Customer Relationship Management : Reasons of Success or Failure of CRM Projects From the Perspective of Advisors

The purpose of this study is to gain a better understanding of what are the valid critical success factors in Iranian CRM projects according to CRM experts and advisors and as a result what is the average success score of these projects in our country. My research begins with the definitions and understanding of customer relationship management as systems of automation in one hand and complex philosophy and strategic revolutions in the other hand. Then the literature was reviewed considering components and modules of such I.S systems leading to relationships between the elements of CRM as a multi-dimensional construct to find out the Critical Success Factors in CRM projects as the reasons to fail or success. Then the metrics of these CSFs are found and the questionnaire designed in Likert type, translated and tested as the adequateness of the metrics to modify the CSF and the currency of translation. Then the validated questionnaires were used in self administrated interviews and the results were analyzed statistically leading to the items that are paid close attention such as "Multidisciplinary team responsible for implementation of the CRM project" and "Integration of other IS within the company with CRM for consistency and availability of information related to customers" AND items that are not paid enough attention such as "Channels of communication with customers" or "CEO support". Furthermore the analysis shows that in technology understanding of customer relationship management, Iranian projects were not bad with a score of more than sixty to seventy out of one hundred while in strategic sales and support systems and internal marketing to change and modify the mindsets were about fifty out of one hundred. This is while we can observe that CRM consultants had a view of "start" in shaping the CRM strategy with the top CEO support but in another scope went through integration and channels of communication with customer and in their final step had a focus on supporting operational management.Validerat; 20110817 (marikav