Integrating the value of salespeople and systems: Adapting the benefits dependency network

Abstract

Business-to-business (B2B) companies invest in customer relationship management (CRM), integrated with sales force automation (SFA) to achieve a return on investment, through improved sales force productivity, sales revenue, costs, customer satisfaction, process accuracy and customer knowledge. However, the devil is in the detail. CRM and SFA are multi-faceted. There are two main obstacles to successful implementation. One is the need for the customer to get some benefi t out of the system; the other is ensuring that employees who are expected to use the system actually buy-in to its benefi ts, including what benefi t they will gain as individuals. However, much planning is needed to manage the risks involved. The ' benefi ts dependency network ' (BDN), 1 designed to develop routes to successful implementation of IT, has been tested in CRM projects. The factors for success in CRM implementation in B2B companies, where the sales force must be involved, are many and varied, including proactive sales management, creating champions, consultation, training, incentives and culture change. Practicalities such as incremental application of the technology and a wide portfolio of metrics to monitor progress are also critical. In the light of the special considerations of sales force involvement, the authors propose an adaptation of the BDN to suggest a generic map for the implementation of CRM (with SFA

A CRM-based pathway to improving organisational responsiveness: an empirical study

“…Other studies suggesting that the absence of leadership for CRM can be problematic (Agarwal et al, 2004) help to explain these findings. Establishing CRM as central to the provision of a customer-oriented strategy requires strong CRM 'champions', preferably senior and sufficiently powerful individuals who can marshal the necessary cross-functional support, promote a positive mind-set towards customer relationships and widely communicate strategic benefits (Rogers et al, 2008;Labus and Stone, 2010). These aspects provide plausible reasons to explain the convergence of opinions provided by managers from different functional positions across the firms studied, suggesting a strong customer-oriented mind-set and awareness of the strategic importance of CRM for their organisations.…”

When planned IS/IT project benefits are not realized: a study of inhibitors and facilitators to benefits realization

“…The Benefits Management Process Model and its core tool, the Benefits Dependency Network has received the most empirical attention in the literature (e.g. Wilson et al, 2007;Rogers et al, 2008;King, 2011) but despite this interest the organizational uptake of this model still appears to be low (Ashurst et al, 2008).…”

“…Cranfield BDN has been advocated as an additional tool to improve the business case design for CRM projects (Wilson et al, 2007), engage sales force during new systems implementation (Rogers et al, 2008) and examine the contributions of organizational design and artifact engineering upon various stakeholders (King, 2011). The BDN highlights a number of broad constructs that are likely to influence the delivery of business benefits from an IS/IT investment (e.g.…”

Barriers to the use of mobile sales force automation systems: a salesperson’s perspective

“…Currently, there are multiple benefits of using SFA systems among sales people (e.g. Boujena et al, 2009;Ingram et al, 2002;Rogers et al, 2008). While the level of automation has increased, this change has evidently influenced sales activities as well.…”

“…Although many benefits of using SFA systems among sales people have been identified (e.g., Boujena et al, 2009;Ingram et al, 2002;Rogers et al, 2008), this study sheds more light on the potential barriers to using a mobile SFA system from a salesperson's perspective.…”