Three customer cases that may be recognizable to you
Below, I describe three customer cases based on personal experience, for which my activities will bring value to your project. My activities focus on increasing user adoption and aligning real-life work floor processes with your new software systems. On top of that, I will help you build a comprehensive roadmap for a smooth execution of your project.
Bad User Adoption
We have a problem with CRM user adoption. We have invested a lot of resources in the development of the tool, but user adoption after go-live is very low. We fear the estimated Return-on-Investment of our new CRM-tool will never be realised.
Sales Manager of Company X
In order for a project to be successful, it must generate the Return-on-Investment (ROI) that the executive sponsor and project team has defined in the project business case. The ROI of a project equals the estimated recurring project benefits minus the project costs (one-time + recurring costs).
Did you know that in large software projects that involve users, 80% or more of the project benefits depend directly on user adoption?
With proper change management, you will be able to secure that 80% of project benefits. Meaning that every Euro you invest in change management activities, will earn itself back very easily.
With proper change management, you will be able to secure that 80% of project benefits. Meaning that every Euro you invest in change management activities, will earn itself back very easily.
Where to start first
Our sales people currently use their email inbox as focal point of their day-to-day activities. We want to introduce a new CRM-system that will make collaboration much easier and that will give colleagues and management more visibility on the activity levels and forecasts of the sales team. But where do we start?
Project Manager at Company Y
When a company does not have one central system to manage customer relations, employees often use their email inbox as central system, in combination with Excel and Word or other office software tools.
The moment a company starts to look for a new CRM system, the choice of the right software tool is only secondary to obtaining a deeper insight into the business processes and how the current tools are used.
The moment a company starts to look for a new CRM system, the choice of the right software tool is only secondary to obtaining a deeper insight into the business processes and how the current tools are used.
Many companies still spend much more time comparing functionalities and prices of software solutions than they spend time in analysing, streamlining and documenting processes. This is wrong!
It is better to start with (1) a detailed business process analysis; (2) Have all processes been reviewed, (re)designed and validated by management and key users; (3) Continue with refining processes into subprocesses, epics and user stories; and (4) only then start comparing functionalities of possible software solutions.
It is better to start with (1) a detailed business process analysis; (2) Have all processes been reviewed, (re)designed and validated by management and key users; (3) Continue with refining processes into subprocesses, epics and user stories; and (4) only then start comparing functionalities of possible software solutions.
Work floor and management not aligned on business processes
During the course of our CRM-project, management stakeholders have defined and validated the AS IS and TO BE business processes that are now implemented in our test environment. During Sprint demo’s and UAT testing, we have come to the conclusion that the supposed AS IS processes do not match the reality of the work floor. This causes the project team a lot of rework and weighs heavily on the project ROI.
Project Manager and Product Owner at Company Z
On one hand companies may or may not have a set of well documented processes and procedures. On the other hand, people on the work floor often introduce and coach new hires in how to (mis)use systems and shortcut lengthy and overly complex ways of getting things done. And the theoretical way of doing things is replaced by undocumented best practices.
A proper validation of AS IS processes both by management and key users on the work floor is absolutely necessary, before moving to the next step in your CRM project. Challenges and pain points in your current processes may be perceived differently by the management and users. One group may already have a solution for an issue that the other group has detected, and vice versa.
A detailed and professional analysis of your AS IS processes and proper validation by every stakeholder of the new TO BE processes, are essential for a successful project. If you skip this step, problems will start to arise during user story validation, demo’s, UAT testing or - worst case scenario – only after the Go-live. All these problems will have a devastating impact on user adoption in the short and long term.
A detailed and professional analysis of your AS IS processes and proper validation by every stakeholder of the new TO BE processes, are essential for a successful project. If you skip this step, problems will start to arise during user story validation, demo’s, UAT testing or - worst case scenario – only after the Go-live. All these problems will have a devastating impact on user adoption in the short and long term.
