Architecture is Culture
Duct Tape Marketing has an article with an incredibly insightful title, “Is CRM a Culture or a Software?”. In his posting, John opines that:
CRM starts with a strategic approach to marketing, a strategic approach to selling and a strategic approach to maximizing customer relationships. Nail those things and pretty much any of the major CRM tools can be customized to make it happen. Too many people waste lots of time and money trying to apply technology to fix a problem caused by a lack of business strategy.
Right on!!!!
Getting Skinny
While it is particularly prevalent with CRM, the phenomenon of “wishful purchasing” is seen across all organizations, especially with regard to information techology. Often, we think that if we just get the right hardware, software, and applications in place then our organization will be transformed into what it really ought to be.Which, of course, is complete balderdash. Hogwash. Horse Hooey.
This is the Atkins approach to information architecture, and in the long term it doesn’t work. You don’t lose weight by buying smaller sized clothing. You need to be eating sensibly, exercising, and dealing with the issues that got you to where you are in the first place.
What I am Trying to Say
I have seen organizations that have happy, profitable customers and don’t have any infrastructure ouside of a few spreadsheets. At the same time, I have seen organizations that have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into technology and are losing customers at an epic rate. The tools didn’t make the difference, the culture did. Information Architects need to understand this so they can avoid the systems that are not going to deliver tangible value to their organization.
As John said,
The best … tool is the one you and your staff will actually adopt and adapt to achieve better sales results and automation.
Wishful purchasing is just an expression of consumerism in an organization. Just because there are lots of people (salespeople, consultants, trade magazines, web sites, blogs, etc.) that tell you that you need something doesn’t mean that you do. Tools are tools, they enable you to do what it is you want to do. If you have organizational issues, spending money on infrastructure is just going to accentuate and reinforce those them.
