OK, so things have been extremely busy but if I am going to take this blog thing seriously I need to be more disciplined.  Now that I have admonished myself for not posting last week I want to jump right into something I have been dealing with on several different projects.

As I write this one project I will refer to is a re-implementation (same software package from scratch), another is a brand new implementation of CRM for the first time and the final project is an expansion of a current implementation.

Let's deal with the concept of a company making the decision to stick with the same software package they already use for CRM but wanting to take a fresh approach to start from scratch.  The problem they run into is history with both the users and the enhancements and data they have captured.

Here is where the crawl, walk, run approach is effective.  First, I counseled them to take a clean the approach that some or all of the data they have collected may have limited value to their fresh look at a CRM deployment.  In order to do this we will walk through analysis without regard to what has already been done.

The most practical way to get this done and keep people working in their production system we will upgrade the core system to the "out of the box" current version of the product.  We will evaluate custom fields for critical data and place the view of that data in a centralized location on the Account level while we do analysis and decide on new customizations.

This approach will accelerate the speed of moving to the new version of the product and also leave behind any pre-conceved notion of what was deployed in the past.  After we "crawl" then we will complete the analysis and deploy the appropriate modificaitons to represent their current business environment and then get feedback from the users on what works well and what needs to be tweaked.  In this case we are "walking" when users are up an running on the new deployment and adjustments have been made.  Finally, we start "running" when we look to automate processes and create operational efficiency through workflow and alerts.

The second project involves the case of an organization that is deploying CRM for the first time.  In this scenario we do analysis of the business and work with the client to prioritize the greatest areas of need.  Then we do a first phase deployment to get users adopting to the first version of the system and start "crawling".  After we see how the business is adjusting to the system we do a second phase of analysis and prioritize the new results for a second layer of enhancements to start "walking".  Lastly, like the first scenario, we then look to apply automation and workflow to optimize operations and beginning "running".

In the final project I want to look at they use CRM in a part of the business but not throughout the organization.  We have one group "walking" and the others are not even "crawling".  First, we need to do analysis and take each group moving onto the CRM deployment in individual silos.  After we cross-reference common needs we adjust existing modificaitons where we can to create synergy and deploy new enhancements for each group specific to their needs and get each team "crawling". 

When we regroup to get each group "walking" we need to do anothe round of analysis to see how having the new groups on CRM will impact the group as a whole.  We will then make necessary adjustments to the system to account for challenges created through having a company wide system as opposed to one individual department utilizing CRM.  Now that we have the entire company "walking" you guessed it...we can automate workflow and alerts to get the solution and its users "running" on all cylinders.

So why write about this topic?  Simple, the practical approach to any CRM project is based on some simple principles.  First, figure out what's important without taking too much stock on what happened in the past.  Next, take a fresh look after all the parts are moving and see what needs adjusting. Then, when all is operational and buy in is complete, figure out how to simplify people's CRM experience by letting technology enhance their ability to execute the company's charter.