CRM has received a lot of negative publicity over the years because of the failure rate of CRM implementation projects.

A recent Butler Group report found that 70 percent of CRM implementations fail. A Gartner study found that approximately 55 percent of all CRM projects failed to meet software customers' expectations. In a Bain & Company survey of 451 senior executives, CRM ranked in the bottom three categories among 25 popular tools evaluated for customer satisfaction.

While there are a multitude of reasons cited for failure of these projects, our experience in implementing over 200 CRM projects directly is that user acceptance is the one of the most critical factors.

In his article on “Why CRM Projects Fail”, Rajiv Chaudhry quotes:

You can design the best process in the world, and back it with the latest and greatest technology, but if your people don't buy into the project, it won't work. There are three people-related issues that have surfaced in many of the CRM programs, that are worth noting:

• The Fear-of-Change Syndrome. You already have a sales process in place. It may be based on printed reports, paper clips, and post-it notes, but it does work to some extent and people are familiar with it. Reengineering requires change, which most people instinctively resist. This fear of change needs to be dealt with early on, or the very people the system is designed to help will be the ones to see that it fails.

• The It's Easy Enough Syndrome. For your CRM system to be successful, every single person must use it. For the sake of speed, a temptation may be to let IS or a few computer-literate users design the system interface. What you will end up with is a system that they think is easy enough for them to use, but isn't easy enough for everyone. One CIO's observation sums up the whole issue about usability: Too easy never is.

• The Big Brother Syndrome. Be aware that horror stories of the hidden reasons that companies implement CRM programs may already be circulating through your sales force. They may have heard how these systems are designed to track their every move, just waiting for them to make a mistake so that management can pounce on them. This initial distrust is a very serious issue that must be dealt with swiftly.

Leaving any of these concerns unresolved will only result in bigger problems when you get ready for implementation. They need to be dealt with head-on so that everyone is on board and supportive of what the company is trying to accomplish.

Another one that I would add to the list above is:

• The “WIIFM” Concept: More completely known as “What’s In It For Me”. It’s no good introducing a system that only benefits the company. This is closely allied to the Big Brother Syndrome above. That is, you cannot expect a system to sustain itself if it does not produce any direct benefits to the users themselves.