Business Needs and User Adoption – A subtle truth for CRM Implementation

We have implemented CRM for quite sometime now in multiple industries. As part of these implementations, we have interacted with lots of people, ranging from executive management, IT and Business Users. Generally, it is the executive management or senior executives that initiates the requirement for CRM implementation.

Some of those needs that usually triggers a CRM initiative could be:

• Tracking of leads falls short.
• When there is no data for pipeline projects and the company has no tracks of quotations that they have given to customers as an organisation.
• Unaware of the scope of customer problems, the company is unable to effectively allocate or deliver solutions.
• When the invoice raising and tracking for payment is not efficient and when the company receives the payments late due to the absence of a systematic process for driving the collection mechanism in the organisation.

While the executive sponsor participates in many activities, from identifying responsibilities onward, it’s often the IT or business user who takes the lead on coordination and other aspects.

This role played by the coordinator remains quite crucial in the whole implementation as it is this person who is liable to interact with Vendors, Business Users and the Executive sponsor team. However, if the person identified for this responsibility is not a qualified and experienced CRM Implementation specialist, this may impact the implementation process.

It involves human participation. If the company is dictatorial or a purely operational business company, sometimes a push from the top will work easily; such companies have a culture of following the decision of their top management.

But nowadays, the executives want to implement their own ideas and prefer to be a part of the process where they can give their opinion on the needs of a CRM. The main issue here is in identifying the person who can define the needs and accept the outcome. To ensure the system meets end-user needs, the developer must clearly specify and secure approval for exact deliverables before implementation.

Any failure to meet the users’ business needs constitutes a delivery failure for the system. The best way to avoid this would be to involve the end users from the start and try to see the CRM requirement from their perspective.

Some of the challenges that might face by the end users are:

• Getting leads that are very old
• Instead of waiting almost 2 days for a response about stock availability in the godown, users crave a system that instantly delivers the information they need.
• No information and follow up on the bookings and orders being made. Users generally prefer a place where they can have immediate details on the orders being placed, instead of requesting the Execution team for more information.

Capturing these business needs from the perspective of the end user and addressing them during the CRM Implementation leads to greater success in CRM Implementation through User Adoption.