Do you know which user requirements to ignore?
In CRM projects, you must talk to and involve the end users and understand their requirements, it’s necessary and also considerate to do so. It’s best not to impose a system on them and you should build a system that works for them but there is a lot of interpretation needed to translate what the users say they need, into a working useable system.
For example, people say things like “I’d like the accounts team to check a box on a customer record when they want to show the sales team that the account is on hold and we shouldn’t sell to them”. The translation being, sales teams need to be able to see when an account is on hold. Different CRM systems and different implementations can deliver this in different ways. Finding the most elegant solution, that will be the best in terms of usability, often means ignoring the stated requirement and reinterpreting it.
If this is done badly, you could have very unhappy clients and that’s why so many consultants prefer the safe route of taking down exactly what the clients ask for. They deliver software configured according to those requirements and voila, their backs are covered even if the result is an over engineered piece of software that’s awkward to use.
But a wise consultant will know the software, work with its predetermined structures as much as they can and gently steer user requirements so that the customisation is minimised and the inherent workflows and functionality that exist in the software are kept intact.
Great developers of great software understand that user requirements need interpretation. It shows in their software. Look for this software and look for consultants who understand people and how they use software, and good things will happen in your business.
Hi
Thanks for your post. We don’t have a facebook profile – just this blog (dataandmash.com) and our main company site http://www.70fathoms.com. Feel free to email me directly on kate.mayfield@70fathoms.com if we can help further though with any questions or information. Kate
I think the moral of this story is speak to CRM professionals and consultants. An outside perspective can often enlighten
Couldn’t agree more
but then, that’s what we do so I would say that. Thanks for your comment databroker.
Just want to share the way we handle system requirements. Of course, we are in beneficial situation, since we implement a product that we develop, hence we know every detail of it. Though, our consultants experience the same issues when translating customer requirements.
The way we solve this problem is quite new, at least I’ve never heard about similar approaches from our dear competitors. We have developed Requirements Management Solution. This solution enables consultants visualize all customizations right in our interface to help customers ‘touch’ the future solution and make corrections before we start programming.
There are two major benefits of this approach. First of all, we approve all customizations faster. Second, we can track all changes in requirements that are made by customers during the project. That helps project manager approve project budget, scope and time.
Hi Bob
Thanks for this – sounds interesting. Do you have a screenshot of your system showing this and we’ll post it? Sounds a bit like the visual tool that Salesforce are developing/launched last year. We think it’s a very good idea. Helps non technical users having tools like this. Thanks for posting! Kate
Very well put. It’s an art to interpret business requirements and design software functionality that both delivers a solution to the problem and maintains harmony with the rest of the software. It then requires sales effort to sell what was developed to the customer who thought they were going to get something else. This whole process is critical for software developers who sell a software product, rather than custom/bespoke software.
Thanks Dan, glad it hit the spot.
Great point. I one time took requirements from a manager who over-rode the needs of his team. The result was that the team was unhappy with my work and they didn’t get full use out of the software. The manager never looked at it again.
Ouch. A familiar and painful situation.
This is so true, I often also find that customers sometimes request features that they won’t use even if it existed. When a CRM system is being specified, the requirements can be very long and detailed, however we find people take time to start using all features and some never get around to it. Wishful thinking. As much should be automated, so in the example above, if the payments are integrated into the CRM system, if an account falls behind on payments or the system should flag the account up automatically and after a certain period also lock it. Off course for allowing for some people to have the ability to override and force lock an account.
Yes, it’s like the marketing adage, only 50% of my marketing works, but working out which half is difficult. Same with CRM, I know I’ll probably only use 20% of it, but I don’t know which 20% I need.