Gartner analysts are exposed to all kinds of stories about CRM. We hear of great successes and incredible failures; fantastic, positive surprises and shocking, negative results. However, throughout all this, we must be able to extract the characteristics of a world-class CRM implementation to use as a reference. Of course, these characteristics change with time and experience. What may have been sine qua non three years ago, is now no longer required. There are certain characteristics that make a CRM project excellent: it takes the time to properly identify needs, create a detailed strategy on what to do and expect, deploys to solve specific pain points, and measures to ensure success as planned. No matter how we measure them (using the eight building blocks, a return on investment model or simply comparison and analysis), excellent implementations share these principles.

Of course, without validation this is simply a theory. To validate these statements, Gartner chooses the best projects introduced (and documented) each year and rewards the responsible party with the CRM Excellence Award to recognize how far they have come. This year, we changed the award to accommodate changes in the market, changes in deployments and to make the award more competitive. We are looking for the ultimate CRM implementations and we are getting great entries. However, we are still looking for that superb, killer entry that sets itself apart. Is your CRM case study the one?

Let us know. Enter the contest and share your CRM excellence case study. But hurry, the deadline is approaching.