If a modern era baseball player finished a season with a .470 batting average, the player would be in the Hall of Fame for shattering the single season record. He’d also likely be calling the team owner “partner” after renegotiating his contract.

If an oil company spills 47% of its crude from a pump in the Gulf of Mexico – well sadly we know the result of that.

Now if an IT professional is responsible for CRM or eCRM platforms, there’s a 47% chance they’re on the wrong side of the CRM success rate. In 2009, CRM failed at a 47% clip according to the July 2010 issue of DestinationCRM Magazine.)

Not a surprise really. The 47% failure rate is generally in line with past years. But it’s not acceptable and certainly can’t be good for the career path of anyone on the CRM team.

While the article offered no definition of CRM “failure”, one, some or all of the following reasons (and likely others) will cause a CRM disaster:

• Lack of clear CRM goals
• CRM strategy not supported by platform
• Lack of ROI
• Low user adoption
• Poor quality data
• Little or no impact on sales cycle or effectiveness
• Disconnect between functional groups during design and implementation
• CRM budget overruns

So what gives? More importantly, how can IT professionals help ensure that their firms’ CRM deployments are successful?  Here are five questions IT must ask:

1. Is the C-Suite committed to getting CRM and/or eCRM right? If CRM isn’t tied into a company’s growth and/or efficiency strategy it can’t be successful.
2. Are ALL of the stakeholders on the critical path to success involved with the project from the outset? Stakeholders will likely include: member(s) of the C-Suite; and, leaders from IT, Sales, Marketing, Customer Support, Operations and Finance. CRM can impact every functional area. Each functional area will have expectations about CRM that will need to be explored, included, rejected, put into a later upgrade, managed, etc. None of those decisions should be made without full transparency and an inclusive process.
3. Does your company have a formal process for approving large, cross-functional projects? If yes, the process must be clearly understood. If there is no process, it’s time to build one. Answering this question will also ensure that no stakeholders have been omitted (see question #2).
4. What are the strategic CRM objectives? What process will be used to determine what is really important in supporting the corporate strategy and not “just” individual stakeholders or groups of stakeholders? How will priorities be set by the group? (Hint: democracy may play a role. Scary, I know. Also note that “CRM objectives” is #4 out of 5 questions. It’s impossible to get the right objectives without answering the first three questions.)
5. How will success be measured? Do solutions need to be implemented all at once or can the goals be prioritized by some business, financial, capability, market or some other factor?

Note that budget and time frame are not included in the questions. Ultimate responsibility for post-implementation management isn’t included either. Budget and time frame will become readily apparent as the strategy and implementation plan become clear. Project and post-implementation management will be decided upon during the collaborative process used to develop the right CRM strategy and solution.

Back in the day making a recommendation for a “forklift upgrade” for the network was not a good career move for IT professionals. Today, IT not being a good partner with sales, marketing, customer support, operations and finance will be equally or more career limiting. CRM success is one way that IT professionals can demonstrate their value and contribution to an organization. Or, IT can enjoy the company of the 47% that experienced CRM failure in 2009. After all, misery loves company – but it doesn’t pay bonuses or retain employees.

Article by Harry Klein for .