CRM needs business focus says Cranfield

A study released this week has shown that board level understanding of customer relationship management (CRM) is vital if such projects are to have any chance of success.

The Cranfield School of Management has carried out research into CRM with sponsorship from SAS Institute - the world's largest privately owned software company.

CRM is a term that describes the combination of marketing and technologies such as datawarehousing and computer telephony integration (CTI), used by companies attempting to hold on to customers.

Cranfield investigated financial institutions that are involved in CRM projects based on datawarehousing, by speaking to CRM managers or IT and marketing managers with CRM responsibility.

Linda Saul, SAS Institute CRM product manager, said: "The research revealed there is generally a lack of project management and a lack of being able to quantify the payback of CRM. Users should be thinking about payback from day one - or risk a loss of faith in CRM."

Lynette Ryals, from the Cranfield School of Management, added: "CRM is not just an IT issue, but a business and cultural issue. There has to be a pulling together of staff which affects the structure of an organisation. In many ways organisations haven't realised this up to now. We're not just talking about datawarehouses."

SAS Institute said effective CRM strategies will become more important as the volume of data collected by organisations - often from external feeds - continues to increase.