Although Infinity Info Systems CEO Yacov Wrocherinsky has shepherded countless CRM programs to successful fruition, he continues to see organizations make the same mistakes that thwart their efforts to build CRM success. In a recent interview with CRMIQ, he offered these three main CRM pitfalls to avoid.

* No management support. Wrocherinsky says that one of the biggest mistakes he sees organizations making as they implement CRM is lack of support from upper management. “At no point is the project endorsed by someone in management,” he says, and since end users resist change, “without someone requiring them to use the new system and all its functionality, they won’t embrace CRM or a new way of doing things.”

* Less than adequate training. Wrocherinsky says that CRM implementations often involve the re-engineering of business processes, but the resulting training seldom takes that change into account. “How the system addresses these business processes or even what business processes are changing is never conveyed, leaving end users confused and/or frustrated,” he says. “Do not skimp on training documentation or end-user training programs -- a CRM project is only as successful as its least skilled end user.”

* Dirty data. Wrocherinsky says organizations tend to underestimate the importance of cleaning up their data, but that’s a recipe for disaster. “While the task may seem overwhelming, it will greatly increase the success of the initial rollout,” he says.

For more information, read the full interview here or visit Infinity Info Systems here.