SRD Group's Principles
for Successful CRM Implementation

II. Budget

Implementing a CRM system is not just about purchasing and designing the software. The software is only one component of many, the system is designed for people to use, and unless there is monetary commitment to spend on the people then the software will be used inappropriately or not at all. The commitment for a budget to cover all of the needs of a successful implementation has to be agreed by Management from day one to ensure short cuts are not made at the expense of ensuring a successful implementation and management of a CRM system.

• Technology that suits the current needs of the organisation and is flexible enough to change to suit future requirements.
• People that continuously drive, monitor and manage the system now and for the future.
• Business Processes that help support the system and that work in harmony with the system to maximise its output now and in the future.

III. Top Sponsorship (Walk the Talk, do not just Talk the Talk!)

There must be commitment from Senior Management level. A successful CRM must be driven from the top down. This commitment must not only be in terms of a budget, or a statement, but must be seen in terms of actions. If you do not have buy in from the most influential members of an organisation, then you cannot expect those that look up to these people to adopt the system in their roles.

IV. Change Management & Communication

Many CRM projects falter because participants don’t fully understand the purpose of implementing such a system, nor the company-wide benefits that could result from the system. The lesson here is to develop a plan that communicates the specific benefits to each department and then follow up with training across disciplines to reinforce communications.

V. System Flexibility

Given the ever-changing landscape of business today, it is fundamental that the system be able to be changed to suit these market or organisational requirements easily. The CRM applications design must be very flexible, allowing organisations to mould the system to their specific needs. If companies do not use this flexibility to incorporate their specific business and sales processes, it will be difficult for the users to affiliate the system with their role as it evolves, or markets and requirements change.

VI. Partners

If you don’t understand the vendor’s CRM solution in its entirety, or they don’t get to understand your business completely, you might wind up with no solution at all. By choosing a vendor that has experience in your industry (or similar) as well as solutions that match your requirements, your firm will be better positioned to tailor the solution for a wide variety of uses thereby maximising ROI.

It is also important to utilise the relationships your vendor partner has with other consultants e.g. change management consultants. An existing relationship should not only instil confidence from the fact that your vendor recognises the need but that their partner is familiar with their software and the implementation thereof.

VII. People Performance Management

Ask the question:-

“How important is information about your customers / prospects / suppliers to the long term success of the organisation?”

The response is, most often, and as expected: -

“Vital!!”

The next question is: -

“How are you currently measuring an individuals performance with regard to the inputting of this information?”

“We are not” is almost always the reply.

This situation is typical for a large number of organisations. Information which leads to knowledge and finally competitive advantage is viewed as being a ‘critical factor’ in the short and long term success of the organisation and yet is often not being measured! If something is viewed as ‘critical’, then it needs to be measured in order for people to continuously strive for improvement.

In order to ensure that the appropriate importance is being given to the gathering and utilisation of information from all departments within an organisation, knowledge management needs to be engrained in an individual’s KPI’s. This helps drive the system and ensures that the integrity and quality of the information being gathered is maintained.

Individuals need to have the responsibility for the future growth and well being of the company. That means gathering information today, for tomorrow. KPI’s need to be adjusted to reflect this. Incentives and remuneration should be objectively linked to this knowledge management.

You'll lose this fight ten times out of ten since, as a wise man once said, "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Your employees - the smart ones, anyway - always know where their treasure's coming from.

Companies serious about CRM tie employee incentives to customer-oriented indicators, such as customer retention and satisfaction. Cisco Systems Inc. puts its money where its mouth is, rewarding employees based on whether the company hits certain numbers in a customer satisfaction survey.

VIII. Line Management

Lack of buy-in, support, personal usage and utilisation of reports available through users input, is in our experience, the single most common reason for a CRM failure. Unless the manager of the primary information gatherers utilises this information, or ensures that those that should do, then the system will fail

No one likes doing work of any kind, unless they see it being beneficial. These benefits may not always necessarily be for themselves but for others, and, unless they receive regular feedback, reports, or proof that this is the case then their enthusiasm and commitment to the cause will die. The need to complete the information loop is absolutely vital.

Managers need to incorporate the CRM concept into their roles and KPI’s / CRM KPI's should be adjusted to ensure that they have no choice. Their influence can range from 1 to 100’s, they are therefore the biggest risk, even if all other areas have been addressed.

IX. Profiling

Profiling provides so many of the benefits behind a successful CRM, don’t do it and you will never gain the ROI.

It is essential that the profiling of customers be a priority because often there are customers that cost you money to deal with. That is to say the business they provide the company does not cover the cost of the interactions with them. Unless profiles are completed, updated, closely monitored and frequently reported upon, then the interaction costs of your organisation will never be able to be truly controlled.

Understanding the life-time value of the client is all part of this profiling.

"The first CRM application is like a 15-watt light bulb in a dark room. It's not very bright, but can make a huge difference. The wattage can be turned up to 250 when relationships are viewed as a select set of assets to be developed. We're talking an attitude issue here, instead of short-sighted revenue pursuit - are you our friend this quarter or not?"

Beyond the day-to-day interaction is the ability to target specific segments or customers with particular messages, again, this is not possible without accurate profiling.

X. People and Training Focus

Many CRM systems fail because the initial and ongoing training program is weak. It is more often than not because the technology training, process training and best practice training was not integrated into one training program.

Most CRM training programs look the same: Companies make their people attend slide presentations on the new CRM, often this is part of a big “whiz-bang” launch with a lot of fanfare but little substance. They then conduct the necessary, and important, navigational training on the application - yet they provide very little business process context and best practice training. Ongoing monitoring of the success of the training or the adoption of the system does not happen and through loss of faith and/or ability, the system becomes a disaster.

The focus on the people and training side of the equation is, like all the above, a non-negotiable element to a successful CRM implementation and should, and will, never end.

XI. Strategic Management

As markets change so do their information requirements, and as companies adapt people move on to new positions, either internally or externally. Invariably, what happens is that the key drivers (in terms of personnel) move on and the ‘living, driving force’ behind the system dies and thus the system usage plummets. The initial investment in terms of money, time and resources is then lost.

Having a partner whom is dedicated to this task and constantly exposed to the innovative uses of good CRM utilisation not only protects your investment but also increases your ROI over time.

Through constant monitoring and by working with designated personnel at the organisation, the partner would be able to maintain best practice, share innovations and help ensure the long-term success of the system. They would also be able to bring fresh ideas for increased business usage through their interaction with other CRM clients.

This support is independent of the technical support that the organisation receives. Once again this is focused on the business application of the system through the people and processes of the company.

XII. Commitment to Technological Support

Many companies purchase the software and are under the illusion that by doing limited training of an in-house resource they can fully support the software and save money. In our experience this is not true for a number of reasons:

1. The vendor is being constantly challenged by other industries, which means the product is often ‘evolving’ and the in-house resource is not part of this.
2. Lack of time and resource.
3. Lack of dedicated commitment.
4. The need to re-build work that is often not done to vendor specification/standards that results in system problems.

Comments

We were asked to give a rating identifying the 6 most important areas to be focused on, assuming all other principles had been adequately addressed, for organisations contemplating the introduction of a CRM. This is a difficult task because of the uniqueness of each implementation but we would see it as the following:

1. Change Management
2. Line Management
3. People Performance Management
4. Strategic Management
5. Technological Support
6. People & Training Focus

In the end it must be remembered that the results of tools are only as good at the people who use them.

Reference:

1.“Principles make the Best Practice. Seven CRM Software Mistakes To Avoid”, by David Sims.