CRM readiness

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CRM preparedness – beyond the contract

You think you have done the hard work. Functional requirements have been document and your team completed a CRM search. You entertained numerous demonstrations and discussions and you selected a CRM platform. Now what? There are an abundance of activities which must be completed prior to launching a CRM project. While you may be guided by your CRM partner, these CRM preparedness activities are the full responsibility of your school, university or non-profit organisation.

CRM project
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What ought to be on your CRM preparedness checklist?

CRM Preparedness Checklist

  • Project sponsorship
  • Organisation culture
  • Project infrastructure
  • Change management
  • Communications plan
  • Data readiness

Check List Defined

The items on the CRM preparedness checklist are big ticket items. Let’s explore each item on the check list.

Project sponsorship – Usually a senior level executive, the project sponsor operates at the 36,000 foot level and has the overall interests of the project’s outcomes. This person typically oversees the project benefits to ensure they align with the business requirements. As the chair the Project Steering Committee, he or she will serve as an escalation point for any issues in the project which cannot be resolved by a Project Team. In sum, the Project sponsor provides vision and governance to the project.

Organisation culture – Understanding your organisation’s culture is a critical aspect of the project. Ensuring your CRM partner understands the culture is equally vital.  Your organisation’s culture, simply put, is how your organisation does what it does. 

Project infrastructure – Your project’s infrastructure is the organisation structure, the hierarchy, for the project. This includes an organisation chart and pre-defined roles and responsibilities.

Change management – Change management defines the plan you have to guide people through the necessary change and the transition to a new CRM.

Communications plan – a Communications Plan is the roadmap you will follow to deliver the messaging to your intended audiences.

Data readiness – The cleanliness of your data is a vital part of your overall CRM readiness plan. Readiness includes taking a complete inventory of the data. Data hygiene activities such as data standardisation, changes of address, deduplication, and other activities are all key components of data readiness.

Implementing a new CRM is far more than the software itself. Preparing your organisation for the CRM implementation by conducting ground work activities in advance of the actual CRM implementation defines the success of your project.

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CRM Readiness – how ready is your non-profit organisation?

A robust CRM is not for every non-profit organisation because not every organisation is ready to transition to a robust CRM. In terms of CRM readiness – how ready is your non-profit organisation?

One way to determine if your organisation in ready to adopt a new CRM is to create an assessment of such readiness. An assessment can be done by creating a scoring mechanism against four key areas:

  • Senior Management Engagement.
  • Organisation Strategy.
  • Processes and Procedures.
  • Training and Support.

Define each area by suggesting what would determine a perfect score for each of the four areas. Create a metric of 0 – 5 and score each of the areas. Ask a group of individuals to participate.

Defining CRM Readiness

  • Senior Management commitment to the project.
    • Your leadership team understands adopting a CRM is a long-term objective.
    • Your leadership team understands the CRM requires continued investment.
  • Matchback to organisation strategy.
    • Adoption of a CRM is part of the organisation’s current strategic plan and goals.
    • Investment in a CRM is key for your organisation to achieve other strategic objectives.
    • Your leadership understands the CRM is a critical factor in achieving organisation goals.
  • Documented processes and procedures.
    • Your business processes and procedures have been reviewed for best practice.
    • Departments within your organisation understand the business requirements which need to be delivered in your future CRM.
    • Processes and procedures are documented and ready for realignment in a new CRM.
    • You are open to realigning your current practices to match the adopted CRM.
    • Your Information Services department is willing to participate and engage in the CRM process.
    • While you have their agreement to participate, your Information Services department is willing to allow subject matter experts (SMEs) to drive process improvements across the business.
  • Ongoing training and support.
    • Budget has been allocated for ongoing CRM training and support post Go live.
    • Position descriptions have been developed for parties who will be responsible for ongoing maintenance and management of the CRM post Go live.

Scoring your organisation 15-20 suggests you are CRM ready. Scoring lower than 15 suggests you have areas of concern and you may wish to resolve those areas before you determine your organisation is CRM ready.

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CRM search infrastructure lacking in your nonprofit?

Database word cloud concept

The customer relationship management (CRM) system or, as some call it “the database system”, is a non profit organisation’s most important asset.

FundraisingForce receive at least one phone call a week from non profit organisations seeking assistance with a data base search and many are planning to launch a search now that we are in the new year.

Complaining about the CRM/database is the one thing, which every non profit organisation has in common. Charities often say things such as:

  • …it is too clunky
  • …it does not meet our needs
  • …we’ve outgrown the system
  • …no one uses it
  • …if the database could only do x, y or z
  • …I wish our organisation owned x product
  • …I used x product at my previous job and it was great
  • …I’m going to contact X supplier immediately and see if we can’t get a demo and start to talk about pricing

Put the brakes on.

Do not contact any suppliers until you have CRM search infrastructure in order.

CRM search infrastructure, includes:

  • Organisation CRM readiness. Study whether your organisation is ready for a sophisticated CRM. Do you have the following in place:
    1. Financial backing of organisation leadership? Do leadership have realistic expectations of project costs?
    2. Organisation resourcing to implement a chosen CRM. Remember, the organisation is required to staff the project in the same manner as the supplier.
    3. How will your organisation deal with staff turnover? Staff turnover can become detrimental to a CRM implementation. If your organisation has vacant key positions, perhaps waiting until those positions are filled is the right strategy.
  • Documented, detailed requirements across the entire business. Ensure you focus on the detail rather than “high level” requirements. The more you understand your business requirements, the better suppliers will understand them.
  • Market research, including a list of suppliers and associated products available in our market.
  • Time allocation for a comprehensive CRM search. A CRM search takes time, even if you contract with an external consultant to coordinate the search for your organisation. Be certain you understand the time commitment required of your team.
  • CRM search coordinator. Whether you resource the oversight of the CRM search with an internal resource or a consultant, be sure you identify “who is in charge”. This pint of contact is critical for your organisation and the various CRM suppliers. Empower this person with the responsibility and the authority.

Ensuring you have the proper infrastructure in place before you hit the CRM search accelerator is critical. Searches fail because of a lack of organisation readiness, improper resourcing, poor documentation, or unrealistic expectations. Your ability to negotiate with CRM suppliers is dramatically impacted by not having your act together.