QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION OF TAM
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most frequently used and most frequently considered CRM system by Cooperative Extension
professionals, with other systems such as ActiveCampaign, Momentous, AirTable, and
QuickBase making infrequent appearances.
Familiarity with CRM technologies was fairly high among both current users and
potential users, but perceived adoption success varied and could be best described as moderate.
However, it was noted that the adoption success of Salesforce systems was reported by
participants to be lower than that of participants utilizing other technologies. Additionally, the
presence of a local champion varied across organizations, with a little less than half of
participants reporting the existence of a local champion. Interestingly, these findings uncovered
that employee resistance was a factor in the success of adoption for various reasons, including
change management, digital literacy, perceived ease of use, and perceived usefulness. The levels
of employee resistance among all participants could best be described as moderately high.
Many institutions have undertaken or are considering several different pre-adoption
approaches, including strategic organizational planning, communications across the organization,
evaluations within the organization, and training and support. Several critical success factors
were identified for the successful implementation and adoption of CRM technologies, including
training and support, strong leadership commitment, user buy-in, and strategic organizational
planning. However, several risks were also noted, such as data security, data privacy, and
adoption or implementation failures, which were ranked as the most prominent concerns.
Participant definitions of CRM had a strong alignment with responses toward the perceived
benefits of CRM technologies within their organization. This included participants reporting that
contact and data management, strategic marketing and communications, client insights,
reporting, evaluation, and efficiency were largely the top benefits of CRM technologies. The
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