How process management can make or break a CRM implementation.

Transcription

1 PROCESS PLAYBOOK How process management can make or break a CRM implementation. Your guide to successfully implementing a CRM into your business. 1

2 Successful CRM implementation relies heavily on process management. Implementing a CRM system can be a complex and expensive undertaking. It s something companies want to get right the first time, avoiding costly and wasteful retrofits. The key to success is taking an end-to-end view, right from the start. Forrester notes: One-third (33%) of respondents faced problems because of poor or insufficient definition of business requirements, inadequate business process designs, and the need to customize solutions to fit unique organizational requirements.ʼ 4 tips for a successful CRM implementation: Involve your leaders Align to strategy & toplevel measures Understand the process architecture Include a mix of business roles from across your organization Often overlooked in organizations, process management is also an essential consideration for any business, whether large or small, when designing a CRM system. Solution partner at FlowBuilders, Robi George is regularly asked, How do I make the CRM system work better for our business? ʼ In this webinar summary, Robi shares insights on common barriers to a successful CRM implementation, and best practice recommendations to successfully drive system change and ensure a CRM system is Robi George shares his thoughts on how process management can make or break a CRM implementation. WATCH THE WEBINAR NOW implemented right - the first time. 2

3 4 tips for a successful CRM implementation. There are four key factors that are required to get support and buy-in for the implementation of a CRM in your business: 1. INVOLVE YOUR LEADERS From the outset, strong leadership is paramount when introducing a CRM system. Leaders from each business division must be involved, visible and have alignment on the project. Leaders must be involved and visible. A lack of leadership and no alignment between department leaders will result in friction, gaps in the system and poor buy-in to the project. This fragmentation between teams can result in barriers that impact the quality of the implementation. To ensure leaders understand how system processes interact with business processes, it pays to use a business process management (BPM) tool. These tools provide a top-level view and map out connections. Capture and manage processes in a centralized tool so that nothing is missed in times of change, like a restructure or merger. 3

4 2. KNOW WHAT STRATEGY DRIVES YOUR BUSINESS An organization s strategy, how it s executed (e.g. go to market) and how it is measured, will have real bearing on what the CRM is asked to deliver. If these elements are not well understood and incorporated during implementation, the system will not deliver what is required, which will eventually lead to poor adoption or a costly retrofit. A CRM is only as effective as the information it has been tasked to measure. Knowing the full story (the strategy) and the measures for business success (e.g. revenue, market share etc) at the outset, is critical. Often there s an unwritten expectation that the system process will capture all the necessary data points in support of the balanced scorecard measures. But there is no magic way to calculate these measures; these measures need to be included in the system process from the start,ʼ says Robi. 4

5 3. UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS ARCHITECTURE Within any business, large or small, there is an array of distinct and often inter-connected business processes at work. This process architecture needs to be discovered and catered for. Not appreciating the process architecture is a crucial and quite common mistake when implementing a CRM system. Often there s the assumption that only one process exists. However, the reality is that no organization is homogenous - each team will likely be operating different processes within their role. To improve outcomes and avoid a costly CRM retrofit, the process architecture must be clearly understood. A whiteboard session can help to: Identify what is needed from the system and outcomes envisaged for each division Discuss and call out the individual processes Identify the dependency of each process on other key processes Identify the key measures expected within each process and where, when and how to calculate them. Looking at process groups is helpful for this type of discussion. You need to capture information, and expose and explain solution architecture in a way that can be understood by all involved in the project. Whatever BPM tool you re using should enable definitions to be changed easily, because businesses are dynamic and evolve all the time. 5

6 4. INCLUDE A MIX OF BUSINESS ROLES FROM ACROSS YOUR ORGANIZATION To understand the process architecture, it s essential that the right people are involved in the CRM project from the beginning. The entry point of the system can be problematic. Take the example of a new cloud software as a service CRM. This can be introduced to a business by its IT, marketing or sales teams, and each team will focus on different aspects of the system the one that applies to them. An IT-driven project tends to immediately focus on enabling functions and features of a CRM system e.g. setting up portals, migrating data and information security. This focus on feature and functionality (e.g. Salesforce.com opportunities) often excludes the people and their processes. be configured to their specific view of the world. This often results in the system becoming unmanageable, highly customized and complex a spaghetti maze of logic, ʼ says Robi. Take a holistic approach. Ideally, a CRM implementation project should be owned by a central, horizontallyaligned team such as a customer success team or a continuous improvement business excellence (CIBE) team, as the processes affected by the change cut across multiple organizational divisions. This team would have people and processes front of mind as well as an understanding of technology services. Team members would, collectively, have a complete end-to-end view of the customer, with a focus on clear understanding of the organization s strategic goals, and its measures and outcomes. Alternatively, because software as a service (SaaS) applications can be purchased by anyone with a credit card, it can be implemented by the business team, usually an analyst. This person generally works in isolation, without the prior experience of the IT team in SaaS or technology projects. Although more familiar with some business processes, they ll lack the experience and engineering discipline of IT, and the application will A practical stand-in for a CIBE team is one made up of business-centric people people with a good understanding of the business processes at play, rather than just IT and operations. 33% faced CRM implementation problems due to poor processes. 6

7 Cut out waste: understand the difference between system and business processes. When implementing a CRM system, it s Generally, each business process will have critical to understand the difference one or more system processes. As an between business processes and system example, when you execute a business processes and how the two align: process, like a sales opportunity process, you switch between system processes - Business process: meta activities and tasks people complete in response to inputs and in delivery of desired outputs. System process: steps the system takes, either driven by human interaction or automation in service to the business process. ing a customer, generating a quote using product and pricing information, confirming an order, and ordering and dispatching the product. Tools like Salesforce.com allow for the operation of different system processes to support different business processes. But if business processes and their individual system processes are highly fragmented or not well aligned, then the system will not have good adoption. It will not operate as you need it to, and will create inefficiencies and cost to the business. Drive efficiencies: align system processes to support business processes. 7

8 Business and system processes should complement one another. To achieve a 360 view of a customer, all customer interactions must be reflected in the CRM system. The best place to start is to process map the journey a customer takes from end-to-end (for example, from procure to pay). A network of business processes should emerge, and it s important that for each business process, the underlying system processes then be defined. For example, if a business process has at least one system process, within each system process you need to capture and design: Steps the user is expected to execute (tasks) Where to get more help (notes for users) Automation rules the system is expected to execute (notes for administration)» Validation rules» Filtering rules» Customizations (e.g. new fields)» Triggers» Workflows ( alerts, field updates, outbound API calls)» Exception handling 8

9 The CRM should also have all the necessary fields, formulas and triggers needed to capture or calculate all data points at the right point in a system process. This will allow it to meet requirements that are known now, as well as provide insight to support future requirements. These measures must also be protected so that they can t be tampered with, as they may affect things like commission calculations, for example. A good BPM tool will allow for rapid prototyping to model system processes it should visually and flexibly capture a standardized approach in line with the business rules around access control. Possible risks when system processes don t support business processes: Poor system adoption (what s in it for me) Gaps between system processes result in poor data quality Incomplete view of the customer Failure to capture and protect measures to support strategic objectives Difficult to train new staff Lack of continuous improvement Re-engineering at a later date A good BPM tool will allow for rapid prototyping to model system processes. 9

10 Training involves both business and system processes. Once the business process design is finalized and the system process is implemented, it s time to train the user. The best way to ensure that the user understands both the business process and how system processes work within it is to: Use the business process to set the context Repeat immediately, showing good examples of how the system process is to be used. It s a good idea to humanize the training session with personas and scenarios, walking trainees through the business process with practical examples and highlighting how the system is to be used. You can also get the system expert (or resident enthusiast) to present on how they would use the system best (e.g. shortcuts) in service to the business process. Use the business process to set the context. 10

11 Visible system processes stay alive. Finally, make the system process visible. In Salesforce.com, system processes can be made visible by linking process information within the context of the system. This visibility will help users after the project team has disbanded or if a team member leaves the business. By integrating the process guidance into the system in the correct context, users can click on a link to receive relevant process information or feedback. 11

12 Here s a practical example. Embedding Promapp in a particular business process allows users to easily see the bigger picture. In addition to offering help on the Salesforce.com screen in question, Promapp shows where that screen fits into the overall process and what other systems are used. It also enables team members to highlight areas that could be improved with the feedback button. Figure 1: The opportunity page from Salesforce, where a custom button has been added for Process Help : Figure 2: If a user clicks on the button, it opens the associated process within Salesforce: 12

13 Figure 3: Users can quickly view detailed procedure notes, provide feedback and suggest process improvements: There are many barriers every organization faces on the road to a successful implementation of any enterprise system, especially a CRM. The consequences of a failed implementation are wasted time, effort and money. A failed CRM implementation can disrupt your business or, ironically, your customer relationship. When barriers are removed, the project is aligned to both leadership and strategy, and you focus on business processes and interwoven system process, a CRM system can be successfully implemented. Get it right the first time by taking an end-to-end view and remember to bear your process management system in mind. These recommendations are based on a webinar delivered by Robi George, founder and owner of FlowBuilders. WATCH THE WEBINAR NOW 13

14 About the Presenter Robi George is the founder and owner of FlowBuilders Pty Ltd. FlowBuilders helps organizations of all sizes re-think, re-build and re-connect fragmented business processes using Salesforce.com and interconnected cloud applications. About Promapp At Promapp, we believe that expressing and managing process knowledge simply is crucial to sustaining an ongoing culture of process improvement. With Promapp s intuitive cloud-based BPM software, used by hundreds of organizations worldwide, anyone can create, navigate and change business processes. Sign up for a 30-day free trial or join an intro webinar to see Promapp in action. Connect with us. promapp.com AUCKLAND SYDNEY MELBOURNE Eden 3, 16 Normanby Road Mt Eden Auckland 1024 New Zealand T 0800 PROMAPP T Martin Place, Level 14 Sydney NSW 2000 Australia T T Bourke Street, Level 2 Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia T AUSTIN SAN FRANCISCO LONDON Domain Blvd 3rd Floor Austin TX United States T T + 1 (512) Embarcadero Center 8th Floor San Francisco CA, United States T T +1 (415) Waterhouse Square 138 Holborn London EC1N 2SW United Kingdom T T +44 (2)