Using People, Process and Technology to achieve a Successful CRM Implementation

Using People, Process and Technology to achieve a Successful CRM Implementation

Using People, Process and Technology to achieve a Successful CRM Implementation Our introduction of the "People, Process and Technology" approach to planning and implementing technology investment has created plenty of interest amongst our clients, contacts and the supplier community. Steve Orriss of The National B2B Centre reflects on how People, Process and Technology could maximise the chances of implementation success for your CRM project. Introduction One of the challenges SMEs and their IT suppliers face is working together to ensure that the maximum value is generated from technology investments, this co-operative effort can be hard to make work in practice. Technology is still an important part of the proceedings but successful system implementations also require an understanding of the people issues involved (from both a client and supplier perspective) and an appreciation of the impact on business processes. What I would like to do is reflect on how this approach has helped us work with a range of clients involved in the implementation of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. What is CRM? CRM systems are intended to help businesses to work more effectively with customers and sales prospects. They are in essence databases with functionality that allow people to identify potential new customers, manage the process of marketing to both prospects and existing clients, support the sales process and then maintain an on-going relationship. Done properly CRM systems can offer dramatic improvements in business efficiency and enable fast business growth. However CRM systems have a reputation for being difficult to get right. This is where the People, Process, Technology approach comes in because CRM is an archetypical example of where too much focus on the technology can cause problems. The key point is that CRM was never intended to just be a software application. Gartner Group describes CRM as: a business strategy whose outcomes optimise profitability, revenue and customer satisfaction. The overall philosophy of CRM is to rationalise and improve business processes. CRM is very people-centric. It is intended to deliver better service to customers and it is operated by your staff.

Given these circumstances it doesn t require a great mental leap to see how taking a People, Process and, Technology perspective might be of use in looking at what benefits CRM could bring to a business, which solution and supplier to choose and how to actually implement CRM. I would like to share some of my thoughts and experiences across these different areas. People One of the biggest reasons for IT project problems is a failure to recognise and involve all of the stakeholders. Project teams often forget that there are all manner of users, project friends and project enemies out there. CRM projects amplify this issue because they reach into lots of different corners of the business and not simply a single function or department. Manage change My experience is that this means that CRM projects must have a board level sponsor who can deal with the management team and project manager, liaise with the board and provide a figurehead to instil confidence in the rest of the company. In smaller companies that board level sponsor s role might also include being the day to day evangelist for the project and the project manager. CRM is about change and most people don t like the idea of change when it is first presented to them. This means there really does need to be a mover and shaker who will continually espouse the benefits of adopting the system and deal with the inevitable moans and groans. A key role is to educate staff into why CRM is important to the business this is not the role of the supplier. User involvement What really helps to win support is to involve the people who will have to use the system or be impacted by it (not quite the same thing) in the requirements definition process. Apart from getting rid of the not invented here syndrome it is likely that this group will have a far better understanding of how customer oriented systems work in reality. Involve the best person from each area (not the one you can most afford to lose) and you will benefit from getting their buy-in to the project and maybe even from adopting their unofficial workarounds into the new system. Suppliers are people too A final tip on the People side is to make sure that your suppliers are more closely integrated into the project. Keeping them at arm s length or restricting them to working with the core project team means that they won t be able to develop a complete understanding of the way the business works. It also gives them less opportunity to build working relationships around the organisation, which is a problem when you need to solve problems at implementation time, for instance. Processes If you are researching CRM systems and suppliers and you don t hear the word process then you are in the wrong place. Map those business processes Effective implementation of CRM requires an upfront evaluation of existing processes. Somebody (you, the system supplier or a separate service provide) needs to be able to analyse, capture and document what s going on.

What does this give you? Well I have conducted business process mapping sessions with a variety of companies across different sectors and never run a session where the outputs didn t cause surprise, concern or wonderment. Most of the ways you work will be fine, but turning on the process spotlight will highlight poor service, bottlenecks and lack of compliance things which usually cost money. Identify improvements The great thing about understanding business processes is it provides an immediate opportunity to make improvements using existing manual or IT systems. It also makes it easier to define the selection criteria for choosing a CRM system because you will now have a clearer idea of the scope of the system and exactly what areas of the business it needs to cover or where interfaces to other systems are needed. CRM may be focused on sales, marketing and customer service but the processes associated with those functions reach into finance, purchasing, stock control and production even in relatively small businesses. Processes need people Of course the big payoff comes from using the functionality that your chosen CRM system provides to automate the most mundane activities, to remove bottlenecks and to enforce workflow rules. What s important to remember at this point is that while the CRM application itself will simply reflect the business process steps that you plug into it, real people are going to have to enter operational information and follow on-screen instructions. That s why I stressed the need to get buy-in in the People section and why activities like training are so important. I have seen CRM projects fail because staff simply stop using the system and revert to the old ways of doing things. Technology I heard somebody say recently that technology is the least important part of an IT investment. While I might argue about demoting it to the absolute bottom of the pile, it is true that you must not choose your solution until you understand your requirements by listening to your people and understanding your processes. The right CRM solution is one that combines technology with the support services and approach that I have described above, in a package that meets business requirements and fits your budget. Is "The Cloud" the key? The big technology questions to consider right now centre on what type of platform to use as much as which specific system. Buying a complete software application to run on hardware sited on your premises or facilities is increasingly not the most popular choice for smaller companies. However as we have been highlighting over the past couple of years Cloud based CRM systems are now a genuinely competitive choice. Cloud CRM may be offered as a complete service for which you pay a monthly fee per user or in a format where you still purchase a standard application but it is then run on your behalf in the Cloud and you access the application via the web.

The Cloud offers tremendous flexibility because you can add or remove capacity very quickly, and it may offer financial benefits because there is no capital outlay. Some providers claim that Cloud CRM is a cheaper option in an absolute sense too. I remain to be convinced about that because it is hard to compare like with like. To me the most important factor remains that the technology element of your CRM project won t be the biggest area of focus or cost anyway. Conclusion For those of our clients who have seen their projects through to the end and recognised the need to take a People, Process and Technology perspective (whether by accident or design) the results have been excellent. Improvements in the ability of the business to focus on the needs of specific customer groups, faster through-put of orders, and an ability to deal with many more transactions are just some of the benefits. But it isn t easy. Expect an implementation to take more management time than you thought, expect there to be lots of non-technical implementation costs from suppliers, and expect resistance from staff and stakeholders as you go along. This article was written for Optimising Business Broadband for Shropshire and Staffordshire by Steve Orriss of the National B2B Centre. You can find others on related subjects at www.winning.co.uk. For more information on this programme visit www.optimisingbusinessbroadband.co.uk. You can contact the programme for help on 01785 827600 or email obb@winningmoves.com.