Here’s a synopsis of an informative post from Richard Boardman, Late and Over Budget – The Hidden Traps of Implementing CRM Systems; for more detail, check out the complete source post:
While the instances of outright failure are few and far between these days, CRM technology implementation projects continue to be a source of pain and frustration. Recent research relating to IT projects in general indicated that the average project came in 56% over budget and 84% later than expected.
While I’ve no figures for CRM specifically, I’d hazard a guess that that the performance of the sector was even worse.
So what catches organisations out? Before I try and answer that, I’ll make the point that I’m referring to the meaningful use of CRM technology; technology deployed in a way that will deliver significantly beneficial results. It’s easy to throw some software on a server, or sign up for a hosted provider, however high pay-back CRM systems generally require considerable work in setting up these technologies in order to generate results.
Here are the six aspects of CRM deployment that tend to ambush the unwary…
1. Poorly defined requirements
2. The availability of internal staff
3. Sign offs
4. Data (quality)
5. User acceptance testing
6. User adoption
So what would I add to this list?
7. Lack of consensus as to the “right” CRM solution
8. Poor, to no, change management process
9. No formal method for measuring the project’s ROI
10. Lack of project “buy-in” from key constituent/user groups
