CRM Implementation: Use In-house Resources or an External Consultant?

CRM Implementation: Use In-house Resources or an External Consultant? by Chris Hooven, Vice President, Business Development, OSF Global Services

Selecting and implementing the right CRM application is a strategic process. It requires thorough upfront analysis of your needs and clear metrics for measuring the expected business functionalities and benefits. In Part 1 of this article series, CRM Purchasing Considerations for the SMB, I outlined several important questions to guide you in selecting the appropriate CRM software. In Part 2, I will detail factors to consider when determining your optimum implementation strategy.Implementing a CRM into your environment can be a budget buster if not done correctly, so let’s look at the pros and cons of two approaches: in-house resources or external consultants.

Most SMBs have an urgent need to generate sales. As a result, organizations may set unrealistic goals in terms of the amount of time and number of in-house resources required to install and deploy their new CRM software. At the same time, these organizations are often confronted with a lack of specialists or development teams who can work together towards achieving (1) a cohesive CRM implementation process, (2) efficient integration with existing systems, and (3) advanced customization for different functionalities. Next to user adaptation, these are the underlying issues behind many failed in-house CRM implementations.

To determine if an in-house approach is appropriate, think through the following questions:

• Do you have the right mix of technical, business analysis and project management skills in the company that can do the CRM implementation?
• How much time can they allocate to achieve a cohesive CRM implementation? How does the time they allocate to the CRM impact other day-to-day needs across the company?
• Do you have skilled developers for more complex customizations?
• Can you ensure user adoption and continuous support for your staff with in-house resources?

The Pros and Cons of In-House CRM Implementation

If you have answered positively to all of the questions above, then you likely have the in-house potential to achieve a successful CRM implementation. The main advantages for implementing a CRM application in-house would be:

• You are optimizing your development resources 
• You are engaging staff who are inherently qualified in understanding your business processes and requirements because they live them every day 
• You will gain a set of CRM expertise that remains inside the company

On the flip side, expect in-house staff to require a learning curve for the CRM. Also a more complex CRM implementation will likely consume significantly more than your estimated time and resources. For instance, are you implementing the CRM as a point product or a strategic application at the heart of a company-wide, integrated solution? Integrating a CRM with back-end applications or customizing it extensively is not for the faint of heart. And any implementation that is more time consuming than estimated or lacks proper planning will lead to higher costs and delayed adoption.

The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing CRM Implementation

Time or resource-strapped organizations tend to rely on the expertise of outsourcing providers or CRM partners to do the implementation. It’s a good option because translating your requirements and configuring them correctly into the CRM takes experience. You will also benefit from the business process expertise an external provider has acquired through their previous client engagements. Other benefits to outsourcing your CRM implementation include access to:

• Experienced facilitator to guide requirements gathering and buffer internal disputes
• Experienced project management team to interface with the CRM application provider regarding your business needs and business processes
• Customization and configuration expertise for your specific CRM application
• Best practices across the CRM lifecycle, from initial needs assessment through implementation, training and support

Now for the downside to outsourcing your CRM implementation:

• First, service providers who do not engage in a consultative approach are less inclined to understand your in-house business process and organizational alignment. This will torpedo your implementation efforts from the start.
• Second, if the service provider does not offer proven implementation success for your selected CRM tool, then you are risking lower than expected efficiency and poor implementation. All CRM applications are not created equal.

Which Choice Is Best For Your Business?

Successful CRM implementations require an appropriate mix of technology, methodology and knowledge. However staff availability and customization considerations are decisive factors for every business that is planning a CRM implementation.

Should you choose to outsource your CRM implementation to an external consultant, require client references as well as details about the team assigned to your project. It is imperative they fit culturally in your organization and work seamlessly with your employees. As with the application itself, all CRM implementation partners are not created equal.

Ultimately, the success of your CRM implementation hinges on user acceptance.

Can SCRUM be applied to CRM?

Can SCRUM be applied to CRM? by Tommy Ball (27/05/11)

I find it difficult to work in an Agile way with the typical teams involved in a CRM deployment. However… I have developed a highly effective way of making it work.

One challenge is wasting time treating each little sequential task (e.g. in Salesforce setting up validation rules, roles, field level security) as a separate story, requiring more time documenting things in a tool like Pivotal Tracker, then actually performing the tasks themselves. Because there are many sequential tasks with CRM. So many that documenting as individual stories takes an excessive amount of time, thus hindering rather than helping progress. What happens is when you apply true Agile, I’m finding, is that organizations still get hung up in too much process and documentation especially with new Agile teams, which almost all Salesforce CRM teams are. And what does the Manifesto say about a little concept about less documenting, more deliverables, less process, more collaboration, don’t get hung up on tools? Right? It’s important to stick to the principles we all live by, but with CRM, allow for flexibility in order to keep things moving effectively.

I’ve been addressing this on-going issue of applying Agile to CRM for years now. Running a Salesforce project is drastically different from a Rails project. And both need its own approach. Alistair Cockburn and people in his realm have many Agile offshoot methodologies specific to software dev, but no one has tackled using Agile for CRM. Ironically, Salesforce themselves use Agile and have a very successful internal adoption model.

Basically, all the sequential tasks (aka theme or mega-story) that need to occur in order to establish a key piece of functionality, often a with group of sequential tasks that other parts are codependent on, it’s important that all the tasks for that major function (e.g. establishing field level security for all CRM users, which involves several tasks) be grouped together in order to complete the function or “theme” if you will.

So, in this case combining sequential tasks into mega-stories, or themes, and still assigning points and tracking velocity, but group tasks within a large process or function (theme), all together, with story points assigned to the entire theme, incorporated into a sprint (analyze, configure and setup, test, release, demo), still have daily standtoups like usually works.

The key for me is the ability to be flexible, sticking to a 1 week sprint, mainly because Salesforce can be setup that quickly if the team approaches from a theme level, often working in parallel with other teams (aka paired teams or XT-extreme teams). However the database migration team may take a different approach although working on the sale project together.

Often times 2 teams work in parallel, one focusing on process analysis, defining business rules, workflow, building use cases, setting up 3rd party integration, and often, even developing custom Salesforce aps. The other team focuses on the data – cleansing, scrubbing, duping, field source mapping, etc.). It’s good to align each group so team 1 working on business logic, can test each function (aka theme) against the data being brought over. I call this paired teams, or XT, similar to pair programming or XP, but on a larger scale. A situation involving data migration with bad data may lend itself a waterfall, depending on the integrity of the data you are migrating.

“CRMSCRUM”

As long as you group stories that must follow a sequence into themes, treat as mega-stories, and finish each after every step of the sequence has been completed, then test, and release, and demo every 2 weeks, this version of Agile I’ve developed, called CRMSCRUM, is highly effective, sometimes to the point where you sometimes can move with unlimited velocity. It just takes the right combination of team commitment, solid well-skilled Salesforce SME’s serving multiple roles, and a flexible mind set, but not to the point where you break key Agile principles, This technique I call CRMSCRUM used to deploy systems such as Salesforce with has proven to deliver with exceptional speed, efficiency, and perfect alignment with stakeholder vision.

Agile CRM Implementation

Agile CRM Implementation by Luneos (12/11/10)

Because our last article about cheap and rapid CRM implementation raised several questions from our readers (saving both time and money is grateful idea) we decided to come back to this topic again.

Instead of purchasing new information system for the whole company, paying license fees for all employees and spending months with demanding implementation it is often much more beneficial to start with agile CRM implementation in much smaller scale.

Agile CRM implementation principles

At first think about three most serious issues in your company that new CRM system can avoid (e.g. missing sales opportunity overview, not unified pricing conditions or lack of reporting).

Afterwards perform a brief CRM analysis focused only on departments, where these three issues happen and try to find out, how to remove them fast and efficient.

As soon as this analysis is finished, you can start with deployment of new CRM system. Don’t implement the whole set of features, but only those that will help your company in solving its three major issues.

Also avoid continuous changes in specification and adding new requirements, because they would only slow you down and you’ll have enough time and more experience to cope with them later.

Once the CRM is live for at least two weeks, you have tested and adjust its settings it’s time for its extension. Write down your next three business problems, make small analysis and start with the deployment again.

Benefits of Agile CRM deployment

Unlike the usual CRM implementation that lasts months or even years, you’ll get the first results just in few weeks after signing the contract. Breaking the project down into short and fast steps also simplifies end user training and reduces overall costs. Instead of paying for licenses for all users immediately after the contract is signed, you can gradually re-buy them in accordance with speed of your implementation.

Mistakes to avoid

The most common mistake during agile CRM implementation is lack of communication and cooperation with the vendor. That’s why you should develop an implementation framework right after signing the contract and make your provider familiar with your long-term CRM plans and strategy. Such approach allows him to better estimate the duration of whole project and help you prepare next steps.

Your company doesn’t need a complex information system with thousands of exceptions, difficult maintenance and limited upgrade options. By choosing an agile approach you simply avoid such scenario and can benefit from the CRM since the very beginning.

As one of our clients told us: Our company can’t wait two years for a luxurious Rolls Royce. We need a compact SUV right now. And what about you?