Ten of 2001's significant CRM implementations

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on March 11, 2002

A new report from Aberdeen Group examines some top CRM installations, focusing on those that had yielded a return on investment.

A new research report from Boston-based market analysis and positioning services firm, Aberdeen Group, examines Aberdeen's selection of the top ten CRM implementations of 2001. For the report, What Works: Ten Significant CRM Implementations of 2001, Aberdeen canvassed CRM industry vendors to identify their most significant implementations from the prior year, and the case studies presented are based on in-depth vendor and customer interviews and analysis.

According to Aberdeen research director, Denis Pombriant: "Return on investment was a major theme in the CRM industry in 2001 and we wanted to identify cases where implementations succeeded and where the customer could point to a return they received from the implementation."

Included in the report
·  AMF Bowling, Inc with Applix, Inc.
·  Asyst with Siebel Systems, Inc.
·  City of Des Moines with Front Range Solutions Inc.
·  Compaq Canada with Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc.
·  Hewlett-Packard Company with Allegis Corporation
·  Oncology Therapeutics with Blue Martini Software
·  Rockwell Automation Corporation with Selectica, Inc.
·  Sonus with Trivium Systems, Inc.
·  Textron Fastening Systems with Salesforce.com, Inc.
·  Tupperware with Talisma Corporation

Some examples
Examples of the installations included in the report include:

Compaq Canada with Blue Pumpkin Software
Aberdeen recognized Blue Pumpkin's engagement with Compaq Canada for
its return-on-investment and excellence in customer service results. Compaq Canada Consumer Helpdesk selected Blue Pumpkin last year to optimise its workforce processes. Some of the results achieved were: the company's call abandonment rate fell by some 65%, average hold time decreased by 57%, operational expenses was reduced by 15% and gross margins increased by 18%.

According to Aberdeen's research director, Harry Watkins," Traditional CRM systems have focused on the processes and infrastructure for managing customer interactions, but have ignored the central importance of a firm's employees in meeting the challenge of acquiring and retaining loyal customers. This system not only makes the right people available to customers at the right time, but it also empowers employees; for example, by giving contact centre personnel input into the scheduling process." Using the system's workforce optimisation features, Compaq was able to more accurately forecast staffing needs, provide greater flexibility in scheduling, and quickly explore many "what-if" scenarios easily without touching live data.

Talisma CRM and Tupperware
Tupperware turned to Talisma because it needed to provide immediate live online assistance to its mainly non-technical sales force to help it bring its sales consultants online and provide direct assistance with the sales order processing. In addition, the company wanted to be able to extend online training and chat capabilities to its consultants, as well as make real-time support and chat accessible to online shoppers to create a trouble-free and satisfying shopping experience.

Applix and AMF Bowling
The Applix iSales implementation at AMF Bowling, the largest owner and operator of bowling centres in the world, with some 500 centres, was created to accomplish three strategic goals:
·  Capture accurate customer information for use throughout the organization, and use that information to conduct high-yield marketing campaigns powered by Applix iSales,
·  Help AMF salespeople manage their time more effectively, wherever they may be,
·  Improve customer communications across all entities within AMF.

The application was implemented in just 45 days. It provides both stand-alone laptop systems and PDAs for the mobile sales force, as well as Windows-based desktops for AMF's corporate headquarters.

Even at this early stage, it has already produced up to a 50% improvement in sales rep efficiency in targeting qualified sales prospects; 25% improvement in sales rep efficiency resulting from use of PDAs; and 40% improvement ($250,000 per sales rep) in the sales rep ramp-up period.

For a six page pdf document providing more information on these ROIs, click here.

More details:

www.aberdeen.com
www.blue-pumpkin.com
www.compaq.ca
www.talisma.com
www.tupperware.com
www.applix.com
www.amf.com