In 2007, Amazon Consulting’s CEO Diane Krakora wrote an article declaring “The Demise of PRM As We Know It.” Her article sealed the fate at that time of a shift in attention from PRM to CRM solutions and the literature was virtually silent on the merits of PRM for a time.Google Trends is by no means a scientific research tool (tracking, as it does, searches and frequency in internet content of the words for which you seek trend information).* However, it does provide some interesting food for thought when you can trend words or acronyms with fairly specific meaning…like “PRM” and “CRM.”
The Google Trends view for PRM vs. CRM popularity shows that indeed, at the time of Krakora’s article, PRM had essentially flat-lined as far as interest expressed online.
Source: http://google.com/trends; pulled June 2011.
Source: http://google.com/trends; pulled June 2011
Some interesting things happened in 2008 though. One of those things was increasing talk of a recession. (“Recession” is shown separately because the volume of mentions for it is so huge, that when trended in the same graph with CRM and PRM, it compresses the scale so much that we are unable to see what is happening with PRM and CRM). The second thing that happened – that leads us to our topic of PRM – is that about the time that “recession” entered the news, interest in CRM greatly perked up, and interest in PRM returned in mid-2008. Many businesses saw the gathering thunderclouds and quickly realized that they needed the information from their CRM and PRM systems to provide them with the insight target their efforts to effective partners and segments to keep business – if not strong, then at least maintained – through the rough waters ahead.
With the incredible belt-tightening that accompanied several years of global recession, many companies “made do” with existing PRM and CRM solutions – bolting together existing data repositories and occasionally expanding efforts to add, say, a cloud solution like Salesforce’s cost effective CRM solution. Companies are now experiencing somewhat more expanded budgets and are looking at existing systems for managing their customers and partners. Integration is a key tool to melding your internal PRM system with cloud-based CRM platform for cost effective-solutions that link together data across your company’s business units.
Integration can be a messy and difficult process though. I’m currently working with Dave Hafermann, our resident PRM/CRM guru (and Chuck Norris fan) and Ian Hutchieson, our Managing Director in the UK on webinar content for later this month. In the webinar, they will talk about things to keep in mind as you begin your own integration journey like why you should integrate your PRM and CRM solutions, some of the challenges you may face, and suggestions for designing and implementing an integrated solution.
*For an intriguing example of the limitations of Google Trends, try trending “Cloud” – any incidence of the word “cloud” trends whether it is the new iCloud or a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland!
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