for improvement. Download Forrester’s 2010 FastForward CRM Capabilities Best Practices Self-Assessment. Distribute the spreadsheet to your team and score your company against CRM best
practices. Based on the results, identify the top 10 CRM capabilities most in need of improvement during the next 12 months. Build an action plan to strengthen these capabilities and define the metrics by which you will measure success.
R E C o M M E N d a t i o N S
MAKE ThE MOST OuT OF ThE BEST PRACTICES FRAMEWORK FOR CRM
Forrester’s Best Practices Framework For CRM is a powerful tool for organizations embarking on the path to assessing and improving their current CRM programs or for jump-starting programs that are just getting started. don’t just peruse the FastForward best practices self-assessment; use it as the basis for an active dialogue about CRM. How?
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Take it. Everyone involved in customer relationship transformation efforts should take the self-assessment and develop their personal view of the company’s current location in its CRM journey.·
Compare it. teams should share their individual results and identify any major differences.Why is this valuable? Because if these differences of opinion aren’t identified early in the process, they can cause alignment problems down the road.
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Discuss it. Use the results, both similarities and differences, as the basis for an active discussion about priorities. Where should the company focus its efforts?·
Improve it. CRM represents a significant makeover for most firms, so it will take time to achieve. Use Forrester’s CRM framework as a guide along the way, always asking the question: “are we improving our CRM proficiency?”SuPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL Online Resource
Forrester’s Best Practices Framework For CRM is also available as an online tool, “Forrester’s 2010 FastForward CRM Capabilities Best Practices Self-Assessment”.
9You can use this diagnostic tool to evaluate your capabilities against more than 150 CRM best practices, including social CRM capabilities.
ENDNOTES
1 As the economy recovers, what are the key trends that will drive customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and technology adoption in 2010? Business and IT professionals who support customer-facing business processes must take into account 11 key trends: 1) companies return to investing in their most important asset — customers; 2) CRM evolves to become the extended CRM application ecosystem; 3) SaaS CRM solutions become the default choice; 4) social CRM hype reaches a crescendo, but projects remain in pilot mode; 5) customer service embraces real-time methods; 6) next-generation customer intelligence solutions emerge; 7) the struggle to integrate customer data continues; 8) mobile CRM becomes a must-have capability; 9) price/value trumps functionality in purchase decisions; 10) scrutiny of business cases remains intense; 11) best practices continue to separate the winners from losers. See the February 9, 2010,
“Trends 2010: Customer Relationship Management” report.
2 Customer relationship management (CRM) addresses how companies get new customers, keep existing customers, and increase customer value. Forrester’s CRM research provides advice on how to plan, justify, evaluate, implement, and manage critical customer-facing processes and technologies in areas like customer analytics, marketing campaigns, sales force automation, customer service and support, customer self-service and assisted self-service, and multichannel management. See the October 5, 2006, “Topic Overview:
Customer Relationship Management” report.
3 Forrester’s customer relationship management (CRM) research helps business process professionals embrace best practices — from process optimization to technology implementation — to improve customer interactions and drive top-line growth. Our research spans the business processes that support sales, marketing, customer service, the related topics of customer business intelligence, and data management. We are researching how the rise of the social Web affects the way customers buy from and interact with organizations of all types — a phenomenon that has become known as social CRM. Business process professionals should follow Forrester’s seven steps for social CRM success: 1) initiate social CRM experiments immediately; 2) benchmark customer and prospect social readiness; 3) define your social
4 Forrester evaluated 18 leading customer relationship management (CRM) suite solutions against 516 criteria reflecting the requirements of large organizations. We found that heavyweight Leaders Oracle Siebel and SAP still offer the most complete solutions, with better usability and improved total cost of ownership (TCO) to persuade customers to upgrade. Other vendors in the Leader category, such as CDC Software, Microsoft, Oracle CRM On Demand, RightNow Technologies, and salesforce.com are gaining ground with flexible, quick-to-implement solutions. The Leaders are challenged by a pack of Strong Performers. Oracle E-Business Suite (EBS) CRM and Oracle PeopleSoft Enterprise CRM remain good options for enterprise resource planning (ERP) customers. Chordiant Software, Pegasystems, and Sword Ciboodle offer business process management (BPM) strengths to orchestrate complex customer-facing processes. Maximizer Software, NetSuite, SageCRM, Sage SalesLogix, and SugarCRM offer sound solutions but are best suited for midsized organizations. FrontRange Solutions, a Contender vendor, offers a solution to meet basic needs.
See the June 16, 2010, “Forrester Wave™: CRM Suites For Large Organizations, Q2 2010” report.
5 How does your customer relationship management (CRM) project compare with those at other
organizations? Forrester surveyed 99 organizations that are using one of 19 leading CRM suite solutions to understand their CRM solution purchase patterns, buying criteria, implementation practices, and satisfaction. See the August 26, 2010, “Benchmarks For CRM Selection And Deployment” report.
6 Locking in customer loyalty through deeper engagement and differentiated experiences will continue to be critical priorities for organizations in all sectors in the decade ahead, but navigating the complex customer relationship management (CRM) technology landscape remains challenging — particularly in light of the rapid rise of Social Computing, the increasing adoption of software-as-a service (SaaS) solutions, and the need to provide mobile capabilities for front-line personnel. As our TechRadar™ evaluation of the extended CRM applications ecosystem shows, community platforms, customer forums, and enterprise feedback management solutions — all of which enable new ways to connect more closely with customers — have entered the CRM stage. However, selling, order-taking, and customer service remain the engines that power the income locomotive at most companies. Customer data management and business intelligence solutions are becoming much more robust, supporting deeper customer insights and better decision-making. See the July 9, 2009,
“TechRadar™ For BP&A Professionals: The Extended CRM Application Ecosystem, Q3 2009” report.
7 The three primary determinants of success for CRM initiatives in the near term will be clear linkage to business value, phased implementation programs, and proactive measurement and optimization of actual business results. Defining a value-based CRM plan requires a tight partnership between IT and the business.
While this is the case with any major IT initiative, it is even more imperative for CRM efforts because the underlying basis for CRM is understanding the customer and using that understanding to drive customer value, and ultimately, greater business effectiveness and profitability. See the January 29, 2003, “Addressing The CRM Value Crisis: Planning For Value And Delivering It” report.
8 Forrester’s FastForward best practices self-assessment for CRM is available as an online tool. Use this diagnostic tool to evaluate your capabilities against more than 150 CRM best practices. See the November 5, 2010, “Forrester’s 2010 FastForward CRM Capabilities Best Practices Self Assessment.”
9 Forrester’s FastForward best practices self-assessment for CRM is available as an online tool. Use this diagnostic tool to evaluate your capabilities against more than150 CRM best practices. See the November 5, 2010, “Forrester’s 2010 FastForward CRM Capabilities Best Practices Self Assessment.”