In today's difficult economic climate, CRM professionals cannot afford failed business process and technology projects. To pinpoint the real-world pitfalls that can trip up CRM initiatives, Forrester surveyed 133 organizations using one of 24 leading CRM solutions. Fully one-third of the problems reported were related to technology. Looking deeper into this category of dangers, we found the most significant threats are: application functional gaps and deficiencies (30%); a lack of appropriate technical skills in user organizations (23%); data problems (19%); systems performance challenges (19%); and poor application UIs (8%). Use Forrester's CRM project risk evaluation criteria and self-assessment tool to anticipate, and remediate, problems applying best practices. Also, apply our five principles for CRM success to get the most value, with the least risk, from your customer management projects.