Butler Group warns firms not to implement CRM as a ‘me too’ strategy

IT analyst Butler group has just issued a report warning businesses not to adopt CRM (customer relationship management) just because the competition are using it, but to use it to gain positive business advantage. The report “Real CRM – Pitfalls and Potential” reviewed 18 major CRM vendors including the likes of Siebel, Onyx, Oracle, Chordiant and Computer Associates, and concluded that businesses should be, “Careful not to grasp CRM to ‘mend’ relationships or [adopt CRM] because it’s the current vogue.” Butler Group senior research analyst Andrew Kellett: “It is expected that CRM software will increasingly make use of data intelligence, incorporating features that can provide added value to the base data.” The report made several key predictions: firstly, companies will adopt CRM as a cost-cutting tool rather than a revenue-generating one over the next couple of years due to the recent economic downturn; the dominant CRM vendors will be Oracle and Siebel over the next two years with the rest fighting it out for the spoils; CRM as a product is fragmented, therefore rapid consolidation is unlikely in the near future; and finally, the report concludes that the large corporate CRM market will become saturated forcing vendors to create ‘shrink-wrapped’ versions for SMEs (small to medium size enterprises).