When your company chooses to implement a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM), it is taking a dramatic step forward in it’s customer commitment. And, since customers drive your business, you’re leaping ahead in your ability to generate and manage revenue, too. The benefits of CRM come not only from the product you purchase, but also from the implementation plan you follow. The more thoroughly you embrace a company-wide CRM project, the more your
company will benefit from the features your CRM software offers. Choosing a CRM system is often the simple part: the implementation can be hard. That’s why we always recommend working with a recognised expert in the area and learn from their experience in delivering a successful project. Through the course of a widely scoped project it is common to uncover areas and functions that can be automated that were not considered before. In principle give the CRM project time; it will repay you many times in what it delivers to your organisation.

Customers are everywhere: clients,vendors, employees, mentors
It used to be easy to define the word “customer.” But companies are becoming more diverse, with multiple locations, employees who telecommute and vendors who function as partners. The idea of “customer” has broadened to include a wide range of end-users of different kinds of corporate information. For example, employees are customers when they need self-service information on pension plans or other benefits. Shareholders are customers when they’re looking for financial information. Vendors are customers when they need detailed specifications before they can proceed with a project. A colleague is a customer when you need to deliver time critical data. And, of course, the buyer is always a customer whose experience is critical to your bottom line. With a CRM system, you can serve all of the groups who rely on your company for important, timely information.

CRM is a broad discipline. Solutions are built to deliver and match different levels of functionality, complexity, structures, methods of working and robustness. Just as you are unlikely to buy a tractor to mow your lawn you should avoid looking to buy enterprise-focused systems it your company’s requirements are simple or modest. The reverse is also true. One of the key areas of dissatisfaction in CRM is a mis-sold solution. Our advice is simple - take a proper look
at what the current and potential needs for organising customer interactions are in your company. Are your relationships long lasting or brief, do you re-sell or look to cross-sell? Do you need to link other departments and people together on a shared system? All of these requirements have tools that suit them, and very often contact management, for example, is enough. Sometimes more of an investment is needed. Work with an expert to assess this, it need not be expensive and it could save you much money and hassle in the long term.

CRM solutions are different for mid-size companies
Some software companies selling CRM would have you believe that you need to buy what they call an enterprise solution that includes all the bells and whistles required for the largest of global enterprises. But for small to mid-size companies this may mean paying for more capacity than is required. In fact, the price of these systems is often so high that any company smaller than a FTSE 500 firm cannot reasonably afford one. But other vendors have created CRM solutions with the mid-sized company in mind, offering applications that include virtually all of the features common in enterprise solutions, but at a cost that is reasonable for smaller scale users. Even better, many of these solutions can be scaled from as little as a single user to as many as you are likely to need in the future. With a CRM solution designed for mid-sized companies, you can start small and grow big without ever wasting your valuable resources on capacity you don’t need. You buy what you need, when you need it. Another benefit of CRM solutions designed from the ground up for mid-sized companies is that they are easier to implement and are fully functional right out of the box. Maybe larger enterprises have the time and resources to spend tailoring a solution and integrating it into their enterprise. But mid-sized companies want a CRM solution that they can get up and running easily, quickly and at minimal cost. And they want one that can be seamlessly integrated with back office systems such as accounting - without the need for custom programming.

To ensure a successful CRM project, planning is essential. Begin by defining the need for a CRM solution. Arm yourself with the background information to justify the investment costs and to demonstrate where the benefits, savings and Return on Investment will come from. Next, define the stakeholders in the project and use the needs analysis and benefits projections as a foundation for establishing a common, company-wide goal for CRM. With this groundwork completed, you can now establish a budget, planning for the costs associated with identifying vendors, testing solutions, implementation, integration, training and support. A team should then be assembled to begin the drive towards completion of the project - a drive that begins with a clear description of your company’s CRM objectives and any processes that will have to be modified to make the project successful. Make sure the head of this team is a CRM champion - someone who completely believes that CRM will make a difference. Good planning will involve discussions with internal and external customers. What are the best practices for your sales force, for your marketing team, for customer service? Also consider the various types of data that are important to track for each group involved. Data required by different groups of system users, such as field sales representatives, may be different from those of customer service
agents. Plan for the needs of each group by confirming that your data requirements list is complete.