Management Update: The State of CRM Service Providers in North America

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1 IGG B. Eisenfeld Article 18 September 2002 Management Update: The State of CRM Service Providers in North America Enterprises are turning to customer relationship management (CRM) to better serve their customers. Gartner examines the state of CRM service providers in North America. Enterprises, facing ever-increasing levels of competition, are turning to customer relationship management (CRM) to better serve their customers. To help enterprises with their planning in this area, Gartner examines the state of CRM service providers in North America. Drivers of CRM Service Provider Popularity Gartner forecasts businesses worldwide to spend approximately $25 billion on CRM services in That is about seven times the projected spending for CRM software, which is forecast at $3.7 billion for Two drivers are pushing CRM service providers consultants, system integrators and outsourcers to the forefront for the delivery of CRM initiatives: Technology vendors such as E.piphany, Oracle, PeopleSoft, SAP and Siebel Systems are looking for partners to supplement their professional service staffs, which are most capable only on the vendors software products. Software vendors view service partners as supplemental sales channels, especially consultants used for vendor selection. Great enterprise interest in CRM is the second driver. Many enterprises are understaffed and overwhelmed by the complexities of CRM. Using a CRM service provider brings to an enterprise CRM personnel experienced on programs and projects who can help to reduce risks. Enterprises not only get the benefit of that experience but they also gain an understanding of best practices, using proven methodologies to sort through the complexities, while gaining supplemental resources for staffing their projects. CRM Services Provider Overview The services provided by such vendors are broadly defined as: Consulting. This provides services on issues related to business processes or change management and application project management and development, technology assessment and project tuning. Gartner Entire contents 2002 Gartner, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 Outsourcing. This is a contractual relationship with an outside vendor often characterized by the transfer of assets (facilities, staff or hardware). System integration. This includes designing and building a customized architecture or applications and integrating it with legacy solutions with a reliance on an external contractor for program management for most or all project phases. Application service provider. This is the delivery of application functionality and associated services across a network to multiple customers using a pay as you go pricing model. CRM Market Drivers and Inhibitors When asked to identify their top CRM objectives, enterprises paint a picture of business process, application and integration aims focused on three basic goals: Provide more information to the customer base to enable self-care Improve internal access to customer information for more efficient and profitable marketing and sales Internally develop or refine customer information and decision support systems Those goals are driving tactical solution implementations in management, e-commerce, Webenabled self-service and data warehousing. Enterprises express a need for Internet-based integration skills within the enterprise to Web-enable new CRM technologies with legacy systems, and beyond the enterprise as companies reach out to their customer bases via the Web (see Figure 2). Figure 2 Converging Forces: CRM Market Drivers and Inhibitors

3 Drivers Customer satisfaction and business growth are top priorities Lack of in-house CRM skills evident Need for assistance in CRM strategy and program crea tion Increasing demand for integrated customer contact Need for integration with backoffice functionality Need for ideas from outside the company and industry Inhibitors Privacy and security concerns Disorganization within many enterprises adopting CRM Failure to understand requirements of scalable, multichannel strategies Inadequate understanding of customer req uirements Cutbacks in spending ESPs generally first to go Vendors advocate vanilla solutions Source: Gartner Research Those goals indicate that enterprises are moving toward integrating the multiplicity of communication channels with their customers. Initiatives to blend multiple channels e.g., Web, mobile, face-toface and phone with established enterprise systems will require enterprisewide strategic vision, business process management skills and business intelligence expertise all excellent areas for assistance from CRM external service providers (ESPs). Using CRM ESPs The marketplace for CRM services is going through interesting times. Using CRM services remains a key business strategy despite the weak global economy. Rapid technology change and a shortage of internal IT resources will continue to drive high growth for system integrators. Despite the economic downturn that started in 2001, CRM service revenue increased approximately 9.6 percent over 2000 levels, and in 2001, CRM services accounted for approximately $22 billion worldwide (see Figure 3). Figure 3 CRM Services Revenue by Service Line

4 21.7% Revenue ($ billion) Annual growth rate 13.2% 12.1% 9.6% 15.4% 15.8% Business process management 15.9% IT management Education and training 20 Development and integration 10 Consulting Software maintenance Hardware maintenance Source: Gartner Research In economically volatile times, the flexibility of an ESP in providing strategic consultancy and system integration is at a premium. A CRM program requires more involvement from business management than any other program to achieve successful implementation. Moreover, when budgets face scalebacks because of business uncertainty, measurement and metrics are at the forefront and skills in those areas are at a premium. Therefore, the burden is on the system integrator to deliver expertise around business-process knowledge, as well as technology excellence that leads to measurable results. Customer Preferences for CRM Applications Strategic Planning Assumption: Through 2004, enterprises will implement CRM strategies via a series of unintegrated, tactical solutions that will require further process and technical integration (0.8 probability). Several clear indicators point to where the CRM market is heading. Enterprises that are pursuing CRM implementations maintain that their primary objective is to improve loyalty within their established customer base. That goal is manifested in the following complementary objectives: Provide customers with greater access to information, resources and data to enable selfcare. Provide company personnel with greater access to customer data, third-party information and resources to enable improved customer sales, service and marketing. The effect of those objectives on back-office processes and enterprise e-business strategies including e-commerce, supply chain operations and business and channel partner relationships is

5 self-evident. However, the majority of enterprises continue to consider CRM as either a front-office solution for an individual business unit or an integration of front-office and back-office processes. In a fourth-quarter 2001 Gartner Dataquest survey, enterprise respondents expressed their preferences for CRM applications in the coming six and 12 months (see Figure 4). Figure 4 CRM Application Preferences Pieces of the Puzzle CRM analytics or business intelligence Integrate CRM with other solutions Web customer care Sales Marketing Contact center Leverage legacy applications Content management Other None 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% Source: Gartner Research N = 64 6 months 12 months Regardless of how professional service providers are positioning themselves within the market, the majority of their CRM implementations have been limited to tactical point solutions that assist enterprises with their preferences, as indicated in Figure 4. ESP Roles in Program and Project Management Initiatives to implement CRM are not always fully identified at the start. CRM is often implemented as an assortment of projects for technology and operational changes, with little cohesion and coordination. The results range from projects that get funded but then fizzle out, to elegant technology implementations that fail to produce the promised benefits. Enterprises must look at program management to coordinate projects into a single, enterprisewide CRM initiative. Using a proven methodology for program management and project management is key to success. ESPs are often underutilized for program management in CRM because enterprises frequently believe programs for CRM are not needed.

6 Quite the opposite is true. Most enterprises stand to benefit from the skills ESPs bring to program and project management, and most enterprises can use help all along the way. Program Management In program management, ESPs fulfill roles in four phases: Initiation. This phase obtains consensus with the CRM vision and support. It delivers management buy-in, a cross-functional program team and initial change-management communication and actions. Customer research, strategy clarification, brand values and staff satisfaction are obtained. Define. This phase gains agreement on what is to be done, delivers CRM capability assessment, a business case, a high-level outline plan, objectives, and costs and benefits. It begins the CRM vision and links with other programs. Vendor and ESP RFPs (requests for proposals) are done. Plan and design. This phase involves program detail. The team prioritizes details of initiatives ready for execution. In this phase, the enterprise selects project managers and ESPs, and assesses risks, dependencies and impact. The enterprise determines detailed benefits and metrics. Tactical projects are spun out to be managed via CRM project-management methodologies. Implement. This phase executes program plans, proceeds with initiatives and manages benefits, building CRM capabilities around customer interaction processes, insight management, technical infrastructure, skills, behavior and organization. Piloting initiatives for ideas between the IS organization and business units and ensuring benefits are critical. Project Management ESPs bring expertise in the four phases of project management: Strategize. This phase is the buy-in from senior sales, marketing or corporate management. The initial project team (i.e., project manager and business and IT manager) and project steering committee are formed, and the project scope is defined. Evaluate. This phase involves developing the full benefits case or board presentation and expanding the project team to handle RFPs and vendor selection. The team turns prior strategies into tactical activities to enable execution, recruits resources, defines the project structure, work plan and program risks, and evaluates ESPs or vendors. Execute. This phase involves the work plan, implementation of the pilot, and actual solution and fine-tuning of benefit and return-on-investment metrics based on the pilot. Manage. This phase involves life-cycle management of the solution, retirement or replacement planning, and ongoing measurement. Bottom Line

7 Ultimately, programs undertaken using a proven methodology (e.g., those offered by leading ESPs) carry fewer risks and have a greater chance of success than unstructured projects. Because economic events may change in unexpected directions, enterprises must examine a service provider s ability to help the business in any of several potential business scenarios. For approximately 85 percent of CRM projects, an outside consulting or integrator resource will likely be called in at some point. Evaluating and selecting a service provider will be the most costly component of any CRM initiative. Therefore, it is paramount that the CRM service provider selection be driven by the ability of the enterprise to obtain the long-term, promised benefits projected in the business case. Written by Thomas Berg, Research Products Analytical source: Beth Eisenfeld, Gartner Research For related Inside Gartner articles, see: Management Update: CRM Sales Suites Lag Behind Best-of-Breed Vendors by Two Years, 17 July 2002 Management Update: Don t Bust the Budget With Enterprise CRM Spending, 8 May 2002 Management Update: How to Compete in a CRM Market Dominated by Siebel, 8 May 2002