Summary

In the current economy without customers, we cannot survive. So it’s no surprise that our customers will influence the way our business units conduct business. Our challenge is how to effectively manage interactions to best serve customers and prospects while staying aligned with evolving business goals, including growth and profits. As a customer-centric company to achieve the greatest success today we must use flexible customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to manage our customer-facing processes and implement our customer-centric vision. I would like to take this a bit further. We must keep in mind that too much of anything increases cost. What I am referring to is the balancing of each of our businesses IT activities to meet the needs of the customer. We must be adaptable and offer flexibility. Understand the customer need then meet the need and enhance their experience. We no longer have the luxury of designing and developing very complex products that may never be fully utilized. However; we certainly don't want a product that cannot be enhanced for future growth considerations. This is a difficult balancing act however; being flexible and developing an excellent understanding of our customer needs will lay a strong foundation for a successful business even in a down economy.

Your new role would possibly provide insight to help us take a more customer-centric view of your business. It will help you with direction on how to weigh and consider your CRM options, answering questions such as:

• How can CRM address customer-facing processes unique to our industry?
• How can CRM work with our business units specific business processes?
• What CRM capabilities are available that will help us keep pace with rapid changes in our business and market?
• How can CRM deliver quantifiable business results?
• Are there CRM implementation approaches that mitigate the expense and risk for our business?

Not so distant history:

Over the years, some companies have spent large sums on CRM only to have it fail to deliver the results they had hoped for. When CRM deployments do not meet expectations, it is often due to a lack of clear business strategy or executive sponsorship, poor technology fit, inadequate planning, or a combination of these factors.

Your brand of CRM doesn’t have to be risky, if you’ll do your homework. The pieces of your future CRM success puzzle will fall into place when a clear CRM strategy is defined: one that fits your company’s customer-centric vision.

Your CRM role will help to adopt a strategic mindset from the beginning and ensure the selection of a CRM solution that will meet both near-and long-term needs. It will possess a flexible, adaptive CRM architecture, deployed with the following five sets of questions in mind, which is the foundation for CRM success:

Set 1: CRM Is Not a Software Purchase.

• How will CRM support our corporate strategy?
• Which business units or functional groups need to be involved in system design and who will use it?
• Which processes will be impacted or require change?
• Have customers been asked for feedback about the level and quality of service they receive and expect?
• Do we have a strategy and communications plan that includes employees and partners in the CRM selection and rollout process?
• What are the training requirements to drive user adoption?

Set 2: CRM Must Fit the Way We Work—Today and Tomorrow

• Are our market conditions stable or dynamic?
• Will we need to change the way we do business to keep pace with or outpace the competition?
• What is our plan to keep up with regulatory pressures in our industry?
• What technology infrastructure is needed to support new systems, new data sources, and new users?
• Can all important and relevant customer information be collected and combined within this technology infrastructure?
• How will we accommodate change and growth within the system?

Set 3: Define Measurable CRM Business Benefits

• Are our ROI metrics derived from a corporate mandate?
• Do we have adequate ROI tools & processes to measure real ROI?
• Have we established key business metrics? How will we report on them?
• Have we benchmarked current conditions and metrics for future comparison?
• If we choose not to adopt CRM, what might the long-term cost be to our business?

Set 4: Consider Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Carefully

• Are we considering costs over a three-year period?
• Have we planned for change or growth? Could we outgrow a “quick fix” and wind up spending more money a few years down the road?
• Have we considered the costs of data security and the cost of potential security breaches?
• Does industry-specific CRM make sense for our company?

Set 5: Pick the Right Partner

• Does the vendor have experience in our industry?
• Does the vendor have strong, current references from reputable customer companies?
• Has the vendor worked with companies our size?
• What kinds of implementation support can the vendor provide? Does the vendor follow a defined implementation methodology?
• What kinds of training options are available, and how flexible are they?
• What kind of technical support options and resources are available post-implementation?
• What if we don’t have the skills in-house to support or manage the system?