Business Vs. IT : Who owns the CRM Strategy?

It always amazes me how often this question comes up in discussions with customers. In fact, there are times I discuss this topic even with my fellow consultants. My position has always been the same: “Business Owns the CRM Strategy”, but the debate almost always gets interesting.

I use the term “Business” to broadly cover all non-IT related departments of an organization. This would thus include Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, Finance, Manufacturing, etc. Here are some of the main points why I believe the business is the owner of the strategy:
The “Business” defines what they sell The “business” defines the products or services. Thus they have the knowledge of how it should be positioned in the market. This is typically termed as the “Go-To-Market Strategy”. Now whether they define there products and services using a product centric viewpoint or a customer centric viewpoint, that is really independent of IT.
The “Business” closes the deal
It is the “business” people that make the actual sale of the product. We still have organizations with a host of field sales people doing the actual selling to the customer. The successful organizations have come a long way from the traditional selling practices to incorporate the business mindsets required to sell to a more demanding customer base. At the end of the day, it is these “people” who see the sales through.
The “Business” interacts with the customer
Whether it be the Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, etc. it is the “business” side of the organization which does the actual interaction with the customer/prospects. Their decisions are powered by the information that they have from the organizational systems, but the responsibility of the interaction is really on the persons themselves. Some people say that IT is responsible for a number of the new technology touch-points (such as self service portals, kiosks, online communities, ecommerce sites, etc). They are quite right, technology gives us a great leap forward and quick & consistent medium to reach the customer, but have you seen an organization which relies only on technology and no people behind it for the “business”? (Well that is a topic for another discussion later)
Granted that Information is a critical piece for a CRM strategy to be successful. You need to have the correct information at the right time to make worthwhile decisions. However, “Information” is not the “Strategy”. Yes, “information” helps in the implementation of the “strategy”, but the CRM outlook of an organization depends on “how” they look at the information. Thus IT can provide all the information that it can gather in the world, it is upto the “Business” to define how to use it. If they use it well, then you have a successful CRM strategy. If the organization does not interpret the information correctly and react accordingly, that spells the failure of CRM Implementations. Thus, Information Technology is a “means” to achieve a CRM strategy.
I repeat, no matter how fancy the CRM system; no matter how detailed the information you are able to gather, it is the mindset of the business decision makers which finally makes an organization successful. We all would have heard of many statistics where majority of the CRM implementations fail… the reason almost always is the owner of the strategy was in the wrong department.