Nine Questions to Ask When Planning Your CRM System

Successful CRM deployments depend entirely on a carefully constructed plan. To help you create that plan, we have come up with nine questions whose answers will help lead to a successful CRM deployment:

1. How will your organization use CRM?

Will your organization utilize the CRM system to manage sales, employees, and service? Will it also be a flexible platform for line-of-business applications? The answer to these questions will help you settle on a suitable CRM platform.

2. How many users will your CRM system have?

The number of users may influence your choice of CRM platform. Organizations with more users require more server infrastructure for on-premises deployments. Some hosting companies limit the number of users as part of their pricing scheme for their cloud CRM offerings. Be sure to estimate the number of CRM users your company expects to have in the foreseeable future and check with the hosting company for any limits.

3. Does your company have more than one business unit?

Many CRM platforms can be configured to allow several business units with different security privileges. If your company has multiple divisions, you anticipate acquisitions, or expect growth, make sure that you pick a CRM platform that allows you to set up and configure multiple business units within CRM.

4. Do your employees need mobile access?

Mobile access is critical for organizations that have employees who travel frequently. If you are anticipating a need for mobile access to your CRM data, choose a platform that features a robust mobile client.

5. Do you need to provide external users with access to the system?

Providing read-only access, or limited-write access, to external users is a powerful feature of cutting-edge CRM platforms. A web portal, integrated with a CRM system, allows an organization to provide better customer service more efficiently. If your organization could stand to provide better service to your customers more cheaply than you can manage now, consider a web portal.

6. Do you have the servers, software licenses, and people to manage an on-premises deployment?

When deciding between cloud or on-premises CRM deployments, your organization’s ability to purchase and maintain the servers and licenses necessary to operate the CRM system is critical. Large companies with significant IT infrastructures will find that even though on-premises deployments have higher start-up costs, the long-term cost of ownership is typically lower than that of cloud deployments. For smaller businesses, Cloud deployments are usually cheaper.

7. Do you need to integrate your CRM system with other applications?

The ability of some CRM platforms to integrate with other applications makes those CRM platforms even more powerful. For instance, Microsoft’s embrace of the xRM concept makes Microsoft Dynamics CRM a powerful integration platform in addition to a CRM application. Microsoft Dynamics CRM integrates natively with other Microsoft applications, some of the most widely used business applications in the world, gathering all your data and documents in one place. The Microsoft .NET 4 Framework also makes it easier to create software plug-ins that can integrate legacy applications or custom line-of-business applications that work with CRM.

8. Are you comfortable with the Cloud?

Many writers, futurists, and industry leaders see the Cloud as the future. Cloud deployments allow organizations to enjoy lower up-front costs, predictable IT expenditures, hassle-free upgrades, and increased dependability and security. While the cloud certainly has a lot of momentum, a vast number of businesses still maintain facilities, servers, licenses, and people necessary to manage on-premise deployments. The reasons for doing so are several. The long-term costs of software ownership on premises are frequently lower than with cloud deployments. On-premise deployments offer greater control and the ability to integrate non-sanctioned code (software not supported by the CRM publisher or its partners) with the CRM application.

9. How will you get your employees to actually use the system?

User adoption is the most frequently overlooked component of a successful CRM deployment. The greatest software in the world is worthless if an organization’s employees don’t adopt it. Consequently, user adoption needs to be one of the most important considerations for any IT decision maker, more important perhaps than even feature set and cost. Choosing a CRM platform with high marks for usability—Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online typically receives the highest marks in the industry—can go a long way toward improving user adoption. In addition to usability, training and education programs, such as the Success Portal for Microsoft Dynamics CRM, can pay great dividends in increasing user adoption.

Conclusion:

Planning is critical to a successful CRM deployment. The answers to the nine questions above can help you create an efficacious CRM deployment plan for your business. Please visit xRM.com to learn more about how an xRM expert can help you craft a CRM system to meet your business’ needs now and into the future.