March 31, 2004
7:30 to 10:00 AM
Fox/Gittis Foyer
Liacouras Center
Temple University Main Campus
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has become an umbrella term for the practice of formally planning for and technology enabling the relationship with our customer. CRM is a technology and a concept to change the marketing, distribution, pricing, and features that are offered to customers. Early proponents of CRM assumed it would replace and subsume all aspects of customer facing activities. This vision has not been realized in most organizations and questions still linger about whether CRM is simply a re-packaged version of sales force automation.
Our panelists offered a range of perspectives and experiences on what CRM means to different companies. There seems to be no standard approach to how companies organize around CRM or who sponsors or manages the activities. CRM can be an individual business unit initiative with no dedicated resources to a company-wide activity with senior management leadership and dedicated resources.
The cost benefit mode for CRM is also challenging. Many companies have adopted CRM practices based on their commitment that is the only way to remain competitive and be successful. Many technologies are available to facilitate and support CRM programs, but the business processes and strategies are far more important than the technology.
Lessons learned shared by the panelists revolved around having clear understanding of the scope and objective, the always popular “criticality of project management”, need for clarity on the measurement and/or metrics, and the value of senior management sponsorship.
Panelists
- Jennifer Streitwieser, Founding Partner, The Diagonal Group
- Jim Spicer, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Wachovia Corporation
- Frank Reynolds, Director, Global Business Development Siemens Enterprise Networks
- Michael Palmer, CIO & EVP Supply Chain Management, Allied Office Supplies, Inc.
- Frank Mouthaan, Vice President of Global CRM Sales Support, PeopleSoft
Moderator
- Bruce Fadem, Vice President and CIO, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals
