CRM Failure: 7 Warning Signs to Watch For

CRM Failure: 7 Warning Signs to Watch For by Paul Pitman at Collier Pickard

On a site dedicated to CRM best practice, and which celebrates simply successful CRM, should I be blogging about failure? If you're looking for tips and tricks to ensure the success of your CRM initiative then knowing what failure looks like is essential. If you know the warning signs to watch for then you should be able to get your CRM project back on track before too much damage is done.

Why is my CRM system failing?

There are many signs that the processes and tools you use to manage your customer relationships are failing. The following are some of the most common indicators that failure is fast approaching.

1. The original CRM project sponsor moves on and no-one fills the gap...

Having delivered the benefits of a properly implemented CRM project – the sponsor accepts a new job with more money, status or prestige. Great CRM projects have at their core a visionary individual. Their passion and commitment will help to drive usage, and encourage the change that is at the core great companies. If you lose your sponsor be prepared to step into the role yourself. With risk comes reward – so get ready for promotion.

2. The initial project is a success so everyone relaxes

Everyone slaps each other on the back, and goes back to doing things the way they always used too. Change is challenging. Increasingly psychologists recognise that people only change away from their current behaviours when the pain associated with not changing becomes too much. So make sure that doing things the old way is not acceptable, and that there is pain associated with old behaviours. Also, do try to ensure that the CRM system offers an attractive alternative to your users.

3. A new board appointment arrives

Freshly promoted after implementing CRM software in their last job, and keen to do it all again with their “tame” supplier. CRM is not a piece of software. So expecting a change in software to change your CRM project into a rip roaring success is naive. Make sure that they are not confusing product features with Strategy Tactics or Execution.

4. Your organisation assumes technology trends don’t apply to you

Your business does not need social CRM, or Inbound Marketing, or any of this new fangled Web2.0 stuff. It’s just like that internet thing a few years ago – passing phase, soon be back to normal. If your organisations view of “new” technology is instinctively cautious, then beware. Whilst software vendors do want to sell you more, they will only succeed if they deliver real value. To that end, they research the market and emerging trends in great depth. The old days are never coming back – so now is a great time to see just how you can make new technology work for you.

That said however...

5. An exciting new BI / SharePoint / technology project kicks off

Designed to finally bring together all of your customer interactions in one place. Technology is great, but it is only a tool to be used in meeting business needs. SharePoint, BI tools and all the other technology has a place in ensuring CRM success – but they should not remove the focus from your core CRM platform. If this is a management decision to invest in more software, instead of learning to make the CRM system perform – be very worried.

6. The killer Excel workbook takes root

Compiled by an Excel guru, it becomes the tool of choice for the board, but requires everyone to submit data in an agreed format. A combination of warning signs two and five. Managers who cannot be bothered to change, and the lure of a technology solution combine to kill your CRM solution. Far better to work within the CRM software and utilise its reporting tools and dashboards.

7. Excellence becomes boring!

Glib I know, but why else would you desert a successful system. Of course the flip side is, if the CRM system is not perceived as successful then failure is not far away. Time to revitalise the project by getting back to basics. Data quality anyone?

Don't be alarmed if you recognise some of these warning signs in your own business. As long as you understand how they can undermine CRM success you can prepare your response, and hopefully you'll never need to ask "why is my CRM system failing?" again!

Setting the foundations for a successful CRM project

Setting the foundations for a successful CRM project by Professional Advantage (13/03/2012)


Implementing a customer relationship management system (CRM) is usually a pretty major undertaking for an organisation. A new CRM system is a way of re-stating the way a company works; of re-enforcing how an organisation oversees it’s customer interactions.

As such, there are a few things you should try to keep in mind while planning for, and undertaking, your CRM system implementation to increase your likelihood of success. Those of us who implement these systems on a regular basis can vouch for each of these, and most of us can cite examples where ignoring these tips has made life difficult for both the client organisation and the implementation team!

1. Approach the project as a business process improvement, not an IT project
CRM system projects (like their cousin, ERP projects) that are initiated and driven by an IT team are often, but not always, being done for the wrong reasons. Spending the time, effort and capital on a software project that doesn’t aim to resolve a known issue with your business can be an early sign of problems for the project.

Due to the fact that you’re implementing a large software application, IT obviously need to be involved - your IT team may even have people on it who have assisted in CRM system implementations in the past that you can leverage.

2. Know your goals

To believe that your company doesn’t have process issues is to be naive. Ask any worker and she will share with you ways in which their job could be made more efficient.

During the early stages of your project, it’s critical to understand which of these areas you are trying to address and in what way you wish for them to be changed by your new systems.

A few common examples which can be readily addressed with well-implemented CRM software include:

• Management suffer from lack of visibility of salesperson activities
• Account managers don’t understand how the sales or service teams interact with their clients
• Customer service enquiries are “falling through the cracks”
• Marketing don’t know when they last contacted a customer (or whether that customer has responded in the past)
• The sales pipeline is difficult to visualise and understand

3. Make sure somebody wins when the project succeedsIf you have even one person who will really “win” when your project succeeds, they will work hard to get that win. Your potential winners will advocate for the success of the project to their peers.

Winning is easy to identify:

• Time saved on mundane or repetitive tasks
• Continual problems with data accuracy
• Large volumes of work to keep up with other people

On the flip side of the carrot/stick driver, and to a lesser extent, having somebody who will ‘hurt’ if the project fails can cause that person to work hard to avoid the pain. Look out, though: not everybody responds well to such negative drivers.

4. Senior sponsorship and team buy-in
Understanding your goals is important, however if your senior employees and management aren’t interested then nobody will use your new system. Your goals will stay unachieved.

Be wary, this can be referred to as a success! The software was configured exactly to specification, it was on-time and on-budget. A month later, though, you have a server consuming electricity and a bill from your implementation company but nobody is using your system. Ouch.

When your project is sponsored by management, it can give weight and credence to the new system. This can help to build engagement with your team early on. By getting key employees involved in the initial stages of your CRM system project, they can have a say in the direction of the system and feel an element of ownership.

Introducing ownership throughout your organisation helps to prevent staff feeling like a system is being forced onto them with little regard for what they do on a daily basis.

5. Understand your business processes
This might sound obvious, but for many organisations it isn’t until they begin formally reviewing processes that their inefficiencies become visible.

A successful CRM system will assist your staff with their roles, not enforce new rules on them without purpose. By understanding how your company interacts with customers, you can ensure that the system is configured in a way that supports these activities.

That said, there is often no better time to implement change in your processes than when you are already identifying your processes and translating them into your new systems.

Resist the temptation to build a system that perfectly enforces all of your existing business rules without due review – take those staff suggestions on board!

6. Partnership with your implementer
Your system implementation partner should help guide you through the process as a trusted advisor, not simply as an external contractor. You are relying on their services due to their extensive experience: hopefully your partner has done many more CRM system builds than you have!

Every time you go through the process of implementing a large business application you learn something new. Sometimes it’s simple, other times it’s more complex. The sum of these learnings should not be under-valued!

So, whilst you rely on the experience of your implementers, giving them the job and walking away until completion is not likely to end well. At all stages through the process, there should be comfortable dialogue between both parties and a good understanding of roles and responsibilities.

The days of big system builds in back rooms are over. Although many organisations aren’t able to work in a truly Agile way, iteration and open communication are a must. If you and your implementer are not prepared to be true partners, sharing and collaborating throughout a project, you may not get the results you were hoping for.

Be Clever
If you’ve already chosen to build a CRM system for your organisation, you’re already well on the way to improving the management and visibility of the relationships with your customers and suppliers.

By staying wise, selecting a reputable and experienced partner, and being inclusive when it comes to internal team selection, congratulations! The chances are even better that your project will be a success.

CRM Implementation - Fast and Cheap

CRM Implementation - Fast and Cheap by Luneos (10/11/10)

Are you worried that deployment of CRM system in your company would be expensive, time consuming and the outcome won’t meet your expectations? If you want to avoid such scenario, just continue reading this article in order to simplify your CRM implementation.

If you haven’t performed a detailed CRM analysis yet, or if you still don’t exactly know your requirements on new CRM system, then the best way is to start small. Instead of paying and setting up a complex information environment for the whole company, it’s much more valuable to select just a few departments and implement only a handful of core functions.

Such approach has several advantages: not only the whole project is simpler, faster and cheaper, but you can also easily test your vendor and his services. Moreover after launching the limited set of functions and features you can much better realize, in which areas of your business the usage of CRM can create a significant competitive advantage and where its use would be contra productive.

After evaluating the success of pilot CRM deployment (usually after 2-4 weeks), you can extend the system into other departments and add new functions or modules. Because you already have a detailed overview of available features, their benefits and implementation requirements, your chances on successful CRM implementation are much higher.

Also if you want to avoid the most common mistakes in customer relationship management deployment, we recommend you to read our CRM guide.

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?

Using an Agile approach to CRM

Using an Agile approach to CRM by Customer Dynamics (10/01/12)

Our approach to managing and running CRM implementation for multiple clients at the same time involve some very basic “Agile” principles of doing first things first, keeping iterations small, and running sprints.  An overview of CRM philosophy can be found on our CRM Success page.

Our approach with our support and maintenance customers uses a simple backlog type approach as shown below:

This diagram shows the overall flow of work items (user stories and tasks) from initial inception, onto the Backlog, then onto the appropriate Sprint.

The Backlog is a queue of business functionality waiting for refinement, budget, scheduling and approval. A Backlog Item is a piece of business functionality that is well defined and can be budgeted and scheduled into an upcoming Sprint. Each Sprint is a 4 week period of time where approved Backlog items worked on and completed. A simple Backlog item example would be - “Sales user needs the Opportunity screen to display a weighted revenue amount calculated from the estimated revenue * sales stage probability, and allow that user to query the results in an advanced find.”

The Executive Sponsor, System Architect, System Consultant, and Business Process Expert(s) submit items to the backlog for consideration. The System Architect periodically reviews the backlog and ensures that each Backlog item is well documented and conforms to the overall system design.

The Executive Sponsor and Project Manager (and other team members as needed) have a monthly Sprint Planning session to review Backlog items and schedule them into the upcoming Sprints. The Sprint Planning session should be completed 2 weeks prior to the end of the current Sprint.

This approach helps capture new potential CRM items (business logic, custom workflow, plugins, ect) and allows the CRM team to prioritize and manage these items in typical Agile sprints.  This “Agile CRM” approach keeps your users engaged, provides on-going value and ROI from your system, and keeps the Executive Sponsors involved.

More than 100 videos dedicated to Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011

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NEW! 2014 Beta: A Dynamic Video Knowledge Base
2013 Release: More than 500 videos

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Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Outlook Client
Date: 01/18/2012
Tags: Outlook

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM "the Power of Productivity"
Date: 01/17/2012
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Upgrading Connector for Microsoft Dynamics to the latest version
Date: 01/12/2012
Tags: Connector

Title: CRM 2011 Quote Mail Merge Template Spacing Tricks
Date: 01/12/2012
Tags: Mail Merge, Quote

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Amplify your selling Power
Date: 11/28/2011
Tags: Sales

Title: Membership Management for CRM 2011
Date: 10/18/2011
Tags: Team, Business Unit

Title: Maps for CRM Installation
Date: 10/12/2011
Tags: Map, Addon

Title: Legislature Issue Management solution walkthrough
Date: 10/04/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Create and apply e-mail templates
Date: 09/28/2011
Tags: Email

Title: Create and run reports (Online Users)
Date: 09/28/2011
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Create and run reports (OnPremise Users)
Date: 09/28/2011
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Create a Dialog
Date: 09/19/2011
Tags: Workflow - Dialog

Title: Add a Quicklist in Microsoft CRM Dynamics
Date: 09/19/2011
Tags: Marketing List

Title: Microsoft CRM duplicate detection
Date: 09/12/2011
Tags: Duplicate Detection

Title: Learn how to personalise Microsoft CRM
Date: 09/07/2011
Tags: Customization

Title: Goal Management in Microsoft CRM
Date: 09/07/2011
Tags: Goal Management

Title: Sharing and assigning records in Microsoft CRM
Date: 09/07/2011
Tags: Record

Title: How to Customize Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Online
Date: 08/21/2011
Tags: Customization, Dynamics CRM Online

Title: How to add users in Microsoft CRM
Date: 08/17/2011
Tags: User

Title: Microsoft CRM Goals
Date: 08/15/2011
Tags: Goal Management

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Auditing
Date: 08/15/2011
Tags: Auditing

Title: Integration with Constant Contact
Date: 08/11/2011
Tags: Contact

Title: Using Mobile Express
Date: 08/09/2011
Tags: Mobile Express

Title: Microsoft CRM - Office and Sharepoint - Part 2
Date: 08/03/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011, Sharepoint, Office

Title: Microsoft CRM - Office and Sharepoint - Part 1
Date: 08/03/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011, Sharepoint, Office

Title: Using Auditing
Date: 08/01/2011
Tags: Auditing

Title: Account Management with Custom Activities
Date: 07/30/2011
Tags: Account, Entity

Title: Dynamics CRM Investigation Management System
Date: 07/28/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Working with Connections
Date: 07/27/2011
Tags: Connection

Title: Add Marketing Capabilities
Date: 07/25/2011
Tags: Marketing List, Campaign

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Overview
Date: 07/25/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Learn about Data Imports Using Templates
Date: 07/25/2011
Tags: Database

Title: Learn how to install the Outlook Client
Date: 07/25/2011
Tags: Deployment - Architecture - Installation, Outlook

Title: Top 10 User Productivity Tips
Date: 07/23/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Overview
Date: 07/04/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Learn about sales process
Date: 07/04/2011
Tags: Sales

Title: Learn about Social CRM
Date: 07/04/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011, Social CRM

Title: Learn about the Solutions Management feature area in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 06/29/2011
Tags: Solution

Title: Learn to personalize Microsoft CRM
Date: 06/27/2011
Tags: Customization

Title: Creating Reports in CRM
Date: 06/26/2011
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Learn about processes and workflow
Date: 06/22/2011
Tags: Workflow - Dialog

Title: Learn about the user experience improvements
Date: 06/20/2011
Tags: UI

Title: Learn about CRM in the outlook client
Date: 06/20/2011
Tags: Outlook

Title: CRM 2011 Series - Creating Role Based Forms
Date: 06/16/2011
Tags: Form

Title: CRM 2011 Export, Clean and Import
Date: 06/16/2011
Tags: Database

Title: Learn about the Connector for Microsoft Dynamics in Less Than 20 Minutes
Date: 06/16/2011
Tags: Connection

Title: Creating Role Based Forms
Date: 06/16/2011
Tags: Form, Role

Title: iSMS - Mobile Payment for Dynamics CRM
Date: 06/15/2011
Tags: Mobile Express

Title: TechEd NA 2011 Session Recording: CRM and SharePoint
Date: 06/15/2011
Tags: Sharepoint

Title: Integrate Microsoft CRM with LinkedIn!
Date: 06/14/2011
Tags: Development, Linkedin

Title: How to use Document Management in Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 06/12/2011
Tags: Sharepoint, Document Management

Title: Setting up Document Management with SharePoint 2010 for Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 06/09/2011
Tags: Sharepoint, Document Management

Title: Learn about the partner portal
Date: 06/09/2011
Tags: Partners Management, Dynamics CRM 2011, Azure

Title: CRM-Azure Screencast
Date: 06/08/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011, Azure

Title: Liberty University uses Dynamics CRM
Date: 06/02/2011
Tags: Témoignage Client

Title: Learn how the Office Fluent User Interface works
Date: 06/02/2011
Tags: Office, UI

Title: Keeping on top of your Pipeline
Date: 05/27/2011
Tags: Email, Opportunity

Title: Managing Goals
Date: 05/20/2011
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard, Goal Management

Title: Learn how to manage solutions within CRM
Date: 05/19/2011
Tags: Solution

Title: Learn how to Mail Merge
Date: 05/18/2011
Tags: Mail Merge

Title: Learn how the connector works for Microsoft Dynamics
Date: 05/18/2011
Tags: Integration

Title: Learn how to quickly customise Microsoft CRM
Date: 05/18/2011
Tags: Customization

Title: Learn how contacts work in CRM
Date: 05/16/2011
Tags: Contact

Title: Learn how it can be tailored for your business
Date: 05/16/2011
Tags: Customization

Title: Learn how to setup a workflow
Date: 05/13/2011
Tags: Workflow - Dialog

Title: Creating a User Adoption Dashboard
Date: 05/11/2011
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Learn how to get started with Microsoft CRM
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Account

Title: Learn how to prepare data ready for importing
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Database

Title: Learn how to use Marketing lists
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Marketing List

Title: Learn how conditional formatting works
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: View, Outlook

Title: Learn about workflows and dialogues
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Workflow - Dialog

Title: Learn how to boost sales with a quick campaign
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Campaign

Title: Learn how to use services to schedule service activities
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Activity, Service

Title: Learn how to organise articles for your business
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Knowledge Article

Title: Learn how to use activities and build a to do list
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Activity

Title: Learn how to use services to schedule service activities
Date: 05/09/2011
Tags: Service

Title: Learn how to manage quotes, orders and invoices
Date: 05/08/2011
Tags: Sales

Title: Creating Custom Entities
Date: 05/06/2011
Tags: Entity

Title: Learn how Queues work
Date: 05/05/2011
Tags: Queue

Title: learn how to manage contracts in MS CRM
Date: 05/05/2011
Tags: Contract

Title: Learn how to work with products and the product catalogue
Date: 05/05/2011
Tags: Product

Title: Learn how to manage Opportunities
Date: 05/05/2011
Tags: Opportunity

Title: Learn how to get started with Cases
Date: 05/05/2011
Tags: Case

Title: Learn all about how leads work in Microsoft CRM
Date: 05/03/2011
Tags: Lead

Title: Learn how duplicate detection works
Date: 05/03/2011
Tags: Duplicate Detection

Title: Learn how to create entities and fields whilst importing data
Date: 05/03/2011
Tags: Entity, Database

Title: Learn how to Setup the Customer Portal
Date: 05/03/2011
Tags: Accelerator, Azure

Title: Learn how to set up business units - security roles - add users
Date: 05/03/2011
Tags: User, Role, Business Unit

Title: Learn How To Create Role Tailored Forms
Date: 04/26/2011
Tags: Form, Role

Title: Learn how to Configure fields and forms
Date: 04/26/2011
Tags: Field - Attribute, Form

Title: Connected Cloud
Date: 04/26/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM Online, Office, Azure

Title: Microsoft CRM 2011 Office Integration
Date: 04/26/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM Online, Office

Title: Learn How to apply field level security
Date: 04/26/2011
Tags: Field - Attribute, Security

Title: CRM Online & Office 365
Date: 04/24/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM Online, Office

Title: Connected Cloud Demo
Date: 04/21/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM Online, Office, Azure

Title: CRM Online Quick Start Template Overview
Date: 04/18/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM Online

Title: Microsoft CRM Demo
Date: 04/18/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM Campaigns
Date: 04/18/2011
Tags: Campaign

Title: Security Overview
Date: 04/14/2011
Tags: Security, Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Demo
Date: 04/13/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: CRM 2011 Overview
Date: 04/05/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Introducing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Claims-based Authentication
Date: 04/05/2011
Tags: IFD

Title: Introducing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 Claims-based Authentication
Date: 04/04/2011
Tags: IFD

Title: Creating Workflows
Date: 03/28/2011
Tags: Workflow - Dialog, Opportunity

Title: Inline Visualizations in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 03/22/2011
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Dashboards in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 03/20/2011
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Outlook Client Overview
Date: 03/19/2011
Tags: Outlook

Title: Data Importing
Date: 03/19/2011
Tags: Database

Title: Customization Toolkit Overview
Date: 03/16/2011
Tags: View, Field - Attribute, Form, Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Présentation de l’asset "Avanade xRM eCommerce Solution"
Date: 02/06/2011
Tags: xRM, e-Commerce

Title: Queues & Team Management Demo
Date: 01/30/2011
Tags: Team, Queue

Title: Découvrez en exclusivité Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online, la nouvelle solution CRM de Microsoft
Date: 01/20/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM Online

Title: Declarative Programming Model in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 01/20/2011
Tags: Customization

Title: Optimize Customer Experience
Date: 01/20/2011
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Maximizing Marketing Impact
Date: 01/20/2011
Tags: Marketing

Title: Driving Sales Productivity
Date: 01/20/2011
Tags: Sales

Title: Personalizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 01/16/2011
Tags: Customization

Title: Document Management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and SharePoint
Date: 01/16/2011
Tags: Sharepoint, Document Management

Title: IFD for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 01/12/2011
Tags: IFD

Title: Project Management for CRM 2011 Installation
Date: 12/29/2010
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Account basics
Date: 12/16/2010
Tags: Account

Title: Flexible Goal Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 11/01/2010
Tags: Goal Management

Title: Personalizing Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 with Rich Dickinson
Date: 10/20/2010
Tags: Customization

Title: Solutions Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 10/12/2010
Tags: Solution

Title: Process control in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 10/12/2010
Tags: Workflow - Dialog

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Outlook
Date: 10/12/2010
Tags: Outlook

Title: Solutions Management in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011
Date: 10/12/2010
Tags: Solution

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 and Fluent UI
Date: 10/12/2010
Tags: UI

Title: Cloud Reporting with Abhijit Gore
Date: 10/06/2010
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Data visualization with Siddhartha Rai
Date: 10/06/2010
Tags: Report, Chart, Dashboard

Title: Living in Outlook with Tripp Parker
Date: 09/28/2010
Tags: Outlook

Title: Process Center with Steve Kaplan
Date: 09/21/2010
Tags: Dynamics CRM 2011

Title: Connections
Date: 09/16/2010
Tags: Connection

Title: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 User Experience with Michael McCormack
Date: 09/15/2010
Tags: UI

How to use Agile methods to deploy a CRM system

How to use Agile methods to deploy a CRM system by David Taber (20/01/10)

Despite the user community's urgent calls for this or that functionality, customer relationship management (CRM) is still enterprise software that needs to be done with an architecture and a plan.

Deployments of unstable new functionality (or pushing existing functionality to unprepared users) can diminish the credibility of the CRM system. This can mean serious backsliding of user adoption, unwinding the virtuous cycle that is at the core of CRM success.

How to manage this issue? You won't be surprised that I advocate incremental deployments and Agile project methodologies, as they are the fastest (and cheapest) way to get functionality safely deployed. That said, iterative delivery is necessary but not sufficient. To establish sensible CRM priorities, you need to add the following principles:

Data First, Functionality Second

There's no point in building (or even switching on) new functionality if the underlying data is incomplete, dirty, or riddled with duplicates. While nobody can afford perfectionism, getting relevant system tables cleaned up is a precursor to progress. In nearly every table, the error rate needs to be below five percent, and even one percent for critical fields and pointers. Pretty much the only area where you can tolerate as much as a 20 percent error rate is in leads, as its speed of "information rot" makes higher standards uneconomical.

Accounts and Contacts are the Most Important "Static" Data

In most CRM data structures, the accounts table is the top of an information pyramid, with a dozen or more child tables pointing to it. If your customers are large multinational corporations, the account records themselves may be part of a hierarchy. So making sure that your account records are right (and agreeing with the data in other systems) is a key milestone. Fortunately, the account records themselves shouldn't change all that often.

Relating to the accounts are the contact and contact role records, which need to be accurate and free of duplicates to make sure that calls, emails, and action items are properly tracked. Unfortunately, in 80 percent of the CRM databases we see, the contact role record (it's just a pointer, really) is empty, rendering almost any marketing effectiveness or serious pipeline analysis impossible. As this field can only be filled in by humans (either sales or telesales), the only solutions are incentives or other behaviour modification techniques.

Opportunities and Cases are the Most Critical "Transactional" Data

All too often, sales reps manage their boss by managing information. Ok, hiding it. Real deals are not in the system, but fake ones are. This means executive management cannot see what's going on with the pipeline until it's too late to fix it. Watch for symptoms like "submarine deals" that pop up unpredictably during the quarter close, or pie-in-the-sky pipeline that shrivels up all too predictably as the quarter progresses.

While it's easy to come down hard on these practices, it's important not to push behavior modification too fast. The sales reps will engage in passive-aggressive resistance, and may end up gaming the system in an even more misleading way. Expect progress on this front to take six months or more, and measure success by gradual improvements in forecasting accuracy.

On the customer service side of the house, cases (aka incidents or service calls) are the most pivotal data. The problem with cases is not that they aren't in the system - the issue is incompleteness, as they don't reflect reality.

Every CSR or service tech needs to be on the system all day, updating the case records with status changes they might previously have kept in Excel or on paper. Every "truck roll" or customer call needs to be recorded as a task so you can see the sequence and the real accumulated time required to resolve issues.

Integration is the Hard Nut, but Enables the Most Value

The more serious your CRM system, the more other systems it will need to integrate with. When a sales or service rep can see the big picture (that may be stored in a half-dozen outside systems) of the customer situation, they can get the customer happy and paying sooner. When executives get closer to a 360° view, they make better business decisions.

But every point of integration is an invitation to data quality and duplication issues. While off-the-shelf, point-to-point adaptors are widely available for CRM systems, you'll almost certainly want to use a real integration server to handle transformation workflows, network timeouts, two-phase commits, and compensating transactions to unravel error conditions. Beware: integrations tend to be highly susceptible to subtle new bugs whenever any of the systems does a patch or upgrade. Watch out particularly for duplicate record creation or foreign-character set incompatibilities.

Until Reports are Clean, Your Data Isn't

CRM users, particularly executives, tend to ask for reports and dashboards first. Unfortunately, these are highly visible ways to expose every one of your data quality problems. Some of these will be digital noise -- misspellings, transposed dates, bad pointers -- that can be quickly found and corrected using pivot tables and other digests. Some of the problems will be more insidious, caused by business processes that cause "semantic smear" or by integration problems that can take weeks to troubleshoot and correct.

Our advice here is to keep users away from reports until you're really sure about data quality. The easier the CRM system's report wizards are, the bigger an issue this is. Early on, reports should be produced only by an analyst who really knows the data model and the things to filter out.

Users Must Believe the CRM System is For Them

Finally, the features you invest in should be the ones that help the users do their job better. Although they know management will be using the system to measure things, they must not believe that the CRM system is principally a spying machine for micro-managers. So spend money on things that save users a few mouse-clicks on every transaction, or features that will make their job just a little bit easier all day long.

We even encourage eye-candy features that don't actually add a lot of value, but make the system a little bit more fun for the users or the customer.

12 CRM Best Practices for 2012

12 CRM Best Practices for 2012 by Paul Pitman at Collier Pickard (09/09/11)

With the first cold snap of the winter, thoughts turn towards the festive season and 2012. What New Year's resolutions could you make that would turbo charge your CRM initiatives? Which best practice techniques will help make 2012 the year that CRM comes of age in your company?

Constant evolution of your CRM platform is important, but waiting until New Years day 2012 is not a recognised best practice. So if you are looking for practical steps you can take to get the best out of your current investment, then look no further. Some of these suggestions are quick and easy to implement, and cost very little, whilst others require investment but promise significant returns.

1. Banish Excel from the sales meeting 

Make 2012 the year that the sales forecasts come from the CRM system, not an Excel Worksheet. Overnight this will improve usage of the CRM system by the sales team.

2. Only record what is necessary 

Identify fields that are no longer used or needed and remove them from your CRM software. No one will miss them.

3. Clean your data

With data deteriorating at 25% a year it must be time you dealt with reality and spring clean your data. The cost savings from outbound mailings could well pay for the cleanup.

4. Talk to the users

And by that, I do mean users, not just those with a licence. Find out what they want changed - and change it. Reward their effort and commitment with recognition and support.

5. Talk to the non-users

Find out why they are not using the system, make the changes and get them onboard. Help them to cross the digital divide – unless they want to remain with the “have nots”. Remember, user adoption is key to successful CRM.

6. Get social

Start to track your contacts' social presence. Twitter handles, Facebook and Linkedin profiles - they all help you to understand your customers better. Then do something with the new insights - perhaps it’s time to consider inbound marketing?

7. Review your CRM software

Most people only use 20% of the available functionality of any software package - so find out what you have already paid for, but don’t use. Is there an opportunity to do things Better, Faster, Cheaper?

8. Get out of the office

Meet with customers and prospects, but take your CRM system with you, either on a smart phone, tablet or laptop. Share your data with your customers and ask them what they would change. Would a customer portal or integrating your CRM software with your web site improve customer loyalty?

9. Trade in the shotgun for a laser

Bulk mailing is sooo last year. Stop mailing out the same boring generic content to everyone and start tailoring messages to people based on their needs and interests.

10. Iterate, iterate, iterate!

Test and refine everything. Marketing content, client profiling, sales processes, customer service procedures - make 2012 the year you change everything that needs changing.

11. Show off!

Make sure that the content of your CRM system is not hidden - project dashboards onto every wall. Show graphically what is in your CRM system, and make use of Business Intelligence to make your business more intelligent.

12. Automate the tedious stuff

If it needs doing, but is a repetitive boring task, then get some software to do the job, and free up some time to do more interesting things!

Compared to other 12 step programs this one is not going to change lives, but it would ensure that you are getting every penny of value out of your CRM investment. It would also make 2012 a great year to be a CRM user at your company.

How many of these best practices do you want to implement next year? And how many do you already apply?