Salespeople are being armed as never before with automation technology that promises to both deliver vital information where and when needed and to improve communications. The rapid growth of automation is not without problems as for every two successful implementations of SFA there are three failures. The purpose of this research was to extend the understanding of factors that influence the productive adoption of SFA by salespeople. Of the factors investigated, only the presence of an initiative champion had a significant positive impact on the productivity of the SFA initiative. Perceived benefits influenced SFA productivity through its influence on the initiative champion. Initiative training had a significant and positive relationship to salesforce involvement. Sales force involvement was not significantly related to SFA productivity.
Widmier et al. (Wed,) studied this question.