At the sharp end

Deploying a software application can be a balancing act between making the system work for the business and changing the business to fit the system. This was certainly the experience of Cutting Edge Services when it implemented a customer relationship management (CRM) package. With 100 staff, Cutting Edge is a supplier of …

[Anonymous Coward]

CRM eh?

You can thrive without it quite easily if your managers have a clue and can work together but start using it (for whatever reason) and you can never go back.

EVER.

[Anonymous Coward]

What a sad tale

This reads like a sales case-study trying to post-rationalise system limitations as features.

Just think how much better it could have been if they had a flexible system, rather than one with limitations they were persuaded were for their own good.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: Sad tale

"This reads like a sales case-study"

That's because it clearly is.

[ratbert]

Bad interpretation

IMHO, the major problem sounds like it was the initial solution design, not the software itself. The company supplying the CRM system clearly rushed it in place without making sure that the customer had really understood what they were buying into. I've seen too many cases where the top level decision makers don't involve the rest of the business (who will be the ones who actually have to use the system) in the planning/design process. The users get presented with a system they don't understand and doesn't fit their needs. While proper planning, consultation and preparation for a major CRM (or ERP) system implementation can seem like a long-winded and expensive process, it avoids this sort of thing from happening.

[Tony S]

D'oh

"the company was so convinced it even passed up the offer of training."

As soon as I read that, I just KNEW what was coming next.