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TOO MANY COMPANIES ARE LOSING OUT BY
NOT TRACKING INVESTMENTS IN BUILDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS,
SAYS CAP GEMINI ERNST & YOUNG SURVEY IN THE US
US Survey Data Helps Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Quickly
Introduce New Tool to Market - The CRM IndexSM -
To Help Companies create CRM Strategies, Connect to their
Customers, and Evolve their Business Operations
Cannes (France) - 23 April, 2001 - Cap Gemini
Ernst & Young has announced the results of a major
study on US companies and their customer relationship management
solutions and strategies. The survey was completed in
January 2001, and covered senior marketing, sales and customer
service executives in the US; it revealed that few companies
track investments made in customers and, therefore, have no
real sense of ROI on their CRM programme.
"There is clearly no single rule or prescription for turning
a company into a customer-centric business, but we do know
it is critical to track what has been invested and how it
is impacting customer behaviour," said Paul Cole, CRM Global
practice leader for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young. "Our
US survey doesn't show that management is delinquent in its
efforts to better reach and interact with its customers, but
rather that market forces - competition, customer expectations,
technology - are changing so rapidly that management faces
formidable challenges in delivering a consistent and seamless
customer experience."
The US study found that those companies which are growing
the fastest tend to 'touch' their customers more often and
are more likely than others to be directing their IT investment
toward CRM initiatives. This provides strong evidence
of the economic payoff of CRM.
Highlights from the first phase of the CRM survey in the
US shows that companies face some key hurdles in their effort
to reach and retain customers:
- A lack of discipline in measuring return on investment
from CRM initiatives; 42 percent of executives do not know
because they did not measure
- Product-based organisational structure; well over half
organise around product groups or geography rather than
customer segments
- No complete view of customer history or activity
- No one executive 'owns' the customer experience; 54 percent
of the executives interviewed said their companies split
this responsibility across executives.
CRM IndexSM
To help companies define strategies and accelerate their
CRM transformation, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young has developed
the CRM IndexSM, a tool for rapidly assessing CRM
effectiveness and designing roadmaps for the future. By looking
at a company's Mindset - whether it leans towards
broad market focus or relationship focus (one-to-one), and
Connectivity - whether its processes and technology
are fragmented or highly-integrated, the CRM IndexSM
places an organisation within one of nine models. From
the US research, it is apparent that the most common models
are Customer Satisfiers, Relationship Optimisers, Basic Transactors
and Pleasant Transactors. By understanding where it stands
today, a company can identify performance gaps in its marketing
and sales and customer service capabilities, and plan its
next actions.
Other facts revealed by the survey include:
- Nearly two-thirds of companies analysed were Customer
Satisfiers - they recognise that customer satisfaction is
important to ensure continued revenue streams, have established
methods to track performance, and have implemented some
automated solutions to interact with customers across multiple
touch points.
- Relationship Optimisers - the most sophisticated and less
common CRM business model - provide special treatment to
high value customers, synchronise their channels and collaborate
with customers on design and delivery of products and services.
"Our goal is to identify the most appropriate business models
and corresponding technology architecture; one that is responsive
to customers and extracts maximum value from CRM investments,"
said Gerry Brannan, CRM European practice leader . "The
CRM IndexSM provides an assessment of CRM
capabilities presented in a format for easy comparison with
other businesses, within or across sectors or geographies. This
is essential first step before embarking on a major investment
in CRM and, combined with the proper technology-enabled solutions,
provides clients with both the strategic and technical underpinnings
necessary to yield maximum return from their CRM programmes."
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young will be introducing the CRM
IndexSM for the first time in Europe at the
Siebel European User Week in Cannes (April 22-25).
About Cap Gemini Ernst and Young
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young is one of the largest management
and IT consulting firms in the world. The company offers management
and IT consulting services, systems integration, and technology
development, design, and outsourcing capabilities on a global
scale to help traditional businesses and "dot companies" continue
to implement growth strategies and leverage technology in
the new economy. The organization employs more
than 59,000 people worldwide and reports global revenues of
about 8.5 billion euros (2000 pro forma).
More information about individual service lines, offices,
and research is available at www.cgey.com.
Download "Competing in
the Relationship Economy:Realizing a CRM Transformation"
PDF 232k
For further information, please contact:
Philippe Guichardaz
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young
Corporate press relations
Tel: +33 (1) 47 54 50 00
Email: phguicha@capgemini.fr
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