Entry

What are some tips for implementing a crm system?

Sep 21st, 2007 11:33
David Cowgill, http://www.crm-guru.com/5-tips-for-deploying-on-demand-crm.php

That's a good question and there's no perfect answer. Did you know
there's on-demand CRM and on-premise systems? 
On-demand and on-premise offerings have stark differences, particularly
when it comes to deployment. Hosted software has relatively low startup
costs and can be rolled out in two to three months, while in-house
systems can take years to deploy, with costs in the high six figures.
Still can't decide? Nicholas Kontopoulos, director of sales management
for London consulting firm Capita Group, says going with an on-demand
system at first is an easy way for businesses to familiarize themselves
with the capabilities of customer relationship management (CRM).
An on-demand system, Kontopoulos says,"It allows you to put your toes in
the water and see what it can do for you and can't do for you, and shape
what your solution should look like."
In January 2006, Capita planned to buy on-premise software from SAP, but
switched gears when the German vendor pushed its new hosted offering.
Kontopoulos says Capita will likely go with an in-house system in the
next year or so, but that the on-demand solution gave his team a better
idea of what they could expect during the interim.
Consulting: Expect a trade-off
Technology managers may be hands-off when it comes to maintaining an
on-demand system, but if they're involved in shopping for one, they
should expect some pushback from would-be users.
"There's a risk that an I.T. person is too far removed from the sales
and marketing organization to understand the intricacies and intimacies
involved in their operation," says Gary Brown, director of marketing
with USC Consulting Group, a Tampa, Fla.-based management consultancy.
In late 2004, USC replaced database software it had licensed to get
contact information for potential customers with Siebel's (now Oracle)
hosted software.
The I.T. department leadership might look for an easy implementation and
reliable uptime, but sales and marketing managers typically focus on
reporting features and the ability to customize the system. Technology
managers should start a dialogue early and work to help users find the
best tool without compromising quality.
Planning: Keep it simple 
A big temptation when bringing in a CRM system is, in a sense, to
reinvent the wheel. Companies often believe that they need to
reconstruct their sales or service operations, and thus revise their
business processes, before deploying a tool.
But sometimes it's better to go with what you know, says O. John Groebl,
information-technology operation and administration manager with
American Express Incentive Services. "The more you complicate your
business rules and structure, the more it becomes a headache to
maintain," he says.
Before Groebl and his team deployed hosted CRM software from RightNow
Technologies, they found themselves trying to dissect their sales
force, grouping representatives into new teams. With that came the need
to work in new processes to the software. To avoid the headache, Groebl
says his company should have stuck with the structure they had and
evolved it as they went along.
Evaluating: Trust, but Verify 
Vendors can show off their products and position themselves above and
beyond the competition, but you never really get a feel for the software
unless you try it yourself. So, Helga Orviss, integrated processes
manager for financial services firm Sun Life Financial Canada,
recommends kicking the tires before driving off the lot.
And Orviss is happy she did. In 2004, the firm was evaluating on-demand
suites to help it track customer relationships. The goal, according to
Orviss, was to see which corporate customers were buying Sun Life's life
and health insurance benefits, and which were buying pension and
retirement products, to identify cross-selling possibilities.
At the time, a lot of Sun Life's customer tracking was done using
numbers to identify customers. Orviss says the software trial showed
that both Salesforce.com and Siebel, the eventual winner, used names, not
numbers, to distinguish between accounts, customers and products.
"It wasn't something we noticed as part of the presentation," Orviss
says. "It identified for us right up front that we had a different
process in place [that would need to be reconciled]."
Deploying: Start Small 
CRM projects can become long, companywide deployments, requiring not
only heavy financial investment but considerable time commitment across
the organization.
Instead of launching an ambitious, all-encompassing release, Wanda
Dembeck, vice president of global initiatives with automotive research
firm R.L. Polk & Co., urges prospective project planners to be cautious.
"Make it a series of small projects, not one huge project with too
extensive of a scope," she says.
That's exactly what Polk did in its deployment of Salesforce.com.
Originally rolled out in 2000 to shake up customer service and
sales-lead generation, Dembeck helped pilot the hosted software across
different departments, including quality control and billings and
collections. Doing it piece by piece, she says, helps an organization
meet each team's needs while ensuring that the tool becomes a
functioning part of their daily operation.
Article was found on this CRM Blog http://www.crm-guru.com