Trouble-Free CRM Installations

By Ryan Ayers
Updated: May 09, 2012

Purchasing a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution for your business is generally a significant investment of expense, resources, and time for businesses. Ensuring that you have purchased a system that can be easily and quickly deployed and will be an effective tool in helping you better manage your customers and resources over time is an important part of your purchasing decision and should be factored into the decision making process when comparing CRM providers.

Compatibility Counts

One of the easiest ways to ensure that your new CRM solution will effectively and easily integrate into your business once purchased and deployed is to take the time to find the right fit before your business purchases a solution. Making sure that the modules included in a CRM system are well suited to your workflow and that they match your employees’ duties and typical interactions will make the implementation and installation of your new CRM infinitely easier. With the variety of CRM options now available to businesses of all types, and the ability to customize key features and modules, you should have little trouble finding a CRM solution that will fit into your processes.

Compatibility Factors:

• Do modules meet your main criteria?
• Are there many additional process steps being added into your workflow?
• Is it realistic to ask your employees to adopt these new requirements?
• Is the CRM system designed for your business type?

What Does Your CRM Need?

Among the top reasons that businesses cite for their CRM installations becoming problematic, or for the systems themselves being seen as ineffectual, is that the proper solution was not chosen in a given scenario. Finding the CRM solution that provides the features and modules that your business and your employees need most is of paramount importance for it to be used effectively. Deciding which key features that you will need present, and choosing from your available CRM options based on these criteria, will help you find a CRM solution that will work for your business long term and will ensure that your installation and deployment runs smoothly.

Don’t Forget the Training

This may seem like a basic suggestion, but there are training and implementation factors that will play a large role in the installation and proper use of your CRM solution. Many businesses opt for CRM solutions that incorporate some form of ongoing support and/or initial training for their employees to help them get the most out of their CRM and to help transition into their new product more efficiently. To lessen the chances of problems when you are installing your new CRM solution, it is helpful to either have adequate training and instruction from your provider or to allow the time for your employees to become adept at the many different aspects of this new system. Unlike many other systems, CRM solutions can be daunting as new systems and often take a bit of getting used to in order to become proficient with.

CRM systems are a game changing concept for many businesses, and can help you track and assess sales prospects, customer needs, and a variety of other activities that will allow your business to become more agile and responsive. By their nature, they are a bit more intensive than certain other business solutions, and should be chosen as much for their fit with your particular operations as for their functionality.