Project Goals and Strategy

Vermont Teddy Bear’s project is being initiated by request of company to meet new

strategic organizational goals of expanding the customer base and the enhancement of the

ability for cross-selling to increase sales. Discussing the project scope, we found the appropriate

actions to mend the current system is an implementation of a new customer centric plan in the

form of Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

Current issues VTB faces includes an umbrella problem of needing a more efficient IT

platform and better use of funds to approaching a new IT architecture before next peak sales

period. Sub-problems VTB is aware of is rectifying problems in applications developed by

former employees of VTB. Within the current applications there is cumbersome middleware

that requires either tremendous updates or entire replacement. In terms of customer

engagement and sales, an issue being faced is protecting market share by launching

competitive toys to increase market penetration of Calyx flower. Along with the market share, a

concern is the speed of the deploy of the new IT architecture for optimizing VTB hybrid

business model of three brands.

The new CRM model will be aimed at bringing together all information from different

departments throughout the company to give one, holistic view of each customer in real time.

As the company struggles with a flaw of mismatch between advertising message and target

customer, the new CRM projects design will allow customer-facing employees in areas such as

sales, marketing, and customer support to make quick and informed decisions on cross-selling.

The new strategy will improve quality of customer communication and responsiveness while

also coordinating the management of sales and marketing campaigns.

Business Requirements

The business requirements the CRM system will need to meet for VTB is an analysis of

current pain points and possible solutions. The system itself should be functional with

dashboards, reports, forecasting abilities, integration, automations, and all other essential CRM

features for VTB reps to manage and improve the sales process. Security is a large part of the

system as the company works with sensitive customer data, thus a safe storage location should

be maintained. The system should also be mobile – a native mobile app allowing reps to access

the database in all locations. Lastly, every part of the system requires user adoption in terms of

being intuitive to use. I anticipate the top three business requirements VTB will utilize from the

system are database management, lead management, and marketing and campaign

management.

Mastering data management of VTB customer database should be our number one priority

in our CRM platform to ensure data integrity. In addition to storing all customer data in a

centralized database, managing the data will allow VTB to link data across the sales and

marketing departments to view relationships between records to avoid duplicates.

Lead management will benefit the company significantly in terms of generating leads and

properly managing them, as implied. CRM’s come with embeddable web forms that capture

leads and store the data directly into the system. Aiding in increasing customer engagement

with VTB and expanding the customer base, leads show target comparison through periods and

quarters, as well as displaying weighted target. Visual layouts will make the use of lead
management clear and accurate in use of a pipeline. Pipelines are a critical visual tool making it

easier for users to maneuver through lead funnels and gain visibility.

Marketing and campaign management will use marketing automation. Marketing

automation will help the CRM system used by VTB by tracking progress, testing email

campaigns, generating significant ROI, improving lead nurturing, and increasing customer

retention. VTB’s use of CRM should track customer data, including spending habits, likes,

dislikes, and other attributes that qualify them. In terms of improving the targeted marketing

campaigns to expand the customer base, campaign analysis analyzes ROI to improve efforts

through campaign design, batch email marketing, customer targeting, campaign analysis, and

more.

CRM Features and Screen Layout

The success of VTB’s CRM implementation will inevitably come down to the details. Post

defining our process and goals, the system now needs a structure of data spreadsheets and

resources to track and share information. Customizable designs should be used by the team to

create personalized views for each account to access their work without the distraction of

others. Features needed for the screen layout will be contact management, interaction

tracking, email integration, document management, workflow automation, and the pipeline

management describes in the analysis.

Optional features for consideration are reporting/analytics and forecasting. Reporting and

analytics could provide the team with routine reports of sale figures and performance, set

based on a customizable time frame. Forecasting I strongly advise as it will generate predictions

for future sales figures or projected revenue based on past and present data/trends. Additional
features displayed on the front screen of the layout will be active admins total expenses,

running projects, upcoming events, pending works, deadlines, and announcements.

ZOHO CRM is a top-rated program for companies to develop their CRM. The site includes a

comparison to other top-rated programs, such as Microsoft CRM, Sugar CRM, and Salesforce

CRM. Of the four, ZOHO CRM is the only program providing inbuilt AI, inbuilt telephony,

unlimited data storage, and more at as much as 77% savings. In my recommendation and

research, ZOHO CRM is the leading CRM in the field today and used by trustworthy and

successful brands, such as Amazon Inc., Netflix, and Bose.

The methodology that VTB will adopt is an Operational CRM, which will streamline the

business process in terms of sales automation, marketing automation, and service automation.

The main purpose of operational CRM’s coincides with the business requirements of generating

leads, converting them into contacts, and capturing all required details to provide service

throughout a customer’s lifecycle.

(View Appendix A for visual representation of screen layout recommendation)

Implementation and Evaluation

System testing, completed by qualified IT staff at VTB, should be consulted and a time

scheduled for pre-going live. The testing before implementation should be done at a relatively

low time in the company, not in the middle of a peak season. Seven distinct tests should be

conducted to ensure the smooth running of the program, including: system, functional, stress,

performance, usability, acceptance, integration testing.

In order for VTB’s team to be prepared for each stage of adoption an implementation plan

must be in action. The first component should include sufficient backup data before launch.
Hard copies, as well as cloud copies, of all software specification, customizations, and required

data on a flash drive or external hard drive will ensure that important information is not lost

during transition.

Developing the CRM for implementation requires user training. The most successful training

is mix of face-to-face, online, and practice. By having managers at VTB walk employees through

the process teams can experience a frustration-free environment allowing workers to have the

mental space to learn the program. After training and the launch of the program, all employees

should be given the opportunity to provide feedback on the quality of their experience and

show which areas the CRM need to be addressed.

When the CRM is successfully lunched, VTB will need to return to the system often to

maintain the goals of the business and functionality of the program to meet those. Setting

specific metrics and analytics to measure the progress of the new intuitive is critical. A full set

of metrics on technology, strategy, people, and process should be considered. After the first

peak sales period after the adoption of the new CRM system an evaluation should be

conducted. During this evaluation the needs of the company should be revisited and compared

to the metrics to see how they align with VTB goals.

Reflection
SDLC breaks down the entire life cycle of software development to make the process of

evaluating each part easier, allowing programmer to work step by step and smooth out any

issues. The most important phase is the planning phase as it steps up the goals and

requirements for the rest of the phases. Security and ethical issues would and could only occur

if secure customer data is released or security is breached.

Appendix A