Success Factors for e-CRM System Implementations: Which factors are important and why?

Academia and practice have shown high interest in Customer Relationship Management systems and their implementation for years. However, implementing such a system successfully has often remained an illusion with project failures rates as high as 70 percent. Various studies have tried to identify factors salient for a successful implementation and develop frameworks and models that could enhance the understanding for successful implementations. So far no unifying and integrating academic framework has emerged and each study so far has only addressed parts of the topic. Therefore, we present the "e-CRM star" framework integrating success factors out of the areas strategy, people, business processes, technology, and organisational culture. In a single- case study in one of the largest banks and IT user in New Zealand and a leader in CRM applications, we found that the "e-CRM" star is indeed a useful theoretical tool to analyse salient success factors and why they are important.