That was the best analogy I heard in a while related to a business problem. I am going to have to borrow it and use it in a presentation sometime.

Thanks a lot for that, and for stopping by!

I could not agree with you more… but with once caveat. Even when technology is the solution (and is one of the extreme cases that oppose the title of my post) there MUST be some thought beyond the technology. I said somewhere in my post that some solutions don’t even require technology — which by logical definition means there is an extreme opposite (always there is an opposite to each statement, that’s what makes discourse fun).

Without any more thought that simply implementing the technology it is merely a band-aid. Even a simple program like an anti-virus has it pros and cons that must be analyzed before it is implemented. The strategy, people, technology, and process evaluation may not be complex — but it must exist.

At least a small evaluation to make sure it meets the stated goals and objectives — right?

Yep, I am all for technology-only solutions as long as we put some thought into it…

Thanks for the great comment…

That is an excellent comment and something that I often assume already exists.

In fact, before you even get to think of the balance between people, process, and technology you have to have executive buy-in and understanding.

Else, you are in the 50-60% of failures that are often mentioned.

Thanks for your comment, and the visit.,

You know me, I play a CRM specialist on TV, so I can align with what you are saying. Now, the question that comes to mind when reading this (and part of what started this discussion on Twitter and resulted in this post): how about social-CRM?

Adding SCRM to the schema of CRM, will it mean to go back to just do technology? Will people realize that there is a set of processes to set in place to accomodate SCRM as an add-on to CRM? What that Social thingy? is that about people?

Those are the questions that prompted me to write this post based on the character of Doctor CRM I played on TV.

What do you think is the answer to those questions? Will people be smart / studious enough to implement SCRM proper? or are we going to be asking the same questions next year about SCRM?

I like the golf analogy – and not only because it was my solution back in the days I played golf.

I see what you are saying and I am half in agreement. I do agree that people see technology as the solution. why diet? there will be a pill to take the pounds off. why think about a solution? let’s throw a technology at it, by the time it is setup it will stay where it is and we can blame the failure on so many things (usually the product or the vendor).

I don’t agree with taking the steps in order. I think that you have to have a balanced from the beginning. Identify the problem across the three top-level domains (people, process, technology) and find the balanced solution across the three domains.

if you focus too much on any of them (like business strategy, or culture, or change management) you won’t find the balance necessary.

of course, that is just my opinion…

I maintain that complex business problems and challenges (think CRM) are complex in the same way that an organism is complex. Not composed of just a single cell where technology is the solution, but a complex entity where the solution requires multiple components or cells.

Great post, Esteban.

Regards,

Glenn