News

Industry Adoption of E-CRM Slow

• 09/07/2000

A recent study by the Cutter Consortium shows that dissatisfied users of electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) technology outnumber those satisfied by a two-to-one margin.

"This is not surprising given the complexity of e-CRM and its relative immaturity," says Chris Pickering, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium and author of the report, "E-Business: Trends, Strategies, and Technologies." "But as industry experience increases and the products improve, satisfaction should increase as well."

Web-based sales, integrated call centers (for customer service), electronic billing and electronic payment are often included in leading e-CRM packages.

Only 8 percent of the respondents in the Cutter Consortium survey are currently using e-CRM despite the fact that productivity was cited as the top benefit of the technology. Additional results show that 12 percent plan on using e-CRM while 24 percent are reviewing it. Of those surveyed, 44 percent are not aware of its usage in their organization.

Pickering concludes, "The success rate among those using the technology is very high. Nearly 70 percent of those using e-CRM are citing a 76 percent to 100 percent success rate. But given that high 'not aware' number of 44 percent, it remains to be seen whether e-CRM will catch on. From an industry standpoint, those who are not aware of e-CRM are the biggest impediment to adoption."

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