Anatomy of a CRM project - part one...

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I want to walk you through a CRM project to give some feel for what we do, and why we do it - and, because it is a real project, some feedback on how things actually played out.

By way of background, this project was the follow up to a project we took live earlier in the year. The initial implementation had focussed on the needs of the sales and marketing teams. The objective of phase two, as the project became known (note to self – we really need to come up with more dramatic project names), was to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of the technical support and service functions of the business. Just to clarify what we mean by technical support and service - if you came into the office one morning and found your xyz machine was no longer working, you might call the supplier of said malfunctioning machine for assistance. They would endeavour to resolve your issue on the phone, or arrange for an engineer to visit to rectify the problem. Phase two was designed to enhance the tracking and resolution of that support call. These support and service processes involved around fifteen people in the business.

The origin of this part of the project, dates back to some analysis we carried out for the client in 2004. The starting point for most of our engagements is to analyse a client’s existing situation. We do this through review of existing systems and operating procedures, and interviewing key staff in the business. The aim is to identify with the client where CRM is likely to have the greatest positive impact in the unique context of their own business. These are not lengthy exercises, in this case five days, including reporting back. What it produces however, is a clear vision of the business benefits the technology will bring, which in turn helps clarifies objectives, generate buy-in, momentum, and, very importantly, provides the foundation to get the right budget and resources – something that kills a lot of projects stone dead from the start.

To be continued -

Kiss

Keep It Simple Stupid….is always something I’ve tried to do (though the extent to which I’ve succeeded or not may be rather more moot). One of the goals for undertaking this blog was to communicate ideas, thoughts, and concepts about the CRM industry in a way that those from outside the industry could easily understand – well I failed this objective this weekend - big time. Whether it was the disruption to my sleep patterns initiated by the exploding Hemel Hempstead petrol storage facility in the way too early hours of Sunday morning, I’m not sure, but the blog post I wrote that day missed the mark by a long way. What I intended was an interesting anatomy of a project we’ve just concluded. What I actually created was an opaque piece of technical mumbo jumbo which yielded little insight to anyone. Fortunately I took the precaution of asking someone to review it first. They were very polite of course, but when, after much furrowing of the brow, they asked ‘Richard, who exactly are you writing this for?’ I knew I was dangerously off track.

The IT industry in general, and the CRM industry in particular, have done a fine of job on their own of obscuring some simple concepts in a fog of TLA’s (three letter acronyms) and impenetrable technical jargon, without the need for further contributions from me. Any how the wash up is, I decided not to publish the piece in its original format, and will rewrite it into a series of bite size chunks over the coming weeks, with a renewed commitment to Keep It Simple Stupid.