Several recent decades could be characterized by the rapid development of science. A number of new and significant discoveries resulted in the increased importance of technologies in all spheres of human activity. Nowadays, there is hardly an affair that does not imply the usage of various technologies. It is widely accepted that the implementation of the latest innovations will result in increased efficiency and improve the final results. In the majority of cases, one could really admit the tendency towards improvement. However, there are still some controversial concerns that arise from the usage of technologies. For instance, the usage of sales force automation (SFA) was excepted to improve performance and guarantee better results. However, research by Ronald Jelinek provides the facts that evidence the inability of SFA to guarantee increased efficiency.
Besides, in his article All pain, no gain? Why adopting sales force automation tools is insufficient for performance improvement, the researcher cogitates about the main peculiarities of SFA and the impact it has on companies performance (Jelinek 635). He highlights the fact that the recent decade was characterized by the wide usage of this technology, which was considered the main cure for all problems (Jelinek 635). For this reason, the given technology became extremely popular with various companies and organizations. However, their expectations failed. The author provides credible statistics showing that “85% of organizations that deployed new sales technology tools in the past year did not improve their sales performance” (Jelinek 636). In this regard, the researcher is interested in the investigation of the main reasons for the given technologys failure and tends to explore the remaining 15% of companies that we’re able to improve their functioning using SFA.
Revolving around the given issue, the author then states that there is a certain set of factors which conditions the SFAs failure and poor final showings. Jelinek highlights the fact that the implementation of the given technology into the companys functioning should be only the first step to improve performance and achieve better results (638). However, a number of firms were confused when the first provisional results turned out to be poor. It could be easily explained by the absence of the clear implementation strategy and the lack of theoretical knowledge related to the main aspects of the SFAs functioning. Having introduced the new technology, sales managers were still trying to minimize the resources used to achieve the needed level of output. It could not but impact the technology and introduce some significant problems. Moreover, the inability to use SFA properly also resulted in numerous problems and decreased the level of efficiency. Additionally, Jelinek is sure that very often salespeople have wrong expectations about the opportunities this very system provides (641). That is why it is not able to improve the companys functioning greatly.
Altogether, the researcher concludes that the usage of SFA should not be considered the guaranty of success as it should be followed by certain steps also aimed at the improvement of the companys performance. Possessing the information about the adoption rates, a number of firms and organizations are not able to accept the fact that this very data might be insufficient (Jelinek 642). Under these circumstances, SFA fails to achieve the desired result and provides a number of questions to answer. That is why it is crucial to continue the investigation of the given technology to guarantee its better understanding.
Works Cited
Jelinek, Roland. “All pain, no gain? Why adopting sales force automation tools is insufficient for performance improvement.” Business Horizons. 56.5 (2013): 635-642. Web.