Gartner has urged IT directors to push the use
ofbusiness metrics softwarein their
companies as a recession-busting tactic.
The analyst group recommended that businesses use
CRM and analytics software to help business heads make
strategic decisions to combat the economic downturn.
"Businesses need to evaluate their long-time relationships with
customers and avoid sacrificing relationships based on short-term
blips in buying behaviour," said Gartner research director Gene
Alvarez at the Garter CRM Summit 2008 in London.
Companies could use the business analytics functions in customer
relationship management software to measure the success of their
business strategies, said Gartner.
"Organisations have no shortage of data. What they need is
insight," said Gartner research director Gareth Herschel. Such
insight could be gleaned using performance management software to
help business decision-makers adapt their business strategies based
on real information, he explained.
Herschel recommended IT directors to look at how IT could
improve decision-making in the business. "Look at the decisions the
business has taken that did not draw on analysis and figure out how
analytical tools could be used to feed the decision-making
process."
He warned IT directors to avoid conducting autopsies on bad
decisions to see if IT could have led to a different outcome:
"Decision autopsy is a high-risk career path."
IT directors needed to be tactical with their recommendations,
Herschel said - many decisions in business did not draw on
analytical tools and relied solely on an individual's gut feeling.
"You should suggest to these people that you can make their
analysis deeper."
Keep it simple
Businesses should look at simple CRM projects focusing on two to
three business functions with payback within 12 months, said
Gartner analyst Matt Goldman. A study unveiled at the CRM Summit
showed organisations were aiming for shorter, bite-size projects
that could be achieved within six to 12 months. The study, based on
research of 1,000 CRM projects, found only one in five lasted more
than 24 months.