Companies underestimate CRM costs by 40-75%
According to Gartner analysts, many of the companies that are implementing CRM projects will underestimate the cost of the project by as much as 40-75%. When technology, labour costs, consulting services and related training are taken into account, large businesses can spend anything from US$30 million to US$90 million over three years on a CRM project. Surprisingly, many do this without having proper project management tools in place beforehand.
To manage CRM initiatives successfully, four project management tools are particularly important. They are:
- The total cost of ownership (TCO), which is a holistic view of IT costs (including people, process and technology),
- Benefit projections,
- Return on investment (ROI) projections, and
- Work plans for the various technology solutions that will have to be implemented.
All of these tools are major contributors to the business case analysis which should be done before starting to implement CRM projects.
Gartner analysts will be discussing this issue at the Gartner Symposium/IT Expo 2001 on October 8-12 in Orlando, Florida, which includes more than 250 in-depth, analyst-led sessions.
More details of the event are available at www.gartner.com/symposium/us
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