Critical factors in Customer Relationship Management system implementation
Hannola, Miia (2016)
2016
Kauppatieteiden tutkinto-ohjelma - Degree Programme in Business Studies
Johtamiskorkeakoulu - School of Management
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2016-12-01
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201612052729
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201612052729
Tiivistelmä
The aim for this Master's Thesis was to study the critical factors in Customer Relationship Management system implementation. The significance of technology solutions in the business world has grown constantly over the past decades. CRM systems have also become standard technology solutions in many companies. Despite of this development the failure rates of CRM system implementations keep staying high. According to the previous literature on the subject, the complete implementation of CRM system demands a holistic and strategic view on the implementation process. CRM system should not be treated as a mere technological solution.
CRM system implementation can be divided into three different segments in theoretical literature: people, processes and technology. All these aspects should be taken into account when implementing a CRM system to an organization. People, both basic users and management should be won over and convinced. Processes should be designed to be customer-centric and the technology solution should be as user-friendly as possible.
A qualitative single-case study was conducted in a large manufacturing company in order to research the critical factors in CRM system implementation. CRM system implementation had taken place in the organization and resulted in an incomplete implementation and thus a failure few years ago. That provided the empirical background for this study. 46 people from different organizational levels and functions were interviewed. This empirical material was analyzed with a content analysis using the grounded theory as an analysis method.
Nine different critical factors in CRM system implementation were identified based on the empirical material. Those factors were management support, perceived usefulness, communication and training, implementation to customer-processes, co-operation challenges, lack of process definitions, system design and data management. These nine factors had all features from all of the three main segments. Out of those three main segments, the people segment had the biggest impact on the implementation success. CRM system implementation is however an entirety where all the segments are related and it should be perceived as a holistic process that engages the whole organization.
CRM system implementation can be divided into three different segments in theoretical literature: people, processes and technology. All these aspects should be taken into account when implementing a CRM system to an organization. People, both basic users and management should be won over and convinced. Processes should be designed to be customer-centric and the technology solution should be as user-friendly as possible.
A qualitative single-case study was conducted in a large manufacturing company in order to research the critical factors in CRM system implementation. CRM system implementation had taken place in the organization and resulted in an incomplete implementation and thus a failure few years ago. That provided the empirical background for this study. 46 people from different organizational levels and functions were interviewed. This empirical material was analyzed with a content analysis using the grounded theory as an analysis method.
Nine different critical factors in CRM system implementation were identified based on the empirical material. Those factors were management support, perceived usefulness, communication and training, implementation to customer-processes, co-operation challenges, lack of process definitions, system design and data management. These nine factors had all features from all of the three main segments. Out of those three main segments, the people segment had the biggest impact on the implementation success. CRM system implementation is however an entirety where all the segments are related and it should be perceived as a holistic process that engages the whole organization.