Promise of CRM:

CRM by definition is to support the customers with service with latest information and at the end a gentle dialog for marketing opportunity using the principle of right person, right message, right time, right offer. The key factor for achieving this is information flow between customer, service reps, and decision support systems, and all happening in real time.

Any CRM implementation with out fully leveraging all the components in the above statement is not utilizing the promises of CRM solutions.

But then it creates the following two fundamental questions about difficulties in implementing such a powerful real time systems.
     - How do I solve the potential of information overload
     - Is it worth?

Method to Overcome Information Overload:

If a particular company experiences information load, it is clear that they need information analysts; decision rules generators, and learning systems. Is it worth it? – Of course, for the simple reason that this is the promise of CRM. If it is not done to capture the spirit and promise of CRM, then we are not really doing CRM, but building frilled up marketing system.

Most of the CRM implementations failed, because they did not attend to these fundamental characteristics of CRM solutions, especially in the early evolution of CRM systems.

The trick to come out of these confusions and building right cost effective CRM solutions is working with cost effective business model. This is a combination of art and science of management, systems, and single handed focus to deliver customer service and products for the promise that they will in turn make your organization competitive and innovative.

Get your CRM analytics team bring out solutions to overcome your information overload to make sense out of the overload; overload does not mean it is "Piled High and Deep" and we need special people who are specialists in handling piled high and deep stuffs; The mountain of data is worth mining with good set of analysts and go for it.

There are two types of processes that will handle information overload: (1) a regular set of well understood metrics, which could be simple reports or a complex multidimensional information cubes, (2) predictive algorithms and models that gets to the bottom of "Piled High and Deep" stuffs among the mountain of data

Bring on Board an Analytics Group:

Three important things to go forward are the following:
     - Work with best of breed companies, who knows CRM systems, marketing systems, and ROI understandings
     - Figure out a way how to benefit from systems and solutions while building the POA systems and solutions (Trash systems if they say wait for two years and everything will be working wonderfully well)
     -  Believe in the promise of CRM and analytics, executing it with full commitment, until the end.

It is an opportunity not a overload or burden:

Companies have started realizing that there is no escape from data overload leading to frustrations on information overload.  The only way is not to fret but employ analysts to make sense out of overload and thrive on it.