April, 2001

When CRM began to evolve in the mid-90's every software vendor who had an application that had anything to do with managing customer or prospect data began pitching itself as a "CRM System". Many of these systems were built to address one particular aspect of CRM, such as Sales Force Automation (contact management, Campaign Management, or Customer Analytics, and could not possibly deliver the value promised as "CRM System". It was a case of "over-promise and under-deliver".

Crossing the Chasm author: Geoffrey A. Moore asin: 0060517123

In the last four years, billions of dollars have been spent on CRM technology that doesn't live up to its promise. A recent Gartner study suggests that nearly 60% of managers will view their CRM initiatives as failures. Organizations are wise to be skeptical of CRM system capabilities, but they themselves are as much to blame as the system vendors. Many of the organizations that have failed with CRM because they did not conduct appropriate cost-benefit-analyses, reevaluate processes, procedures, and organizational structure, or fully-develop CRM as a business strategy.

One of the golden rules of successful marketing, as you well know, is the ability to deliver the "right" message to the "right" customer (or potential customer) at the "right" time. The CRM movement has managed a credible job helping us all to pull together the "right" message for the "right" customer, but we yet to be able to deliver that message at the "right" time. In other words, we still have difficulty in getting a message to the customer when s/he is predisposed to buying.