Justifying CRM projects in a business-to-business context: The potential of the Benefits Dependency Network

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) projects often fail. We focus on the project justification process as one way of improving project success rates. We review how the typical combination of an Return On Investment (ROI) calculation and a project plan can have flaws as a project justification approach, and we propose the use of the Benefits Dependency Network (BDN) as an additional tool. The second part of the paper reports on an exploratory study of the BDN's use in five business-to-business CRM projects, inductively deriving propositions regarding its benefits and factors for success in its use. Further research on the tool's efficacy is encouraged.