A study was conducted by the author among 100 corporate units in Chennai, in April-July 2004, for portraying their varying levels of awareness, interest and adoption of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) packages in their business operations. To control the response bias and increase the reliability of the data, a structured pattern of questions was used during the descriptive survey research. Statistical tests were employed for the data analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). A discriminant function emerged out of the study findings, explicitly taking a logistic form that was typical of adoption behavior of new technology-based CRM services in business operations. Furthermore, the discriminant function designed by the author signified a shift in the ‘adoption and push’ behavior. This will further predict the group membership among current users, future users and nonusers of CRM packages, by gauging their level of interest and awareness status which was measured on a five point scale. The study findings also pointed out the need for a clear business strategy among corporate units who are planning to implement CRM packages within 18 months, for quick business results. Finally, the study concluded that awareness and interest levels were the two determinants which separated the users from the nonusers of CRM packages in Chennai.

The growing popularity of the Internet and massive media hype surrounding its commercial potential, has triggered an avalanche of interest among corporate units in using this new tool for serving their customers globally. This trend has created the need for having a separate CRM system while serving clients/customers online and off-line. Today, business generates a vast amount of data for every conceivable product, service, customer and otheraspects in an effort to understand the markets better. Not surprisingly, converting that data into valuable information is big business and an investment for companies.