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.
By now we should recognize the signs of a major shift caused by a new, “disruptive” technology. After all, we have seen it happen so many times before. The only difference is that today the shifts are quick and dramatic, catching off guard anybody that dares to stand flatfooted. So what is causing the tremors this time? Cloud computing! And it is already hitting with a force that is off the scale, especially for organizations that are not looking for it or prefer to live in the “legacy” world of on-premises business computing strategy and applications.
Perhaps “Video Killed The Radio Star” is not the appropriate analogy to communicate a dramatic shift in computing technology, but for some reason that tune keeps playing in my head whenever I think about this evolution in computing. MTV was a dramatic shift that stopped careers for those unwilling to accept it. It opened the door for a new breed of performers that were willing to adapt. Yet it was only the pinnacle of the iceberg for all the technology changes that followed – from CDs replacing cassettes and vinyl, to iTunes and single song downloads.
Cutting edge performers had been putting out music videos since the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, not to mention the entire Monkeys TV show (which drove their albums to the top of the charts!). But it was the new technology of cable television and MTV that was the game changer. Cloud computing is the cable television of IT world. IT directors and departments will either have to grasp and ride the movement of computing to web service providers such as saleforce.com, Amazon Web Services and Google Apps, or find themselves and their employers on the clearance shelf of the business world because they have become irrelevant in the market, just like 8-track tapes.
The newspaper industry has experienced this shift as a result of technology change that helps to illustrate this point. The static newspaper has been driven down by the dynamic web page and email alerts for news. You don’t have to own, staff, and maintain huge printing plants running around the clock in order to sell and deliver the news today. Corporate size is not the advantage in distributing the news as it once had been thanks to the internet. Wireless and handheld access to the Internet has further made the hard copy delivery model a competitive disadvantage. The result has been a proliferation of news and information sites, and a long line of newspaper bankruptcies. The down economy has served to accelerate this phenomenon. Think about this analogy as it relates to cloud computing. You can read other Model Metrics blogs from our technologists that explain in detail how we are leveraging salesforce.com, Amazon Web Services (the business unit) and Google Apps to create an elastic, powerful, and extremely cost effective new world order of computing.
Google “Amazon Web Services” if you want another perspective. My thoughts here are to sound the alarm. There is a change coming and you need to look up now to “the cloud” to take advantage of this opportunity to achieve competitive advantage, and in some cases survival, before it is too late.
Video killed the radio star…Cloud computing is going to kill traditional IT. Those that look to the cloud will be the new winners.
CRM Kicks SaaS!!! Why CRM Optimization Is Your Future
Optimization, Optimization, Optimization!!! I am amazed at the number of optimization projects that we are being retained to perform these days. Amazed and very impressed with what our clients are targeting as their objectives. They are taking CRM way beyond the borders of sales, marketing and customer support by using salesforce.com to transform their whole approach to business systems, collaboration, corporate strategy, and IT.
Companies coming to Model Metrics for optimization services have done so because they started to fully recognize the power of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based CRM model, also known as Cloud Computing. And they are they are asking us to create and implement exciting and diverse new functionality to extend the capabilities of salesforce.com. That’s why I’m declaring today that “CRM Kicks SaaS!”
How did we get here? There are some common themes that our optimization clients have shared with us, both bad and good, that can help explain:
The Bad
• Firms that have self-implemented found themselves guessing on how to architect their salesforce.com configurations as well as the how to leverage the appropriate feature sets. Often times sub-optimal decision were made. After all, it is hard to always pick the right path if this is one’s first time on the trail.
• Many companies don’t put enough emphasis on effectively training their users, sometimes relying on the “field of dreams” approach of build it and they will come. This is especially true when it comes to training senior and mid-level management on the skills they need to be successful with CRM. CRM has a huge human factor. Training, curriculum, and ongoing support are the steps for addressing this fact.
• Some firms did not leverage reports and dashboards that transform data into actionable knowledge. This resulted in a lack of value for managers, preventing them from reinforcing the importance of CRM adoption and preventing them from taking ownership of salesforce.com as the way the company operates.
I could go on and on here, but let me highlight where “CRM kicked some major SaaS” as I transition to the good.
The Good
• All of these companies got value and ROI even though they were not hitting on all cylinders because their first phases enabled them to be far more organized than ever before.
• These firms established salesforce.com as their central database for sales, marketing and/or customer support, making it their primary source of customer knowledge.
• Deploying salesforce.com was the easiest business system deployment ever for these companies because of how salesforce.com is delivered in a browser, requiring no software installation/maintenance, and very little if any IT involvement. This represented freedom and speed-to-value for business managers requiring infrastructure to support their strategies.
• Salesforce.com gave these companies a practical understanding of how SaaS business systems have the power to quickly transform processes and results, empowering companies of all sizes, industries, and business models with truly leading edge technology and capabilities.
• With their CRM foundation in place, the Force.com platform and Salesforce.com’s ever and rapidly evolving feature set (salesforce.com Sites is just around the corner) is making possible “optimizations” to existing processes as well as new processes and strategies. Because of this, many of our optimization clients are optimizing their salesforce.com solutions to implement strategies to support and expand their web strategies.
Bottom line – “CRM kicks SaaS!” If your company uses salesforce.com and you are still in your first phase of implementation, it is time to raise the bar and look to phase 2 - optimization. It is incumbent upon you to leverage the investment and accomplishments that you have made and act on plans for the future, regardless of whatever challenges were posed in phase 1. Look to the future because that is where the opportunities are going to be to achieve ongoing success.
If 2009 is the year to do more with what you have, then optimizing your salesforce.com configuration should be one of your top priorities.
Model Metrics has helped scores of companies to “optimize” what they accomplish with salesforce.com. To be clear, optimization clients are existing subscribers of salesforce.com whom Model Metrics did not initially implement. It is interesting to see both the state in which these saleforce.com subscribers come to us, as well as the results once their optimization has been completed.
How do you know if you should optimize? Here are five profiles we often see:
1. Some of our optimization clients implemented salesforce.com and never moved past the core CRM fundamentals – contact management and pipeline management for example. Lots of room for improvement here obviously.
2. Some optimization clients did not make efforts to align their CRM configuration and usage with their company’s goals and strategies. This limit’s the ability to impact results and often leads to low rates of adoption among frustrated users who feel their CRM efforts are wasted.
3. Some optimization clients did not define initial goals and objectives. The result here is no way to evaluate success or readiness to raise the bar to higher-level initiatives, a step that increases ROI on CRM.
4. And some optimization clients never took ownership of their salesforce.com solution by having a trained salesforce.com administrator role to monitor usage, solicit feedback, make configuration updates, provide ongoing user training, and stay on top of the constantly evolving new features that can improve business processes or support other groups of users to improve collaboration, customer experience, and other goals.
5. The most common reason companies optimize is that they did not approach CRM with a complete solution plan – strategy, change management, ease of use, reports and dashboards, integration, training, AppExchange utilities, governance, administration, etc.
In future posts I’ll share details about actual optimizations and the results they achieve.
If you have questions or ideas related to salesforce.com optimization that you would like to share, please feel free to contact me at kturner@modelmetrics.com.
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