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Published on: May 2007
Type of content: WHITE PAPER
Format: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) (225 kb)
Length: 7 pages
Price: FREE

Overview:
As customer relationship management (CRM) adoption has returned to growth mode in recent years, the technology’s sophistication and reach has increased dramatically. Leading companies use CRM to segment customers based on lifetime value, produce more accurate sales forecasts, sharpen inventory management capabilities through supply chain integration, and pipe crucial customer data to globe-trotting sales professionals’ personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cell phones. Many more mid-sized companies have embraced CRM capabilities thanks to the emergence of the software as a service (SaaS) model, among other drivers.

The rewards for implementing and upgrading CRM capabilities are potentially enormous: sizeable returns on the technology investment and, as new research and analysis indicate, significant competitive advantages for companies that leverage customer analytics better than their rivals.

Training and supporting CRM end users has always been a challenge. That challenge has been exacerbated by the increasing sophistication of CRM functionality as well as a growing, and more geographically and functionally diverse collection of end users. Failing to address the risks that can hamper end user adoption reduces the return on CRM investments and, in some cases, can put companies at a competitive disadvantage.

This white paper briefly highlights CRM’s recent evolution, examines the risks that accompany those developments and, most important, identifies the capabilities – contained in an effective synchronized content development platform – that mitigate the risks and maximize the opportunities for valuable returns on CRM investments and competitive advantage.