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Study: Of Big Data, big challenges and the search for ROI in CRM solutions

Research report gets up close and personal to DACH CRM users  

What are the motives behind implementing a CRM solution and where are the limitations of strategies and systems? Which factors determine success and what is the business’ take on global trends? A new research report by the Zurich Institute of Economic Information Systems (IWI), on behalf of the independent consultants Sopra Steria, followed up on these and more questions. The central finding being that many businesses are on the verge of creating useless data dumps unless their strategies start extending towards their customers and touchpoints. Here, a software providers support has an important part to play.

CRM solutions are becoming more and more relevant for business strategies. According to a research report from the Institute of Economic Information Systems (IWI) at the School of Management and Law at the Zürich University for Applied Sciences (ZHAW), 67% of the pilot study’s participants (467 businesses and organizations) rate CRM as very important.

A good reason to take a closer look at the relevance of global trends as well as the usage, challenges and value proposition of individual systems. Some of the major findings in this report:

  • A majority of participants in the DACH region regard individual and personalized customer care as the most important feature of a CRM solution.
  • Demand for a centralized overview creates the challenge of using the data in a meaningful way during customer contact. Collecting addresses, contact data as well as information about various interactions at customer touchpoints usually has priority.
  • Individual support by the CRM provider and a flexible system design are key quality criteria of CRM solutions.
  • Only a few participants evaluate the success of their CRM-based strategies. Most of the businesses answered the question about their activities’ effect on ROI  as “partly successful“.
  • In order to cope with growing amounts of data through various customer touchpoints, efficient and professional data collection gains importance, resulting in a demand for closer integration of all relevant business units as well as the increasing use of data entry technologies directly at the customer touchpoints.

Dr. Mirjam Riesemann, board member at update software: “We keep observing businesses who are, to some extent, helpless in the face of the huge amounts of data. While CRM systems facilitate a 360-degree-view of the customer, they only partially help to maintain and delight your customer again and again. The solution lies in how the user analyzes and uses data. It’s the only way to give businesses the opportunity to reach their customers at all touchpoints in the optimal way and ensure long-term success. That’s why we take a step further and work with our clients to utilize data meaningfully in a Customer Experience framework.“

 

update software comes out on top of utility analysis

Based on the input of participants as well as an expert jury, the most popular CRM solutions underwent a utility analysis. Due to its high degree of specialization, update.CRM was able to differentiate itself from its competitors, SAP CRM and Microsoft Dynamics CRM, reaching 1.103 points, followed-up by Microsoft Dynamics CRM  (984 points) and SAP CRM (860 points). The system’s high adaptability in combination with low training requirements was regarded as especially positive. 

www.update.com

 

 

Publi-reportage - //20