The key factors for a successful CRM system implementation: A case study from it service companies in China

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has been increasingly recognized as a business strategy to effectively understand, manage and sustain customer relationship with advanced information technology (IT). More and more companies are seeking to implement CRM in order to survive and compete in the e-Business era. According to industry research, as many as 88% of CRM implementations fail to meet their objectives. Clearly understanding the key factors of CRM system implementations has become very important to the IT service companies. This paper, aims at studying the key factors for a successful CRM system implementation in IT service companies. The study involves the relevant theories on CRM system implementation and CRM theoretical framework, as well as interpretive case study. The key findings in the case study show that 19 of the 24 factors are identified from literature, and four new factors are identified from the case study.