Survey Indicates More Than 95 Percent of Organizations Expect to Maintain or Grow Their Use of SaaS Through 2010
More than 95 percent of organizations expect to maintain or grow their use of software as a service (SaaS), according to a survey by Gartner, Inc. Survey respondents cited significant integration requirements and a change in sourcing strategy as the top two reasons for adoption followed by high total cost of ownership (TCO). However, Gartner found that most companies still do not have policies governing the evaluation and use of SaaS with only 39 percent of respondents indicating that such a policy or process exists, up just 1 percent from 38 percent in 2008.
The scope of functionality of SaaS applications has broadened significantly in recent years. In terms of popularity for SaaS usage, the survey showed that e-mail, financial management (accounting), sales force automation and customer service, and expense management are the most popular in terms of current use, with more than 30 percent of the survey base using these types of applications.
Gartner Outlines Three Steps to Create a Successful CRM Strategy
Building a customer relationship management (CRM) strategy is a unique process for each organization that nevertheless should always involve three key steps, according to Gartner, Inc. The three steps needed to create a successful CRM strategy are: setting the destination; auditing the current situation; and mapping the journey to the destination.
Set the destination: The vision of the company and the goals derived from this vision are the intended destination of the CRM strategy. The vision will be heavily dependent on the leadership of the company and on the selected CRM strategy.
Audit the current situation: Skills, resources, competitors, partners and customers all need to be consulted in assessing the starting point. Before beginning the CRM initiative, organizations need to identify how mature their existing approach to CRM is. Most organizations have some existing or past attempt at CRM; even if these were deemed failures, there are usually some foundations that can be leveraged rather than ignored by the new team.
Map the journey: The journey may take many years, and the map will change en route. It is important to plan for this before starting.
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