Chapter 10

CRM Implementation
 Implementation of CRM
• In the present situation, there is immense
competition in the markets and the company
must therefore analyse its consumers and its
competitors.
• This is only possible by storing data by monitoring
its interactions with customers at different touch
points emanating in markets through its sales
persons, by e-mail, by messages, telephones, and
through media interfaces etc.
• Every touch point therefore is critical for the
company.
 Implementation of CRM
• All these activities involves utilisation of the upcoming technologies and
also involve costs in gathering and analysing customer information.

• In this process, the costs have to be justified based on the present as well
as future situations prevailing in the markets based on the company’s
earnings.

• The company therefore takes utmost care of its Return on Investments

(ROI) and plans their CRM implementation in such a way that their
investments in CRM applications are justified.

• In this we not only consider the economic costs and benefits, but also the
people costs and the indirect benefits involved during the whole process.
Customer Interface and components of CRM
Before implementing CRM we must understand the elements involved in this
process for a better insight
• Customer Touch points – contact of sales persons with their customers
through web, by direct mail, through coupons, by tele- sales, through
kiosks etc
• CRM applications – which helps firms in providing offers, generating
orders, and enhancing the quality of response further through regular
customer enquiries and feedback

- Sales and service management – which are important functions and

which should be integrated fully in the CRM system for better functioning.

- Marketing – through campaign management, segmentation, and also by

personalization and customization
- Service – through help desk as well as through customer care
Fig 10.1: Customer interface and CRM application components
 Need for implementing CRM
• Better analytics improves their relationship with customers,
as they are able to share more information between their
employees which leads further to better strategic decisions.
(Shoe- Suspension- cushioning- Lighter- Grip)

• Integrating CRM helps the organisation in providing

information on customer profiles, for segmenting markets
further. ( Cotton – Stan-collar …….

• The feedback generated through its sales, campaigns and

service gives them the right information in regards to what
their customers feel about them so that they can fine-tune
their strategies for better performance.
 Framework for implementing CRM
• Strategy formulation or the Development process – which
starts with a business vision that the company and its
management have in mind ( Allen Solly- Peter)
• Value creation – is the means by which we create and
deliver value to the customer segment
• Information management – involves ways in which the
customer information is organized and then replicated
further for improving the CRM activities by the organization
• Multichannel integration – helps the company in mapping
themselves further to attract and hold its customers
• Performance assessment – for finding ways to enhance
their profits and shareholders value
 Implementing CRM projects
• Assessment of CRM readiness – in regard to whether the
organization is prepared for the CRM implementation
against the costs and utility.
• CRM Change Management – to take care of the dynamics
of CRM for its people as well as processes because
adopting technology may not be the only success criteria
for the organization

• CRM Project Management – controls the time scales and

the budget while implementing CRM in the organization

• Employee Engagement – for developing and operate its

customer focused systems and processes without the help
of motivated and trained employees
 Key to CRM Implementation
• Presence of a committed senior executive – which is crucial to the success of the
implementation process
• Commitment of the team – to further boost the performance of the team as they feel
proud to be associated with them
• Project manager- to handle specifically customer service/ sales and marketing
• Planning and process analysis – for a complete customer lifecycle study by creating a
‘Model office’ installation to test the business processes against the unmodified CRM
software to be implemented in the organization
• Facilitation - through involvement of an external consultant who acts as a facilitator
in the whole implementation process
• Define success - goals of the organization have to be determined in advance and the
same must be documented
• Phased approach – implementation done in a phased manner starting with a specific
functional unit and then expanding to other functional areas across the organization
• Keep simple – by starting from the basic by listing the core features followed by other
processes in a phased manner
• Training of employees – for the people focusing not only on the operation of the
product but also on the specific tasks to be performed after implementing the
software
 Successful CRM implementation
• Design – to automate a part of the business
with the help of software
{ Points, type of membership, redeemable}

• Develop – prepare an environment

• Implement – for making it feasible
• Evaluation – to gauge its success
 Design
• Formation of the project team – with the project manager as
the key member with other members from other areas of the
company who will use the software
• Definition of the project – including its objectives and scope
and a plan is then prepared including the tasks to be performed
and the person responsible
• Project plan – to executed in a phased manner and the
consultant must help the company with his expertise and
experience to determine what is to be included in each phase
• Business process analysis – by reviewing and mapping its
current processes of the CRM system, identifying and resolving
the gaps, documenting it as well as defining the reporting needs
based on its working.
 Develop
• Prepare the production environment – for assessing the
need of the right hardware and software to support the
CRM system
• Development and testing the data migration – to assist the
organization in importing the older data and include it in its
product training
• Configuring and customizing – as the CRM systems cannot
be used as it has to be configured and customized based on
the situation and the environmental changes
• Model office review – comes into existence after the
project team completes the system configuration and
documentation of the business processes
 Implement
• Training of users- in regards to rehearsals of different
processes to make people well versed on the system
• Finalize configuration – both network and application
• Final data migration – The data at this point is
integrated several times during the development
phase and is ensured further for smooth functioning
• Installing workstation – migration of its final data and
the end user workstation are installed in tandem
• Going live in the production system – by training
every user before going live and it is also
recommended that the users must be disconnected
from the old system totally
 Evaluation
• Supporting the implementation – The CRM
administration must provide a buffer time for the
employees so that they have hands-on-experience on
the usage of CRM
• Review of the project – to find what process can be kept
and what can be discarded to meet the business
requirements of the company
• Next phase of planning – After the post-mortem
meeting, planning should start for the next phase to
recommend further changes to be made in the company
 Corporate Performance Management
(CPM)
The most critical parts in the CPM initiative of organisation are as
follows:
• Selecting a vendor who has done a few implementation in the
specific industry and can provide the right CPM tools (sales
forecasting and customer profitability management)

• Understanding the process prevalent in the organisation and

defining its Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

• Negotiating a budget which may not be a burden for the

organisation and aligns its strategy and its execution to enhance its
efficiency and performance.
• Make investments in educating their employees and train them
before the deployment of the CPM systems.
 Customer Interaction in HDFC Bank
• In HDFC , different transactions are done by customers and these
are forwarded to its Relationship Manager for action through its
real time product recommendation engine.
• The relationship manager tries to utilise the information available
to him of his assigned group of customers by using the following
information available with him in regards to the profile of its
customers, current product portfolio with a real time view of the
transaction history, list of dynamically generated questions etc.

• In these the product which is likely to be offered is based on his

scorecard generated dynamically with the help of various
business models being used by the bank.
• The events on the channel itself shows the customer interaction
done by the bank on a real time basis.
Impact on existing relationship Banking

New potential expanded relationship Banking

How Increment revenue and locking of funds

Event overview The customer transferred a large amount of money

in saving accounts. Chances are that customer has
surplus funds which is being parked temporarily in
its savings account. See whether the customer is
interested in improving the return of funds through
a fixed deposit
Event Implication Cross-sell time deposit to the customer. The time window
is small as there is the risk that funds may go out of the
bank and therefore need to lock quickly

Potential offer Fixed Deposit

Table 10.1 : HIGH VALUE CREDIT IN SAVINGS ACCOUNT

Choosing an appropriate CRM solution
• Price – as an important element in selection
• Clear business objectives – with well defined goals
• On demand CRM vs onsite – to understand its
positive and negative implications
• Scalability – to enhance its growth in business
• Vendor strength and reputation – in regards to
their experience in regards to seamless
functioning, as well as strengths and weaknesses
of the application etc.
 Choosing the right CRM vendor
• Profile of the customers and industry – where they
have implemented CRM
• Experience and expertise in its business – to gauge
the success of their earlier deployments
• Networks and associations – of their local partners in
the implementation history, certification status etc.
• Choice of technology – options needed for
deployments
• Free trial/Demo – to check its functionality and its
utility
 Enterprise Resource Planning
• Integration of CRM with ERP
• Creation of an ERP Master Record from a CRM Record
• View Customer Financial Summary Information in CRM
• View Invoice and sales order history in CRM
• CRM Quote to ERP order
• Field service Integration with CRM
• Integration Relationship Management Application
• Professional services and other time billings
• Other CRM-ERP Integration Touch points
 Issues in adoption of CRM

1.The attitude as well as integration of people and

processes with technology.
2.Getting the staff to use the installed system in the
organisation.
3. Staff are only able to use half of the functionality of
the system as they lack training or do not have an
interest to learn it.
4. Synchronisation of data not proper due to which
they face problem in its usage.
5. Finding time to evaluate their problem and redress
it.
 Return of Investment of CRM
The estimation of ROI of CRM determines the necessity of CRM as
well as the type of strategy which has to be developed and how
should it be implemented.

ROI(%)=Profits/Investmentx100%

The formula for calculating ROI is simple but in application there

are some critical factors which has to answered in regards to

What should be categorized as the investments of CRM?

What are to be calculated as return of the investment ?
What is the time period in which ROI will be measured?