Briefs

By Barney Beal, 01 Jun 2006 | SearchCRM.com

When Alaska Airlines elected to deploy CRM analytics from Siebel Systems Inc. a year and a half ago, it was a fairly straightforward decision for some.

Executives loved the dashboard, and marketing was eager to get its hands on a tool that could help capitalize on its customer data. Yet it wasn't a total slam dunk. IT wanted to ensure that the company had the right technical tool set and that Siebel analytics was flexible enough for the airline, according to James Archuleta, director of CRM for the Seattle-based company.

Investing in CRM analytics can be a difficult case to make, according to Gareth Herschel, research director with Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner Inc. CRM analytics offers the promise of reaping ROI from customer data and operational systems, but companies are cutting costs, and technology investments require more justification than ever. Excuses for not investing abound.

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Another frequent excuse is, "Employees wouldn't know what to do with analytics if they had it," according to a recent research note from Gartner entitled "How to Tackle 10 Excuses Not to Invest in CRM Analytics." Project teams should survey employees to identify the analysis and the benefit which having that analysis would bring in the customer relationship, Herschel said.

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