Does every company need CRM?

If you listen to the CRM tool vendors, it is crucial for every business (independent of its size) to use a CRM software in order to streamline its processes and collaborate effectively with customers and across the organization.

But is this really true for all kind of businesses and all sizes?

First off – I do not think that there is something like a “one fits all” solution for CRM. Even the vertical solutions from some vendors cannot immediately fulfill all the needs without adaption and customization.
And if you think of CRM as a Philosophy rather than a piece of software, installing a CRM tool will not provide a competitive edge anyway. The “me too” approach does not differentiate and thus is limited in its ability to deliver value to the company and its customers. Focus usually is around cost savings and process automation – nothing that will dramatically increase the customer satisfaction or the customer experience.

So what to do with small businesses (SMBs) that think about CRM and do not want to spend a large amount of money into licenses and consulting / implementation projects?
Good news is that there are so many free (or low cost) options out there that it makes sense to think about creating a CRM strategy that does not rely on a fully integrated CRM suite with a high price tag. With a limited number of users it is possible to create an outstanding customer experience by using the tools that customers use (which are usually the ones that are available without cost) and streamline the activities solely by outlining and communicating a CRM 2.0 strategy.

Ideally the used tools offer some kind of integration to avoid the creation of application or data silos. With the emerging standards, more and more applications will offer the possibility to take part in workflows that span multiple applications, departments or locations. But even if there is no possibility to automate this integration, I truly believe that it is not a big issue to do some of the internal collaboration manually.

Again, if the strategy is clearly set and communicated, it is no big deal to export and import some data and send it around via email… Crucial is that the people (i.e. employees) collaborate and pull together.
With smaller companies this is more important than a highly integrated CRM suite and well defined (but rather inflexible) automated business processes. The attitude of collaboration and co-creation will also help engaging better with customers and thus take the Customer Relationship Model to the next level…

Another side effect is that the employees are able to use the tools the know and love – this Enterprise 2.0 approach will also attract and maintain talent within a company.

In the next post I will outline some free or low-cost alternatives for SMBs when it comes to CRM – stay tuned…

Technorati Tags: CRM 2.0,Customer Relationship Management,SMB,CRM suite

CRM 2.0 is not an IT challenge...

Our CTO, Hub Vandervoort, talks about the challenges to implement an SOA and concludes that this is also not only a matter of the right Software or Tool-Set, but a challenge to get people collaborating and communicating with each other (see SOA- Socially Oriented Architecture).

The same applies to CRM 2.0! Software will only support a new Customer Relationship Model - the more important part is the strategy and the shift in peoples heads that has to happen.

While technology was the initiator (Web 2.0) to create the demand for CRM 2.0, it will not be the solution to deal with it.

Technorati-Tags: CRM 2.0,Technology,Software,Collaboration,Strategy

CRM 2.0 - Vendor selection process

Here are my thoughts about vendor selection process and implementation phases - any comments highly appreciated!



Phase 1 „Daydreaming“

• Determine Business Needs
• What are the challenges?
• What was the initial reason to think about a new CRM strategy?
• Get help from an external advisor if necessary.
• Define the ideal CRM solution
• Outline the Hi-Level requirements
• See the company from a customers‘ perspective

Phase 2 „Talk Turkey“

• Come back to reality – you can not archieve everything you wish (what about ROI?)
• Sync with existing CRM strategy and business processes – approve a project
• Priotize the wishlist – separate the crtitical points from the nice-to-haves
• Discuss with customers, employees and advisors
• Identify the technology to be used (i.e. SaaS)

Phase 3 „Issue RFI, RFP“

• Create a list of required functionality
• Send this list to anumber of vendors (4-8)
• Find a rating scheme and qualify the returned answeres
• Ask the vendors to create a proposed solution
• Asses and compare the outlined solutions
• Find the two (or three) best fitting vendors
• Focus on the vendor rather than the product
• Technology must fit the strategy!

Phase 4 „Compare Vendors“

• Does the corparate culture fit?
• Is the vendor financial stable and is the roadmap promising and complete?
• Is the product future proof (technology, platform), can it grow with your company?
• Pricing model and license cost
• Cost of implementation and customization
• Required Hardware

Phase 5 „Proof of Concept“

• Find a business process that covers as much technical aspects as possibe but can be implemented within a three week timeframe
• Ask vendors to implement this business process with their product on site
• Have IT and business people supervise the customization and administration process – get their buy-in!
• Finish with a workshop where the vendor presents the PoC and answers questions how it was done
• Try to estimate the efforts for the full project

Phase 6 „Implementation“

• Keep business involved - gather feedback from future users during the implementation phase
• Create reusable application code
• Keep future upgrades in mind
• Involve customers as beta-testers
• Favor a staged approach for a ‚big bang‘

Phase 7 „Rollout“

• Let users decide, not the contract – usability is the most critical factor...
• Design DOES matter!
• Provide detailed information to users (employees and customers)
• Training
• Collect feedback and keep improving the functionality and business processes

Technorati Tags: CRM 2.0, vendor selection, implementation