Quite some time ago I had a conversation with AMR analyst Rob Bois and he mentioned a statistic - maybe well known but shocking to me at the time - that four out of five CRM implementations fail. In the meantime, there's been the rise of Software-as-a-Service, CRM as a development platform and, always, Salesforce.com. Or the success of Salesforce.com that precedes any real discussion about the company.

Now, a new report from Forrester research analyst William Band, released Jan. 10, seems to show that not much has changed on the CRM front: A lot more implementations are rated poorly than are rated succesful. Forrester surveyed 260 business and technology "decision makers and influencers" to figure out their strengths and weaknesses in adopting 11 different CRM capabilities, based on 150 best practices. The results? ""We found that adopting CRM best practices is a big challenge for many organizations," writes Band. "A significant percentage of the executives surveyed evaluate their capabilities to be poor/below average for all categories."

The 'Poor or Below Average Capability' Category break down:
Marketing -- 37%
Customer analytics -- 36%;
Customer service -- 35%;
Indirect sales -- 33%
Customer data management -- 31%
eCommerce -- 30%;
Customer strategy -- 25%
Technology infrastructure -- 23%;
Field service -- 22%
People management -- 20%
Direct sales -- 17%

The bottom line, according to Band: Companies need to adopt best practices to "turbo charge" their customer-based processes. Not surprisingly Forrester offers just such a best practices framework, called the FastForward Best Practices.

"Don't just peruse the FastForward Best Practices Self-Assessment; use it as the basis for an active dialogue about CRM," writes Band. "Everyone involved in customer relationship transformation efforts should take the self-assessment and develop their personal view of the company's current location in its CRM journey. Teams should share their individual results and identify any major differences.

Band said it's the differences of opinion that aren't identified early in the process that can cause problems down the road.

"CRM represents a significant makeover for most firms, so it will take time to achieve," writes Band. "Use Forrester's CRM framework as a guide along the way, always asking the question: "Are we improving our CRM proficiency?"

It doesn't sound like it.