Recently, I visited 2 companies that have just installed and launched new Cloud CRM solutions. One was Microsoft and the other Salesforce. Both had completed employee functional trainings. Guess what? Hardly anyone was using the CRM.

Now I am a champion user of the CRM whenever I work for any company. Leads, opportunities, contacts, interactions and more are all on it. I have even won company awards for this. Most of the other employees in business development and sales think I am a real mug.

As one colleague recently told me, the more you put on the more you will have management breathing down your back. Worse, management can use the fact that all your information is transparently available to get rid of you when they need to downsize. So the advise I usually get is put just enough on to keep the wolves at bay but not enough to make you redundant.

Trust is in short supply in these days of downsizing, offshoring and just plan “take care of number one.” The problem is much deeper than the CRM and I’m sure quite a few boffins are scratching their heads on how to solve it.

Speaking from where I stand, the answer is what I get personally from using the CRM solution outweighs the risk of using it. I like to have everything at my fingertips both in the office and outside. I like to plan my strategy, objectives, long-term and short-term goals and link them to my daily tasks. And that’s only the beginning. What about all those targeted marketing campaigns and analytics to help me along the way.

But this is a decision you will have to make for yourself.