It’s become popular – even expected – to use CRM as the poster child for the worst that Enterprise software has to offer. Impossible to use. Expensive to customize. Dismal ROI.
The problem isn’t so much with the vendors as a lack of precision around the strategic problem CRM is supposed to solve – or so concludes Forrester – a respected analyst group. Forrester surveyed 613 users of various Enterprise CRM products: Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP, and Siebel. On a scale of -5 (very dissatisfied) to +5 (very satisfied), the averages core was +1.76. Over 80% of corporate users stated they were “somewhat satisfied” or “satisfied” with CRM. While hardly a ringing endorsement this result is better than expected. But less than 10 percent of users would say that their applications were delivered on time or on budget.