Develop Your Implementation Plan Depending on your needs and the complexity of the system you choose, your implementation project may be as short as a day or as long as a few months. Your vendor representative should help you plan the implementation. If you don’t have an IT staff that is capable of deploying the software, your CRM vendor should be able to include that service in the cost of your system. If you haven’t already defined your implementation team, do so now. Include a representative from every department that will use the CRM system. [Exercise 332]
CRM IMPLEMENTATION TEAM DEPARTMENT
NAME
ROLE
Project Manager
Here is a basic implementation schedule. Your vendor can help you determine how long each step should take for your particular project. PERSON STEP START DATE END DATE RESPONSIBLE Design: Determine exactly what features are needed and how they will work together Installation: Install the software and any related applications Configuration: Define the fields, processes and custom applications Import data: Load your prospect and customer CRM Develop Your Implementation Plan
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END DATE
PERSON RESPONSIBLE
STEP
START DATE
data
Testing: Test the system Reporting setup: Create the reports Train users: Make sure everyone is comfortable with the system Launch: System goes live Manage: Closely monitor user adoption, reports and processes; re-‐train or modify system as needed.
Once the system goes live, take the “management” task seriously. There are a number of important “critical success factors” that you should watch over – by doing so, you can ensure that your CRM delivers the benefits that drove your decision to buy it in the first place. If you think you may run into any of these problems, talk with your integration team about how you can minimize them.
When should you
Critical success factors for CRM implementation
address these
Notes
factors?
User Adoption: If your users don’t use it properly, Design, Testing, User training, poor data in will result in poor data out; your management reports won’t be accurate. stage
80/20 rule: 80% of your users will use 20% of the system’s features. The greater the number of features, the lower the chance CRM success. Make sure your users are successfully using the most important features.
Design, Configuration, User training, management stage
Budget: Good CRM is an ongoing expense. Have you budgeted properly for the entire cost over time?
Ongoing
Employee acceptance: If your team members don’t believe in the CRM system and recognize how they benefit from it, they’ll be less likely to use it correctly.
Design, Training, Ongoing
CRM Develop Your Implementation Plan
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Make sure you have a plan for continual management.
CRM Develop Your Implementation Plan
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