Planning a CRM
System Implementation
A major milestone and success factor of successful CRM adoption and ROI to the business is a smooth implementation process. This is not confined to the deployment of the chosen CRM system but encompasses a whole CRM implementation plan. This involves multiple resources and skillsets from within your business and your CRM provider.
Optimize resource planning for your CRM implementation
IT managers, project managers, CRM managers, key users (super-users) and senior management must all be appointed and shape the approach according to their skills and experiences as a team.
- What resources do you have within your business to achieve success and what do you need to out-source or skill up for?
- Will you choose a cloud-based SaaS CRM or an on-premise CRM? Do you need to migrate your existing CRM or start from scratch and replace legacy systems?
- What data do you need to migrate to the new CRM? Use this opportunity for data cleansing and profiling, ensuring compliance with GDPR and data consent conditions.
- Who needs CRM access and how will they access it? Which team (sales, marketing, customer service, field service) will be rolled out first? What security and roles are needed? What customer information will they access? Will it be available on mobile devices? What training is needed, for whom, and by whom?
- Consider your IT infrastructure. What other software and business applications (modern workplace and collaboration tools such as emails, tasks, calendar, documents etc.) need to be integrated with your new CRM? Is the CRM software compatible with the tools you use? Having your CRM part of the daily work of users improves adoption and ROI.
- What support and maintenance are planned for the CRM system? Maintenance is typically an annual fee or included in the SaaS subscription, covering functional releases. Support can be in-house or outsourced to the CRM vendor/partner, addressing fixes, change requests, incidents, and releases. Outsourcing offers SLAs, self-service portals, and a Knowledge Base for a better support experience.
Explore CRM deployment options: cloud-based CRM systems
CRM on the cloud is an easier, cost-effective, and future-proof way that organizations of all sizes are opting for to support the experiences they provide their customers.
Why should your company join the cloud revolution? Here are some key benefits of using cloud-based CRM systems.
- Ease of implementation, seamless updates and maintenance of features
- 24/7 accessibility plus full mobile access with automatic syncing online and offline
- Affordable and flexible pricing through SaaS (software as a service) subscription models, shifting your company investment from Opex to Capex
- Public and private clouds are more secure than on-premise infrastructures (think data recovery, automized back-ups etc.)
- More flexibility for integration with workplace and collaboration apps to better serve users and customers
Preparing your CRM project
- Detail your ambitions and objectives for the CRM system, how will it add value to the business?
- In the business case, what ROI targets are set out? Consider a Proof of Concept approach where your company can set milestones of ROI by phasing the CRM project.
- What functionality do you need to scope? The IT and project team need to undertake a functional scoping exercise, talk to key users, management and customers and perform a fit-gap analysis of the CRM software available.
- How scalable is the CRM that your company wants to select? Technology and innovation move quickly in parallel to customer expectations. Your CRM is no different. As a tool that supports customer-facing activities and engagement, it needs to be able to flex for the future. Advice: Define a roadmap to scope the functionality.
