For those new to managing their company's CRM efforts as well as seasoned professionals, I offer a few more thoughts from my "How To" archives...
#1: CRM Vendors Want Their Relationship, Too
Not since the dawn of the IBM XT has an enterprise software acquisition been less of a one-time event and one-time expense. Through a clever blend of support end-of-life policies, restrictive licensing terms, on-demand delivery models and, yes, planned obsolescence, the technology involved in your CRM project is going to represent a long-term investment, in more ways than one. Market forces have been attempting to drive down the add-on implementation and integration costs above and beyond the software license, but the fact remains that the ongoing relationship, the service and support, care and maintenance and feeding of the systems powering your customer intelligence are likely to carry a long-term price tag.
This doesn't mean that the license cost should be considered an unimportant mirage, but it rarely represents the true technology cost. When working on any CRM technology plan, conduct research, preferably involving a poll of peers, to uncover some of the ongoing expenditures that may not be as clearly spelled out in the vendor's license agreement as you might wish.
On-demand software (Salesforce.com, Entellium, etc.) was supposed to create predictable costs for enterprise, but without service levels and pricing spelled out in a long-term contract, adopters are rather at the mercy of the provider when it comes to increases months or years down the road. In the early going, competition is brisk enough to prevent price shocks, but times, they do change...
Of course, with lots and lots of software companies announcing earnings trouble this month, vendors may start monkeying with their revenue models again—or giving up altogether in favor of consolidation.
(And while I'm on the subject, I would just like to say how truly distressing it is to have to think, "Remember when IBM made desktop computers?")
#2: Build an Implementation Coalition—But Enforce Your Own Consensus
There is no one right way to devise and implement a CRM plan in any given business, although there are plenty of ideas. Put those ideas to work for you by building a diverse team for the vision and integration, not only among internal business units but external experts as well, including vendor support and business consultants when appropriate. That heterogeneous team, and ultimately the project, must be guided by a leader who can synthesize clashing viewpoints and lead everyone to the goal, and who has enough presence to encourage cooperation rather than becoming forced to resolve every minor conflict and inconsistency.
Contracted collaborators are a bit like buffet enthusiasts—once in the door, they are reluctant to push back from the table. The clear danger to engaging multiple consultants and contributors to your CRM project is that each will wish to dine heavily off your implementation budget, and you run a real risk for paying two, three, or more times for the same sort of vision and project management abilities if you do not take great care to manage the vendors properly. Select a watchdog—someone with authority and vendor experience who has the faith and trust of the CRM project lead—to keep the consultants in line.
#3: You Are What You Know
While the pithy heading may sound like a rallying cry out of one of those "The Information Age Is Coming!" texts of a couple decades ago (when everybody was quite sure that the Information Age was coming even if they had no idea that it would look like a Web browser), it is nonetheless true. One of the defining features of any business is what it knows, and who it is known about. Well-founded concern about the health of this resource has led to a lot of interest in data quality as a discipline, but it's important to remember that even with a formal name attached to it, data quality is a process like any other, one which has both its payoffs and its tradeoffs.
Although there are certainly applications for which every field of information, every computer bit must be in perfect order (like gene splicing and nuclear failsafes), most organizations would find it inconvenient to enforce full-time 100% rigid compliance on customer e-mail addresses. When setting out to design a data quality strategy, remember that perhaps your most important goal will be to define the standards your company needs to hit in order to be most efficient, and then decide how to propagate compliance though the organization.
Click here for the first article in this series.