Live from Boston: IBM’s CRM2000 Project Rolls On

Against a background in which up to 80% of customer relationship management initiatives don’t deliver on their promise and up to 50% are abject failures, IBM is rolling ahead with is CRM2000 project.

Nancy Green, vice president and global practice executive for IBM Global Services, outlined the rollout process and status of the program at the Institute for International Research CRM Focus event in Boston Wednesday.

CRM2000 started last year when Siebel Systems was enlisted to fully integrate IBM’s call centers, which perform both marketing and customer service functions throughout the company. IBM’s goals included making its CRM operations enterprise-wide and reducing the number of non-integrated CRM applications by half within the first 24 months of the program. The company also wanted to bring 55,000 seats online in just over two months.

(While not under the CRM banner, IBM initiated a separate data warehouse project concurrent with the call-center initiative.)

The blueprint for the program called for integrating customer data and creating a common front-end appearance throughout the second, third and early fourth quarters of 2000. In the third quarter, IBM made enhancements to its enterprise relationship-management processes and initiated campaign- and lead-management programs and business intelligence structures. The fourth quarter saw the company beginning to integrate marketing functions.

This year, IBM has either begun or plans to implement e-channel and field service support systems into its global CRM operations.

Currently, there are 3,500 users of the various Siebel systems throughout North America, Europe and Japan. IBM is in the process of opening its system up to its external partners.

IBM has learned several lessons, some more painful than others. Change management is critical, Green said. There will be management changes, especially among middle management. Green said that those managers affected by the new systems will be moved into new duties. The costs initially forecast will be higher than planned, and data quality will need hygiene before it is transferred or integrated between systems.