White Paper The Survival Guide for Migrating to a Cloud-Based CRM. By Christopher Smith, WalkMe

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1 White Paper The Survival Guide for Migrating to a Cloud-Based CRM By Christopher Smith, WalkMe

2 Table of Contents Introduction: The Power of the Cloud How to Ensure a Smooth and Successful Implementation and Orientation Process Project Kick-Off & Effective Communication Train, Train and Train Again Sell the Product to the Users How to Encourage Users to Adopt the New System How to Provide the Best Support Experience About WalkMe

3 Introduction: The Power of the Cloud How to Ensure a Smooth and Successful Implementation and Orientation Process Communication is the key to making this type of project a success INTRODUCTION Sales teams from cloud computing service vendors have often claimed that a company can sign up for a cloud-based CRM system and have it up and running in a few days. That is largely inaccurate and impractical, due to the fact that time is needed to get users to buy in to the new system, address their issues and concerns, provide adequate training, and show how the new system will help close sales quicker, carefully track prospects, assign new customers to those best equipped to handle them, and speed the order-to-delivery process. Communication is the key to making this type of project a success. So it s really not just about the technical needs of implementing a new CRM, but also about user adoption, onboarding and how long it takes them to reach full competence levels. The following short white paper will look at CRM migration from the end-user perspective, with the goal of ensuring a smooth and successful implementation and orientation process. Project Kick-Off & Effective Communication The goal is to communicate, educate and, most importantly, build enthusiasm for the new system When the sales department learns that the familiar, but much despised current CRM system is going to be replaced, rumors start to fly: What will happen to all my contact information? Am I going to lose sales leads?

4 What about the competitor product and price information I have built up over years? Will we have to enter the same data into two different systems? Is the new system an excuse to change the compensation and sales commission rates? Gartner states that, adoption is inhibited when users resist the new system by focusing on cutover difficulties rather than embracing the new processes. In order to get ahead of this, management has to get out in front with communications. Invite all the employees to a video conference to address concerns or give it in an auditorium, explain the roll out process, and sell users on the idea. The goal is to communicate, educate, and, most importantly, build enthusiasm for the new system and explain why the old one no longer meets the company s needs. Explain the challenges of moving to a new system. Show the timeline. Explain why the old system no longer meets the needs of the sales organization, because it is resulting in lost sales, lower commission, lower profits, and is difficult to add new products and lines of business. Explain how the time-to-market cycle for new products will be reduced by the new software. Give training often and repeatedly. Give frequent demonstrations and show users how their converted data will look in the new system. Show new features like the ability to scan in sales orders and images with mobile devices. Explain how support people (CRM admins) will handle support tickets and communicate with the vendor to fix issues quickly. Gartner analyst, Michael Guay, explains the importance of effective communication in implementing successful change. He writes that a business can foster organizational change by making sure everyone understands What's in it for Me, and recognize and reward successful early adopters.

5 Train, Train, and Train Again Improve training effectiveness by conducting reinforcement training three to four weeks after go-live Some people are by nature leery of anything new; others are quick to embrace the idea. So to reinforce their understanding and encourage buy in, train early and often, you could: Explain why the new product is necessary. Give examples from the old system where there are gaps in the process, where sales are lost, and where interfaces frequently do not work. Let business and product line managers demonstrate how transactions are processed in the system. Users will prefer someone from their own company doing that, instead of a professional trainer who has no knowledge of this particular business. Ideally the two persons could work together or backand-forth. Do not give too much training all at once and do not do it too early in the project. People will tend to forget what they will learn and will get bored in class. Better to follow the strategy on continuous micro-learning providing small doses of information at key times. Gartner research reports on the Forgetting Curve : German researcher Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered that retained knowledge drops significantly after 20 minutes of a training session or presentation. After that time, more than 40% of the information has been lost. Remember that training is part of the plan to build support for the product. Follow on training classes let users ask key questions from the project managers and analysts. Give users access to online training. Make it a game, and make it fun, by assigning points and giving awards for those who complete certain modules. Gartner recommends: improve training effectiveness by conducting reinforcement training three to four weeks after golive.

6 Sell the Product to the Users The new system will have most of the features of the old system plus new ones, like a mobile application and a real-time dashboard to give insight into what is happening now. Ideally it will replace a handful of separate systems with one integrated platform. It is easy to see the benefit from that: reduced double-entry and less phone calls from angry customers asking where their product is. The CRM system will provide this partial list of features: Ideally the new system will replace a handful of separate systems with one integrated platform A sales quote system turn quotes into sales orders quickly and easy, often in the customer s office self-service customer support backed by CRM admins create replenishment orders based upon inventory level enter contact information and generate a calendar of follow up s, phone calls, and on site visits scan business cards into the system and assign follow up to specific sales people maintain competitor pricing provide a mobile app; this is something new and exciting contact management competitor tracking analytics, i.e., forecasting and give the best time to sell which products given seasonal variations and other knowledge drawn from the system opportunity (lead) management online campaigns including and social media discount and order approval workflows, hopefully that will work better than in the old system to reduce the time to close deals maintain a price book

7 How to Encourage Users to Adopt the New System Invite business and product line managers to participate in the systems integration and conversion planning Communication strategies including newsletters, a project web site, and executive pep rally type talks. Early in the project inception, invite business and product line managers to participate in the systems integration and conversion planning. More compensation and quota information will be online in the new CRM system; show users that. Invite key customers in to see the new system and explain how the sales people will take orders using mobile devices in the customer s office, via electronic interface, over the phone, or by giving customers direct access to the system. Demonstrate the mobile app features of the new CRM system including the ability to generate a receipt in the customer s office, review pricing information and customer-history, and scan relevant documents. Use online guidance technology. The company can use its own YouTube channel to distribute tips and training. Or it could use more interactive tools like WalkMe, which actually guides and engages users through the process, in the moment of need. Use gamification to reinforce training. Gamification means turning something that could be boring (like training) into an interactive activity, to make it more interesting. Explain that the interfaces with the order-entry, inventory management, and accounting systems in the old system did not work well all the time, were outdated, and cost too much to maintain. If you have signed up for cloud services to replace some of those systems, you can explain the benefits of that and give demonstrations.

8 How to Provide the Best Support Experience The keys are effective communication, user involvement in design, thorough and strategic training, and a valuable and easyto-use online support system backed by CRM admin support The latest support platforms use social-media like tools to let people post questions and have them answered by people inside the company or routed by the CRM admins to the cloud CRM vendor for follow-up. Give the users the ability to search the knowledge base including videos. Give admins access to use tools for quick fixes. For example, let admins maintain a collection of how-to videos and maintain links to performance support platforms like WalkMe that actually walk the user through transactions. These are some best-practices ideas for implementing a new CRM system, taken from other successful projects, showing how to increase the user s buy in and provide an increase understanding of the system. The keys are effective communication, user involvement in design, thorough and strategic training, and a valuable and easy-to-use online support system backed by CRM admin support.

9 About WalkMe WalkMe provides a cloud-based platform designed to help managers to guide and engage employees through any online experience. WalkMe simplifies software usage, in providing direct step-by-step guidance at the moment of need, so that users can work efficiently and successfully. Through a series of interactive tip balloons overlaid on the screen, tasks are broken down into short, step-by-step guided instructions, which help users act, react and progress during their software usage. As a result, WalkMe helps enterprises streamline software changes in a way that is smooth, easy and ensures that employees stay productive and successful. WalkMe s platform onboards new users faster and helps them successfully apply what they learn on any software, in the moment of need. No need for lengthy training sessions, and no need for massive migration or IT helpdesk costs. WalkMe helps employees perform the most important tasks, no matter how complex.