The Right Time for CRM?

Source: Managing Partner Magazine

The struggling economy has most firms scrambling to cut costs, so investing in IT probably isn't a high priority. But Andrew Powell, IT director for a UK law firm, suggests that now may be an ideal time to invest in a customer relationship management (CRM) system. “Not because there is necessarily a rapid return on investment,” Powell explains, “but because the economic conditions are right for the cultural change that is required for a CRM implementation to succeed.”

To achieve CRM's benefits, employees must invest a great deal of time and effort in sharing information about the many interconnected relationships among staff and clients.

As a result, CRM implementations during more prosperous times often fail because of the competing demands on employees' time. In an economic downturn, however, many firms will find “a workforce more than willing to share relationship information and invest time in a system that can provide opportunities to maximize their own value.”

To read the entire post, click here.

From Managing Partner Magazine, http://www.mpmagazine.com, September 11, 2009, “Tough Times May Be Right for CRM.”