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Customer data integration has begun to attract more interest of late, as organizations move toward CRM-related initiatives that are supposed to offer far better-and far faster-returns than previous efforts. As the Aberdeen Group (Boston; 617-723-7890; www.aberdeen.com) so aptly put it in the white paper "CRM and Back-Office Integration for the Small and Medium-Sized Business": "In a perfect world, CRM can provide businesses with a holistic view of their customers and new sales opportunities and past transactions of each relationship. This view lets everyone involved see the same information and increases an organization's ability to collaborate more effectively when supporting, selling to, or marketing to the customer."
Of course, few companies have realized this ideal, as we noted in last month's News brief, "The number-one downfall for CRM, per the executive set?" The answer, noted in "What Do C-Level Executives see as the Biggest CRM Challenge?" a white paper by Rich Hall, vice president of sales and marketing for Touchtone Corp. (Costa Mesa, Calif.; 714-755-2810; www.TouchToneCorp. com):
"C-level executives see the biggest challenge they face when considering CRM, buying CRM, or having already implemented CRM, is teaching the users the value of the information, so they can take full advantage of the power of that information."
So, even if your organization has successfully made customer information available across the enterprise, it may not be using the information-or using it in an appropriate, customer-friendly, and business-wise way.
But it can be done. ICRM has discovered quite a few success stories about CRM information integration of late, and offers a sampling for your education and inspiration:
* Morgan Stanley. "You have to know your clients if you're going to provide [them] with information from any level of the organization," Tony LoFrumento, executive director...