Who initiated the declaration “CRM is not enough”?
The declaration was initiated by the software company Segment – a provider of a Customer Data Platform (CDP). “CRM is not enough”! A clear statement from about 200 software companies who share this opinion. The initiative of platform manufacturer “Segment” is followed by a considerable number of 200 other software companies.
What is the goal of the declaration?
The declaration “CRM is not enough” basically aims at the large CRM suite manufacturers. The signatories are of the opinion that this severely limits the user’s options, freedom and flexibility, and may even hinder him from doing his job better.
What exactly does the declaration contain?
By signing the declaration, the companies declare their willingness to act or develop software according to the following three principles:
- A world of choice. Users should always have the choice to use the best possible software. The signatories criticize the all-in-one approach by which CRM suite providers tell users what to use.
- A world of flexibility. Companies should also be able to use customer data beyond the sales and marketing departments.
- A world of opportunities. Companies should be empowered by the right technology to implement a “customer-first” strategy.
Brandon Purcell, analyst at Forrester, and Peter Reinhardt, CEO and co-founder of Segment, will go into more detail about the reasons behind this declaration in a presentation with the title “CRM is not enough”.
For Peter Reinhardt, the classic CRM systems are not flexible enough as a solution center. In an increasingly complex world, they prevent communication with customers via multiple channels. In his opinion, companies cannot use them to offer their customers the desired experience. In his opinion, “one-size-fits all” no longer works. Every company should be able to use “best-in-class” software and integrate it into its respective technology landscape.
Supporters of this opinion
Representatives or better known co-sponsors of the so-called “Platform of Intependents” are the following companies: Airship, Amplitude, Drift, Iterabel, Mixpanel, Outreach, Pendo, Radar and Tray.io. These are, among others, providers of platforms to support marketing, sales or the analysis of data. But also smaller app vendors for special niches and application areas have signed up.
Conclusion: Best-of-breed approach gets full support
The mere fact that so many software vendors have signed is remarkable. Probably there are even more software companies that think like this. In other words, CRM suites can no longer meet current requirements. It’s exciting to see whether the major CRM providers Salesforce, Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, Oracle, SugarCRM, Hubspot, and others will respond. Of course, they don’t want to be “taken the bread and butter” so easily. ? What do you think?
Also interesting: Don’t users deserve better software?
Image: The German CRM landscape
Note: This is a machine translation. It is neither 100% complete nor 100% correct. We can therefore not guarantee the result.
