Exploring the Critical Success Factors for Customer Relationship Management and Electronic Customer Relationship Management Systems

Both customer relationship management (CRM) and electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) systems have unique characteristics that support customer-business interactions and are linked to internal business processes and systems across different areas for operational and analytical purposes. Such characteristics may imply that different critical success factors are required for both to be successfully implemented. This exploratory study identifies the factors and the interrelationships associated with the success of CRM and eCRM, compares the differences between CRM and eCRM, and discusses the reasons of the differences. Since there are only a few cases of CRM or eCRM systems fully implemented across marketing, technology, people, and business processes, an exploratory multiple-case study is conducted. The current status of CRM research and future research direction are discussed.