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Customer Relationship Management Systems: Three

Decision Opportunities for Matching Technology with Tactics
by Richard Barrington
Introduction

With any business technology, there is something of a chicken-and-egg relationship between the nature of
that technology and the tactics that make use of that technology. Because of the time and expense involved in
acquiring and implementing technology systems, it is easy for them to become entrenched in an organization
and effectively drive—or limit—the business tactics being used. Ideally though, a company would make its
technology choices around the tactics that are best suited to its business characteristics and goals. This is
especially true with customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

CRM systems are evolving at a rapid pace, so the longer a CRM system has been entrenched, the greater the
likelihood that it is limiting company tactics to some degree. A company can only be free to pursue the best
possible practices if it starts by thinking about CRM-related tactics independently of the technology in place,
and then looks for ways to match the technology to the tactics it wishes to pursue.

This white paper looks at decision opportunities that allow companies in various situations—from those
choosing their first CRM systems to those who don’t feel they are in a position to upgrade right now—to apply
this method of thinking. It then highlights several examples of tactical goals, and the CRM system attributes that
go with them. Finally, this paper shows case studies of situations in which companies have successfully selected
CRM systems based on goals they wished to pursue.

CRM Systems and Tactics: Decision Opportunities

There are three major types of decision opportunities with respect to CRM systems, each of which carries its
own particular challenges for those involved:

1. Choosing an initial CRM system. Starting with a blank slate might seem ideal for the principle of
choosing technology to match the company’s tactics. The challenge here, though, is in knowing enough
about CRM systems and practices to envision the full range of tactics that might be possible.
2. Upgrading a CRM system. When a company is in an upgrading mode, it faces a couple of
challenges. One is not to simply perpetuate tactics that were limited by the incumbent system, and
thereby choose a similarly limited system. Another is to make sure conversion issues are addressed in
the selection process, so the company does not have to take a step backward in order to move forward.
3. Unable to change at the present time. For budget and/or operational reasons, companies are often
in a mode where it is not possible to entertain the idea of upgrading the CRM system. This might seem
like the opposite of a decision opportunity, but without the pressure of a deadline, over time a company
can formulate a very comprehensive wish list of tactics it would like to pursue, and the technology
necessary to pursue those tactics. Eventually, the opportunity to upgrade will come, and the decision will
be enhanced if this thought process is not forced into a compressed timeframe.

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Matching CRM Systems with Tactics

In the spirit of not letting the technology limit the tactics, it is useful to start with some fundamental CRM
goals, and then discuss which CRM system features may be most significant in meeting those goals. Assuming
any system has the basic database functionality to meet the fundamental goal of keeping track of customer and
prospect contact information, the following are some goals that will require some functionality beyond that.

• Customer and prospect targeting. Flexible reporting is a key system characteristic here, since
targeting opportunities will vary from situation to situation. Depending on how segmented a customer
base is, the degree of detail and customization in coding customer information may also be an issue.
• Sales force automation. This requires the capability to create and insert scripts and prompts to match
a variety of situations.
• Marketing campaign automation. The idea here is to have capabilities that both facilitate the
implementation of mass contacts, and keep such campaigns happening automatically on a regular
schedule.
• Sales force productivity reporting. The technology needed to support this includes some flexible
reporting capability along with both activity-based and results-based fields.
• Profitability analysis. Linking customer information with financial data requires either a broad
enterprise solution, or systems that are compatible enough to pass data back and forth.
• Linking a mobile or multi-location sales force. Hosted CRM solutions might be best suited for the
greatest freedom of access.
• Fast-growth scalability. Again, hosted CRM solutions might be a fit here because they can
accommodate growing user bases quickly, but ease of training should also be considered by companies
which need rapid staff increases.
• Handling a high-turnover workforce. Some professions inevitably face high turnover of sales
and service personnel, and such situations call for both ease of use and some degree of sales force
automation.
• Crafting a better customer experience. As companies look more and more to tailor a customer
experience around the preferences of their customers, feedback from those customers becomes a more
important component of customer relationship management. This can mean anything from tracking
buying behavior to recording input on user forums.

Of course, it is likely that a company will want to pursue some combination of the above goals. The point is, by
first identifying those goals, a company will start to create a profile of its CRM system requirements.

CRM System Case Studies

CRM programs have a greater chance for success when managers match the systems they choose with the
tactics they plan to pursue. Here are some examples of how companies successfully made the match between

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CRM systems and tactics:

• Amerifund, Inc. is a leading national equipment finance company. Not only are their financing
relationships complex, but Amerifund also serves a diverse client base, ranging from Fortune 100
companies to smaller organizations. As the company grew, it wished to increase the automation and
analytical methodology of its sales process. By choosing ACT! by Sage CRM software, Amerifund has
been able to advance beyond the stage of simply using CRM for storing contact information. ACT! by
Sage has enabled Amerifund to target customers based on their characteristics, and automate e-mail
campaigns. Security features have allowed Amerifund to use the CRM system to store complex financial
data on its customers while limiting access to sensitive information on the system. In short, by matching
its CRM system to both its sales automation goals and the nature of its customer base, Amerifund has
been able to pursue more complex and productive tactics.
• Sand Technology is a high-performance software company. One of their goals was to improve
responsiveness for customer service issues like software support. They recognized that the nature of
their business and products were somewhat unique, and so a priority in choosing CRM software was
to find a system that could be readily customized. By choosing a Soffront CRM system, they were able
to tailor the application to their needs. The Soffront system was flexible enough to readily adapt to
their existing data, minimizing conversion time. The net result was the increased responsiveness Sand
Technology sought, via a central database which greatly improved communication in the notification
about, and resolution of, software problems.
• Bridge Solutions has a highly-specialized business, helping oil and gas pipeline companies meet
regulatory standards for public communication. With approximately 600,000 contacts, the scale of this
challenge is enormous, but the regulatory component of the business also requires meticulous record-
keeping. Clearly, a robust CRM solution was called for, and Bridge Solutions chose Maximizer CRM
software. Maximizer software was able to offer both the customization and the integration with other
systems needed to handle the complex business challenges that Bridge Solutions faced. Crucially
though, the system was also user-friendly enough to keep training time to a minimum, allowing Bridge
Solutions to staff quickly enough to keep up with the scale of its business.

What links the above examples is that they demonstrate how no single, out-of-the-box solution is right for all
situations. Instead, managers will get the most out of CRM systems by choosing the best fit for their needs.

Conclusion

For a variety of reasons, managers often find themselves implementing tactics based on the technology at hand.
However, goals and tactics can be more freely chosen if they are formulated independently of technological
limitations, and then technology is chosen to meet those needs. Any company can do this if it looks at its
decision opportunities as a way to match technology to the desired tactics.

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About the Author

Richard Barrington is a freelance writer and novelist who previously spent over twenty years as an investment
industry executive.

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