WHO'S THE NEXT CUSTOMER STRATEGY GROUNDBREAKER

This week Gartner will announce the winners of the CRM
Excellence Awards at the Gartner CRM Summit in San
Diego. The inaugural winner of theaward in 2001 was Boise
Cascade. Since then at least once per year Gartner has
recognized the best CRM execution at large companies
(more than 1000 employees or $500 million in annual revenue)
as well as at small- and mid-sized companies.

Over the past four years almost every company nominated
has been involved in some kind of customer strategy
project, and the longevity of the Gartner program shows
that a focus on customer relationships remains a business
imperative.

It's important to recognize companies for taking an attitude
that their customer strategies are about doing something
with their customers, rather than to their customers, says
Adam Sarner, Gartner principal analyst. "There has to be
buy-in from the organization, buy-in from the customers...
buy-in from all the constituents," he says. "We look for
companies that have a customer advocate who actually gets
input from the customers to develop the strategy."

The panel of judges, which includes customer industry experts
and representatives from 1to1(r) Magazine, evaluated entrants
on such criteria as the ability to articulate a CRM vision and
customer-focused strategies; understand and enhance the value
of the customer experience; collaborate internally to achieve
its goals; put in place the proper processes and technology to
meet its goals; and metrics by which the overall impact of the
customer strategy can be judged.

In the large company segment, Gartner's finalists are:

Citizenship & Immigration Canada: This Canadian
government organization highlighted its global case-
management system (GCMS) to act swiftly and reliably to
immigration cases. As Canada actively promotes growth
through immigration but wishes to maintain security and
accountability, the GCMS helps ensure that applications
are handled according to procedure but with an eye on
promoting national goals.

Honeywell Aerospace: Honeywell Aerospace's CRM evolution
was born of necessity in a company built by multiple mergers.
Honeywell's customer initiative relied on the company's Six
Sigma principles to upgrade business processes for customer-
facing associates and to implement accountability measures
throughout the organization.

HSBC Mexico: The Mexican arm of the large HSBC Group banking
institution credits its corporate-wide CRM initiative in part
with contributing to the company's constant and dependable
organic growth.

The small to mid-sized companies receiving finalist
recognition are:

University of San Diego: The university deployed CRM
tools to ensure that the right caliber of applicants are
learning about, applying to, and attending the school.

Big River Telephone: This Midwest-based
telecommunications provider used its CRM initiative to
boost customer satisfaction through a customer service
overhaul.

Accept Säljutveckling: This Scandinavian sales training
consultancy revamped its sales organization to maintain
industry leadership, in the process mirroring the firm's
own best practices in sales.

In addition to selecting the Excellence Award winners,
Gartner will announce the inaugural winner of its CRM
Innovator award, given to one company from the overall
pool of Excellence Award applicants. The Innovator award
will acknowledge the company that has developed a novel
or groundbreaking approach to dealing with one or more of
what Gartner calls the "building blocks" of a CRM effort,
and established leadership that other companies may wish
to emulate.

Excellence Award finalists will present their strategies
during the Gartner CRM Summit, held this week in San
Diego. Attendees will vote for the organizations they feel
have the strongest customer strategy. Winners will be
announced at the event on November 2

By Jason Compton, Contributing Writer