The project brief should clearly state the aims and the focus of the CRM Project. It will be designed for internal use and will not be a basis for the pre-selection of possible suppliers and may not even provide “Make or Buy” guidelines. Admittedly, no-one today seriously attempts to go for a “Make”, so this is more theoretical.
Where does this piece of string start? Is it a good idea to look at available products and see what may be of use, or is it better to examine the user requirements in relation to the project brief? Though it can be helpful to have a rough idea of what CRM-Suppliers have to offer, there is for me no question that the starting point is the requirements analysis.
Most suppliers will offer lists of functions. Not surprisingly, these lists will be very similar, allowing only the distinction between “smaller” solutions (cobra CRM PLUS, CAS Genesys World) and “larger” solutions (Oracle, SAP, Pivotal, Microsoft, Salesforce). Within a group of similar products, what really differentiates the products is the ability to realize and support specific business processes. A seemingly simple requirement, such as the need to have different data entry masks for company data depending on user login, can put some players off the screen. These differences only become visible, when the required processes are known and defined.
The starting point must be the definition of the required processes in adequate detail to reflect the way in which users will work. There is no need to fear that this will result in requirements which no supplier can fulfill. Sales, marketing and support processes are common to most companies. The way in which these processes are implemented is however very different from company to company and is absolutely critical for the future application. These differences make companies individual.
Tags: CRM Suppliers, Project Brief
It is frequently stated that a large percentage of CRM projects fail. That is something which I cannot confirm in my own experience, but I have found that very few projects have clearly defined aims. This places the Project Manager and the Steering Committee in a tricky position as there is no way of setting realistic milestones and checkpoints. This could be the subject of a book, but to keep this post readable on this blog, here is simply of list of quantifiable and controllable possible goals for a CRM Project, assuming that the scope of the project and the resources available are also defined. This list relates to B2B projects.
Internal Considerations
- Leads
- Decreasing the cost of lead generation by improved marketing efficiency
- Reducing the time and effort required to qualify leads
- Improving the qualifying process and the conversion rate of leads to opportunities
- Sales
- Reducing the time sales persons require for administrative tasks (activity planning, writing visit reports, producing proposals etc.) and information searches
- Improving the communication between internal and field sales
- Reducing the effort required to organize or re-organize sales areas, sales teams
- Activity Management
- Individual users will not directly benefit from CRM Activity Management, the advantages are in team work and communication. The advantages to be defined relate to improved communication and reduced overhead.
- Opportunities
- The value of opportunity management is frequently overrated, but there are efficiency gains to be made for sales management.
- The use of sales strategies (Target Account Selling, Miller Heimann) can be supported by a well designed CRM System. However, more important than the creation of data entry forms is the way in which the strategy is lived by the sales force. CRM can only support this process by reducing the administrative overhead (see “Sales”)
- Marketing
- Operational Marketing (I would like to patent this term) can be simplified using CRM Software for Mailings, Event Organization (Invitations etc.) and by linking campaign and lead generation processes. This needs to be carefully designed.
External considerations – the real CRM objective
All of the above relates only to internal improvements. Most important though is that customers should feel the effects of a new CRM System. They should find well informed contacts and be impressed by the ease with which staff deal with any kind of situation. In my opinion this should be the real reason for installing or improving a CRM System. Here quantifiable goals could include service quality, customer satisfaction, speed of delivery and customer retention.
Tags: Project Brief
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