How the perplexed CEO achieved enlightenment

The journey of enterprise technology advancements can be a real challenge for executive leadership. Questions arise around cost, return on investment, business process improvement, and once those decisions have been made – who will run the new system once it’s live? Companies don’t always have the internal resources needed for new technologies, and Cloud Computing is no different.  This is a story of the path taken by one executive to determine how to best achieve the true promise of CRM for his company.

There once was a CEO at a Fortune 1000 company who had a perplexing problem.  His company had implemented Salesforce as their CRM application on a global basis, across multiple business units.  Not only was this a major investment, but it also involved extensive planning and consulting to optimize processes and procedures to take advantage of the new infrastructure that salesforce.com provided.  The project team members did their research, selected the best system on the market for their needs, and allocated the resources necessary to effectively set up and deploy the system, including comprehensive user training and a focus on change management.  Everybody involved felt great about the project.

So why was the CEO perplexed?  Because he came to the realization that to maximize the return on the company’s CRM investment required an ongoing stewardship from expert resources schooled in business strategy, change management, system governance, CRM, and salesforce.com – forward looking steps beyond what it took to set-up the system and onboard users.  Additionally, as a cloud computing application the CEO understood that Salesforce is managed differently in many ways from traditional enterprise IT business applications.  The cloud model gives ownership of Salesforce to the business managers versus IT. The perplexing question was who should be in charge of managing the CRM solution and what skills would they need in order to be successful in enabling the enterprise to execute its strategy and achieve its CRM related goals.  

The CEO decided to define a set of goals for managing its enterprise implementation of Salesforce in an attempt to gain clarity as to the best approach for providing the services needed to realize the full benefits CRM could bestow upon the organization.  He knew that to be successful he needed to achieve a consistent and proactive strategy across his Salesforce CRM and Force.com custom applications, as well as other cloud based applications the company had.  It was important that the company do this in order to enhance the value of its investment through operational efficiency, but without transfer of its IT or Business assets.  

The CEO also realized that part of the CRM management strategy had to address the need to eliminate frustration for users and the overall business by providing expert resources to execute the CRM strategy and support plan.  A Center of Excellence approach that allowed for process issues to be escalated quickly to qualified support personnel would be critical.  These resources would need to keep the CRM environment current and fully functional, while maintaining a holistic approach with a long-term view.  They would need to combine project management, change management, administration, governance, process improvement, and technical expertise to ensure alignment across all parts of application management chain.  If it was possible to reduce costs by leveraging a blended team of onsite and offshore resources he felt that would be a big plus too.

The CEO started to see that the solution did not have to be an employee alone, but could incorporate external expertise.  But there were requirements to be addressed with this approach as well.  It would be important to avoid the issues associated with support staff that needs to service multiple clients or applications.  In fact, it was clear that an outsourced approach would have to leverage an onsite presence to achieve a complete understanding of the company’s salesforce.com and Cloud solution strategies and requirements.  He felt that this would provide for quick response times to achieve cost reductions, better problem resolution, and prevent lost productivity.  If this approach could provide access to additional, project based resources to develop and expand Salesforce, Force.com and Cloud solutions it would be a huge benefit.

After pondering his thoughts the CEO contemplated the options available to address his company’s needs.  Look internally for a resource who has the skills and experience.  But the problem with that approach was that they did not have anyone on staff with the full set of skills necessary.  And taking someone out of their current position would mean depriving a manager of a highly skilled resource that would then need to be replaced.  The more the CEO thought about the responsibilities of this position, the more it looked like the solution would require a team versus an individual to make it work.

The organization could recruit a new employee, he thought to himself.  But the problem with that approach was that the company then would have a static resource that either would be limited in their skill set and would become quickly overworked with the broad demands of the position – ranging from help desk support and system administration, to enterprise system governance and staying on top of the latest features of salesforce.com.  

The CEO reviewed all of the requirements that he had considered essential to success.  Then it hit him:  If I outsource my salesforce.com system management to an organization with extensive resources, but with an onsite presence, I can achieve my goals and avoid the risks of managing such a large and strategic undertaking internally.  I would be able to achieve my goals and objectives without detracting from my existing resources.  A “managed services” approach with a top salesforce.com partner would provide our organization with the depth and breath of resources to manage and support our company’s CRM and salesforce.com solution going forward.  The CEO discovered that what was needed was a long-term partner with the ability to help the company create and execute a plan by providing leadership along every step of the journey to achieve CRM nirvana.

Enlightenment was achieved.

For more CEO enlightenment on enterprise CRM strategy please read our Model Metrics white paper, CRM for CEO’s.

This post is part 2 of the "What’s in it for me discussion." Part 1 is here.

Provide the visibility they need to further penetrate existing accounts (farming vs. hunting)
The collaboration gains in a CRM implementation will support the ability for users to see beyond their own functional area and into upstream and downstream processes that affect the customer.  Sales can leverage the institutional memory of the organization to further penetrate existing accounts.  It is generally cheaper to retain a customer and “farm” for new business than it is to “hunt” for new customers, so it makes sense that they benefit from some of the tactical information that is captured in CRM as well as the more strategic elements.

Pricing analysis and other deal metrics
A CRM tool can become a training tool to allow average performers to learn from the rainmakers.  The visibility into pricing strategy, call frequency, and account planning can all prove as useful.  Do you ever wonder what makes the same people out perform others month after month and quarter after quarter?  Is it merely a function of their account portfolio or is there some skill involved?  I bet the lesser performing members of the team would appreciate some insight that would allow them to develop their book of business, but don’t have the opportunity to learn from the masters.

In the event that the detailed deal information is sensitive, sales managers can summarize key data and highlight trends in performance. 

Institutional memory
Seasoned sales professionals know the pain of realigning territories and inheriting new customers.  Maybe this pain is the result of an organizational change, new sales strategy, or through the attrition of their peers.  The pain is the result of an inability to effectively capture the institutional memory that comes from working an account, establishing relationships and servicing the needs of the customer.  The inheriting of someone else’s customer often means starting from scratch and the reality of needlessly rebuilding a report. 

CRM is the virtual milk-crate that allows a sales person or customer support representative to learn the history of their customer quickly and avoid getting blindsided by an unknown issue.  Being educated on an initial call can impress key contacts and drastically shorten the runway between your first contact and the next sale.
 

CHICAGO – July 8, 2009 – Model Metrics today announced that Promethean, a global leader and innovator in interactive learning solutions, has deployed a new interactive, online experience for its customers and partners.