CRM Implementation Success – A Second Opinion

By Beth Scheidt

CRM Practice Manager

BroadPoint Technologies

In the medical world, a second opinion is almost always recommended when the patient is undergoing a major procedure. The second opinion reviews the patient's history, checks assumptions and explores alternatives. While a major medical procedure is not a perfect analogy for a CRM implementation, certainly there might be some valid comparisons made to the pain and agony possible in both.

Typically, a company implementing CRM hires someone like BroadPoint to help them through the process. This collaboration generally has a better outcome than if a company attempts to roll out CRM on their own. (Perform surgery on yourself?) The company gains the years of experience from the implementer and the implementer uses the business process knowledge of the company to help deliver the final results.

For some projects, a second opinion is a life (project) saver. By supplementing the company's staff with a CRM project manager, a project manager who is not employed by the implementer, the project has a high likelihood of finishing with healthy results. Here are two recent experiences with an independent CRM project manager that help illustrate the point.

A large, Not-For-Profit (NFP) group had replaced an old membership system with a highly customized and integrated CRM system. The NFP's day-to-day IT functions were outsourced and the internal project management was delegated to staff members who still had daily responsibilities for managing staff and membership. The NFP executives belatedly realized the project was significantly over budget, way behind schedule and off scope. This was definitely a triage situation!

The NFP's internal project resources did not have the expertise or dedicated time to provide oversight for this implementer. For the NFP's part, they consistently provided incomplete or nebulous descriptions for required work. The implementer rarely returned to the NFP team for clarification on changes, was particularly difficult to communicate with, seemed to always be focused on other customers' work, and did not appear to ever test their delivered work.

As an independent expert, we took the steps to make sure the NFP group thoroughly defined and documented their needs and worked closely with the implementer to ensure they understood the requirements as defined. Because of our experience, we were able to validate the implementer's approach and several times suggested alternative, cost saving solutions. We made sure deliverables were properly tested by both the implementer and the NFP before being released. By providing the NFP with an independent CRM project manager, we were able to bring the project back in line with the original goals and stop the budget hemorrhaging.

In another successful use of a CRM project manager, we worked with a large, international firm to supplement their internal project management staff. Unlike the previous example, both the implementer and the client had strong project management resources. The implementer was remotely located and we were onsite.

Like the previous example, this was a highly customized, integrated CRM implementation. The value the CRM project manager brought to the operation was experience and a fresh perspective. There were several instances where the client was defining customizations based on existing processes. It took a fresh perspective (and experience) to ask, "Why are you recreating this process?" We were able to identify instances where the client was trying to duplicate functionality that the field staff had long since abandoned (no matter what management thought). We were also able to make suggestions of small changes that really impacted the user's experience for the positive.

In both the examples above, the independent CRM project manager role enhanced the implementation by providing cost savings and improving the user experience. If you decide your project could benefit from a second opinion, be sure you choose the right independent CRM project manager. Both the CRM project manager and implementer need to work together on your behalf. Beware of the implementer and independent project manager who considers their own best interest above yours and the project. In that case, you may find the cure is worse than the disease!