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In order for any software system to gain acceptance in an organization, it must first overcome the disadvantages identified and, loudly, decried by detractors of change. Haag et al, and Cognos offer some of these negatives and this tip provides some thoughts on how to overcome them.
Detractors claim that sales force management systems are, for example:
Other of the negatives are just plain wrong! There is no way that an automated, web-based reporting structure takes more of a salesperson's time than a manual report. If it does, such hand-prepared reports are probably shallow and worthless to management. Integration of automated SFM tools, if acquired from the right vendor, already have the hooks built in that make compatibility with legacy MIS systems relatively easy.
The final, and most salient of the detractions is cost. IT, especially BI is expensive, but so is lost profit on poor sales performance. If a company desires to embrace the concepts of performance management, then the return on investment (ROI) is substantial. There are many independent sources that discuss measuring ROI in a BI deployment, check them out and the underlying value of such an investment will be compelling.
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