cCRM :: Organization

	Organization at a Glance
	Alignment requires changes to leadership and management decision rights; changes to workgroups and how they collaborate; and empowered top talent with the right incentives.

The fifth and over-arching component of cCRM entails the organizational competencies required to enable the customer-centric transformation. At its core is leadership alignment around the CRM vision, with true sponsorship of the initiative and its financial commitments. And sponsorship must not be confused with permission. CRM is an executive-level commitment. This ensures that every functional area has a stake in the success of the effort. Work groups must be integrated to collaborate with one another; and the right talent must be in place and empowered with the right skill sets. Compensation must be properly aligned and enterprise-wide currencies in place to ensure success.

When all the disparate data finally begins to come together, and it will, the organizational alignment will be one of the biggest challenges. But it’s essential to the success of the CRM initiative. This preparation will help the company overcome traditional business silos with a focus on alignment of roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. A focus on top talent encompasses the right approach to hiring, training and empowerment – especially with front-line personnel.

In Depth

The Mangement Consulting Group puts Organization into perspective.

Organization at Work

Session summary from the 2013 CRM Executive Summit

Presented by: Keith Slonski, Marketing Director, GEICO & Dean Westervelt, Sr. Director, Quantitative Marketing Group, Merkle®

There are a number of organizational challenges associated with balancing a world-class brand such as GEICO with intelligent, customized one-to-one marketing approaches. A few of these challenges include synthesizing marketing efforts across departments within GEICO, as well as managing these efforts across a myriad of agency partners to ensure an efficient, organized and successful approach to customer acquisition.

Merkle is an integrated partner in GEICO’s organizational structure which addresses several functions including the following:

Responsibilities & Accountabilities: specific activities and outputs driven or supported by each group.
Business Processes & Outputs: Processes, automation, tools and techniques utilized to perform responsibilities.
Aligned Success Metrics: High profile exception metrics that motivate and drive collaboration among workgroups.
Hands-off & Information Flows: Workgroup positioning relative to other groups including info flows, incentives, budget and production cycles.

For intra-departmental interaction, GEICO is using a stovepipe structure with varying degrees of horizontal integration, a lot of collaboration and the CMO as the “sponsor.” The responsibilities may rotate and metrics guide all decisions.

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