CRM project challenges in a small business

Some observations, strictly from my and a small business perspective. If this applies to you or you disagree, it would be great to hear about it. A few challenges in any CRM project replacing another solution:

• get the planning right
• assign the right people
• assign enough resources
• roll-out in reasonable time, get it working
• get back to the old productivity level

Now if you can do that without overspending or sacrificing functionality you did a good job if we believe the research. The tricky part starts however when it comes to fulfilling the (often exaggerated) expectations. So a few words from a small business perspective (<50>

All the top points apply. I strongly believe that a good team made up of good (if possible, the best) people from the business and IT side is key. Two points from academia:

1. A quote from Bill Fischer, an excellent professor who is also occasionally guest lecturing at our school: "Polite teams achieve polite results". Constructive fights between business and IT are good, it means both sides are committed and have something to say.

2. Salman Mufti, another visiting professor here argued in a class on Strategic Management of IT, that a good team is even more important than a good plan, because a good team will make a good plan on the way.

If you get to the point of productivity, you better make sure your team doesn't fall apart. Change Management is absolutely crucial, and your users might just be lost. Worse, they get lost over and over again, because we all tend to forget, especially stuff we don't use a lot. So with a successful roll-out and some intial training, you did a fair job. However to move the CRM system to the next level you need to take an approach of evolution and revolution. From time to time you do evaluation, probably more frequently at the beginning, then in longer intervals.

How we do it: We check the gap between our CRM strategy, our goals defined in general and for this period, and how we are doing. The next step is to look at frequent complaints we are getting, whether this is technical problems and requests, or process-related and inter-department issues. Next is to plan the steps to take the next "revolution" in CRM use. This means, working on things which can really boost productivity.

Priorities: You should have goals or a strategy behind your CRM initiative. That's the place to start. If you're too far away, do something. Make a plan for this year, to make sure you know where to go and what to measure.

Training: Repeat the basic training where needed. People forget, some are new. After doing your homework on gaps and suggested improvements, plan advanced training sessions and who should attend. Try to make sure the key people are there. Help them after the training to make sure they can work efficiently with the system. They are your customers.

In the best case you make the right calls what will raise productivity, your users follow your plan, understand your training and start to be more productive and enjoy to use the system more than before. Ideally you plan for regular revolutions and let people work freely in between. You might be surprised with which evolutions they can come up with, and maybe there's a revolution coming at you.

We're in the middle of this never-ending process, but we're moving in a good direction.