service as they “offers a whole range of solution in customer service – work order management, parts allocation.”[37] As a service accounting business, SAP suits the position for the needs of the company to advance further in the CRM division. Other than SAP, Oracle CRM on demand also delivers customer relationship management systems.

Oracle CRM on demand has been a business weapon for Siemens Information Services. With Oracle CRM, they were able to improve the productivity of their employees by 20%,[38] while integrating with Microsoft Outlook. Productivity is essential in the performance of a service business as the outcome leads to branches of benefits. In addition, companies can achieve productivity when having insights on customer wants and needs. Other advantages that Oracle CRM On-Demand offers is “monitor customer satisfaction and provide valuable feedback for agent performance management.”[39] Customer satisfaction is a prime indicator to show companies what customer perceives as value and Oracle have successfully tailored that setting for a business that needs customer feedbacks.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM benefitted Carlson Capital Management in increasing their employee productivity. Carlson Capital Management is an expert at advising wealth management and with Microsoft Dynamics CRM; it allowed the firm to achieve a “75% decrease in time spent on data searches.”[40] With the Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Carlson is now able to fully utilize its resources given and provide a full-scope of their customers. In addition, Microsoft Dynamics CRM also aided The Linc Group to allocate their data better. The system allowed the technicians to provide service actively and expect to “generate 10% in revenue.”[41] With capabilities to forecast future matters, The Linc Group can proactively identify exactly what the customer needs. Besides the previous four industry, Pegasystems also supplies CRM integration systems.

The Pega CRM systems deploy an innovative platform that resulted in high customer retention for HSBC. The Pega system intelligently allocates request from clients and immediately direct them to HSBC representatives. This system led to a “70% cost savings and 25% reduction in unresolved payment cases”[42] in over two years. Additionally, Pegasystems stated that they had changed the next-generation CRM systems. With adoption rate on CRM systems being critical for proper implementation, Pegasystems created a program that “empowers business users to quickly create new processes and services with minimal involvement from IT staff.”[43] Pegasystems created a pathway to minimalize technical issues by inventing a user-friendly CRM system that leads to quicker adoption rate and higher productivity.

5 Failures of CRM Implementation

Although CRM system has beneficial impacts on companies, consequences can be at stake when businesses wrongfully implement it. There have been cases when corporates rush their progress in implementing CRM systems and have failed. In 2013, there is a 63%[44] rate of failure according to research by Merkle Group Inc. It occurred, as companies have been unable to envision the opportunities through proper business strategy. The misinterpretations include lack of vision, wrong vendor, lack leadership, slow user adoption rate, and lack business strategy and planning

Companies will not succeed implementing their CRM systems when they lack vision. The CEO of SugarCRM, Larry Augustin stated that CRM is unsuccessful due to a “govern by incomplete vision, one that is far too internally focused, and as a result, they are quietly failing to live up to their potential.”[45] Augustin visualizes that since the company is investing their time and money into CRM, everyone who falls in contact with any customer is required to be involved with the CRM systems. The CEO of SugarCRM also noted how “the vision for CRM at most companies is too small because of the success of Siebel and then Salesforce.com, which defined CRM as a way to track and manage the sales process, essentially as sales force automation.”[46] This could be one of the mistakes that companies always do. If firms invest a hefty amount of time and money on CRM, “but doesn’t do much with it besides track sales,”[47] this missing part of the vision may be the key to get more from your investments.

Attaining the wrong vendor to implement a CRM that is unsuitable for the business will also end up in failure. Successful companies with the correct CRM implementation excel faster due to being compatible with their CRM partners. However, firms that have a higher rate of CRM failures has “partners that are incompetent, lack of experience, or too expensive.”[48] As a result, companies will suffer financial consequences due to this common mistake. Choosing a compatible vendor also means that the CRM must “fits best with your company, its goals, and your budget.”[49] Companies must also “avoid choosing your CRM based on brand names, or which ones seem to be most popular”[50] as popularity and brand names does not guarantee a synchronous vision with your company. It is beneficial to also keep in mind that the “software can easily handle changes in your business and changes in the number of users”[51] in case your company needs frequent updates.

Failures of CRM implementation also arise when the company lacks leadership sponsorship. Merkle Group Inc argued that executive often mistreats their CRM projects and “views customer-centric initiative as a side project.”[52] Even though companies invested time and money in CRM systems to reap the benefits, without proper incentives and purpose from their leaders, employees will start to lose motivation to yield the best outcome. CRM is more than software; it is part of a business implementation strategy. The whole organization has to understand the positive impacts of CRM including “upper management must be united in supporting and mandating the implementation with a positive attitude.”[53] It takes everyone in the organization to understand and create a well CRM implementation. [pic 7]

According to a study done by Merkle Group Inc, a lack of user adoption to implement the CRM system correctly won’t allow companies to exploit its maximum potential out of it. When