STRATEGIES FOR YOUR CRM DEPLOYMENT OR UPGRADE

PLANNING FOR CRM SUCCESS

Melissa GreenSR Business Analyst – Managing Consultantmgreen@ledgeviewpartners.com

Jodie GilroySR Business Analyst – Managing Consultantjgilroy@ledgeviewpartners.com

SESSION OBJECTIVES

• Educate you with tips to set you up for a successful CRM deployment or upgrade

• Provide you with an understanding of project stages and the role they play in a successful project

• Start you thinking about actions you can take to avoid project failures & realize ROI

• Emphasize the importance of 4 key characteristics of successful projects: 1. Leadership Involvement2. Planning3. User Adoption4. Communication

• Actionable knowledge you can apply right away

SESSION WRAP UP

ANALYSIS DESIGN

• Select project team

• Define current processes

• Technology assessment

• Define future state

• Establish roadmap & budget

• Detailed system design

• Document, Review &

approve design

• Revisit alignment with

roadmap and budget

• Develop project plan and

stick to it (timeline &

scope)

• User Acceptance Testing

• Admin and End-User

Training

PROJECT STAGES

IMPLEMENTATION

PROJECT TEAMPROJECT STAGE: ANALYSIS

PROJECT TEAM SELECTION

• Purpose of the team• Fosters Buy-in from the top down• Represents all applicable areas of the company• Facilitates Better Understanding of Requirements• Ensures ownership of project success

• Team will serve different purposes at various points in the project• Design/Requirements Gathering• Testing• Roll-out / Go-Live• Post Go-Live

• Size of team will vary based on• Size of company/org structure• Scope of implementation

PROJECT TEAM ROLES

• Steering Committee

• Executive Sponsor(s) – key stakeholders

• Team Captain - “owner”• Champion

• Project Manager

• SME’s

• Cross Functional / Cross Dept. Users

• IT

LARGE PROJECT TEAM EXAMPLEProject

Sponsor(s)

Business Project Lead

Business Unit #1 Project

Lead

Business Unit Team

Members

Business Unit #2 Project

Lead

Business Unit Team

Members

Business Unit #3 Project

Lead

Business Unit Team

Members

IT Project Lead

IT Team Members

SMALL PROJECT TEAM EXAMPLE

Project Sponsor

Business Unit Project Lead

2-3 Project Team

Members

IT Project Lead

PROJECT TEAM PITFALLS

•Too small• Not broad enough representation of needs

• Low user adoption

•Too Large• No ownership

• Nothing gets done

•Too IT heavy• Not enough focus on business process and

needs

• Low user adoption

•Executive sponsor is micro-managing• Other members are resistant to offer ideas and

lead

• Low user adoption

•Team members have no time• Project is rushed

• Project is incomplete

•Consistency of project team• Commitment from one project phase to

another

PROCESS DEFINITIONPROJECT STAGE: ANALYSIS

PROCESS DEFINITION

• Review & document your current processes• Interview team members from many levels of the organization and document

the “day in the life of ___”

• Ex. Sales Process when there is an active opportunity

• Ex. Customer Service process for managing a product issue

• Ex. Common reports used by the leadership team and how are they accessed, updated and stored?

• Map Your Processes• Identify process shortfalls and evaluate opportunity for change prior to

implementation CRM

PROCESS DEFINITION

• Uncover obstacles and inefficiencies in defined processes• Is everyone following the same process? If not, why?• Which are taking too much time?• Which do users complain about or simply not do?• Which don’t really add value?• Which seem inefficient or are too manual?• Which are too complex?• Which just don’t make sense?• Which are most important/crucial?

• Document business requirements• Opportunity to uncover additional CRM use cases• Identify where a CRM system will benefit the organization

TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENTPROJECT STAGE: ANALYSIS

TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT

• Inventory systems that are currently being used today

• Identify the primary uses of the system & document those processes

• Identify users of the system & frequency of usage

• Identify other business system that have the potential to integrate with the CRM (Ex. ERP)

• Identify opportunities for improvement or consolidation of system usage

• Create a current state technology map

CURRENT STATE TECHNOLOGY MAPPING

CRM REALITY CHECKPROJECT STAGE: ANALYSIS

CRM REALITY CHECK

• Has your company had an unsuccessful CRM implementation in the past?• Uncover the reasons for past challenges

• Uncover CRM Perceptions• Interview staff that has had positive as well as

negative experiences with CRM system at past employers

• Use feedback as a learning tool as you design your CRM

FUTURE STATE DEFINITIONPROJECT STAGE: ANALYSIS

FUTURE STATE DEFINITION• WHAT are your future state goals?

• WHAT is the gap that you currently have in reaching those goals?

• WHAT is the role that the CRM solution has in filling those gaps?

• WHAT does the future technology map look like?• Make it visual; if you can’t draw it, you don’t understand it

• WHY are you implementing/upgrading/enhancing CRM? What are your business drivers?

• Collective answers to all of the above = Your CRM Vision

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY MAPPING

ROADMAP & BUDGETPROJECT STAGE: ANALYSIS

ROADMAP• Develop your Roadmap

• Short term phase more detailed; long term phases high-level

• Prioritize needs to develop project phases & scope• Most CRM projects will have multiple phases• Prioritize the phases based on business needs• Keep 1st phase simple

• Set realistic project timeline• Identify factors that could impact the project timeline

• Retiring of existing systems• Availability of internal resources• Impacts of system launch during a “busy season”• Training (ex. timing training around an annual sales meeting)

• Patience…Don’t be too aggressive unless there’s a valid business reason to do so

Phase 1

• Summer 2017

Phase 2

• Fall 2017

Phase 3

• Winter 2018

BUDGET EXPECTATIONS

• Typical cost considerations associated with a CRM journey• Analysis• Design• Implementation• Future Upgrades• Support• Annual/Recurring Costs

• Software Licensing• 3rd Party Product Licensing

• Phase 2 repeat…

• Set a realistic budget for first and future phases of CRM

SYSTEM DESIGNPROJECT STAGE: DESIGN

SYSTEM DESIGN - Functionality• Clearly define & document detailed system design

• Build upon the work done in Analysis stage…get more granular

• Identify configuration & custom coding needed to accommodate business processes (i.e. workflow triggers and business process paths)

• Detailed requirements gathering• Identify form fields & views needed for each CRM entity

• Create screen mockups

• Define reporting & dashboard needs

• Develop data migration & integration mapping

• Define security requirements

• Establish the testing & training plan

SYSTEM DESIGN - Functionality

• Design documentation• Obtain official project team approval of design prior to implementation start

• Detailed design will properly prepare the team for implementation

• Ensure constant alignment to goals

• After Design, re-visit Roadmap timeline and budget alignment• Make adjustments where necessary

• Communicate those adjustments

DATA MIGRATION & INTEGRATIONPROJECT STAGE: DESIGN

DATA MIGRATION & INTEGRATION

• Don’t Migrate/Integrate just because you can• Why should we integrate it; is it worth the investment• It MUST add business value

• Data accuracy

• Insight

• Productivity

• Adequately Plan & Discuss integration/migration needs• What are we migrating/integrating?• Does this need to be a one-way or two-way integration?• This needs to be well though out• Plan for thorough validation and testing

DATA MIGRATION & INTEGRATION

• Should we migrate/integrate?• Will we maintain access to legacy system(s)?

• How clean is our data?

• How many sources of data do we have?

• Involve SME’s to assist with mappings

• Start clean up plan YESTERDAY!

• Test migration validation is crucial…don’t rush this

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATIONPROJECT STAGE: IMPLEMENATION

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

• Develop a realistic project plan (timeline and tasks)

• Have clearly defined roles and task assignments

• Regular status meetings with project team

• Provide periodic brief updates out to leadership and users (tailored content)

• Stick to the scope and timeline• Evaluate (be stringent), approve, communicate deviations

• Provide adequate people and time for user acceptance testing prior to Go-Live

• Start training preparation as specified in Design

TRAINING & COMMUNICATIONPROJECT STAGE: ALL STAGES

TRAINING & COMMUNICATION

• Communicate the “Big Picture” and business value

• Involve your team in the planning/process design

• Show how it will help the team succeed

• Build a system that is valuable and useful for users

• Train and Retrain

• Provide ongoing user engagement

SESSION WRAP UP CONGRATULATIONS: YOU MADE IT TO THE END!

SESSION WRAP UP

ANALYSIS DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION

• Select project team

• Define current processes

• Technology assessment

• Define future state

• Establish roadmap & budget

LEADERSHIP | PLANNING | USER ADOPTION | COMMUNICATION

• Detailed system design

• Document, review & approve

design

• Revisit alignment with

roadmap and budget

• Develop project plan and

stick to it (timeline &

scope)

• User Acceptance Testing

• Admin and End-User

Training

QUESTIONS?IT’S YOUR TURN