I was speaking with a friend today who was feeling pretty frustrated. You see, he had purchased a CRM product for his business, but it wasn’t doing what he wanted. The vendor had considered that he had done his part - sell the product, install it on site, provide the user documentation, all thumbs up….

What the client actually needed was:

1. Assistance to clearly understand how to implement CRM as a strategy

2. Get the people on the bus committed to the approach

3. Define the new processes, and define these into an agreed requirements document

4. The vendor to configure the application to meet the defined requirements

5. The vendor to train the users and the administrator in exactly how to make CRM technology deliver on the CRM strategy

6. The vendor to come back and check / realign things after staff have been using it for awhile

My recommendation to you - be very, very wary of buying any software that runs across your business without buying implementation services (not just technical ones, but solid business analysis).

So, what is your experience? Please share the good, bad and the ugly, I’d love to get your feedback….

See my post on people, process and technology for more on getting software implementation right.