In search of a maturity model for Social CRM / Social Business

Enterprise implementations of Social CRM can never be turnkey. The software may evolve to be turnkey suites (not today, but might be in the future) but not the business (vision/strategy, policy/alignment/governance, metrics/measurement, tech adoption, culture internationalization, etc.).

An organization would then have to grow into a social business. And this calls for a maturity model to aide organizations in figuring out how to grow (Do babies come with a maturity model? Is it written in the DNA?).

This being the task I ventured out to find out what models are there to draw inspiration upon (Why reinvent the wheel?) But am not a pilferer, so I have no choice but to learn them, think through and try and come up with something suitable for our customers. More than a mere mash up (greater than the sum?).

I here present the models that I have come across, you can very well understand why am more confused than enlightened!

First up is the SEI-CMM from Carnegie Mellon University, since my employer is certified by them to be at the highest level of maturity.

This model tells us how well are our processes optimised. But Social CRM is not merely about the processes now, are they? But this is important.

Next is the Gartner CRM Maturity model from the dawn of the millenium (June 2001 to be precise). This is a great model defining the stages of how an organization becomes customer-centric by using the eight building blocks of CRM.

But Gartner & SEI-CMM are proprietary models. Nothing "social" in that.

BTW, IANAL, so I do not know if I can really show Gartner's figures on my site, since I have not obtained any permissions for doing so. People can anyway see them for free at http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=98877

How can I not consider the awesome model from the Destination CRM guys (the experiment for which is still to be completed)?

This model is grand, comprehensive and ... daunting. Not for the weak of heart. We need something simpler for the simpletons ... oops ... for the people with no time for comprehending the complexity of the social business, but with the powers to sponsor &/or implement it. This one has scope for improvement, but its the most comprehensive I have come across so far. And its for the use of the community too. Mere attribution of the source will do it for the folks at the CRM magazine. They are in here for making a business by spreading the knowledge for the sake of knowledge, not hoarding them and thus make them scarce, jack up the rates and then make a killing with the "content".

This next is the enterprise social media maturity model from the maxx online guys in Netherlands but I can see it fit into the social business too (I of course agree to the nuances that Esteban Kolsky had described differentiating social media, social CRM & social business, as does Paul Greenberg).

You can also view this presentation that goes with the above daigram:

Enterprise Social Media Maturity Model (ESM3)

View more documents from Gijsbert van der Sleen.

Then comes a professional services maturity model, used by call centers too.

Or this maturity model derived from the CMMI, used a hosted CRM vendor for developing their solutions.

Going back to social media marketing pundits, here is a model for conversation maturity!

The above model claims to comply to Room 214's PPLE Social Media Framework.

And today I found two interesting posts too. The first from Brian Solis on Mashable describing the 10 stages of social media business integration. The second one about the 5 things to consider with Social CRM by Axel Schultze on Customer Think.

So you can see the predicament I am in now. So many to consider, learn from, adopt and come out with a comprehensive & relevant yet a comprehensible & refined maturity model. Want to help me? I am open to ideas from all quarters! :)

Avatar 3D : Pocahontas :: Social CRM : CRM

Avatar 3D has no new plot line, but is very different experience & supposedly a big game changer.

Social CRM has no goals vastly different from CRM, but it is very different in thinking through (strategy) and implementation & supposedly a big game changer.


Avatar 3D is not a mere mash up of Pocahontas plot and 3D. The differences are in the nuances. Not much difficult to imagine a land from your history to draw it up on your storyboard. But very difficult to imagine the planets, moons, flora, fauna, technology, etc. of the future and put it on the storyboard. But the most important thing in Avatar 3D is possibly applying the underlying, inherent "white man's guilt" onto a completely new environment & culture. Old wine in a new bottle, not just wrt the plot, but also the colonization aspects.

Social CRM is not merely a mashup of CRM and Social Media or Social Networks. Not much difficult to imagine functions in your organization whose purpose is to transact with the individual customers, not converse and throwing storage capacity around that. But very difficult to comprehend a networked customer (not just online BTW) who converses with the organization & its ecosystem and throw not just storage capacity but also computational capability to derive actionable insights.

Integrating social technologies with your systems serving the existing CRM functions is not very difficult to draw on the storyboard. I did it in Dec 2008 and still holds good for the most part.

CRM 2.0 - Understanding the Social CRM Landscape

View more documents from Prem Kumar Aparanji.

I would add more meat to the SMM, BI & Dashboard part of the diagram - and make it Social Analytics. They would take in the noise from the social web & community platforms, traditional systems, et al. and provide insights.

SCRM - Social Analytics

View more documents from Prem Kumar Aparanji.

A new addition I would make is a BPM element in there, which would help in converting the insights derived from the Social Analytics into actionable work/tasks. This would require easily reconfigurable business rules that would parse the signals coming out of the Social Analytics end and route to the appropriate work baskets and track their status too. The tasks could also be initiated & assigned manually after going through the reports from the dashboard of the Social Analytics piece. The BPM tool also helps measure & analyze the actions taken and ties in with their effects on the social web.

I am open to suggestions on how to put all this into the old SCRM IT Landscape diagram. Hopefully I am able to update my diagram soon. :)