CRM implementation & Business Intelligence uplift
CS00083
Client Problem
Our client, an ASX-listed ICT firm, has previously implemented Customer Relationship Management (CRM) across its enterprise four years earlier. In its early stages the solution met its needs, but as the organisation grew they were faced with a number of business critical challenges:
- the initial deployment was designed for approximately 30 users, however with organic growth and a greater emphasis on sales, the user base had grown to 100
- no ‘single source of truth’ for sales existed, and the client had two detailed CRM systems running in parallel, mixed in with various Microsoft Excel, Access and Outlook mediums being used as sales information repositories
- the underlying business processes that the CRM solution was designed to automate were unclear
- there was no clear business ownership or change control of the system
- business intelligence produced from the system was poor, with the Executive team not utilising information from the system to inform decisionmaking
- the investment in CRM was being questioned, with effort being spent on assessing alternative technologies, as opposed to the underlying business drivers
SMS Approach
To commence, SMS undertook a readiness assessment and review of CRM practices within the organisation. This approach was designed to re-assess and define:
- its vision for CRM
- the sales lifecycle and sales process
- the expectations for business intelligence that
CRM would be responsible for From the review process, SMS produced a simple roadmap for re-implementation. The roadmap included clear recommendations for CRM platform selection based on business requirements, a structure for executive sponsorship and an approach to establish regional teams to ensure effective adoption and to support the desired user behaviours.
Recommendation
24 recommendations were produced from the review exercise. The recommendations where then consolidated into four short and sharp project phases:
- definition and consolidation
- documentation, training and change management
- reporting and business intelligence uplift
- transition to Business As Usual (BAU) and operational mode
Outcome
The reimplementation was completed in time and on budget. Within three months of deployment, the enhanced CRM solution (made up of the technology, clarified business processes and clear documentation & change management disciplines) was delivering considerable benefits to the organisation.
User adoption and data quality is very high, with daily use the norm for all core users. They now have a platform that is considered the single source of truth for sales within the business and the organisation has since deployed further enhancements on top of the under-lying infrastructure produced as part of the project.