The Single View of the Extended Enterprise - Summary

Steve Downton, Downton Service Management Consultants Ltd, Noventum Group

CRM has been implemented in some companies with great success but there does appear to be a significant fallout failure rate. Quite often all that is considered is the single dimension of service, and this pigeonholing of the concept of Service does CRM a disservice, as it does not allow full development of the possibilities.

The reality of CRM is that it has to be applied to "the extended enterprise". Simply stated, the extended enterprise means the whole environment in which the business exists: from shareholders to employees, and from customers to suppliers. They all need to be satisfied if the end customer is to be retained and satisfied.

Many of the successes of CRM “the solution”, are connected with businesses where a “nothing to lose” attitude was adopted. However, most senior executives have everything to lose and therefore struggle with the “nothing to lose” attitude, their aim is to keep a tight rein on their businesses.

Innovation does not come through doing the same thing every time, but it also doesn’t come through recklessness. This raises the basic question, and concern, for most senior business people: is the true concept of CRM an innovation tool or a dangerous weapon in the wrong hands?