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If you're looking to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution into your business,
this article will highlight some key areas that you may want to cover to avoid costly errors that other
companies have made.

Some years back, a CRM system was integrated in a health organization. It wanted the CRM system to
re-engineer the company's IT, but within a few months it was clear that the execution had been a disaster.

The transition of it customers onto its new CRM system did not go smoothly.

The hiccups in customer service were so major that the company lost 6 percent of its health-care
membership in one year.

Even the stock value dropped by 40 percent.

 

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In 2001, the company's new CIO began working on an ambitious plan to consolidate the company's
antiquated IT systems.

The idea was to have an integrated system for enrolment, eligibility and claims processing so that
customers would get one bill, medical claims would be processed faster and more efficiently. This would
also give customer service reps a single unified view of members to accomplish that.

This meant there would actually be two integrated systems, one for customers of the company's managed
care offerings and the other for its indemnity products.

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To achieve the transformation to the new CRM solution, the staff had to build an entire AS400
infrastructure from scratch that could support the main platforms for claims processing.

Most of that architectural work was done in-house, but the company did hire a third party to help
implement the changed management and business processes involved.
It also worked with the third party to develop and implement the new customer facing applications that
would allow members to enrol, check the status of their claims and benefits, and choose from different
health plan offerings. Siebel software was purchased to handle the call center functions.

Part of the problem was that the company started late. Thus, it was under considerable pressure to get
the new systems in place as quickly as possible.

There were a number of reasons for the urgency.

First off, the organization was being sued by thousands of doctors nationwide who were furious about
delays in payment for patient care.

Second, the sales team, in order to win large employer accounts, had promised that the new systems
would provide improved customer service and would be up and running in early 2002.

Third, the management was under pressure to cut costs after posting disappointing second quarter
results in 2001.

Members were started to move to the new platform in 2001, but in relatively small numbers at a time. At
the same time, the company began laying off customer service reps.

In January 2002, with new members coming on board and existing ones renewing, a massive amount of
customers were moved to the new system at one time. It was too much too handle and problems erupted
immediately.

Members suddenly had trouble obtaining health coverage. Workers at another company effectively lost
coverage when their membership information would not load properly into the new systems.

Member ID cards were issued that contained incorrect identifiers and missing prescription icons. People
couldn't get their prescriptions filled at their local drug store/pharmacy.

Not surprisingly, the company's customer service center was besieged by calls. But because of the
layoffs, there weren't enough call center reps to handle the load.

People waited on hold. And when they did reach someone, the reps that had been newly hired had not
been adequately trained in how to handle the new technology.
The organisation struggled.

And it didn't need to be that way.

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For more information visit CRM Software Center - All the general information and resources for everything
CRM - Customer Relationship Management. Visit www.crmsoftwarecenter.com. for more articles and info
on CRM.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) started as a sleepy little business initiative. Enterprises
intuitively recognized CRM's importance, but they didn't give it much focus. Then, a few years ago, a
general CRM movement began to gather steam. The movement not only preached that the customer was
king (which is an old concept) but also brought together the business processes, software packages, and
compelling value propositions into a critical mass that allowed the entire marketplace to explode.
Focusing on the customer wasn't just the right thing to do. It was also the way to drive customer loyalty
and increase sales volume and profit.

My company also caught the CRM wave. In this, and three subsequent articles, I'll describe the process
we went through to deploy the CRM software. The name of the CRM vendor will remain anonymous. This
is not because it did anything wrong. In fact, in general, we like what we have. However, I don¶t want the
articles to turn into a commercial endorsement. The purpose of this case study is simply to relate an
experience that may help you in a similar situation, whether you're deploying a CRM package or some
other major packaged solution.

What we needed
CRM refers to the tools and processes used to identify potential new customers and retain current
customers. For our CRM implementation, we were particularly interested in enabling the sales
organization with sales force automation, contact management, and opportunity management. Our
marketing organization was interested in campaign management (tracking responses and costs from
marketing campaigns through the sales cycle).

Other users in the organization, such as our professional services staff, wanted to be able to browse
customer information to keep up to date with developments on their accounts. Although features such as
telemarketing and customer care and some aspects of ERP can also be included in a full CRM solution,
we were not implementing those capabilities in this project. I should also note that the CRM tool would be
used internally by our company sales, marketing, and professional services staff. It wouldn't have
forward-facing components that require direct interaction with our customers.

It all starts with careful analysis « not!

A fairly well-defined process is available for selecting and implementing packaged solutions. You start by
creating a value proposition or return on investment (ROI), and then you gather business requirements,
create a long list of potential solutions, issue Request for Proposals to gather more detailed information,
and narrow the field down to a short list. At that point, you may look at the top-two finalists in great detail,
including running pilot tests and negotiating a contract.

On our project, however, this process was deliberately short-circuited. Our division president had some
background in CRM packages, and he basically made the decision on which one to purchase. The
decision wasn't made lightly but was based on insights he had about our company and the CRM
marketplace. His logic went something like this:

V We were not going to be able to afford the license price and implementation costs of the top CRM
vendors.
V Our sales and marketing processes and customer interactions were not very sophisticated or
complex and did not need to be so.
V Most of the CRM packages that target middle-tier companies like ours will probably meet 80
percent of our needs.
V A company we recently acquired had a prior relationship with a particular CRM vendor.
V This CRM vendor was ranked respectably by Gartner, in terms of the features and functionality it
offered vs. the license price.
Based on this analysis, the division president decided to purchase a CRM package from this vendor. All
of us recognized that the selection process introduced some inherent risk in the deployment project, but
from the standpoint of the division president, this was an intelligent risk.

Working with what we were given

By the time I first heard about the project, the vendor was chosen and the software was in the process of
being purchased. The division president then challenged us to do the implementation as soon as
possible.

In future articles, I'll describe how we accomplished the CRM implementation, and I'll share some of the
lessons we learned that may be applicable to projects you manage.

Project management veteran Tom Mochal is director of internal development at a software company in
Atlanta. Most recently, he worked for the Coca-Cola Company, where he was responsible for deploying,
training, and coaching the IS division on project management and life-cycle skills. He's also worked for
Eastman Kodak and Cap Gemini America and has developed a project management methodology called
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Are you trying to get more from your customer relationships?

Have you been part of a CRM implementation? Was your package evaluation process handled as well as
it could be? Send us an e-mail with your opinion and suggestions or post a comment below.