What Does the Commoditization of CRM Mean to your Business?

One of the very interesting things to watch over the past 10 years has been the complete disruption of elements within the CRM industry. The drive for efficiency has pushed CRM (and underlying technology) to the cloud; eliminating much of the competitive IT differential companies would build in-house just a few short years ago. The value chain within the supporting business partner channels has shifted as a result; even if many of these companies fail to see it. It may be too late for them.

It’s not just about your products; it’s also about supporting services. For instance, a company that uses CRM technology has increasingly treated it like a commodity over the past 10 years. Just as the cloud has begun to shift IT value elsewhere, it is doing the same for CRM. Your value as a CRM technology engineer has diminished greatly; whether you are an internal employee or an external consultant. Implementation services are becoming increasingly uncommon, and legacy customers are applying the d…