As long time readers of Mingtiandi will know, I am a big fan of online management systems, and I am currently working on updating our CRM, or customer relationship management system.
CRMs are critical to managing a company’s sales process, but most implementations fail. In North America, a recent study estimated that over half of all CRM implementations fail to meet their objectives. In Europe, the flop rate is a horrific seventy to eighty percent. For companies hoping to ensure a successful CRM experience, here are the top ten reasons that CRM implementations fail (according to me).
1. Not defining clear objectives for the software implementation.
2. A failure to review and define the key performance indicators for the company and to align the system with these KPI
3. Over-customization of the software particularly during an early implementation phase can spell the demise of a project.
4. Planning to customize the selected solution before trying it out it in a test environment.
5. Not incenting your employees to use the system.
6. Insufficient training and support
7. A lack of clear rules for data entry which results in poor quality data.
8. Failure to align the business operations of the divisions utilizing the system.
9. Failure to align processes so that team members follow uniform workflows.
10. Not planning for change and developing a strategy regarding creeping project scope.
Do you have a different experience with CRM to share? Got a software implementation horror story — just let me know!
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