Benchmarks For CRM Selection And Deployment

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. Here are the highlights: customer service and sales are the most commonly deployed capabilities; "flexibility and adaptability of the solution," "fit with business requirements," "architectural alignment," and "business process workflow" are important purchase criteria; organizations most often take between six months and a year to deploy their CRM solutions, but nearly 40% implemented in 12 weeks or less; and about one-quarter reported they spent $1 million or more for initial software licenses or subscription fees for their CRM project, and about a third spent less than $250,000. Organizations most often implement CRM solutions themselves but also rely on vendor resources and systems integrators for support. And 41% of the organizations surveyed fully agreed that their expected business results were met or exceeded. Selecting the solution that best fits the needs of your organization will get you only halfway to CRM success. For many of our clients, getting more value out of their existing CRM business process infrastructure is a key challenge. To mine value from CRM systems, follow Forrester's 10 best practices.