Readiness for CRMHow to Prepare Your CRM Project

“He who fails to plan is planning to fail”Winston Churchill

1. Building your Project Team2. Defining your CRM Vision3. Identifying your Processes & Pain Points4. Creating your Functional Requirements List5. Define & Prioritize your High Level CRM Goals6. Reporting Outputs7. Identifying your Data Sources 8. Integrating CRM9. Setting User Access Permissions10. Risk Analysis11. Build a User Adoption Strategy

11 Steps to Prepare for CRM

1. Building Your Project Team

• Executive SponsorOverall responsibility for project success - usually board level

• Project ManagerMain contact who will ensure that action points are dealt with & ensure the project stays on track

• Nominated CRM AdministratorMost advanced user, responsible for managing the database including adding users, data imports, adding new fields etc once the initial project is complete

• Key business usersRepresentatives from each department that will be using CRM

2. Defining Your CRM Vision

• In a few sentences what do you want your CRM strategy to achieve?

• A concise wording of the project goals that sums up the purpose and critical aspects of the project in just one or two sentences.

• Why do you want a CRM system?

3. Identify Your Processes & Pain Points

1. What are the main processes you want to manage in CRM?

2. Draw them out … share them!

3. What’s not working well currently?

4. Where do improvements need to be made? What’s falling through the gaps?

4. Creating Your Functional Requirements List

List the functional requirements for your new CRM System, for example:

• “Must have Outlook integration”

• “Must have mobile access built in”

• “Must be able to manage projects”

• “Must handle event management”

5. Define & Prioritize your High Level CRM Goals

What are your high level goals?

Make sure each goal is measurable! “Improve sales”…is too vague!!!

Define SMART goals for CRM that are:

• Specific – targeting a defined area• Measurable – enabling progress to be

quantified• Assignable – to individuals & teams• Realistic – for everyone to achieve• Time Related –stating when results must be

achieved

5. Define & Prioritize your High Level CRM Goals

Take each requirement and prioritize if it is a:

1. Must Have from the beginning

2. Must Have but can wait a while

3. Nice to Have

This will help your CRM Partner give you an accurate idea of costs.

6. Reporting Outputs

Think about what information you want to capture and pull out of the CRM system before you begin customizing the application.

For example, do you want a monthly sales report?

• What will it look like?• What will be measured?

Drawing an example chart, graph or report can can help you to determine what needs to be captured

7. Identifying your Data Sources

• Which departments already have databases that need to be imported?

• What format is the data in & is it up to date?

• What are the record types? (e.g. Accounts, Contacts, Leads, Agreements?)

• Is Data Cleaning required? If so, who will do this?

• How much historical data do you want to import? Is it worth the effort?

8. Integrating CRM

• Do you need to integrate CRM with other system?

• What are the benefits?

• How much data should be shared between the systems?

• Will data flow 1 way, or synchronised both ways?

• How often will data be exchanged?

9. Setting User Access Permissions

How is your company structured? Do you have any rules about who can see & edit which parts of the data?

Do you want sales people to see just their own data, or are they allowed to see all accounts and opportunities?

Make a list of your users, or individual teams, and define what level of CRM access they should get, for example:

• Full Access• Access Own Data Only• Read Only

10. Risk Analysis

Every Project has Risks

What are the risks to your CRM project?

• People? – (Almost Certainly)

• Processes? – (Probably)

• Technology – (Maybe)

11. Build a CRM User Adoption Strategy

FACT: 50% of CRM projects fail to deliver their expected results due to low user adoption

• What actions can you take to ensure this doesn’t happen to your project?

• Convert this into a user adoption plan and give someone accountability to achieve this goal

The Importance of Planning

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning”

Winston Churchill

Readiness for CRMPreact is a specialist Customer Relationship Management consultancy and service provider working with market leading solutions including Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Our business is built on helping clients achieve outstanding success from their CRM system whilst giving excellent value for money.

We have an extensive customer base including organisations such as Mencap, Toshiba, Euro Car Parks, Ryman, Robert Dyas and Six Degrees Group.

Our consultative and flexible approach allows us to work rapidly with clients to understand their needs and develop fully integrated solutions within predictable budgets and realistic timescales.

Preact’s highly experienced consultants achieve this by utilizing their expert knowledge and our proven CRM project methodology.

We would be delighted to discuss how Preact can help you implement a new CRM system, or assist you in gaining greater value from your existing solution.

0800 381 1000 | +44(0) 1628 661 810 | www.preact.co.uk