Managing Customer Relationships in Uncertain Times 10 of 13

Option 8: Continuous investment and improvement

The notion of long development projects culminating in the rollout of systems throughout the enterprise is clearly under pressure. This is particularly true on the demand side of the corporate value chain. Unlike other enterprise solutions, incremental investments in customer initiatives are both possible and desirable. We have been promoting the idea of multi-generational plans of continuous improvement for some time.

In the current climate, this idea will gain greater traction. Today, there is little margin for error. Implementing a major customer initiative as a sequence of steps minimizes cash outlays in the short-run and provides many opportunities to measure the success of the initiative in terms of organization, process and technology.