Companies urged to do homework on CRM systems

Research is necessary to ensure firms get the best customer relationship management (CRM) system that most suits their needs, according to an expert.

James Fahey, founder and chief executive officer of social networking community Independent IT Analyst, has claimed organisations must know exactly what they need to support their customer service and email marketing efforts when they enter the marketplace.

He explained that a lot of information can reflect a bias or inaccuracies that could "skew" the decision making process on the CRM software, which may be added to their web hosting solutions.

"Obtaining a truly unbiased reference is a difficult challenge and we recommend that an organisation obtain at least three references not selected by the vendor and use their feedback," he added.

Independent IT Analyst regularly publishes a report on the CRM systems market, with the latest revealing that over 40 per cent of buyers would not make a purchase from the same vendor again.

Written by Debra Hastings-Henry