CRM Software Implementation Best Practices

CRM Software Deployment

	The User-First CRM Implementation Approach
	Identifying CRM software implementation goals in technology terms, and not people terms, has contributed to a staggering and often cited CRM failure rate. Fortunately, there’s a better way. The User-First design and deployment approach positions the user as the North Star and emphasizes objectives, benefits and outcomes in human terms. The results speak for themselves.
	Best Practices to Rally CRM User Adoption
	User adoption is a perennial challenge with CRM software deployments. Slow or low user adoption is a top cited contributing factor to CRM engagements that fail to achieve their objectives, or just fail outright. Here are the top CRM best practices designed to mitigate CRM user adoption challenges and get more payback on your technology investment.
	How to Design CRM for the User Experience
	Successful CRM user experiences increase CRM application utilization which leads to better data input, more process automation, enhanced information reporting and a much bigger payback on your CRM software investment. But achieving CRM user experience objectives is hard. Here's a proven approach and some best practices to achieve the elusive CRM user experience benefits.
	10 Step Change Management Framework and Best Practices
	CRM software implementations move staff away from the status quo and outside their comfort zone. If resistance to change goes unaddressed, the hidden agendas and failure to embrace the needed change will significantly challenge the project, and likely result in time and budget overruns. Here is a ten step change management program to accelerate and improve your CRM implementation.
	CRM Change Management – How Change Really Happens in a CRM Software Implementation
	For most organizations, successful change management is a prerequisite to successful CRM software adoption and business transformation. Fortunately, resistance to change follows a known process. Here's how change management obstacles unfold during a CRM software implementation and what you can do to proactively counter these obstacles.
	How Agile and Scrum Improve CRM Software Success
	CRM failures are legendary. Fortunately, agile deployment methods are showing significant promise in improving CRM success. However, like most innovative frameworks there is more talk than action, and the actions tend to lack consistency. This blog post shares how agile methods can be used to reduce risk and dramatically improve the quality of your CRM software implementation result.
	Agile versus Waterfall CRM Implementation Methods
	Waterfall deployment methods remain the norm, but agile methods such as Scrum offer some unique capabilities to improve CRM software implementation success. It’s important to recognize there is no one size fits all CRM implementation methodology. Here are the key advantages, disadvantages and differences between these competing approaches.
	Agile Best Practices for CRM Software Implementations
	Agile methods bring new flexibility and capabilities to CRM software deployments, including adaptive planning, iterative development, rapid response to change, early and frequent deliveries, and continuous process improvement. These agile best practices for CRM software implementations reduce risk and help ensure agile benefits are realized.
	How DevOps Accelerates CRM Software Innovation
	As agile methods have evolved from pioneering movements to common practices they have created downstream challenges. DevOps responds to these obstacles by delivering the last mile of the software creation process, and getting new software capabilities into the hands of users and customers without delay.
	DevOps Toolchain for Microsoft Dynamics 365
	DevOps is a continuous delivery framework built on roles, events, artifacts, toolchain and tight integration with agile development. When it comes to CRM DevOps toolchains, the tools are often influenced by the CRM software architecture and development environment. This article shares a DevOps toolchain for Microsoft Dynamics 365.
	An Agile Toolchain for Microsoft Dynamics 365
	Choosing the right agile toolchain and leveraging the right capabilities within those tools improves your likelihood of achieving CRM software implementation success. The best agile toolchain is highly influenced by your CRM software product and your agile process. This blog post identifies an agile toolchain and key capabilities for Microsoft Dynamics 365.
	Microsoft CRM Agile Management Tools Comparison
	Picking the right agile management tool for your Dynamics CRM software implementation will be influenced by the types of users on your team and the scope of your agile and DevOps process. This article compares Jira, Rally and Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) for Microsoft Dynamics 365 software deployments.
	DevOps Best Practices for CRM
	According to Forrester, "If you are wondering whether development operations (DevOps) is merely a fad, you are already falling behind … The results are profound, but achieving them requires focus and willingness to leave behind old ways of working and organizing." Here are some of the new ways, and the DevOps best practices that can aid your CRM software implementation.
	CRM Software Training Best Practices
	Most CRM software training participants get bored, become diverted, check their email, and then check anything else on their mobile device that is in any way more interesting than the course content. Software training research shows that attendees generally recall less than 15% of the content beyond 48 hours. Fortunately, there are proven CRM training best practices that boost learning results.
	Why and How To Create CRM Project Governance
	Extending IT governance strategy, rigor and thinking to Customer Relationship Management can provide some big benefits and increase the likelihood that CRM initiatives are successful and sustainable. However, achieving CRM governance isn't easy. Here are three steps to extend IT governance to your CRM implementation and operation.
	The Synergy Between Process Improvements and CRM Deployment
	A CRM software implementation can offer an ideal time to revisit and possibly re-engineer business processes, and in effect create a tremendous synergy by introducing both streamlined processes and software automation technology in unison. Consider these 5 process improvement steps to add consistency, reliability and scalability to your CRM deployment.
	The Most Pivotal Factors Affecting CRM Success or Failure
	A decade ago, CRM earned a bad reputation when Gartner reported that 50% to 70% of CRM installations failed. In 2009, there was a 47% fail-rate in CRM implementations, according to Forrester. Drilling deeper, though, only a few factors cause most CRM failures. Recognize the most salient success factors, and avoid the most repeated mistakes, and your CRM success rate increases.
	Implementation Team Roles & Responsibilities
	Assembling the right CRM implementation team is a clear precursor to implementation success. However, making sure you have the right people on the bus, and everyone sitting in the right seats, is often a challenging exercise in organizations with scarce resources and limited internal experience. This article suggests several facets team leaders should consider when assembling the team.
	A Recommended Approach to Achieving User Adoption
	Mitigating user adoption challenges during CRM implementations should be part of the advanced planning performed by all project managers and steering committees. With changes to customer strategies, business processes and staff responsibilities, proactive change management can make the difference between CRM success and being lumped into the all too cited CRM failure pool.
	The Top 5 Reasons Why CRM Deployments Fail – and How to Avoid Them
	Customer Relationship Management (CRM) implementations always seem to begin with the greatest intentions. Unfortunately, challenges arise, and often escalate; sometimes to the point of CRM software implementation failure. This article examines past CRM software deployment failures in order to identify top risk areas and the mitigating factors to avoid disappointment.
	Lessons Learned in CRM Data Conversions
	Data conversions routinely result in setbacks and project delays to CRM software implementations. Far too many organizations fail to survey their data quality in advance and then ultimately discover their dirty data, duplicate data, incomplete data and bogus data when they go to convert, thereby, putting the project schedule at risk. Here are the lessons learned to tackle your data conversion.
	User Adoption Via Clear Choices and No Alternatives
	The first customers your CRM system will engage are your own staff. You need to sell them before they can use CRM to sell anyone else. In other words, as the CRM champion, you need to change perceptions so that, to your sales reps especially, they are empowered and there is no alternative to the combined CRM strategy and supporting software system.

CRM Thought Leader In His Own Words

	CRM Implementation Strategy—A Balance in Mitigating Risks & Maximizing Opportunity
	Michael Krigsman, CEO of IT advisory firm Asuret and author of the ZDNet blog, IT Project Failures, helps put the alarming CRM failure statistics into perspective, shares risk mitigation strategies, provides insight on the critical success factors that lead to rewarding CRM deployments and offers advice on when and how to best leverage CRM consultants.

A CRM Implementation Special Report

	CRM Software Implementation: A Best Practices Approach CRM implementation expert Denise Holland delivers this How To advisory which breaks out CRM implementation best practices into the categories of: People – honing in on executive sponsorship, user adoption, change management and training programs Processes – showing how business process automation can deliver the single biggest payback on your CRM software investment, and Technology – identifying the best fits and advantages for both on-premise and on-demand CRM systems.  Read the CRM implementation report »

More References

• CRMsolution.com offers concrete advice regarding CRM strategy and objectives, several best practices and a comprehensive Blueprint which includes the business case for CRM as well as number of key success and failure factors.

• CRMmanifesto.com offers the brilliantly simple "CRM truths" and key principals which should be kept front and center during any CRM software implementation.