Getting a Grip on CRM

Starting With A Clear Vision

The CRMA recently surveyed about 20 large Canadian companies on theirCRM experiences, identifying some major problems those companies citedwith CRM. Third on the list was incomplete planning, including failureto prioritize activities and to define the rationale, budget,calculated return on investment and timeline of CRM initiatives.

The CRMAs findings were reflected in the comments of the executives wespoke to. What was evident from those conversations was that a keyingredient in CRM success is having a clear idea of what you want toaccomplish.

Baxter Corp., the Mississauga, Ont.-based subsidiary of health-carecompany Baxter International, implemented CRM in 2000 and 2001.Baxters emphasis on knowing where the project was going was animportant contributor to its success.

Director of CRM during that period was Doug Sommerville, now Baxtersvice-president of medication delivery. For us, CRM really began as abusiness strategy. We spent a lot of time early in this project reallydefining what our business strategy was, he says. We would never haveanything like this approved without being able to generate anacceptable return on investment, and the beginning of this exercisewas a fairly detailed business case.