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

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