Products & Services June 12, 2025

Report Reveals Opportunities in CRM Adoption, Impact

Insightly’s 2025 report showed a gap between the potential of customer relationship management in the AI era and how teams use the systems.

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Customer relationship management systems are a core component of most mid-market technology stacks, but according to a new report by CRM provider Insightly Inc., they are significantly underutilized: Only 34% of teams are fully leveraging their CRM systems.

According to the “2025 CRM Research Report,” which gathered responses from 379 B2B professionals responding to an online survey in February and March 2025, 70% of businesses use CRM solutions for customer service, and 60% of survey respondents said CRM is more important for achieving sales and marketing goals than it was five years ago.

Revenue Gross Drivers
The “2025 CRM Research Report” revealed a growing focus on sales efficiency and cross-functional alignment as primary revenue drivers for the coming year. According to the study, 53% of sales professionals reported they believe improving sales efficiency will have the greatest impact on revenue, followed closely by the need for better alignment between sales, marketing and customer success teams. As go-to-market strategies become increasingly interconnected, according to Insightly, organizations are recognizing the critical role CRM systems play in supporting these efforts.

The research also highlighted a strong correlation between CRM satisfaction and business performance. Teams that reported extreme satisfaction with their CRM were more than five times more likely to see a positive impact on sales efficiency and four times more likely to experience significant revenue growth.

Adoption Challenges Persist
Yet despite high satisfaction among some users, adoption remains a persistent challenge. Only 34% of teams reported that they fully embrace and effectively use their CRM system, and most reported using fewer than half of the available features. However, when the CRM is well-aligned with the organization’s size and needs, the reported adoption rate improved dramatically. Among teams with full CRM adoption, 86% said their current platform is the right fit, compared with just 62% among teams with lower adoption levels.

The report also called attention to decisionmaking pitfalls that may hinder CRM success. While priorities like usability, integration and flexibility ranked high on teams’ wish lists, many decisionmakers admitted to prioritizing features over ease of use, with 40% acknowledging this misstep. Additionally, 38% said they rushed the selection process—decisions that often contribute to lower satisfaction and limited system adoption.

AI-Powered CRMs
Sales professionals are eager to see artificial intelligence take on the everyday challenges that slow down CRM usage—especially manual tasks, which—along with team capacity—is one of the biggest barriers to sales efficiency. According to Insightly’s report, teams want AI to help automate tasks and workflows (41%), generate reports (35%) and suggest next-best actions based on the sales process (31%), while 30% of responding teams also want help creating, editing and organizing contacts and leads—another time-consuming hurdle.

Businesses are increasingly demanding AI-driven efficiency in practice management. As businesses push for efficiency without growing headcount, AI is becoming essential to unlocking a CRM’s full value.

Overall, Insightly found that the effectiveness of a CRM is not solely determined by its capabilities, but by how well it aligns with the organization’s needs, how thoughtfully it is selected, and how thoroughly it is adopted across teams.

Compliance June 12, 2025

Second Lawsuit Filed Against Cigna Over 401(k) Plan Forfeitures

A separate lawsuit also alleging misuse of plan forfeitures was filed against the health care company in May, as similar cases continue across the country.

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Three former employees of the Cigna Group have filed suit against the company, alleging it misused forfeited funds in its 401(k) plan in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the second case brought against the health care giant in as many months. 

In Adams et al. v. the Cigna Group et al., the plaintiffs claim Cigna and its retirement plan committee misused more than $17 million in 401(k) plan assets over several years to offset company costs, in violation of ERISA. Ahdoot & Wolfson P.C. and the Sharman Law Firm are representing the plaintiffs.

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The IRS in 2023, however, reaffirmed its position that 401(k) plan forfeitures can be used to pay plan expenses, reduce future employer contributions or to make an additional allocation to participants. More than 30 cases contesting the use of plan forfeitures have been filed in recent years, with many cases dismissed by federal judges in a variety of jurisdictions; others are ongoing.

Filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the latest complaint accuses Cigna of breaching its fiduciary duties to participants in its 401(k) savings plan. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that from June 2019 onward, the company used “forfeited” plan assets—funds from employee accounts that became plan assets when workers left the company before fully vesting in employer contributions—to reduce its own matching contributions, instead of applying those funds to cover plan administration expenses, as the plaintiffs claim is required.

The plaintiffs seek to represent tens of thousands of current and former Cigna employees whose retirement accounts were affected. The complaint alleges that Cigna not only misused the forfeited funds, but also failed to prudently monitor the use of plan assets, resulting in millions in lost investment gains and additional out-of-pocket expenses for participants.

Cigna is also accused of engaging in prohibited transactions, per the complaint. The plaintiffs argue that Cigna’s management decisions served its own interests by saving the company money on required contributions, rather than protecting or maximizing the retirement savings of employees.

The lawsuit requests that the court order Cigna to restore the lost funds to the plan, impose personal liability on fiduciaries for any losses and award other appropriate equitable relief. 

In a May complaint in the same district court, other former employees claimed Cigna allowed assets to be invested in funds that had “significantly lower rates of return” than comparable stable value funds that were available, thereby costing participants millions of dollars in returns. That complaint also accused Cigna of violating ERISA by misusing plan forfeitures. 

Cigna Group’s 401(k) has roughly 93,000 participants with $13 billion in assets.

“We are proud of the benefits we offer our employees, including the 401(k) Plan, and we intend to defend our company vigorously against these allegations,” a Cigna spokesperson said in a statement.

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