CRM Technology Evolution

CRM technology has its roots in the early 70’s when computers were making their way into the corporate environment. These mini computers were used primarily for order processing/call center tasks. They were expensive and required lots of program customization. But it was not till the 80’s when the desktop PC gained popularity that “shrink wrapped” CRM software tools first hit the market. These products were a combination PIM (Personal Information Managers) that managed daily calendar tasks and contact management functions.

From the early 80 there were 2 different platforms for CRM solutions:

Server based:

Software and data resided on a server so that all those connected to the LAN could enter and view data. These were designed for large corporations, typically over 1 billion in revenue such as the global 3,500 corporations. In the early days, Vantive, Scopus, Clarify and Siebel were among the dominant suppliers.

Client based:

Software and data resided on a desktop or notebook PC most typically in a MS Windows OS. The advent of the PC and subsequent portability of notebook PCs made these products ideal for mid and smaller organizations. The most popular of these software tools were Act, Goldmine and Maximizer.

In the early days, both platform solutions focused on 3 primary missions:

Sales Force Automation
Marketing Automation
Field Service Automation

Why: because this was the area of highest pain level as well and the business components that could benefit the most.

The client based solutions evolved as the PC market evolved. With minor exception, these products were designed for a single PC (client-based) and were contact-centric. These affordable products were an important first step and offered users a manageable way of organizing their sales contact information, appointments and sales notes.

As important as these first generation products were, they failed to make information available to management and other organization departments. And, these products were designed to focus on contacts rather than contacts as part of a customer organization.

Later generations added more features. The most important was the ability to easily view all the contacts within a customer company. And, sales forecasting features were included. But the client-based design restricted sharing of the data throughout the organization. It wasn’t until these programs developed enterprise versions that the information was available to others who were connected to the organizations local network (LAN).

But enterprise versions created as many problems as they solved. Remote users were required to synchronize their data over VPN (Virtual Private Network) modem connections. If the connection was unstable, data was lost or worse – corrupted rendering the database for that PC useless until it was restored. Furthermore, a full version of the program was required for each user PC. Although this enabled users to work off-line, it added IT maintenance costs.