August 2011  |  Posted by Rob Dobell

So you need a new CRM solution. You've completed a business process review, detailed your requirements and issued an Invitation to Tender. You've short-listed potential suppliers and are planning to meet with them to learn more about their solution and their company. Assuming that the solution has met your core functional requirements and the cost of the implementation is agreeable, how else can you differentiate between suppliers and identify the most appropriate solution? We consider some questions to ask potential suppliers beyond the hard facts of "can it do this?" and "how much does it cost?"…

For NFP's looking at membership CRM systems, it is likely that several potential suppliers will offer their solution as being the one to meet your core functional requirements. It is also true that a range of systems will allow you to manage these aspects, and you may put more or less emphasis on running events, managing CPD courses, or handling legal issues through a case management function. But what are the other differentiators to consider?

Technical factors

Is the interface user-friendly and intuitive and can it be customised for efficiency?

Where your core functional requirements can be met by the solutions you're considering, the interface you use takes on additional importance. The question moves from "Can I do …" to "How do I do…" and this is a factor which can make a real difference to the success of your project. If your staff are able to intuitively find their way around the system, to customise screens to reflect their particular needs, and fields to match your terminology, then the system can be more effective and efficient, and some of the barriers to user adoption will be broken down. Staff will like a familiar and logical system, which allows them to follow processing flows, and supports them in the achievement of their goals. Lots of static screens and references back to business procedures in order to consistently process routine actions, can make the system a burden instead of staff feeling like it helps them to deliver.

From basic querying and searching to full-blown data analysis, does your system provide the tools to deal with the depth and range of our reporting requirements?

A lot of time and effort is spent getting information into, and processing it through your new CRM. In handling this, the interface can be especially important (as noted above), but it is also worthwhile understanding and evaluating exactly how you and your staff will get information out of the system. On-screen queries, reports, and data extracts are the obvious answers, but it is the ease of doing so which can be vital in ensuring your organisation can access whatever you can capture, and can then derive the benefit you want from that information. You need flexible tools which allow you to set up templates for pre-defined, routine reporting and which also support the ad-hoc, multi-dimensional queries and data mining analysis which may become your core business intelligence tools once the solution is working smoothly. You can then look to turn all of that data into valuable information.

What level of integration do you provide with the various 3rd party products, and how do you assist in their implementation?

No matter how functional a new CRM solution may be, it is almost inevitable that it will need to integrate with one or more of your key business systems. CRM solutions may offer some sales ledger functionality to process membership charges, delegate fees, and other products or services you provide to your customers, but they are not going to provide a full accounting package. At the same time, your Accounts department will want to retain their system of choice, with as little disruption as possible, so the integration between your new CRM and your existing financial processing system should be as automated and "behind-the-scenes" as possible. With the technology now at your disposal, you should be able to feed open financial details to your Accounts package for further processing, with the outcome of that processing visible back in the CRM. Whether that's the simple invoicing and payments of a one-off delegate fee, or the regular processing of thousands of direct debit instalments, the CRM should let you use your preferred, established tools, and should provide automated, bi-directional information exchange between them.

Equally, your online presence is invariably core to the delivery of services to your members. It now provides the primary means by which you want your members to maintain their contact information, to tell us what their specific interests are, to book on events and to purchase products. Ultimately, you want to be able to feed off of all the information they provide, and offer the most relevant and personalised experience to them whenever they visit your site. Your CRM solution may provide online forms and tools to support this, but for most organisations, the majority of content, and the user journey, will be delivered by a CMS system with advanced functionality. As with your requirements for the financial integration, what you want here is freedom of choice: you want to keep, or implement, the most suitable CMS system to manage your online presence, whilst capturing every user interaction, and parsing the knowledge within your CRM to underpin and personalise the website.

A final thought on integration combines aspects of your financial and online requirements, in the form of online payments. Increasingly, organisations are looking for customers to "pay now" when they purchase membership, a product or service online. Pay now may mean exactly that, or it may mean setting up a direct debit mandate. On top of the actual functionality, this leads to a level of information capture and secure transaction processing which can have significant implications for the infrastructure you have in place. PCI compliance can be an expensive and complex exercise, so for many organisations, an important factor in the provision of payment gateways is actually your selection of CRM. To avoid the need to maintain PCI compliance, you would need the integration between your CRM-driven website and your online payments facility to prevent you from needing to achieve PCI compliance for your own website. Whilst the website will take the member through the purchasing process, and the financial transaction needs to be written back to the CRM, at the final point of "pay now", you may well require the integration to take the member off to a secure 3rd party gateway, before they key in any detail of the financial transaction. This particular integration can be a differentiator between CRM solutions which previously appeared identical.

Non-technical factors

The solution you choose obviously needs to meet your functional requirements, and the integration factors mentioned above are likely to play a part in that element of your decision-making, but you must also consider the importance of identifying a partner – more than a supplier – with whom you will not only have a successful implementation, but also a long and beneficial relationship.

For all the marketing information you may receive and the presentations experienced, when it comes to trying to determine if a supplier is going to be right for you, there are three areas that are particularly important.

Can we get in touch with some references?

It sounds obvious, but do take the time to speak to existing customers who are up and running with the same solution – ideally a like-minded organisation, using the same functionality within the system, and preferably integrating to similar financial and online systems. If possible, with the nature of the solution, try to take references from a client who has recently gone live, so has fresh memories of the implementation project, and a client whose solution is more established, so they can provide a fuller perspective on the supplier and the post-sales experience.

Make time to talk to these existing, live clients before committing to the supplier. If you have a couple of leading options, then take references from both – the information you get from these references should carry considerable weight in your final decision. With that in mind, go to see the reference clients, don't just trade questions, answers and comments by email or phone – and when you do meet with them, whilst the supplier may make an introduction, ensure the heart of the meeting is without them.

As well as a meeting with the reference to talk over their project and experience in general, cover any specifics which may be of concern to you, and ask to speak to someone in membership, events etc. (depending on your needs) at their desk. When you get there, as you walk through the office, keep an eye open – is the CRM open on the computers you see, is the solution obviously their main business tool? What you're looking for is to reassure yourself about the reality of the final experience the client had.

Ask if you can talk to their IT team. If the system causes them a lot of work, issues and complaints you'll soon find out! Regardless of whether IT lead the CRM project (and they should never do so), it will definitely be IT's fault if staff are unhappy with it. Additionally, if there are some regular issues with performance or functionality, the IT team will have a perspective of the impact they are having across the business teams. Finally IT should be in a good position to comment about the ease, or otherwise, of applying any customisations or upgrades.

What is your customer base?

Whilst there is no right or wrong answer as to the size of the suppliers' existing customer base, it is good to know not just how many customers they have, but also the size of the customer and scope of their implementation.

Will your project feature highly in the suppliers' thinking and plans, or will yours be a small project, of which they churn out many? When you're live, will you be a big or small player for them among their customers?

Do they have "right" clients in the "right" market? If the supplier is offering a niche product into a niche market, and you are part of the niche market then that is likely to be a positive sign. That isn't to say that new suppliers can't enter the market and shouldn't be given a chance, but if that's the nature of your project then you need to be aware of it. Equally you can still determine from the related customers whether the supplier is genuinely interested in and committed to the NFP sector, or whether they are less engaged with the nuances of our particular sector.

Following the implementation, what kind of support can we expect and where do the responsibilities lie?

When selecting your supplier, you're not only looking to work with them during the implementation of the system, but to develop a lasting partnership. You will need help in the years ahead as you address the challenges which come your way, and as you look to improve or expand the range of services delivered to your members.

The project team who you work with to implement the system is unlikely to remain in place and in contact post-implementation, so what level of continuity will there be both post-sales (once you've committed to the supplier) and post-implementation. The most successful projects and partnerships include regular contacts between the customer and the supplier which go above and beyond the minutiae of the project and the natural, routine discussions you expect to have about the regular working of the system.

You should be looking for an account manager, appointed shortly after committing to the project, who will have an oversight of the project itself and who will continue to work with you in the long term. They needn't be involved in the implementation itself other than maintaining awareness of progress, being an escalation point if required, and keeping in touch to make sure you are comfortable with the direction of the project.

Some final thoughts…

When interviewing a potential employee for a post, we will tell them what we're looking for, let them tell us about themselves, and ask some specific questions to help us understand more about the type of person we're interviewing.

Taking a similar approach with your CRM solution, we know that the nature of the supplier is going to be a key element in the success of the implementation and the on-going benefit of the system, so why not ask them…

• Of all of the implementations you've been through, which have been the most successful and why?
• Which have been most satisfying for you as a supplier?
• Can you give us some examples of the ways in which your solution has helped your clients to deliver new/better value, quality, products and services to their members?
• Can you tell us three key areas where you feel your solution will help us to deliver better value, quality, products and services to our members?
• How do you believe you will contribute to us developing our business processes during the implementation project, and beyond?

Want to read more? Let us know and we'll happily discuss this further.      

 

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