The CRM Textbook customer relationship training Terry James

2 Buy versus Build n If you buy n n Should be cheaper since you are sharing costs across many other companies Should be faster since the solution is ready Should mean expertise in the product and services of your vendor you may not have If you build n n © 2006 Terry James You can create a unique solution, something competitors can’t buy Customers are so important, so strategic, you should build it if the price is affordable.

3 Who are the vendors n Vendors for small business n n ACT, Goldmine, Maximizer Vendors for all sizes n n n © 2006 Terry James Siebel (owned by Oracle) Microsoft Salesforce. com E. piphany Onyx, Pivotal, People. Soft, SAP, Sales. Logix, Teradata

4 Vendors, a helping friend n Prepare a list of questions n n n n © 2006 Terry James Not just what will it cost and the functions, Ask about the industry, Ask about CRM leaders, Ask about your competition, Ask who else in your industry uses their product, ask for references, Ask about their future plans, Ask what they think is the future of CRM? Your vendor can be a friend, and source of information.

5 Vendors, your nightmare n n n They can set unrealistic expectations They can introduce competitive products elsewhere in the corporation undermining integration and removing some funding They can get an executive so hyped-up that you have impossible expectations n n n © 2006 Terry James Meet with this vendor, get control, try to sync-up on agendas and due dates. Do an RFP (request for price) with all major vendors who meet the requirements to bid. Make sure you get consensus on the RFP in-house so you have good internal support for the choices and process.

6 The trap n n The CRM product demo is fantastic Great features, Slick, Super So what is the trap? What is the major question to ask? n n © 2006 Terry James Does the product meet your needs Slick technology is a path to no-where if all your requirements are not met.

7 Vendor trap #2 n Should you talk to all the key vendors? n n No Too many vendors will spread your resources too thin Find at most 3 or 4 that meet your requirements and have presentations Pick no more and no less than 2 for evaluation n n © 2006 Terry James You need 2 for a competitive bid More than 2 is expensive in your resources

8 Requirements n n The number one way managers go wrong. Spend the time to collect the requirements, n n all the requirements from all the departments Be thorough, as saves time later List each requirement, and rate its importance 1) Track name and address. Importance 10 2) Predict client behavior. Importance 8 © 2006 Terry James

9 Do the paper search n Don’t worry too much about price except in gross terms n n n Check your requirements against listed functions. n n If you use Macintosh, a PC system may be useless to you. Setup clear rules for the bid, you can start by writing up the bid request. n n Is this a million dollar or a $100 package? Prices change quickly, and can be cut a lot in negotiations How long will they have to respond, what do you need, … Make your short list and contact those vendors © 2006 Terry James

10 Vendor checkpoints n Do they have local support? n n Will they do the install for you? n n Great chance to measure their service. If install service is poor, then run as it will likely only get worse when they have your money in the bank. Is maintenance included, for how long? It is normal that there will be problems on the install n n A partner that knows the product well that is local? There is such a huge mix of code all at different releases and back-levels n Hardware, software, drivers, communications, operating systems, databases, mainframes, etc. Don’t rush a decision no matter how much pressure you get. © 2006 Terry James

11 Double-envelope n Split the financial and technical team evaluation n The technical people will want the latest and likely most expensive technology The financial people will want the least expensive product By keeping the teams apart until the end, you can get a good discussion, better deal, and better decision. © 2006 Terry James

12 How long? n CRM is a big decision n n © 2006 Terry James So go for a multi-year deal Think of the decision as a partnership more than beating the competition by pushing the price to a lowest possible Exchange plans and strategies, so your needs will be in future releases. Get to know the vendor, go to conferences, meet executives, …

13 SLA n n SLA = service level agreement SLA is a contract stating your service levels. Examples: n n n a name search transaction will run in 5 seconds or less an error report will be fixed within 2 hours if you buy Level 1 support, or 1 day if you do not For example, how long will back level release support continue, and how often are releases changed? © 2006 Terry James

14 ASP (Application Service Provider) n n n Some vendors will do it all for you. The vendor server, on the Internet, using vendor software, databases, and hardware. Vendor employees do all the maintenance and support. The ASP solution is faster since the system is up and running already. The system might appeal to smaller companies since you can use expensive fully featured software and pay by transaction. The concern is that a 3 rd party will have total access to all your customers. © 2006 Terry James

15 ASP n n n Microsoft on Demand or even Siebel can provide ASP solutions for CRM. Ensure you have a good SLA contract, and include security and privacy to protect client information. What are the penalties for downtime, errors, and other issues? © 2006 Terry James

16 EAI – Enterprise Application Integration n CRM, as you know, needs to be integrated across your company. A new type of software known as EAI can make it much easier for diverse products to exchange data. Some concerns for EAI n n © 2006 Terry James How fast is data exchanged by the minute or nightly, Can formats of data be altered, Are different communication protocols supported How do security needs across software work?

17 Testing n n This is incremental and at every stage. For example n n n Once you have requirements, do a quick prototype of screens and demo it Most likely users will “remember” some other requirements once they see a system working in prototype Run some pilots, as most systems will work very well for one or two people, but have all types of errors with large volume demands Run unit tests, integration tests, pilot test, production tests, system tests, and any other kind of testing you can think of. The reason testing is important is that it is much cheaper to fix errors in test than with production data. © 2006 Terry James

18 Politics n n n No matter how hard you try to be fair, there will be lots of politics in a CRM decision. Vendors will want to schmooze big decision makers Financial people will want to overrule technical choices, and visa-versa. Everyone will have an opinion, meanwhile some cowboy manager will charge ahead on his own local CRM solution. CRM needs a master of politics to do well. © 2006 Terry James

19 Problems n n You get new requirements everyday, it never seems to stop. How can you ever implement against a moving target? A new product with some great features enters the market. One manager wants to use the new product instead of the company CRM choice. How do you keep control? © 2006 Terry James

20 Summary n You should know n n n © 2006 Terry James Key vendors in CRM, Should you build or buy, Key process to buy, How to keep workload reasonable with vendors, What is an ASP, EAI, or SLA, What most common source of failure in CRM?