10 August 2000 marked the birth of the first formal CRM interest group in South Africa. The group formed itself under the auspices of the Information Technology Association, the official IT industry sector association.
The group consists of company representatives of vendors, consultants, users and trainers of CRM to ensure that every angle of the subject is addressed to bring transparancy to the relationship management supply chain.
The initial work will be to define the philosophy, then focus on the various technological enablers and produce a white paper to form the basis of operation. The mission is to be the recognised source of information and to produce guidelines concerning enabling resources and technology that optimise the interactions between product/service providers and their ultimate customers/consumers in a commerce chain.
The outcome of the group`s work will have the ITA as a central source of information and reference which a potential consumer or supplier as a member of the association, can approach for assistance or guidance. The ITA operates from a neutral perspective and will provide information that is not brand or supplier specific to the benefit of one product or supplier over another.
It will strive to set minimum performance criteria for both a product and supplier to assist the potential user of CRM enabling technology in the decision-making process.
More exciting outcomes relate to the development of skillsets required for successful operation and management of relationship tools and generating guidelines pertaining to the standards required for operating such tools.
The value that the formation of such a group holds for the consumer, is that the work is being done from within a framework that subscribes to scrupulous ethics and high standards of delivery. The information pool created within the ITA will become an invaluable reference point for potential users of CRM enabling technology regarding the intricacies of such implementations. Furthermore, the advent of users pooling their experience into the group, will provide an invaluable platform of knowledge regarding the needs of the user to both the suppliers of CRM technology as well as trainers in that segment.
The group aims to have the final white paper ready for presentation to an open meeting during late October this year.
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