I have been working within the Salesforce.com ecosystem for more than 7 years. In that time, I have seen the technology grow from a CRM application targeted mostly at the SMB market to a technology platform that has gained serious credibility with some of the largest companies in the world. In my role, I have the opportunity to meet with all types of businesses about their strategy (or lack thereof) to gain efficiency by bringing solutions to “the Cloud.” I have recently been faced with a number of companies debating the question of whether it is appropriate to grow their footprint within a single instance of salesforce.com or whether to leverage multiple instances. Still other companies that have already acquired multiple instances look to consolidate into a single instance. The questions that they pose about which approach is superior presume that there is a one-size-fits-all answer. Although there is no single solution, this post will outline a set of decision criteria that should be considered.

Most CRM professionals agree that a single instance of a CRM system lowers total cost of ownership and creates efficiency in maintenance, support, and re-use. However, proponents of a multiple-instance strategy would argue that localization provides for more flexibility and more closely addresses the needs of end users. For them, the tradeoff to consolidating to a single instance is that the system becomes less useful and introduces more bureaucracy. Hmmm. Where do we go from here?

Reporting
Let’s begin with data visibility and reporting needs. If, at any point, it is going to be a requirement for senior management or someone else in the organization to do global reporting, a single instance should be considered. This type of reporting makes it easy to compare performance in various regions and evaluate variability in system adoption. By its nature, it also makes it easier to do analysis because data structures are common and the analyst can compare apples to apples. It’s true that there are alternatives to global reporting needs like an enterprise data warehouse where data is aggregated for holistic viewing, but the presents an additional challenge of marrying disparate data structures. The best approach is to establish a single source of truth that can be referenced without transformation or lag time.

Collaboration
Related to data reporting is data sharing. CRM, at its core, is about tracking and sharing information about customers. Silos between functional groups like sales, marketing, customer service and account management fundamentally kill the effectiveness of a sound CRM strategy. For this reason, if an organization has the need to share data between geographies, functional groups or process areas, then a single instance is appropriate. Collaboration is key, and if the organization is dealing with a common set of customers, they should consider leveraging a common system for sharing information. In cases where geographically segmented customer bases or business lines don’t share customers, they can autonomously operate in separate instances.
It should be noted that a Salesforce-to-Salesforce integration is an alternative to sharing information across orgs, but not a replacement for a full view of customer data.

Integration
If an organization is leveraging integration from back office or third party data sources, it will be a major factor in determining whether to go with a single or multiple instances. Integrations cost money. These costs can be attributed to the time spent developing, testing, deploying, and managing them, or in the case of third party data sources, there is a cost of obtaining connections to a metered service. In either case, it seems desirable to consolidate integrations wherever possible. Rationalization of these processes also tends to establish consistency in the output of the integrations (for example, if data as being transformed one way from the back office system to Salesforce.com instance A and transformed a different way to Salesfore.com instance B, a mismatch is created).
However, if an organization is obtaining common data elements from multiple data sources, it may be a good case to have multiple instances of Salesforce.com. To illustrate, consider a company with two divisions that operate in two different geographies. In one geography, SAP is used to manage customer financial data and in the other, a homegrown ERP system is used to manage the same information. With the back office systems separated, it is likely that there are going to be conflicts related to key customer information if we try and integrate both into the CRM tool. In this scenario, it would seem that the two geographies operate fairly independent from one another, so multiple instances of Salesforce.com might be the optimal way to go.

Process Rationalization
As mentioned earlier, proponents of the single system site operational efficiency and total cost of ownership as benefits. To dig a bit deeper into this, we need to do some detailed analysis of the process overlap between various business segments. Is there commonality? Is there synergy? Or are there direct conflicts?
With traditional CRM tools, process diversion would be a good reason to propose multiple instances, but with Salesforce.com a significant amount of localization can be accounted for within a single instance. Process reconciliation is potentially a complex and involved process because it has as much to do with managing change and changing old habits as it does evaluating real business drivers.
It is important to note the strong executive sponsorship is key to effectively prioritizing localized process support against other business drivers like globalization or cost management. Most regional business leaders are incented on the performance of their own business so conforming to a standard process (or system) for the common good is not a big motivator.

Governance
In any case where multiple business groups are operating within a single instance of CRM tool, a thorough governance strategy needs to be in place. Governance is the set of policies, roles, responsibilities, and processes that you establish in an enterprise to guide, direct, and control how the organization uses technologies to accomplish business goals. A governance steering committee should have representation from senior management, IT, Salesforce.com Administrators, and participating business units. The plan should include detailed processes for prioritizing and vetting issues that arise so that conflicts are resolved.
With a multiple-instance strategy, governance is still important, but not as critical as when competing interests are prevalent.

Administration
Administration is one of the areas often cited as being an opportunity to create efficiencies for companies considering going from multiple instances to a single instance. In most cases, each instance has one or more people responsible for administration and maintenance. When consolidation occurs, the job becomes larger because the resulting system can be more complex, but the redundancy is often eliminated. The breakeven point for what is optimal varies on a case-by-case basis.

Globalization Settings
Salesforce.com provides standard support of globalization features like multi-language and multi-currency. Consolidating multiple instances into a single instance will have an impact on users if doing so requires either of these features to be enabled. Who will be responsible for maintaining the Translation Workbench? How will currency conversions be managed?

Governor Limits
Some Salesforce.com governor limits are set based on the number licensed users in an instance (e.g. API calls per day). This can be a consideration in cases where multiple instances that are heavily customized or are running integrations that require API calls.

Edition Constraints
For organizations looking to consolidate orgs, the Salesforce.com Edition of each candidate org should be evaluated. In every case I have seen, it is advisable to consolidate into the highest-level edition of the candidate orgs. For example, if looking to consolidate a Professional Edition and an Enterprise Edition org, it should be done using the Enterprise level instance at a minimum. It may be required to move to Unlimited Edition if the joining of the two orgs would exceed certain limits imposed by Enterprise Edition.

In evaluating your organizations optimal endpoint, these are some of the factors that should be evaluated and prioritized. The analysis needs to be thorough and balanced to ensure that the opportunity cost for each decision is well understood and documented.

Whether you have been working with Salesforce.com for years or just considering a new implementation, this is some information you can really use.

Salesforce.com has helped to define cloud-based computing and has revolutionized the industry with an intuitive, secure, flexible, configurable, and scalable platform that has allowed businesses of all sizes to solve their business problems without all of the infrastructure headaches of traditional IT projects. Those of us that have a long history with the product know how dramatically different this technology is from the status quo and we believe in the benefits that can be realized.

With all of that said, the platform is evolving to support the needs of large, more complex organizations. What does this really mean? It means that there are more choices, more technology, and more capability that ever before. With all of these capabilities and choices comes some responsibility to get educated on how to manage change so that it is reliable and predictable.

I have used this forum to post a number of articles about the people-focused aspects of change. In this post, I want to address some of the more technical matters that are often overlooked within the context of salesforce.com implementations, and that is the topic of Environment Management.

Environment Management Defined
My high school history teacher used to parrot the phase “words mean things” when challenging abstract arguments. For this reason, I want to be clear about the context that I am using to define “Environment Management.” Simply put, Environment Management is the strategy, process and tools used to manage a Salesforce.com instance (metadata) so that it remains current. This includes the management of multiple environments (development, QA, staging, training, production, etc) such that the correct updates are deployed to the correct environment at the correct time.

A History Lesson
In the client server world, environment management and deployment were largely coordinated with the use of source control tools and defined release cycles between environments. With a combination of process and technology, new “builds” were deployed from one environment to another to protect the production environment while creating a rollback path. With compiled projects, we could be assured that the application in one environment would be identically synchronized with that in another environment because everything was packaged together.

For web applications, the same was generally true. Although the elements of a web application were a bit more dispersed, each component (web form, class, controller, etc) could be managed within source control and differences could be easily assessed.

The early days of salesforce.com removed this complexity by providing a single, real time environment for applications. Any updates made through declarative development (e.g. configuration of metadata) were immediately deployed so that all users could take advantage of the new updates in real time. No more complex IT processes, no more exorbitant lead times… just a world of fast-paced productivity.

As the platform evolved, so did the need to test. The feature set was enhanced such that there were legitimate reasons to leverage a test environment to QA new functionality before it went live in production. There were workflow rules, custom code, approval processes, options that once enabled could not be disabled…. The Sandbox environment was born. The sandbox could be used to try out new features before they were enabled in production, allow users to test or train in an environment separate from the production environment, and could even be refreshed to create an almost-exact replica of production. However, for a long time, it was not possible to promote configurations in the other direction (from Sandbox to Production).

The world has changed again. The use of a sandbox is a requirement for Apex and Visual Force development, and the meta-data API makes it possible to package metadata components through Eclipse, the Force.com migration tool, salesforce.com deployment utility, or through a third party solution like Snapshot.

The Issue
Seemingly, the development of all of this new capability would provide salesforce.com even more validity in the enterprise space, and we could refer back to what we have learned about packaging solutions, deployment, change control and release schedules. This is all true to some extent, but there are nuances of operating in this metadata driven environment that are unique, and without paying close attention to the details there is significant risk in oversimplifying the process.

There is no single silver-bullet solution to perform comprehensive environment deployment in force.com. All of the automation utilities and packages leverage the Metadata API that handles some, but not all, of the components that make up a full environment configuration. This means that no matter which strategy you choose, there will be some manual configuration required in the production environment. The complete list of what is covered and what is not covered through the metadata API is beyond the scope of this article, but examples of those thing include are:
- Apex classes
- Apex triggers
- Analytic snapshots
- Custom applications
- Custom objects
- Custom fields
- Reports/Dashboards
- Custom page Web links
- Custom sites
- Custom tabs
- Etc.

This list of items not covered is extensive, but notable examples include
- Role Hierarchies
- Public Groups
- Approval Processes
- Assignment Rules
- Org Wide Defaults
- Escalation Rules
- Assignment Rules
- Etc.

Solution
The first big step to solving this issue of lacking a comprehensive deployment capability is being aware of the issue. To take you the rest of the way, I recommend a combination of planning and best practice guidelines to ensure success.

Have a Strategy
When it comes to setting up your Salesforce.com environment, it is important to do so with deliberate planning. If your environment requires one or more sandbox environments, be clear about the purpose of each and the promotion path between them. Do you need a separate environment for development, QA, Training, Staging, etc? If so, who will be responsible for maintaining each? What will be the path between them? How often will they be refreshed from production?

Once the environment is established, it will be necessary to determine what means will be used to promote new releases between environments. Will this be an entirely manual process or will a utility be used? If automation is part of the equation, which tool will you select?

Change Control
The need to coordinate manual changes along side automated deployments requires that a strict change control process be implemented. As part of the process, a few guiding principles are helpful:
- Define all dependencies between packaged components or your deployments will fail.
- Make all changes in the development environment (or whichever environment defines the “beginning” of the process). Do not make changes at intermittent stages as they will be much more difficult to track
- Follow a regular cadence of release “trains” for predictable, packaged releases. Do not introduce “hot fixes” as they will also create synchronization issues with other environments.
- Create a backup of the metadata configuration before pushing to production
- Document all changes made to the production environment
- Establish a central point for creating new production changes. This should not be a distributed responsibility.

Select a Tool
If automation is part of the strategy, select a tool that best meetings the needs of your developers/administrators. There are a number of options including the deployment utilities that are packaged into the salesforce.com application, but be selective and understand the feature sets and use model of each.

For more information on environment management, please contact me at bkalma@modelmetrics.com.

Anyone who has ever owned a home knows the feeling of moving into a clean, empty space.  Initially, everything is in order, and everything has a place.  Over time, however, things begin to change… clutter starts to collect, carpets begin to wear, small things start to break, paint starts to peel, etc.  Left its own devices, a home that is not maintained will eventually collapse and become part of the dirt as it is weathered and worn.

Home ownership has a number of striking parallels to CRM custodianship.  Initially, we architect things exactly the way we like them and we load our clean, fresh data into the system so we can begin using it.  Over time, despite our best intentions, the quality of the data starts to diminish…duplicates emerge, incomplete records are entered, new attributes are added without backfilling into existing records, other functional areas make changes to the system that create inconsistency.  As the pattern continues, the usefulness of the system begins to decline because the outputs are unreliable.  Eventually, user adoption is negatively impacted, collaboration is lost, and “the system” is blamed as a failure.

There has been much written on the topic of how much bad data can cost an organization.  I recently did a Google search on the “Cost of bad CRM data” and received almost 2.5 million results.  I have not read them all, but I know that this is a significant issue, but one that can be managed.  The cost can be illustrated by asking questions like:
-    How much time is spent following up on unqualified leads?
-    How much marketing effort is spent marketing to stale contacts?
-    What is the bounce-back rate for campaigns?
-    How much time is spent trying to segment data for marketing?
-    How do you reconcile duplicate records?
-    Can you accurately score your leads?
-    Is there really a single view of the customer?
-    How much “automation” are you able to get from your sales automation tool as result of bad data?

One rule of thumb that we often use to illustrate the cost of bad CRM data is the 1:10:100 rule.  This rule proposes that for every dollar spent on proactive data maintenance would equate to $10 spent to reactively clean up.  To ignore the problem and continuously work around dirty data bumps that number up another factor of ten to $100.  In other words, prevention is key and procrastination is very costly.  Furthermore, we know that, on average, up to 25% of personal information (phone numbers, email addresses, etc) go stale on an annual basis.  Without continual updates, the cost of doing nothing is high.

The good news is that there is a way to keep your cloud based CRM system out of the dirt through a well planned and managed data maintenance strategy.  This critical step can make the difference between long-term CRM success and short-term fanfare. 

Governance
The first step in a data management process is governance.  The role of governance is to define for your organization the standards that will be required of your data.  This includes the creation of business rules and definitions that will be used to cleanse and monitor results.  For example, the governance group shall define:
-    How will data quality be defined?
-    What criteria will be used to define a duplicate contact?
-    What distinguishes a lead from a contact?
-    What level of activity (or inactivity) will be used to define whether a record is stale?
-    What is the strategy to deal with stale records?
-    What defines a complete record?
-    What type of data enrichment processes or technologies will be used?
-    What is an acceptable bounce back rate?
-    How will leads be scored?
-    What are the acceptable thresholds of duplicates as a % of the overall database?
-    How will data be segmented?
-    What is an acceptable rate of incomplete records?
-    What is the threshold for timeliness?
These sample questions provide some direction as to the type of governance policies that need to be in place to align the data strategy with the business goals, set benchmarks for performance, and create standardization.

Analysis/Profiling
Prior to building a house, an architect creates a detailed blueprint of the structure. Unfortunately, most data quality projects don’t take this same approach to building better data. Data profiling helps you determine the current state of your data and enables the discovery of issues.  These issues might be related to structure, completeness, redundancy, relationships, etc. By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your data, particularly as they relate to the metrics that have been established by the governing body, profiling gives you a starting point for making substantial improvements.

As part of profiling, it is helpful to blueprint your CRM system to identify trends and high level inconsistencies.  The longer the system has been in use, the more likely it is that there are data discrepancies that have gone unnoticed over time.  These issues may range from major architectural problems to invalid pick-list entries or orphaned data element.

The ability to profile data and conduct a through analysis is as much related to the experience and ability of the analyst as it is the tools that are used.  Each situation and strategy requires careful consideration so be cautious of any silver bullets in this area.

Cleansing
Once patterns have been identified, the next step is to prioritize and address the highest impact issues.  On an initial pass, it may be necessary to assess the dependencies that exist between fixes and quantify the value behind addressing individual problems before you dive in.  Every decision has an opportunity cost associated with it, so it makes sense to make sure you are getting the highest value for your efforts.

Data cleansing is a general term merging duplicate records, purging/archiving outdated or invalid data, and generating exception files for those records that require some manual inspection.   Overall, this process is akin to housecleaning in that, the more often you do it, the less painful it is.  If you are the type that procrastinates all year until it is time for Spring cleaning, chances are it takes significant time and energy to get through the entire house.  However, if you develop a disciplined pattern of reviewing and cleansing on an ongoing basis, the process becomes much more manageable (and less disruptive to end users).

I alluded to the fact that some cleanup is manual.  This is a fact that is most commonly seen for de-duplication of data.  Two contacts exist with the same name, address and phone number; which is the “master”?  Sometimes these cases require manual inspection and such an effort should be built into your plan and governance policy.

Integration
One of the best ways to maintain clean data after an initial clean up is a sound integration and automation strategy.  Integration to a back end system helps to define and maintain integrity, uniqueness, and completeness of data.  The fact that some data records are often maintained in multiple systems is useful in establishing checks and balances, but be sure to clearly identify the system of record for all data components.

Common examples of data integration include product master integration or integration with an external marketing automation tool.  Both of these prove to enhance the end-user experience by establishing a single access point for all customer data.

Enrichment
Data enrichment extends data quality and integration by supplementing existing data with additional information from external sources.  The power of web services makes enrichment easy and establishes a synergy between your own organizations data and that of a third party.  For example, D&B, Hoovers and Jigsaw all offer data solutions that intelligently synch with your CRM solution to provide users with IP that they don’t have to source!

Data enrichment represents the best of both worlds when it comes to CRM and web services.  However, too much of a good thing can have a price.  It is the role of the governance team to provide direction to the organization as to which external data sources will be used for enrichment, how they will be used, and who is authorized to use them.  A sound strategy will help establish meaningful customer interactions and prevent abuse of your customers’ information.

Monitoring
Data quality issues are not solved once the system is set up.  Just like owning a home, it is necessary to continually observe changes, identify needs, and prioritize projects.  Maintaining high quality data requires diligence to prevent the atrophy of your solution and your end-user confidence.

The process of monitoring data should be supported by a series of key dashboards that support the data quality metrics of the organization.  In addition to these know metrics, the work to establish new standards should persist as changes to the CRM strategy require.  The house you move into today may not support your needs a few years from now, so it makes sense to keep your eyes open for changes that will impact your strategy, impact your data, and impact your approach to ensuring that your organization can successfully transform that data into information and knowledge.
 

I recently had a conversation with the VP of Sales at a large manufacturing company.  For the purposes of this discussion, I will call him John.  John and his sales organization have never had a centralized, collaborative CRM system before and they are about to begin a salesforce.com implementation.  Among the goals of the project is the need to consolidate the many point solutions they have used for managing their customers over the company’s 40-year history.   They recognize the need to establish consistent processes for the sales team and want to leverage workflow capabilities to improve communication.  After a series of fruitful meetings, John mentioned that he is working with IT to purchase mobile devices for the sales team because he has received a lot of demand from the team, and wants them to be as productive as possible with the new CRM tool.

The scenario described above is very common.  The benefits of leveraging mobile technology for a sales rep include increased productivity, more timely information, access to real-time data at the point of contact, and access to information without the overhead of lugging a clunky laptop.  All of this is theoretically sound, but don’t let your mobile strategy define itself without thoughtful consideration of questions that are sure to be raised as part of your implementation.  Addressing these issues proactively will allow you to separate fact from fiction and apply a mobile strategy that fits your organization and your users so that you can realize success.

Who are your users?
The diversity of the user base is a great place to start in defining a strategy.  It is common to have a mix of technologist and technophobes within the same sales team.  The technologists tend to demand all of the latest and greatest tools and technology as a means of making themselves more productive.  Without it, they claim that their efforts are diluted and they are bogged down with administrative overhead required to access information or log calls.  On the other hand, the technophobes will resist any sort of change, especially when it comes to technology, by claiming that the time spent to manage all of these new tools and gadgets will negatively impact the time they spend in front of the customer.

When it comes to mobile, you are wise to know your audience.  If your team is not accustom to using mobile technology for email and basic calendar management, you may want to take steps to introduce the device before you make it a critical component of your CRM strategy.  Users who have leveraged these tools in their personal lives or at a past job will be much more comfortable in adopting this technology as part of their work.

When it comes to people, it is also important to note that strong demand for a Blackberry, iPhone or other device from users who do not currently have these products, may be a red flag.  The grass may seem greener on the other side of the fence for those who have bought into the idea that these tools will make them more effective.  I recently worked with a sales group that insisted that they needed offline capabilities because they weren’t always “connected.”  Once we provided the offline functionality, they demanded mobile devices because they found it cumbersome to “lug around heavy laptops.”  Once they received the mobile device, they complained about the small screen and the difficulty of entering data with a small keyboard.  This is exactly the type of situation we want to control by proactively managing a mobile strategy.

How mature are your processes?
As the saying goes “Process before technology.”  Change management is a key component to any CRM implementation.  The introduction to new systems represents a disruption, and optimizing or changing processes will require that users have a clear understanding of their role and expectations.  The process of change must be managed deliberately to ensure that users are not left behind as they adjust to their new way of working. 

If process change is part of your implementation, it is common (and a good idea) for the mobile implementation is postponed to a second phase.  It is important that users are familiar with the goals they are trying to achieve before they take on learning how to manage multiple entry points. 

What do users need to do to get their job done?
It may seem obvious, but it is critical to give objective consideration to what your users need to accomplish using their mobile device.  A clear definition of use cases serves as the basis for streamlining key processes and maximizing efficiency for end users.  When defining mobile needs, many companies make the mistake of setting an expectation that anything that can be done with a laptop should be possible with a handheld, and this is simply not realistic.  Use case definition should help to separate fact from fiction when it comes to defining what functionality needs to be available.

The reality of a handheld is that the physical size, speed and ergonomics are significant challenges for some users.  These factors make processes that require consuming or reading data better candidates than those that require entering data.  This is especially true of complex data entry processes where there are many fields or pages to navigate.  This is not to say that call logging or data entry are not candidates, but scrutiny should be applied to processes that required extensive typing or scrolling as users will become easily frustrated. 

A failure to keep it simple when it comes to mobile will also likely equate to poor or incomplete data.  Typing on a small keyboard can be time consuming.  Moreover, navigating multiple screens can make a simple task daunting.  The resulting behavior for end-users is to cut corners, enter the minimum amount of data required, or neglect to enter anything at all.

What device suits your needs?
Mobile devices are not all created equal and there is no one answer to which is the best.  The strategy established must be consistent with the goals of the organization and the tools must be right for the job.  A thorough analysis of the right device should include alignment with the mobile use cases, feature functionality of the device, device-specific feature support offered by your CRM software, customization capabilities, and the service network.

How will security be maintained?
Finally, the need to secure your data and protect the intellectual property of the organization must be considered.  Users may demand access to ALL data through their mobile device, but the strategy must consider the risk of a lost or stolen device.  For ease of use, most systems do not require that users enter a password each time they are accessing their CRM application on the mobile device.  For this reason, it is important that data is evaluated by sensitivity so judgments can be made about what will and what will not be accessible.  Furthermore, a password policy on the device itself should be mandatory if there is risk of a breach.

This is not an exhaustive list of mobile strategy components, but does represent some key points of consideration.  The cost of implementing a mobile solution is not insignificant, so these basic questions will help to proactively plan rather than having to backtrack and repeat.
 

Companies taking on a CRM initiative, whether it a new concept or simply a new system, wisely leverage outside help for technical expertise and strategic best practice. Each situation, organizational culture, and level of readiness presents its own unique set of circumstances, but there are some universal truths when it comes to implementing CRM. One of the highest value items on the priority list should be education and change management.

It is generally accepted by those who have extensive CRM experience, that the “if you build it they will come” mentality does not work. As a result much has been written and published on the topic. However, for some reason, this tends to be the first part of an implementation that companies feel comfortable scaling back or omitting all together. I’m not certain whether it is a budget consideration or simply de-emphasized due to a focus on seemingly more pressing issues like technology and data. Whatever the case, my goal is to extend a not-so-subtle reminder that this is an essential (if not the most essential) part of your project.

To stress this point, it is helpful to map some of the key benefits of CRM training to specific adult learning characteristics identified by Malcolm Knowles, the father of adult learning.

1. Adults need to know why they are learning something before they invest the time. The “Why” is at least as important as the “How” when it comes to establishing strong user adoption and acceptance. The change management plan and the training curriculum provide an opportunity to explain to users why the company is investing in CRM and what advantages it will offer for both the company and themselves personally. These initiatives are not about the system, and the focus is not on the technology no matter how intuitive the system might be. A context needs to be established based on the business climate, market conditions and company performance goals. The insight into the strategic nature of the project will help establish a common goal and dispel the notion that big brother is learking.

2. Adults enter a learning situation with a self-concept of themselves as self-directing, responsible grown-ups. When children learn, they respond to adults because of the inherent credibility that an adult teacher displays. Adult learners are much more discriminating, and in some cases, skeptical. It is important that the training environment be able to answer the questions of “What’s in it for me?” related to this new system or process. For a sales person that has made a career out of tracking their contacts in a Rolodex and closing deals on the back of a napkin, they are going to need to understand the value for them as they are being asked to collaborate.

3. Adults come to a learning situation with a wealth of experience and a need to contribute. The training environment for CRM is as much for sharing and discussion as it is for direction. New users feel a sense of ownership and contribution being able to talk through their most difficult use-cases and being able to identify how they will address them in this new environment. Without this forum, there is often the assumption that “this won’t work for me” or that nobody cared enough to involve me.

4. Adults are more responsive to internal motivators such as self-esteem than they are to external motivators such as salary. The training sessions serve as a test run. Some managers take the approach that their end users will be able to figure things out soon enough by themselves, but they are discounting the value of a first impression. Allowing users to struggle with a new system or process will most certainly stir negative emotions in the adult learner and will de-motivate them in the long run.

It is possible that the management of a new CRM initiative acknowledges all of these factors, but still cuts training from the project due to budget constraints. Although this seems reasonable in terms technically getting a system in place, I submit that it is counter-productive to your plan and your project’s NPV. The reason? I am certain that ROI cannot be achieved on a system that nobody is using, and user adoption WILL suffer without a well-established training program. I have no good answer for the philosophical question “If a tree falls in the woods and there is nobody to hear it, does it make a sound?”, but I do know that a superbly built CRM system with no users will yield no value to the organization.

For many companies exposed to sales automation tools for the first time, workflow is identified as a key driver of success. After all, allowing a system to monitor your data and intelligently notify appropriate parties that they need to take action is an attractive proposition. In this way, workflow puts the “automation” in Sales Force Automation (SFA). As attractive as this feature may be, there are some guidelines that should be considered before going overboard with workflow.

First, workflow should be used as a means of complimenting your business process; your business process should not be dependent on workflow. The old adage of “process before technology” is important to remember as you want your saels organization to understand and comply with the processes that have been defined rather than relying on a the system to execute a process for them. This approach, although commonly controversial among sales teams, will assure them a wider visibility to the business and allow them to think before they act. If sales could be scripted into a series of workflow rules we would not need sales people.

A best practice is to leverage workflow for transactional processing and cross-departmental communication. CRM is largely about collaboration, both internal and external. Workflow can be invaluable to ensure that communication is happening consistently.

Second, there is an inherent problem with email as a workflow output. We have been conditioned to see sending as email as an endpoint that allow us to check off that a communication has been sent and move on to our next obligation. It defies ownership in some respects and can be dangerously overused; especially when there is the assumption that the email recipient will follow through as expected. Even in 2009, there is value in human-to-human interaction, follow up and diligence. If email is used as the sole mechanism of communication, problems will not go away; they will just become automated!

Third, be careful not become carried away with workflow (particularly email). Receiving notifications for every new opportunity entered in the system does not elicit the same response from a recipient on the 100th notification as it did on the 1st. Be weary of the fact that a white-noise effect can exist so too much of a good thing can cloud the message.

Take the approach of using automated workflow for exception notifications to help bolster their effectiveness. Define critical instances where a process is NOT being followed and alert impacted parties of that fact. To remember this rule, keep in mind the analogy of the “out of office alert.” Would it be effective to notify the sender of an email that the recipient is IN the office every time they sent an email. I think the clear answer is No; it would be annoying. Instead, we send an out of office reply to the sender when the expected condition is false to elicit the appropriate response.

Finally, when designing your workflow strategy, leverage alternatives to traditional task and email notification. Consider custom views and reports as an effective way for users (who understand the business process) to easily extract the information they need from the SFA tool. These designs have a primary benefit of being more effective and a secondary benefit of driving users into the SFA application and out of email.

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.
 

The successful strategy for CRM implementation in your organization needs to be well thought out and aligned to your culture, business needs and problems. However, there is significant value to examining what has worked (and not worked) for others that have blazed this trail before you. This two-part post will address some of the guiding principles and success factors that you can use within your own organization if you are looking to implement some aspect of CRM or if you are finding a need to re-implement CRM after a failed effort.

First, I think it is helpful to establish that CRM is not software. Instead, it is a mindset and a culture that is reinforced by a set of defined business processes while being enforced, automated, and supported by software. This definition lends some comfort in knowing that the major hurdles are not technical, however, one must come to terms with the fact that leading people-change is much more difficult than building technology.

Affecting real change in people requires an understanding of what motivates them. Whether it is opportunity for advancement, meaningful work, money, power, or any other factor that motivates people, we must find a way to tap into those things for change to persist. For the purposes of this discussion, we will assume that money and the ability to close more deals are the key motivators of a sales force. Sales people are generally thought to be “coin operated” in terms of their motivations so the validity of this assumption should hold up.

Allowing sales people to make more money means that they need to close more deals, and your CRM program should be designed to allow them to do so. If the sales organization is convinced that this is the case, they will advocate the system, comply with the processes and show the results that align with your business goals. Simple, right? Well, although this is the logic, I think that a bit more exploration of the specific of “How” CRM will accomplish these goals is in order. After this discussion, you should feel comfortable answering the question “What’s in it for me?” The answers will help to refine your strategy to prevent your CRM implementation from simply being a scoreboard that allows management to see that is something happened, and instead become a tool that the sales organization uses as a tool to score (close deals).

Spend more time selling
The number one concern that I hear from sale people faced with using a new CRM system is that the overhead that comes from managing their work within a system is going to take away from the time they spend in front of customers. In fact, this should be one of the primary benefits of CRM to the end user. The “Automation” aspect of Sales Force Automation (SFA) is the foundation of any CRM tool. Sales people will have the ability to generate sales letters, access marketing collateral, RFP responses, product info, presentations, demos, and a host of other information at the click of a button. Without a tool in place and processes to support it, they are likely spending countless hours manually generating these outcomes or digging in multiple sources in an attempt to locate them.

Process guide/best practice deployment
A customized selling process needs to be defined from the bottom up and then the top down (not the reverse). The rainmakers in your organization are uniquely qualified to help define best practice and the CRM system will facilitate the deployment of those practices. Those in the sales organization who help to define the process by which the company will drive sales are often invigorated by the opportunity to have such an impact that the lesser performing folks have difficulty arguing with results. Furthermore, the CRM system will offer the ability to institutionalize best practice and centrally manage its effectiveness. When the time comes for a change, that change can be managed centrally as well.

Establish link between sales and marketing
Believe it or not, many organizations struggle to establish a synergy between the marketing and sales functions. If you are nodding your head, read on. Marketing should be seen as an ally to Sales because lead generation fuels opportunities for new deals. However, Sales is often frustrated by the unqualified leads that get passed on from marketing and reacts by dismissing the validity of those leads. In reverse, Marketing is frustrated by their inability to demonstrate their effectiveness because the Sales organization is not following up on the leads that they generate.

CRM can help bring science to this issue by introducing lead scoring and lead qualification criteria that leverage empirical data to support their effectiveness. The result is better leads that increase the potential for a sale. For the salesperson, the odds go up, and they find themselves working smarter rather than harder to bring in a new customer.

For CRM users and strategists, the inherent value of centralizing customer data for the purposes of collaboration and presenting a single face to the customer is well understood. The goal is to break down functional and individual silos to bring value to the customer relationship and encourage an open means of communication, management, planning and support. Current and historical customer data represents tremendously valuable intellectual property and institutional memory that lives beyond the attrition of any individual in the organization.

Having said that, what happens when the vision becomes a reality? What happens when this valuable IP is readily accessible at the fingertips of your sales reps? These questions are often met with a feeling of gratitude and accomplishment at first, but that feeling is soon followed by a sinking feeling that resembles that of the first time you realized that you left your teenager home alone for the weekend. You want to trust that they will do the right thing, but there is that part of you that is not so sure.

How does an organization balance the benefits of deploying on enterprise CRM solution with the challenges protecting corporate IP? If you open up your data to be completely “collaborative,” are you being reckless? If you lock it down into silos, are you any better off than you were before?

Remember your objectives
Before you hit the panic button and lock down the system to the point where there is no possibility for collaboration, remember your core objectives. The security model can be no more restrictive than the business processes that have been established. For example, customer service cannot better service the customer without any visibility into the activity surrounding that customer. When designing your system, include thoughtful steps to ensure that users have enough information to service their customer base, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they need the keys to the entire castle. Categorize the data needs of individual and groups of users to make sure you are striking the correct balance.

Separate real security issues from paranoia
There are legitimate security concerns that impact the competitive position of the organization. There may also be legal obligations imposed by regulation or commitments to customers that must be honored as part of your design. These issues need to be accounted for in your requirements, and your CRM system’s security model must be robust enough to accommodate them.

A separate class of concern arises out of paranoia of what might happen if customer information is viewed, shared, printed, downloaded, or stolen. Security breaches are much more likely to come from an internal source than an external one. The decisions made to address this type of concern need to weigh the risks against the opportunity costs of locking down the data. The answers are generally not black and white, so be prepared to compromise and live with at least some level of risk.

Leverage technology
The tools used to manage customer data will allow you some flexibility to be creative in the information you choose to share vs. protect. As part of your data categorization effort, identify whether it is necessary to secure entire classes of data, only certain records, or maybe just particularly sensitive data fields. The trade-off here is that, the more exceptions you make, the more complex the administrative effort is going to be maintain the system.

Trust, but verify
When addressing change management, we generally try to suppress the notion of a CRM system being used as “Big Brother” to the sales force. However, there is some validity to the need to monitor activity and look for behavior that may create cause for concern. The use of activity reports and logging of usage information can be helpful in identifying trends.

When security concerns still remain, some organizations have drafted non-disclosure agreements and usage policies for all of their CRM users to sign. As a last resort, this can provide your organization with some legal protection and also helps to reinforce the sensitivity of the data with the users.

CRM implementation strategies are often decorated with goals like establishing “Holistic view of the customer”, “360 degree view of the customer”, and “One-stop shop”. These are ambitious goals when you consider everything that is required to effectively identify, secure, service, and maintain a customer. Ambitions should not be squelched by the enormity of the effort, but keep in mind that it is always better to work smart than it is to work hard.

In anticipation of building the perfect system for your sales organization, it is important to manage some common risks.

People don’t like change
I admit that this is a generality, but chances are there are a number of salespeople in your organization that fall into this camp. There are very few sales people that are excited to change the way they work in favor of a new process or new software that is going to change their life, particularly if they have not been exposed to CRM before. Whether they embrace change or not, there is a practical limit to the amount of change that can be absorbed at one time, so maintain sensitivity to this with a solid communications plan, a prioritized roadmap, and lots of training.

An inch deep and mile wide
By trying to incorporate a lot of functionality into your CRM tool, there is always the risk of sacrificing richness of functionality just to get everything under one roof. As the saying goes, “If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing well.” This is not to say that you should spend time over-engineering your system, but rather invest the time to understand what features and functions are most important to your users and ensure that they are incorporated.

Artificial intelligence
There is a balance between building a system that helps your organization effectively manage their customer relationships and that which completely eliminates the possibility of human error. You customers cannot be managed solely by technology, so avoid the trap of trying to build a system that is laden with alerts, email blasts, and security that is targeted at preventing users from ever making a mistake. Trying to anticipate every possible user error is guaranteed to slow progress and introduce technical over-engineering. This time would be better spent on your change management and training plan.

Reinventing the wheel
Some systems and applications just work well and are not worth the effort to rebuild or re-engineer into a single tool. For example, most CRM tools come with some ability to send email through the application; this does not mean that you should make plans to rid your salespeople of their email system.  In the same way, spellchecking ability should not be a queue to get rid of your word processing application. Instead, look for ways to integrate your legacy applications to leverage what they do best while making for the most intuitive use-model as possible for your users.

Replicating data
In the world of the web, the term integration does not always mean replicating data. Sure, there are some valid reasons to use ETL tools to move data from one data store to another, but each integration case needs some analysis. In the SaaS world, it is faster, cheaper, and more effective to integrate at the user interface layer through mash-ups and dashboards. When possible, leave the data where in the data warehouse or the system of record, and leverage services to access the data and visual tools to represent the data in your CRM application.

You CRM system can be a powerful enabler for you sales people and your organization as a whole. A solid vision will be a valuable tool in guiding the path to long term success, but consideration of these stumbling points should help accelerate your progress.