How not to execute a Siebel CRM Project: You’r Disaster Recovery Recipe (Part 1)

Dears,

Organisations often spend huge sums on buying and implementing Siebel CRM Applications, and many see a fantastic return on their investment – increasing sales, improving customer service and reducing internal costs. However, others struggle and often become disillusioned with the whole process after years of effort.

Why do Siebel CRM projects go off track, and how can organisations ensure that theirs will be a success?

Siebel CRM is an immensely powerful product with an extremely wide set of functional capabilities. However, it is the way in which the product is implemented that determines whether the anticipated benefits are delivered. A project can fail for a variety of reasons. During our ten years working with Oracle Siebel we have been called on to rescue some projects that have gone off track, and time and time again the cause can be traced to a basic set of problems. By bringing together the ten reasons why a Siebel project is most likely to fail, this blog article examines the factors that separate success from failure.

We explore potential pitfalls and how these can be avoided, and consider how to bring problematic projects back on track. Let see Top 10 Siebel CRM Project Implementation Pitfalls


1 Unrealistic short term expectations

One reason why a Siebel project may be perceived to fail is that there is an unrealistic expectation of how quickly the benefits will be seen. Merely installing Siebel and making it available to users will not transform the effectiveness of an organization. Instead, realizing the full capabilities of the application takes a lot of hard graft from technical and business oriented teams. Time and effort are essential, and not all the benefits will be delivered at once. For example, if a key benefit is more accurate forecasting of sales opportunities, that benefit will not be realized until the organization’s opportunities have been actively managed through the new process and there is consistency in the data. To avoid setting unrealistic expectations, care must be taken to understand at the outset:

• The actual IT costs of the project
• The anticipated benefits and when they are expected to be delivered
• The prerequisite process steps, both technical and business, to obtaining the benefits
• The necessary commitment by the business of time and resources to the project

If adequate consideration is given to these points when developing a project plan, it is possible to celebrate milestones along the way to the ultimate goal, rather than becoming disillusioned by how much work has been done and yet how far there still seems to be to go.

2. Insufficient Siebel knowledge in design team

Experts in the relevant business processes, or experienced business analysts who have worked on other applications, can play vital roles in the analysis and design team, but they must be complemented by real Siebel experts. A lack of Siebel expertise is likely to give rise to the following scenarios:

· Processes are designed based on how non-Siebel applications work, leading to many screens being required for something which could be achieved with one or two button clicks. This leads to significant and often unnecessary reengineering of Siebel.
· Particular ways of working are imposed on the application, when Siebel already supports the exact requirement in a slightly different way. Recreating functionality that exists in the core product is unnecessary and expensive, both in terms of initial development, and of ongoing maintenance, enhancements and upgrades.
· The system fails to meet all the requirements because it is perceived that certain things cannot be achieved in Siebel when in fact, with appropriate skill, they are fairly small configuration tasks. The importance of engaging real Siebel experts at the early stages of a project, with both functional and technical knowledge about what is and is not achievable – and how best to achieve it – cannot be overstated.

3. Separate technical team

In a traditional IT project, a business analyst speaks to users in order to gather requirements, before documenting them and passing them to a technical designer. The designer translates them into a technical design which is then implemented by a programmer before the system is tested and deployed. This approach results in a large gap between the users with the original business problem, and the technical team charged with solving it. In a more extreme version, the development work may even be carried out off-shore. This model may still have a place in some situations but it is not appropriate in a Siebel project. Siebel is different because a skilled configuration expert can bend the core application to meet a particular requirement very quickly. This presents an opportunity to run projects in a way that increases the probability of the delivered system meeting users’ needs, while lowering project costs by reducing the project team size.
The ideal model for a Siebel project is a small, expert team where each individual is responsible for all activities relating to a particular functional area, from requirements gathering, through design, development and testing, to deployment. In larger projects, there may well be people who specialize in design, build or test, or people who are involved in only one area, but the core team should remain throughout the whole project.

4 Insufficient user involvements

Ultimately, a Siebel implementation is a business project that must deliver business benefits. The project is for end users and their managers, so it is critical that they are fully engaged throughout the project to
ensure that the final system delivers what they need. Often, other responsibilities mean that users have only limited time to give to the project, but if they are only prepared to commit very small quantities of time – or even no time at all – then our experience is that a project will not be as successful as it should be. Typically, the most important stages for significant user involvement are:

• In the design phase, including workshops and prototyping to verify that the user interface will support what they need to do. At this stage, it is also important to run through each of the processes that users will perform, to check that nothing is missing.
When planning user involvement, a key consideration is who to involve. This varies from organisation to organisation, and also depends on the task to be performed. Of all the user-centric tasks, design workshops are normally the most critical to a project’s success. Senior management often do not have
enough time to do the activity justice and may not actually understand the finer detail of the processes that users will perform on a day to day basis. On the other hand, running workshops with low level users can result in the collection of information that reflects the details of the current system rather than the changes that senior management are trying to implement. Therefore, the best candidates for these
types of activities are often found at team leader or middle management level.


5 Poorly thought-out integration

Many Siebel implementations involve complex integration with other applications. Even if each individual application that supports a business process is well designed and robust, if the interfaces between those applications are flawed, then the resulting overall system will not be solid. Again, expert Siebel knowledge is essential in this scenario. If the team handling the integration has little Siebel knowledge, the following often occur:
• Inappropriate split of tasks between applications: for example, something that could be easily achieved in Siebel is customized into another application because no one knew better. Unresolved inconsistencies between data models: for example, a contact can have many addresses in Siebel, but only one is supported in a particular legacy application.
• Incorrect interface type selection: the wrong decision is taken over which integration technology (EIM, eAI, Web Services etc) to use. Integration routines may also be poorly developed, since this is primarily a Siebel configuration job requiring expert Siebel skills.

Even when Siebel expertise is engaged in the design and build of integration, organisations often choose to subdivide the Siebel team along the line between configuration and integration. This is a mistake because decisions made at the design stage about how the user interface should work can affect the format, style and frequency of integration – and choices made in integration(often forced by legacy applications) can affect how information should be presented to users. Therefore, the two aspects are by no means independent, and as a minimum, the team building the core configuration should be expert in the issues surrounding integration and vice-versa. Integration must be considered in the context of the overall application design, and not dealt with as an afterthought. Of course, individuals with high levels of expertise in the other applications concerned should also be involved, and collaboration is the key to successful integration projects.

Happy Reading and Watch this space for my concluding Part 2

Your Partner and Companion
DC*

Cloud Computing - Be Aware of Cloud Bursts

Dears,

The savings from cloud computing may be considerably less than expected if you don't avoid these missteps.

The chance to cut costs is one of the chief reasons companies turn to cloud computing, but how much is saved may depend on avoiding some common mistakes and misperceptions.
On the surface, moving to the cloud seems like a can't-lose deal. When third parties (such as Amazon.com, Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM & Microsoft) host your applications or computing capacity in their massive virtualized data centers, you save the capital expense of updating hardware, cut maintenance costs, use less power, and free up floor space. The basic cloud pricing model is a flat fee based on capacity consumption, which often amounts to less than the forgone costs.

But there are a number of "hidden gotchas" when it comes to using cloud infrastructure providers. In particular, we identify six potential pitfalls that can make cloud costs pile up higher than expected:

1. Not taking full account of financial commitments on existing hardware.
IT departments that have much of the responsibility for technology decisions and purchases may under appreciate the financial impact of committing to a cloud provider before existing physical equipment is fully depreciated. If that equipment cannot be repurposed, the ROI of moving computing workloads to the cloud may suffer. "This has to be looked at from an accounting perspective..

2. Not factoring in your unique requirements when signing up for a cloud service.
Most cloud offerings are fairly generic, as they are designed for the masses. For specialized needs, such as a retailer's need to comply with payment-card industry regulations, a company is likely to face additional charges. Be sure you understand such charges before signing a contract.

3. Signing an agreement that doesn't account for seasonal or variable demands.
In the contract, don't tie usage only to your baseline demands or you'll pay for it. If high-demand periods are not stipulated up front, there are likely to be costly up-charges when such periods happen.

4. Assuming you can move your apps to the cloud for free.
Many software licenses prohibit the transfer of applications to a multitenant environment, but the provider may let you do it for a price. If you think you may want the flexibility, ask for such permission to be written into licenses at the time you're negotiating them.

5. Assuming an incumbent vendor's new cloud offering is best for you.
Many providers have added cloud-based infrastructure to their traditional outsourcing and hosting services, but they're not motivated to give existing customers the lower price point that the cloud typically offers. "They're struggling with how to develop these new offerings without cannibalizing their existing revenue stream,". If you want to switch to a vendor's cloud services, do it at the end of the current contract term, when you can get negotiating leverage by soliciting other vendors.

6. Getting locked in to a cloud solution.
Some cloud-services providers, notably Amazon, have a proprietary application program interface as opposed to a standardized interface, meaning you have to customize your data-backup programs for it. That could mean trouble in the future. "Once you have written a bunch of applications to the interface and invested in all the necessary customizations, it will be difficult — and expensive — to switch vendors.

While we appreciate and contribute to Cloud computing its also our responsibility to make a informed decisions and evaluation before we move our applications to cloud.

Good Luck
Your Partner and Companion
DC*

Sneak Preview of Self Service CRM Realities

Dears,

Many customer support organizations consider Self-Service CRM to be a promising strategy for reducing the costs of customer service. Unfortunately for those organizations, self-service CRM doesn’t often meet those expectations. Investing in self-service technologies primarily to save money is one of the common mistakes that companies make. In fact, however, only about 20% of customer support calls are deflected by the availability of Web-based self-service, such as knowledge bases, user forums, or online scanning or configuration tools. While 20% is much better than 0%, it’s not the result that many companies look for when investing in self-service. And that is really the first major mistake many companies make with a self-service implementation: having unrealistic expectations.
“The big shocker is that people have invested in forums and social networking and are getting thousands of questions answered, but the phone calls aren’t going down. What often happens is that customers who have never used support before May now spend time browsing the site, posting to the forum, and researching minor problems not serious enough to warrant a support call. That makes it difficult to gauge the number of calls deflected by a Self Service CRM portal.

Here are five pitfalls to avoid when launching a customer self-service software project:

Building a self-service wall.
While reducing the volume of calls (or reducing certain types of calls) to the call center is a legitimate long-term goal, it shouldn't be a short-term goal, nor the main goal of a self-service CRM project. That will lead the implementers to develop a site that prevents customers from getting through to customer service rather than one that aims to improve the quality and diversity of services available.
If the goal is just to deflect calls, not provide superior service, you’ll wind up erecting a wall between customers and your company. I remind my clients that their customers just want a solution to their problems. If you can provide that solution more quickly, then you’ve done something good for them and for you.

Neglecting to propagate the value of self-service.
Gartner estimates that 50% of all Web-based community efforts will fail. The reason for failure is that companies aren’t taking the time to clearly convey the value of participating in a Web community. Whatever that value is -- whether giving customers a voice for new product ideas, providing better support by asking users to share information, or earning points toward a new iPad they need to promote it. Companies need to define exactly why their customers would want to be involved with this.

Making it one-size-fits-all.
Customers can be frustratingly diverse in their service needs and inclinations. Organizations must create a mix of self-service offerings that matches their customers’ preferences, rather than settling for a one-size-fits-all support site.
You'll never get ROI [from the self-service investment] if your customers don’t use it. If you start by putting up things that customers have never asked about, it will be very hard to get them to use it. Not only do customers have different support preferences, but different categories of problems require different treatment. A reputed firm known for his successful crm initiatives divides customer issues into two main camps -- the known problems, which have an answer; and the new ones, which may not yet be resolved or even recorded, such as a new product flaw. The company recommends self service crm portal to focus on solving known problems so human reps can concentrate on solving new ones and later add this to your CRM self service portal with a solution.Some self-service channels are good for both types of problems. User forums enable customers to help one another by answering common questions and by brainstorming to fix new problems.

Not marketing self-service.

If you don't want anyone to show up to your support site, don't mention it in the company newsletter, website, Twitter feed, or emails. The user community may not be aware that you've added something significant. The users who have had earlier, negative experiences with online support are often the least likely to return for a new, improved implementation. Ironically, an early adopter who had a poor experience … with self-service may be less willing to try it again. So it may require putting together a user guide outlining features and functions of the new self-service resources, or online tutorials, newsletters, and examples of how customers have used it. Don’t keep it a secret.

Skipping the long-term plan.
The lack of a long-range plan can cause self-service projects to die of neglect after the initial implementation. Once a company writes all the knowledge-base articles, puts initial posts on all the forums, and gets the product configuration tool on the website, it too often forgets to go back to update everything. This is typically the result of not specifically assigning or hiring staff to take care of self-service.
“One of the problems I’ve seen in self-service is that it’s launched with great fanfare, but then nobody does anything else to maintain it, so the content becomes stale, the knowledge-base documents are old and out of date. “Too often, people assume buying technology is enough. They don’t realize it’s an investment in people as well.”

So all said Self Service CRM is a journey and there is no end point.. The results of Self Service CRM are enormous be it cost saving or hitting new highs in your business and you will reap the benefit when you are committed to keep this alive everyday and try to go the extra mile every time.

Good Luck
Your Partner and Companion
DC*

Taking Your CRM beyond Geographical Borders

Dears,

If you plan to run your global CRM efforts from your headquarters, think again. Building better relationships with customers is an ideal that's not limited to any one market, community, industry or even country. The basics are the same, for the most part; they involve collecting data and applying it where appropriate to drive sales and customer loyalty.
Understanding this comes as second nature when you work within a single country; the practitioners of CRM are customers themselves and thus share many of the cultural characteristics of their own customers. They also understand the legal requirements around privacy and data security for their country, and they have an understanding of the technical abilities of its communications infrastructure.

But what happens when you expand your CRM focus beyond the borders of your country? Can you simply clone CRM operations from one geography and expect them to get results in another?
Even if you could, it would probably not be effective -- but in many cases, you can't, due to legal and technical barriers. So, what do you need to go global with your CRM efforts?

1. Understand the legal issues concerning what you can collect and where you can store it.
When you cross borders, you come under the jurisdiction of different laws. In some cases, those laws can be quite different from one country or region to another. For instance, privacy laws in the European Union are quite different from those in the U.S. Local laws may demand that customer data must be stored locally, which can throw a monkey wrench into cloud-based solutions. Additional levels of regulatory granularity around specific industries can further muddy the legal picture.
South America is a great case in point. Although the nations of the region share many aspects of their cultures, each nation's lawmakers have approached privacy and security issues at different paces and with different attitudes. The result is a patchwork of requirements that makes it very difficult to have a single CRM system.
The lesson: If you plan to run your global CRM efforts from your headquarters only, think again. It may simply be impossible to do so legally, so examine the law closely and be prepared to set up CRM systems unique to specific geographies.
2. Realize that all technology infrastructures are not equal.
In North America, a robust technology infrastructure is enabling all kinds of cloud-based innovation, and CRM practitioners can take that for granted. In parts of the developing world, on the other hand, that infrastructure is not as reliable, ubiquitous or capable -- which means that what works in the U.S. may not work elsewhere.
Before you take the plunge into a new geography, consult with your IT team -- or with a local consultant -- to develop an honest view of what technology can be used reliably in that region. It may be necessary to use on-premise software and to build your own computing infrastructure in those regions, even if you're using a SaaS solution elsewhere.
The lesson: Don't assume that the entire world has the same capabilities when it comes to computing -- and if you want to use advanced computing to support your CRM efforts, you may have to pay more for it than you might expect.
3. What matters to customers is different from place to place.
The cultural issues between markets are probably the most obvious differences to marketers and sales people. There's a reason that local marketers and sales people are important -- they understand what motivates customers and what information can help close sales.
When it comes to CRM, that means you can't drop the exact same data fields that produce winning results in North America into Asia or the Middle East and expect to get the same results. Some information -- contact data, for instance -- is universally useful, but other information is less helpful from place to place. It may be common to collect certain data in one place but rude to request it in another region.
Once again, reaching out to your people in these regions -- or to consultants in areas you're looking to move into -- can help you understand what unique data helps build relationships in a particular location. Understanding that can help you customize your CRM application and give your international sales and marketing teams better and more pertinent data.
The lesson: If you hope to sell to locals, listen to locals and take their input into consideration when tailoring your CRM system for a new geography

These 3 simple things are just to rekindle your thought process and hopefully you will find more valid and critical ones

Good Luck
Your Partner and Companion
DC*

To BI or not to BI

Dears,

When a user of a BI application complains about the application not being useful - something that I hear way too often - what does that really mean? I can count at least 10 possible meanings, and potential reasons:

1. The data is not there, because
It's not in any operational sources, in which case the organization needs to implement a new app, a new process or get that data from an outside source
It is in an operational source, but not accessible via the BI application.

The data is there, but
2. It's not usable as is, because
There are no common definitions, common metadata
The data is of poor quality
The data model is wrong, or out of date
3. I can't find it, because I
Can't find the right report
Can't find the right metadata
Can't find the data
I don't have access rights to the data I am looking for
4. I don't know how to use my application, because I
Was not trained
Was trained, but the application is not intuitive, user friendly enough
5. I can't/don't have time do it myself - because I just need to run my business, not do BI !!! - and I don't have support staff
I am low on IT priority list
6. It takes too long to
Create a report/query
Run/execute a report/query
7. I need to report/analyze on something that SQL can't do, such as
Faceted search
SQL on data with uneven, unbalanced, ragged, recursive hierarchies
8. It's a wrong BI application
I have strategic decisions to make, but the app is designed for operational decisions, or
I have operational decisions to make, but the app is designed for strategic decisions
9. The app is not integrated with other applications, processes or desktop so
I loose context
Have to switch apps, cut & paste
Don't know how to act on the info that I find
And my personal favorites
10. I don’t know what I am looking for, but my application is asking to
Run a specific report
Pick specific facts and dimensions
so I don't know where to start.
The app stops short of helping me, directing me to make the actual decision, even if I know how to use the app, have access to the right data, and can find what I am looking for. It's a loooooong way between finding the right info and actually make a decision based on the info.
What did I miss?
Because no-one thought about the decision I have to make, the actions I have to take, when they designed any of this. And anyway I don't have the analytic skills/interest or the time to wade through the data anyway - I just want my system to help me do the right thing. Most people in most companies don't want to do BI, they want to run their business and they need their systems and processes to actually help, not simply present data to them. So the bottomline Intelligence not for the sake of Intelligence, Organizations and Managers should sign off for new way of executing things and understand that BI apps would able to generate Intelligent information only when you put together metrics and data intelligently and its will not fall from the sky when you ask for it.

Think about it, I will come back with some more Intelligence
Your Partner and Companion
DC*

CRM Wedding: Your Bill is $$$$$$

Dears,
Ok, you are ready for CRM and Your Management is given the nod for the next big thing. Its gonna be a Wedding and your the wedding planner and you have to make every cent/dollar/euro count. Here are few things you have consider as the investment and getting ready for the Big Day, CRM Go live.
Licensing

The first and most obvious cost is of course the licensing costs of a purchased software solution. This can vary from under $200 to the six zeroes investment depending upon the number of users involved, the size of the company and which application you chose. Whether your solution is hosted or purchased, the majority of CRM vendors require software maintenance fees for support and upgrades. These are usually annual, recurring costs for the life of the software. When you’re presenting your business case for your Customer Relationship Management system, include these in calculating your Return On Investment (ROI).
With the advent of hosted, web-based CRM solutions, midsize businesses can play in the big leagues. Subscription costs as little as $60.00 USD per person per month exist for true CRM hosted software. These solutions require little or no investment in IT infrastructure, and even more importantly, IT personnel. Be aware that you may be tied to a contract for an agreed upon duration for web-hosted software.
Hardware
If you don’t already provide PCs, laptops, or PDAs for your sales personnel, then a hardware investment will be necessary. This applies whether your CRM software is hosted or not. You can obtain the equipment either through purchase or lease. Depending upon the requirements for the software, you may be forced into purchasing new hardware anyway, if your technology is not current. Be sure to get hardware requirements from your Customer Relationship Management vendor before making hardware procurement.
Implementation

Implementation costs, which include the costs of hiring consultants to help you setup and use the software, can be difficult to predict accurately. Some hosting vendors will include a fixed fee implementation in the monthly fee, most do not. Most vendors selling the CRM solution will not provide a fixed implementation fee. The majority of firms involved in implementing software provide only estimates based on service hours. Very few put a ceiling on consulting hours, and costs can spiral.
Professional, experienced consulting firms will tie an implementation contract to the scope of work to be performed. Having your business processes documented and refined can reduce the hours required to implement a CRM solution significantly. If you don’t have them documented, the professionals you hire will likely have to do so, and this will add to the cost. The general rule of thumb is to expect to spend a minimum of the same amount on implementing the software as on the cost of the software package.
Alignment of Business Needs and Processes

If you don’t align and define the benefits and business processes for each aspect of Marketing, Service, and Sales, your CRM implementation is very likely to exceed the budgeted estimates and under-deliver the benefits. Dividing the Customer Relationship Management implementation into several, short, strictly defined phases for each of the departments can help reduce costs and show continuous successes. Each department and phase should have specific objectives and each should be tied to specific cut-off measures and timelines. If not, your implementation costs will escalate. These hidden costs are the principal reasons almost half of all Customer Relationship Management implementations fail.
Customization

Because culture varies from company to company, and tolerance for specific software behaviors prevails, some customization of the CRM software often occurs. Each customization will have a cost, and most vendors will quote you an estimate for this, based on hourly rates. If the customization scope expands, expect to receive another cost estimate. Generally, customizations are not fixed-fee contracts, and expanding customization scope is the big budget breaker of many implementations.
Ongoing Training and Support

Initial training and support are integral parts of a successful CRM implementation and are usually included in the one-time implementation contract fee. However, ongoing fees for these add to the costs, and unless your sales team has no turnover, you can expect to have to pay for this. Since we can expect a Customer Relationship Management implementation to be constantly advancing, you should include changes or customizations in your ROI calculations on an annual basis. This applies particularly if you are doing a Total Cost of Ownership analysis.
Integration

If you have disparate systems, such as one for financial software and one for Customer Relationship Management, then you are faced with an integration decision. Do you want them to talk and share information with each other? If the answer to that is yes, integration between the two systems is required. Do you have other systems in place, and if so, does the CRM software need to be integrated to those? Add the costs of developing this integration to the implementation costs.
There are at least three ways of developing integration, using your own IT staff, hiring a specialized systems integrator firm or using the CRM vendor. Each of these methods has added hidden costs, such as changing knowledge repositories (the likelihood the same team who wrote the original integration is the same one who maintains it for the life of the software), maintaining separate databases for CRM and Finance, and the effort to synchronize them. Again, these are costs that are difficult to quantify, but plan for their existence.
If you elect to remain with separate solutions for both areas, then there are other hidden costs. The information from both systems will have to be entered twice, (double entry), once in the CRM software, and then again in the financial software. If two separate departments are entering data, then there is the chance of entering incorrect information in either of the two. Correcting the erroneous data adds further costs, but there is also the possibility that incorrect information remains in the system, and may result in misinformation, another hidden cost. In addition to the cost of developing the integration, there is also the cost of maintaining it through upgrades of both software packages over the life of the software systems.
Future Upgrades

Web-based or hosted Customer Relationship Management solutions are the most cost effective on the market today. There are several hidden benefits such as the leverage gained from leading edge technology. When Microsoft comes out with a new operating system, such as Vista or Longhorn, your hosted solution will upgrade in the background at no additional fee to you. This means no additional investment in software purchases, no incurred IT labor time, no down time, no data loss for the new technology, but, on the other hand, there may be a cost of training your personnel on the new software upgrade.
Infrastructure

If the solution you identify is not web-based, then there is a significant infrastructure investment required in hardware, operating systems, software, and the IT personnel necessary to maintain and customize everything. If you have your own IT staff, then there is always the hidden cost of being two versions behind on everything while your IT personnel play technology catch-up. That oomph of nimbleness and speed deteriorates, and productivity sags. These are all qualitative costs that are difficult to quantify.
Disaster
When did you last rolled up trouser margins and walked into your office.. If your CRM solution is in-house and you are located in one of those flood prone states, what are your backup solutions? What are the costs for a hot-site data center? If you are in the customer service or customer support industry, these are serious contingencies to consider. Imagine being without telephone or email contact with your Customer base for a week, perhaps three – would your business survive?
Again, these are all costs associated with implementing a CRM solution and like any other wedding it brings home a new relationship. The relationship you enjoy, cherish, battle, and nag over it.. but end of the day it’s your own special relationship.

Good Luck …..
Your Partner and Companion ( P&C)
DC*

Demystifying Myths of CRM

Dears,
When I read about CRM failure rates, I tend to focus on the positive – a majority of companies now are at least somewhat satisfied with their CRM deployments. Why? The front office is full of free-wheeling knowledge workers — impatient, process-averse, and led by revolving door executives. So, why are the expectations so much different than reality? CRM benefits are still oversold, and the work and time (and organizational change) required is still woefully underestimated. Trying to find a short cut to customer delight isn’t new; But the myths of CRM still seem to be getting in the way of effective deployments.
· Myth 1: CRM can be bought. Despite vendors’ claims of “best practices,” the reality is that the “secret sauce” of CRM comes from your own customer processes, not the functionality of your CRM product. Lack of functionality or channel coverage can hurt – and newer industry specific solutions are more likely to include the industry terminology, functionality, and integration points you need. But for the most part, CRM technology is only a foundation upon which a CRM strategy can be built and evolved.
· Myth 2. CRM can be built. A CRM system is never done. Companies change, products change, customers change. And that means that CRM is less about initial deployment and more about ongoing incremental improvement. In the new Enterprise 2.0 world, the best CRM solution is the one that most easily allows the business user to tailor and evolve their own CRM vision (without heavy IT support). A realistic “best by date” for any given CRM deployment is about 12 – 18 months – don’t start if you don’t have the resources to continue.
· Myth 3: CRM can be delegated. It’s no wonder that CRM implementations sometimes underperform executive expectations when strategy work is delegated to line employees or consultants. Changing CRM processes is HARD. Only executives can weigh the tradeoffs between customer experience, staff time (and cost) and strategic importance. Executives need to be involved up front to set goals and priorities, ensure adequate IT staffing, check in through the process to mediate departmental conflicts and set priorities, and be front and center during and after implementation to lead adoption and assess (and act on) results.
· Myth 4: A 360 degree view is a CRM strategy. While understanding everything about customers is a great long term goal (or at least desire), it doesn’t prioritize what customer information to get first, provide incentives to line workers to get it, or ensure that the information will be effectively used. A good CRM strategy is specific about the business goal (revenue, retention, etc.), the target customer (existing or new customers, business type, industry, geography), the desired change (more orders, deeper relationships, higher satisfaction), and the steps (business process and organizational changes) – and customer information (metrics and data) — to get there.
· Myth 5. CRM means good customer data. Customer data management is a separate discipline, and companies relying on vanilla CRM applications to capture high quality customer information will likely be disappointed. Good data defaults and pick lists and data quality add-ons for address standardization and duplicate detection can all help improve the quality of CRM data. So can getting the right data loaded up front -especially if the business users own the data and the results. But only data stewardship and ongoing user education (and monitoring) will make CRM data a true corporate asset for the long term.
· Myth 6. CRM follows vendor product boundaries. Pesky customers often interact with multiple departments across multiple channels – some of which aren’t even part of the front office. That means that a key part of selecting CRM software is making sure it integrates well with the operational systems and channels with which customers interact. Any task that customers can request or perform themselves should be CRM aware – whether that’s ordering a product, requesting service, managing a project, or participating in a forum or event. The best CRM is in line – performed in the process of accomplishing a task with or for the customer.
· Myth 7. Metrics and reports are a follow-on project. Few people would consider a surgeon who operated in the dark without instruments. And yet, companies often seem perfectly willing to implement CRM with very little exploratory work to see what’s wrong or follow up plan to assess results. It’s not enough to decide to increase sales. Concrete metrics — such as number and quality of sales leads, lead freshness, cycle time and win/loss rates, and repurchase or upsell rates — can help management prioritize what to do first, measure CRM gains, identify adoption issues, and target areas for further improvement. Build a data warehouse when you can – but don’t wait to get basic progress indicators in the meantime.
· Myth 8. Social CRM is different…but the same. There have always been customers (and front office employees) who are influential beyond their own purchasing power or revenue contribution. Social CRM technologies allow companies to find and facilitate important peer-to-peer interactions — such as online recommendations and discussions, community-based service, and idea sharing. But without a clear purpose (awareness, lead generation, service resolution, referrals), it’s hard not to drown in the social cyber noise. CRM principles – such as starting with the process and desired outcome, deciding what to measure, recording/ tracking each interaction, and incorporating results (such as “top influencers”) in other customer interactions – make the difference between “cool” and game-changingly effective.

The bottom line – choose based on business strategy

Few months back I helped a government organization to select a CRM solution. The decision came down to two very different finalists. One met their current requirements at a economical cost. The other was more aspirational and in line with long term business strategy and little more expensive. They choose the more aspirational product, which better matched the strategy they’d defined. The Head of Business then identified the additional people resources needed to execute the strategy – and tied both together in the funds request to the board. They have a long journey ahead of them – but they’re off to a good start.

What myths ring more true to you? Are there other myths you’d add to the list. Please share your thoughts in the post/comments section

Good Luck
Your Partner and Companion ( P&C)

DC*

Fulfilling the Promise of “Customer 360 Degree view” - The Customer Hub Way.

Dears,
Despite multi-million dollar investments in data warehouses, ERP’s and CRM systems, many companies are still struggling to create a consolidated view of the customer and deliver the right data, to the right person at the right time. As a matter of fact, many sales and marketing executives still identify incomplete and inaccurate customer information” as their biggest obstacle when attempting to optimize customer interactions across all channels.

The goal of Customer Data Integration

“To provide a combination of technologies, processes and services to develop and maintain an accurate, timely and complete view of the customer across multiple channels, business lines and, potentially, companies, in which there are multiple sources of customer data in various applications and databases.”

Will Customer Hub be the final enabling technology which allows companies to reach the Holy Grail in customer management and create a truly consolidated view of the customer?

Before answering this question, it is necessary to answer two prerequisite questions?

• Why have ERP and CRM systems been unable to allow companies to create a consolidated view of the customer?
• What is different about CUSTOMER HUB that will allow it to succeed where data warehousing has failed?

WHAT ABOUT ERP AND CRM SYSTEMS?

In most organizations, ERP and CRM systems have been unable to deliver the complete view of the customer because 100 percent of all customer information is rarely stored within the walls of a single application. It is common practice for companies to use ERP applications from one or more vendors for Back-office functions, a combination of custom-developed applications and packaged CRM applications for sales automation and customer service and custom-built applications for other customer touch points such as the Web. While technically possible to standardize on a single vendor for all Customer-related applications today, it remains highly impractical for most organizations.

As a result, many organizations build a data warehouse to achieve a complete view of the customer. Unfortunately, not many data warehouses are real-time, which is a critical requirement when creating a complete view of the customer to support the enterprise. In addition, data warehouses require a substantial development effort and do not include a business services layer to encapsulate and protect the customer data from direct access by external systems.

The unique feature of the new breed of Customer Hub applications is that they offer a layer of business services, which act as a broker between external systems requesting customer data and the actual customer data. In reality, it is more appropriate to think of CUSTOMER HUB as a data governance platform than as an application. Typical business services within a CUSTOMER HUB application suite include the following:

Administrative services which allow administrators to do the following:

• Define ‘trust levels’ for each source system that request to insert/update individual customer records and/or attributes
• Define security levels for each source system and user when accessing customer records
• Approve the addition of new customer records
• Review and correct customer data that is incorrect
• Data manipulation services which receive requests from source systems to insert/update customer data and apply the previously discussed ‘trust levels’ when doing inserts/updates
• Data access services which receive requests from source systems to read customer data
• “Publish and subscribe” services which publish new/updated customer externally so that customer data in external application which are subscribers can be updated
• Data quality services which perform such tasks as name and address validation and standardization, duplicate identification and house holding

In reality, some companies have been able to custom-build a real-time data warehouse which includes all or some of the above functionality to deliver a complete customer view. However, due to the high cost of this approach and because numerous vendors, such as Oracle’ Siebel, SAP and Siperian to name a few, are delivering pre-built Customer Hub applications with some or all of the above functionality, it is our opinion that the custom route for creation of a customer repository to deliver the complete customer view to the enterprise should be the path of last resort.

We at Sierra Atlantic believe that Customer Hub represents a natural next step beyond data warehousing, and will allow many companies to achieve the goal of a complete customer view more quickly and at a more affordable cost than before.

The most common customer hub architecture is referred to as the “Coexistence Style”

Within the “Coexistence Style,” external applications with customer data communicate with the “customer master” via the business layer, which provides all the services previously discussed. Ideally, whenever an external application needs customer data not stored locally, it queries the “customer master” instead of interfacing with another external system that may have the data. This avoids creation of a spider web of interfaces between source systems, which are difficult and expensive to maintain. As a result, the “customer master” becomes the hub in a hub-and-spoke architecture. Once this approach has been successfully implemented, a new philosophy towards the storage of customer data can be realized. Going forward, whenever a new customer attribute is needed, the new data element can be
stored exclusively in the “customer master.” Over time, this will allow an organization to not only create the complete customer view, but also provide architectural separation between their application layer and data layer. As a result, they ultimately achieve a CUSTOMER HUB architecture style referred to as the “Transaction Hub Style”

Within the “Transaction Hub Style,” all customer information is stored centrally within the “customer master.” None of the individual applications store customer data locally - they simply access the customer information stored centrally. Although it is impractical for most organizations to focus on this CUSTOMER HUB architecture style initially (because it requires substantial enhancements to most source systems), it is still noteworthy to be aware of this style, since this should represent a desired end state for most organizations. In addition, having this style as a desired end state will impact ongoing packaged application selection and development.

Although CUSTOMER HUB initiatives ultimately involve implementation of new software and hardware platforms, technology is definitely not the starting point for a CUSTOMER HUB initiative. Alternatively we at Sierra Atlantic advocate adherence to our ‘Data-to-Intelligence “ assessment methodology which initially focuses on the needs of the business community.

The typical sequence of events within our ‘Data-to-Intelligence’ methodology is as follows:

• The first step is to conduct interviews with relevant end-users to understand key business issues and determine Customer Hub-specific capabilities that a “customer master” must support. Capabilities can be either transactional or analytical. Transactional capabilities are supported by creation of process flows while analytical capabilities are supported by defining metrics. In addition, a parallel activity to develop a high-level understanding of the existing systems is also conducted.

• After finalizing the Customer Hub-specific capabilities that must be supported, the next step is to create a conceptual data model (entity-level) of customer data to be stored within the “customer master” In addition, this deliverable should estimate data volumes, insert/update rules, etc. This deliverable will also be of value later when selecting the CUSTOMER HUB package, since the data modeling flexibility of CUSTOMER HUB tools vary.

• The software/hardware components should be finalized as part of the ‘Solution Architecture’ step, making the build vs. buy decision where appropriate. If the decision to buy the software/hard, the next step would need to include a tool selection RFP

• Create an implementation plan which includes design, development, testing and rollout of the CUSTOMER HUB application.

To avoid project failure, Customer Hub implementation initiatives must begin with an assessment such as our ‘Data-to-Intelligence’ assessment described above. Since the Customer Hub initiatives require substantial commitment of resources, it is also impractical to pursue a ‘big bang’ project approach. Alternatively, we at Sierra Atlantic advocate a phased approach in which Customer Hub functionality (components of the “customer master”) is delivered incrementally in smaller phases. Ideally, each phase should support one or more of the following:

• Improved and/or new business processes which are now possible due to the availability of accurate and timely customer data
• Improved and/or new analytical capabilities which are now possible due to the availability of accurate and timely customer data
• Elimination of IT infrastructure previously focused on integration of customer data across systems (i.e. the spider web)

Good Luck

Your Partner and Companion
DC*

User Adoption, The “Most Important “thing in your CRM Success.

Dears,
Institutionalizing CRM is a cultural change and it makes world of difference to your organization /employees. Such change often moves people from their comfort zone and therefore requires a well balanced combination of sponsorship, incentives, self serving benefits and multiple training tools. Evaluate your software solutions for several key elements which can positively influence user adoption.
Look for well organized and indexed online instruction and documentation. Applications which provide page level context-sensitive help put assistance directly at the source of the question and applications which go a step further to provide help for all fields on the page further reduce user questions.
Look for applications which provide online training vehicles such as computer-based (wizard driven or Flash) online tutorials which allow users to consume training at any time and at their own pace.
Evaluate whether your can supplement online resources with live vendor recurring or on-demand classroom instruction, offered over the Internet or on-site.
Validate that users can easily customize views, pages or navigation. Requiring different roles and even different individuals in the same role to view the same pages in the same workflow or work sequence fashion is a recipe for failed user adoption. People work differently and their system information must support what individuals do best to be successful.
Review system usability with volumes of data in mind. Reviewing system usability while only looking at accounts with a few records or minimal history is of little help. Recognize that over the course of a customer relationship the account information will grow substantially. To review the account presentation in a real world environment, enter several contacts for an account, several dozen activities or correspondence items and several sale opportunities and then determine usability.
System navigation which requires users to drill-down through multiple screens to get to the desired data or detail and then drill back up through those pages before being able to move to the next desired account or other location are cumbersome, counter productive and prone to relentless user complaints. Ease-of-use is scored when a user can get to wherever they want from wherever they are. Test this requirement thoroughly.
Don’t underestimate the training required. While vendor claims of reduced training are somewhat founded, user instruction will always be required and organizations typically under-budget this line item.
Opening up customer information to the enterprise can first appear concerning to the primary account manager who manages an individual account relationship. Not knowing who is potentially making changes to the account or deleting account information can leave sales professionals and account managers uneasy. To empower all staff with customer information while at the same time countering the concerns of customer record integrity, a CRM system should provide account level security and a detailed audit trail for any and all customer record modifications. The audit trial should display all changes made to a customer record and indicate the user, date and time changes were made.

Business process automation
Business process automation is both a driving factor in achieving user adoption and if achieved, one of the most cited benefits by users of CRM software applications. However, it is also one of the least realized CRM initiatives. In terms of business processes, the sales function is typically the least understood and documented departmental function in the company. This often results in significant staff performance disparity and large fluctuations from team to team or period to period. It also speaks volumes to the old adage, "you can’t manage what you can’t measure".
CRM systems which integrate account information with company specific business processes or best practices provide a key advantage in realizing consistent performance and repeatable successes. CRM vendors use a variety of creative tools and methods to combine account management with company procedures. Two consistently powerful components to review when comparing hosted CRM solutions are content management systems (CMS) and workflow definition tools.
Most CRM provide some type of electronic file repository which is helpful but far from empowering. However, electronic file repositories dramatically increase in value when bundled with custom content management and document management functionality such as Check-In/Check-Out, version control and audit trail histories. CRM publishers which can empower users to input their policies and best practices to custom web pages and integrate those resources to specific reference or utilization points in the CRM application are providing a means to integrate account data and winning processes. Content management systems normally include both document management functionality and HTML editors used to create and publish custom Web page policy or procedural content. CRM-based content management systems should be reviewed for ease-of-use in creating custom content and simplicity in staging content where it may best be referenced.
Similarly, CRM whom provide users with workflow tools to predefine alert notification conditions, map processes in optimal fashions and define repeatable or exception based business rules are creating automation and saving users and management countless hours of manual effort. Workflow tools should be reviewed for logical design, process measurement and system-wide applicability. Recognizing that users are not always logged into their CRM application, workflow and alert functionality should integrate with e-mail and/or mobile telephones.

Desktop Integration: A Top Cited User Pitfall
CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software users are well versed in desktop productivity programs and CRM applications must therefore be able to seamlessly integrate to the user’s desktop environment. Knowledge workers favor easy to use desktop applications such as Outlook, Word and Excel. CRM systems which provide simple and automated linking and integration with desktop systems save users time and increase user productivity. CRM solution evaluators should verify questions such as the following:
Can the user export customer or sale opportunity data for manipulation or analysis in Excel? Most CRM systems perform simple data exports to Excel. A few of the more advanced systems will also export the underlying calculational data used in a view or report so that the data can be further and immediately manipulated offline in Excel or even sliced and diced with pivot tables.
Can the user launch a mail merge from for a customer segment from within the CRM system? Can the merges be distributed as a nicely formatted hardcopy document or an HTML formatted e-mail broadcast?
Can the user automatically create a quote or proposal from within the CRM application in a keystroke or two and e-mail the quote to a sales prospect? Will all the designated account information, such as company name, contact person, address and other specific account history or product information, automatically export to the PDF document without rekeying?
Several CRM vendors provide integration to Outlook. User experiences have shown many Outlook integrations to be far to simplistic to be useful while others accommodate the flexibility users often request. Top cited e-mail program requests include the ability to perform partial synchronizations based on user-defined parameters, designate synchronization to custom file folders and directories in the e-mail program, designate new file folders for new accounts not yet in the e-mail program, check for duplicate records and perform basic conflict resolution.
Thought on SAAS CRM
SAAS providers which require all users to subscribe to the same version solution in mass and at all times impose limitations to users and serious hardships to customers whom modify their software or integrate their solution with legacy or other systems. A single version requirement would be unheard of, and in fact would be immediately rejected, in the non-SAAS delivered arenas. Many SAAS vendors have imposed the single version requirement in order to achieve commodity level economies of scale. However, effective CRM is a competitive advantage and differentiator and because superior customer service will never be a commodity, customer service providers must be able to operate uniquely and apart from the crowd. Fortunately, a few of the newer generation SAAS vendors have recognized that CRM customers cannot be herded like cattle to new versions immediately upon those versions release. Instead, these vendors permit customers to choose to upgrade to subsequent software versions when they desire. This flexibility allows customers to review and test new versions before adoption, prepare users for changes or increased functionality and plan for an orderly transition with any previously performed customization or integration.
Word of Caution
Through repeated teachings and lessons learned from highly publicized implementation failure rates, the buying market has recognized the fundamental principal that CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a business strategy and process and CRM software solutions are enablers to achieve the CRM vision. Just as most buyers would be skeptical of purchasing an accounting software system from a vendor that couldn’t produce an accurate invoice, so to should buyers be cautious with CRM vendors who fail to achieve CRM strategy with their own customer base.
Although not entirely unexpected for a new technology, SAAS (Software as a Service) vendors are experiencing extremely high customer churn. Churn not only hurts the vendor, but causes great frustration, financial losses and increased risks to the customer that must switch solutions. Interestingly enough, a very high percentage of customers who leave SAAS vendors go to other SAAS vendors, thereby indicating the perceived failure is with the vendor and not with the on-demand or hosted software model.

Good Luck

Your Partner and Companion ( P&C)

DC*

They Came, They Saw, They Failed : CRM Implementation Pitfalls

Dears,

Every growing business today implements software, whether it is Microsoft Office, SFA, MDM, BI or CRM. And far more do it wrong that do it right. Why? What are the pitfalls in a software implementation?
Implementing All Software Features at Once
Remember that financial software publisher? They were and are still leaders in their industry. Several years ago, they decided to implement a CRM solution. The leading financial accounting software publisher chose the leading CRM solution (at that time). The financial publisher had recently gone public and needed to toe the SEC forecast line. The company wanted to tie in channel members and its company sales force so forecasting would be more accurate. A more advantageous set up couldn’t be envisioned. Two seasoned software giants in the best in their respective fields. Guaranteed factors for success - the leading implementing the leading. Instead, the implementation was a colossal, multi-million dollar mistake, which ultimately resulted in the abandonment of the CRM software. The financial software publisher implemented to take advantage of all the features of the software. That makes sense. Makes you more productive – right? Not at all. Microsoft describes an expert in Excel as someone who knows 7% of the features of the product. You probably know about 2%. Would knowing the other 98% make you more productive?
That’s where most implementations go wrong - they implement a software solution to take advantage of the full feature set of the software instead of focusing on the three or four areas that will make a salesperson’s or Marketing people job easier. Who utilizes the software daily anyway? You - the VP? Do you know any successful salesperson who wants to spend time typing in sales information? The key there is successful. If they want to spend time in front of a laptop - you’ve fired them already. It took almost four times as long to enter information into the new system than the old –Excel spreadsheets. In the prior financial software company example, independently owned channel members represented the bulk of the software publisher’s sales and they refused to use it. Channel members were incorrectly not part of the implementation. Involve the users, and find the three or four features they love and implement around those.
Non-Adoption of the Software

Adoption of the software by the daily users is the key for the successful implementation of any software be it contact management, SFA or CRM. If the end user avoids the system, it’s not working. Measure adoption ruthlessly at least on a monthly basis. If it falls, find out why, and fix it.
Bad Data

You know the old cliché – garbage in, garbage out (GIGO). When you organize your source data whether it’s from Excel spreadsheets or an old UNIX system, ensure it’s correct, the best of the best. Assume the source data will have problems such as duplication or erroneous data. Have options for discarding anything that may be erroneous and take care of it immediately.
Lack of Training and Support

Train, train, and re-train. Don’t take a train the trainer approach – it usually fails. Take out an interactive training and support contract with your vendor and measure usage and survey results regularly. If you notice a pattern to support calls, identify the problem area, and fix it. If someone’s not using the system, find out why before you consider disciplining the individual. The user is king here…
Lack of an Executive Sponsor

Use the system yourself. If the VP can’t or won’t use it, why should anyone else in Sales, Service, or Marketing? You’re the executive sponsor, and if you don’t have the rest of the management team supporting you– go out and sell them on it or go home. The whole organization has to commit to it. And you are the VP of Sales … if you can’t sell them on it – who can?
Vague Objectives

That leading financial software publisher referred to earlier implemented CRM for many reasons, but the most significant was to forecast sales more accurately, because they had just become a public company. It is crucial to identify your objectives and prioritize them.
Inconsistent Business Processes

You can’t automate a process if it isn’t repeated and practiced by every individual taking part in the process. Identify your business processes, the ones that work, not the ones you’ve adopted over the years. Scrub those processes, eliminate, eliminate, eliminate, until you have what works. Then document them, train your people on them, and implement only those.
Unclear Metrics

It’s important to measure, but you must also know what to measure whether it’s software adoption rates by users, patterns in support calls, or increase in the frequency of campaign. Metrics are measures, which matter, and they provide critical information for executive decisions. Identify your metrics, test them, and constantly refine them.
Over Customization

If you can, implement the plain vanilla version of the software out of the box. Figure out the bare minimum of what absolutely has to be customized, and do only those. In other words, if you can’t do business unless the change is made, then and only then, is that change essential. Don’t plan a customization because you want the screen to look like the one on your prior system.
Letting IT decide which CRM Software Sales, Service, and Marketing Will Use

If the CRM software will be deployed in-house, then IT will play a part in the implementation, and could advise on general technology adoption and skill levels of the organization. The IT department will be concerned about several issues; hardware requirements, server requirements, other software requirements for the CRM software, and that the data repository for CRM can easily integrate with other organizational software. IT may even need to be involved in a hosted solution for these same reasons. However, technology requirements should not drive the Customer Relationship Management software selection; Marketing, Sales, and Service should.
Not Listening to the Concerto
This pitfall applies specifically to a CRM implementation as opposed to an SFA or any other. Why? Because three departments have to work together, agree on cross-area best practices, and share information and, in some cases, responsibility.

" Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat. It is a temporary detour, not a dead end. - Denis Waitley "
Good Luck.
Your Partner and Companion
DC*

Your Business Made Simple with CRM

Dears,
Have you ever been frustrated because you can’t find your agreements? Or don’t know which of your employees last spoke to a client? Or which one of your sales brochure is the latest version?
Or why don’t your employees realize that “Bob” is your high valued customer that requires special attention?

I know these are everyday problems in your business and everyday is tough and will continue to be tough if you don’t make one simple decision today.you are in dire need of CRM. When implemented successfully, a CRM initiative will transform your muddled, messy, miss-managed and disorganized business into a lean, mean, tech-savvy machine!

Although there are many ways how CRM Software can help you better manage your business, I have limited our discussions to some of the popular ones below:

1. No More Messy Desk – Track & Manage Information in One Place.
Stop buying post-it notes for reminders. All your contact information and reminders will be available in your CRM System.

2. No More Lost Documents, Contracts, Images, Music, etc.
CRM Software will allow you to attach documents, images, etc. to each contact. So, to review a document, simply bring up the contact and look at the document attachments.

3. Don’t Waste Time Looking for Past E-Mails.
Because e-mails are synchronized automatically, your history folder will always be repository of past e-mails sent/received to a particular individual. No more having to search through tons of e-mail for a particular attachment.

4. Leverage Individual Expertise through Knowledge Management.
Every organization has a few individuals who know a lot about the business. CRM software allows you to track various information, documents, brochures, etc. in a knowledge management area. Because this is a searchable knowledge base, anyone in your business will be able to search and access policies, brochures, industry information, business documents, HR documents and more.

5. Automate Business Processes to Set Action into Play.
So, you want to make sure that when your sales reps complete an introductory call, they get a reminder to send a thank you e-mail. Or how about sending a “friendly reminder” to your contacts one day prior to your appointment to make sure that all parties show up for the meeting. Automated business rules, when done right will save you time, money and lots of frustration.

6. Know Which Marketing Campaign is bringing in Results.
You spend hard earned dollars to advertise in the Yellow Pages, local Newspaper, Direct Mail, Internet, etc, but do you have a clue as to which campaign is really working? CRM will change all this. You will be able to focus your marketing dollars on campaigns that clearly provide the results you are looking for – sales!

7. Improve, Automate and Be on Top of Sales.
Standardize your sales process with automated reminders, to-do’s, follow-ups, best practices that you know work. Review and be on top of activity logs, top opportunities, forecasting, quota and much more. CRM’s sales force automation features will help your sales team excel to new heights.

8. Track & Provide High Levels of Customer Service
Great service makes all the difference. With CRM, you will be able to track each and every customer service call and the steps taken to resolve them in a timely fashion. With Automation, Knowledge Base and standard processes, your customers will be rewarded with Great service which will result in return visits and referrals.

9. Use Dashboards to gauge Key Performance Indicators.
So, you have 5 minutes before you dash off. But how is your business doing? Meetings? Sales? Marketing? Customer Service? With CRM, you can create customized Dashboards that will give you a quick graphical overview of all the things that are important to you and your business. Dashboards can also be extended for all your employees so that they can better focus in their area of specialty.

10. Consolidated all your various database silos into your CRM solution.
Most small business have several different databases – all have name, address and telephone numbers of your customers, vendors, prospects, etc. Over time, frustration begins to set in as you realize that one database telephone number was updated and the rest were not. Before too long, people are calling the wrong number and accounting is sending invoices to the wrong addresses and you know the rest. The point here is that you can consolidate all disparate databases into your CRM software.

Just Do it

Your Partner and Companion (P&C)

DC*

CRM Kills when your “CRM” is Customer Revenue Maxim

Dears,

You think CRM means Customer Relationship Management, and feel that the emphasis should be on the R -- implying at least some concern about what customers need, want and value. Good for you if you do, because that's a customer-centric view of CRM.But I think most would agree that CRM means, at least in part, increasing the amount of revenue a business gets from its current and future customers. Sadly, Wells Fargo took that company-centric view too far and turned CRM into Customer Revenue maximizing, without regard to whether the revenue was fair and reasonable.

You see, like most banks Wells Fargo offers debit cards as an alternative to checks. Swipe your card at the checkout stand and the money is immediately taken from your account. Unless your account runs out of money, in which case you could pay a $35 overdraft fee.

The problem stems from Wells Fargo following a "high-low" practice in processing payments. It's a "profiteering" scheme, says a U.S. District judge, designed for the bank to "maximize the number of overdrafts and squeeze as much as possible" from its customers.
Here's why.

Let's say your checking account is running low, with a $100 balance. Then you head out for a bit of shopping...

* $2 for a cup of coffee at Starbucks* $15 for a few items at the local drugstore* $120 for food at the grocery store* $30 to pick up the dry cleaning* $50 to buy gas for the car

The high-low scheme means the largest transaction is processed first, so the $120 transaction triggers an overdraft fee. And this is where the fun begins... Each of the other transactions gets hit with a $35 overdraft fee!. OMG ( oh My God), the bank just "earned" $175 in overdraft fees on $217 in purchases! CRM at its finest, if R means "revenue."
Of course, if the bank had used a low-high scheme, 4 of the 5 transactions would have gone through, and only that last one would have triggered the overdraft charge, for just one miserable $35 fee.
Wells Fargo defends the high-low approach, saying that customers prefer it because it gives priority to larger payments. Then why, asks the judge, is the bank's disclosure of this posting order buried in the middle of a 60-page document of single-spaced 10 point type? That along with a review of Wells Fargo's internal documents showed that the practice was not meant to be customer-centric. Rather, it was meant to generate profit.
And, folks, it's a lot of profit. $Billions in the banking industry overall.
Thanks to the recent court decision in California (pending appeal), Wells Fargo has been ordered to pay back its customers $203M. The figure could go much higher as other states pursue legal action. Another suit has been filed in a Miami federal court for similar practices by 30 other lenders.
OK, so what's the point here? There's nothing wrong with maximizing revenues and profits, but it should be a fair trade. This is an example of CRM gone too far, and shows that being customer-centric and CRM are not necessarily the same thing.
Think I'm being too hard on Wells Fargo? Then please read what the company says about its strategy.
Our strategy: customer-centric not product-centric
We do not view any product in isolation. We view it as part of a relationship. We always consider its value to the customer as part of a full and long-lasting relationship and the customer’s total financial needs. We start with what the customer needs not with what we want to sell them. All our channels — stores, phone banks, ATMs and the internet—work together, integrated with our products, to benefit customers.
So what do you think? Did the high-low overdraft scheme "start with what the customer needs" or was it designed to deliver as much value to the bank without regard to value to customer?

Think Twice, Making Revenue is no harm but it should not hurt your Customer and There is no fail over mechanism when your businees motives takes customer off the track and no best CRM could get you back on track....to win the relationship with customer again :)

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

Customer Management Technologies: Which one delivers the Most?

Dears,

Locking in customer loyalty through deeper engagement and differentiated experiences will continue to be critical priorities for organizations in all sectors in the decade ahead, but navigating the complex customer relationship management (CRM) technology landscape remains challenging — particularly in light of the rapid rise of Social Computing, the increasing adoption of software-as-a service (SaaS) solutions, and the need to provide mobile capabilities for front-line personnel. But by selecting the right solutions to invest in, CRM professionals can take the proper steps without taking unnecessary risk. evaluation of the extended CRM applications ecosystem shows, community platforms, customer forums, and enterprise feedback management solutions — all of which enable new ways to connect more closely with customers — have entered the CRM stage. However, selling, order-taking, and customer service remain the engines that power the income locomotive at most companies. Customer data management and business intelligence solutions are becoming much more robust, supporting deeper customer insights and better decision-making.To make the savvy CRM investment decisions, your senior management professionals need to know which customer management technologies have the strongest track record for delivering results. The article is based on the Forrester research on different application tracks of CRM solution to understand which one of these solutions delivers the most.

Here’s a sneak peek of the Forrester findings:
Sales, order management, and service are the keys to your revenue engine. The business and IT executives feel that “core” business processes like selling, order taking, and customer service are the most critical to their success. For, example over half report that order management, customer service & support, and contract center infrastructure applications are critical solutions. Forty-eight percent say that salesforce automation is a critical app, and 42% say this is the case for ecommerce solutions.

Customer data management and intelligence are keystones for success. The Holy Grail for CRM professionals has long been to achieve a “360-degree” view of customers. Consequently, 44% of the companies report that customer business intelligence and customer data management are critical solutions for their businesses.

Marketing solutions are viewed as moderately important. Despite the importance placed on growing sales and orders for the companies only about one-third felt that enterprise marketing management solutions were critical for success. This was true for both B2C and B2C companies.

Social computing solutions are not yet viewed as critical. The rapid adoption by consumers of social and Web 2.0 technologies has upended traditional thinking about how to define and to “manage” relationships with customers. However a present, the solutions associated with Social Computing are not yet viewed as critical to success compared to other “core” solutions. A low percentage of respondents evaluate market feedback management, customer forums, and customer communities as critical for success (18%, 10%, and 6%, respectively). Interest in social computing solutions is strong, however. For example, 16% are piloting customer communities, and 26% have interest in learning more and trying out these types of solutions. Mainstream companies are watching early-adopters for evidence of success.

Have a great and Peaceful Weekend

Your Partner and Companion

DC*

5 Best Practices to Succeed in your CRM projects

Dears,

Today millions of people remain out of work, the economy has clearly thawed and organizations are returning to investing customer-facing business process with a vengeance. The recent analyst report for global IT purchases of business software anticipates a healthy 9.7% increase in 2010, after brutal decline of 8.0% in 2009.
Based on our interaction with our customers and also from successful CRM practioners across the globe in different forums we understand the five fundamentals best practices were the keys to success before the economic meltdown — and they remain so today:
Best Practice No 1: Double efforts to increase user adoption. CRM initiatives can grind to halt when they run up against NIH (“not invented here”) attitudes of users who feel like they have not been consulted about their needs. A good example of how to bring users into the fold is a multi-national bank with over 3,000 CRM users that invited 84 users to participate directly in the CRM vendor selection decision. These users attended video conferences to review vendor solutions and then voted for the one that best fit their needs. This was followed by series of webinars where users from around the world viewed and critiqued prototype solutions developed by the CRM team. Finally, the end solution was tested in pilot programs in four different countries. This process built a strong user constituency who eagerly embraced the final solution.

Best Practice No. 2: Focus on underlying business processes. It is important to define the correct business processes before deciding on the technology that is most appropriate. For example, a water utility facing public criticism for its poor customer service formed a customer service process “re-engineering team” comprised representatives of all departments: clean water, waste water, customer service/call center, service contractors, IT and an external consultant. Once this team had completed its work of redesigning business processes, they sent an out an RFP to tender for a technology solution — and insisted that any software purchased fit their new process vision.

Best Practice No. 3: Rethink approach to executive sponsorship. Employees pay close attention to executive behavior, so it is important that senior leaders are visible in CRM initiatives. Senior managers at a High-tech firm wanted to improve customer satisfaction, and recognized that customer service reps were not effectively using a new CRM application to monitor and resolve customer problems. In a bold move, executives moved their desks to sit among customer service agents to better understand how they used the system and what steps needed to be taken to increase agent productivity to enhance customer service.

Best Practice No. 4: Reinvent customer data management capabilities. Inconsistent customer data from diverse sources is the Achilles Heel of CRM applications. A financial services organization was challenged by over 250 million customer records across diverse product lines. To achieve a true “360 degree” customer view, they implemented a program of data standardization across the lines of business. The company also implemented more robust customer data management tools to cleanse and de-duplicate their customer records prior to loading information into their CRM transaction systems. Access to “clean” and up-to-date customer information is now the foundation for executing more effective marketing campaigns.

Best Practice No. 5: Define and track the right metrics. Avoid vague and goals like “our company will become more customer-driven.” Define concrete measures to track you rate of success. For example, a global manufacturer decided the right measures for sales processes were: improving the prospect-to-sale conversion ratio and decreasing the length of the lead–to-order cycle time. For marketing, boosting campaign response rates and accelerating the lead maturation time (the time from when a customer shows interest, to the time they request a sales call) were most important.
Follow these 5 best Practice and you can rest assured that you are on the right track and soon there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

All the Best
Your Partner and Companion ( P&C)
DC*

Picking a needle in the Haystack: Criteria to Reduce your CRM Vendor Selection Risk

Dear,
We frequently meet the top executives from high profile companies in different parts of the world for the discussion around CRM technology solution selection. The vast majority of these discussions are around process of trying to select the right CRM technology solution to support their business strategy. From these conversations, I have filtered a set of decision criteria to help you quickly cut through the CRM Vendors and make the right decision.

• Ability to meet your specific business requirements. You have to know what business outcomes you are trying to achieve, and define the business capabilities that you need to support, before you seriously consider investing in a CRM software solution. Although the core capabilities of leading CRM software vendors are quite similar, the companies I hear from still place a very high importance on the solution meeting the functional and technology criteria that are specific to their needs. Can the vendor meet your use-case requirements?



• Ease of use for front-line workers. My clients expect CRM software to demonstrate the capability to make people more fruitful in their work, and this is predicated on how easy the solution is to use. Good usability encourages user adoption. Is the solution UI modern and adaptable to diverse role-based requirements?



• Capability to provide advanced analytic abilities. My clients place a high value on CRM vendors' ability to provide analytic tools to better understand customer behavior and make insightful customer-facing decisions using the myriad customer data collected. Analytics are the key to unlocking the value in CRM applications. Does the vendor have powerful and easy-to-use business intelligence capabilities?



• Capability to adequately manage customer data. The hope of a “360-degree view” of the customer is often dashed on seemingly lowly customer data issues. Therefore, the ability to support a robust customer master data management approach is vital and the companies I speak with increasingly recognize this is a critical requirement. How does the vendor support data acquisition, cleansing, and governance?



• Means to enhance the service function, particularly the contact center. Improving customer service via improved contact center capabilities is vital. Many of I the executives that I speak to report that they started with CRM by working on contact center improvement initiatives, then moved on to focus on sales, and then marketing. They tell me "CRM is never done" and continuously work on efforts to improve customer engagement. Does the solution have strong capabilities to support customer interaction management?



• Strong workflow capabilities. My clients are looking for applications that help to better define and automate workflow. Therefore, look for applications with strong and flexible process management competence. Does the solution have native business process management capability?



• Ease of use of development and customization tools. The clients seek to achieve improved business results quickly and want new technologies that can be readily adapted to their business environments. Challenge your vendor to show you that that their solution is easy to customize. Does the vendor offer a robust set of development tools?



• Robust scalability. Large organizations want solutions that are scalable to accommodate large numbers of users and can support the business globally if required. What evidence can the vendor provide about the scalability and responsiveness of the system?



• Capabilities tailored to specific industries. Today’s organizations rate industry-customized CRM solutions as relatively unimportant to their selection decision, I see this criterion emerge as very important in the actual vendor evaluations in which I participate. Does the vendor have systems in production at other organizations like yours?



• Flexibility to meet changing user needs. Buyers tell me they are on long-term "CRM journeys" and expect to be rolling out new capabilities on a regular basis in response to new business challenges. Therefore, they place very high importance on the flexibility of a CRM application to support requirements that will arise in the future. Is the solution flexible and easy to change?



• Ability to improve the productivity of end users. My own studies have shown that less than 50% of buyers “fully agree” that their CRM initiatives met their expectations for achieving planned business outcomes. Can the vendor provide evidence of user productivity improvement?



• Capability to integrate with existing technology systems. The companies I talk with usually have heterogeneous application infrastructures and cannot tolerate a CRM application that would operate as an "island" within their organizations. Does the solution have a robust integration approach?



• Acceptable total cost of ownership. Not surprisingly, my clients are concerned about the total cost of ownership for business solutions. These costs include not only application licenses (typically 25% of total costs) but also the capital costs of hardware and software integration, ongoing maintenance costs, and the administrative expenses for managing new IT assets. This criterion is driving up the interest in software-as-a-service (SaaS), solutions as companies look for ways to avoid infrastructure costs. Can the vendor provide an estimate of the TCO (not just license and maintenance costs) for the solution installed at your organization?



• Quick and accurate vendor response to support issues. Organizations expect to be well-supported by their CRM vendors after the software is purchased and in production. They evaluate carefully how CRM vendors are organized to provide application support and response to technical issues. Can the vendor provide references attesting to their track record to living up service promises?



• Methods to support change management to increase user adoption. Virtually every organization I talk with identifies that cultural transformation necessary to become a more customer-centric organization. Promoting rapid user adoption of CRM technologies is one of be their biggest challenges. Can the vendor support and train your employees to use new procedures and tools?



• Financial resources sufficient to ensure long-term viability. The CRM vendor market has been consolidating in recent years, and I am continually asked about the long-term prospects of individual CRM vendors. What is the evidence vendor will be around to support your organization in the future?
  
  When you run through these criteria your choice among the large group of vendors will be certainly reduced to few numbers may be maximum 3 to 5 . This will give you enough leg room to manage the vendor selection process and also to reduce the high risk of falling prey to a wrong vendor.
  
  All the best for your CRM product Vendor Selection.
  
  Your Partner and Companion ( P&C)
  DC*