CRM projects and user adoption....

This week’s edition of the Economist (July 23rd 2005) carries an article entitled ‘Terminal Care’. The article notes the technical success of the world’s biggest government IT project – Connecting for Health, or CFI - which, with its £6.2 billion price-tag, will link 31,500 family doctors with 300 hospitals, and will result in a fundamental change in the way National Health Service staff work. Despite the enormity of the project, and given the number of suppliers involved, the Economist notes that things have been progressing well, with one exception – the majority of doctors don’t want to use it. As the article perceptively notes:

‘As with almost any IT project, the hardest task is to get users to accept a new way of working. Most people fight change unless they can see it helps them do their job.’

Applying this in the context of CRM projects, I’ve seen a lot of technically well executed implementations ,which sadly have no positive impact to the business, because a large proportion of the potential user base has decided not to play ball. Anyone familiar with this blog, will know that we see clarity as to what CRM technology can achieve for the business as a fundamental of CRM success, but this concept needs to extend to the individual user. Only when individual users see how they will benefit, can user adoption issues be effectively addressed. Any CRM implementation strategy must answer one fundamental question for all users – what’s in it for me?