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For Sales Forces, Big Data May Be Overhyped

Harvard Business Review

The history of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems holds valuable lessons. The first wave of CRM systems got a boost with success stories in an HBR Article (" Automation to Boost Sales and Marketing ") in 1989 by Moriarty and Swartz. In the second wave, led by Siebel Systems, tens of billions of dollars were spent.

CRM 13
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Meet Your Company's New Chief Customer Officer

Harvard Business Review

This practice, which is largely the evolution of database marketing, has become a critical driver of business strategy for global organizations in nearly every industry and vertical, because it supports decisions with data. In this way, CI's value extends well beyond the marketing organization. Get operational expertise, and fast.

Company 14
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How to Compete When IT Is Abundant

Harvard Business Review

Carr predicted that an organization''s ability to compete through investing in information technology was about to change dramatically. The IT boom of the 1980s and early ''90s had brought information technology to the corporate masses, unleashing the first full-scale technology revolution in the enterprise.

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Companies Are Reimagining Business Processes with Algorithms

Harvard Business Review

In the early 1990s, executives and managers welcomed information technology — databases, PC workstations, and automated systems — into their offices. Every update or response to the market required multiple steps; it cost time and performance. They saw the potential for significant business gains.

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IT Cannot Be Only the CIO's Responsibility

Harvard Business Review

For example, successfully deploying CRM software on time and to budget will deliver little unless sales, customer services, and fulfillment processes are redesigned, staff trained to have the right conversations with customers, data quality improves, and marketers build the right competencies to use all the data that will now be available to them.

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Why Companies That Wait to Adopt AI May Never Catch Up

Harvard Business Review

Instead they are waiting for the technology to mature and for expertise in AI to become more widely available. They are planning to be “fast followers” — a strategy that has worked with most information technologies. We think this is a bad idea. Human Interactions with AI Time.

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Avoiding the Schizophrenic IT Organization

Harvard Business Review

A pharmaceuticals company we''ve been studying decided to deploy more than 20,000 iPads and other mobile devices to the global sales force to improve its engagement with doctors in emerging and developed markets. IT management Information & technology' It has never before rolled out something at this speed. the IT function).