Maybe you’ve been there. A company invests a lot of money on expensive software, but something goes wrong during its implementation and nobody wants to use the new solution. We experienced a similar situation with our long-term client P3.
- Many companies do not have the time or people to implement large, expensive solutions. Their investment is sadly often wasted
- People are always more important than software. Always find out what they want and how they are used to working. If you try to change their habits too much; you will most likely fail.
What can your data do for you?
Large projects often start with small details. This was the case with our client, P3, for whom we have been doing IT support since 2003. When you find out that a receptionist has installed a new service on her computer that allows her to scan in business cards and send them on by mail, you’re faced with two options. You can either ignore it, or you can try and understand why.
So we found out that even though there was a CRM system in place (part of the ZOHO software suite), most of the employees were bypassing it. As we investigated further, we discovered that individual departments weren’t connected and didn't share their business data. Everyone was using different proprietary solutions for the same task.
Ninety-seven percent gap
The client’s data wasn’t consolidated - and so it wasn’t possible to take full advantage of the installed CRM tool. P3 was using about 3% of it’s capabilities.
But the business potential was enormous. The data contained about 10.000 contacts, 7.000 companies and 4.000 leads!
We decided that we couldn’t just let clients investment go to waste so we promised to put the database together within two months and implement CRM to serve everyone in the company.
A pencil has to be sharp if you want people to use it
Before you decide on any solution, try to understand what your people want and need. You’ll save yourself a lot of headaches. In our experience, it’s never good to try to make people adapt to software. In fact just the opposite.
The problem is usually not the software itself, but poor implementation. Implementers often have their own way of doing things that may not fit your business needs.
Empathising with the users right at the start always pays off. And it pays double when like us, you are trying to implement something with which employees have already had a bad experience mainly because no-one put it into context for them and they’re not aware of the broader business benefit.
The secret of success is preparation, preparation, then more preparation
First, find out how things work in your business. Talk to everyone involved in the deployment of the new software. Ask anyone who needs to use it, what they need and how they like to work. Don’t focus on the tool itself but rather how it can help people. How could it make their lives easier? Users only accept new ideas, processes and solutions when it benefits them. It’s a mistake to believe that they will change their habits just because of some new software.
Reunited
Once we’d identified the needs of the users, we gradually started to implement the solution. Bit by bit we transferred the entire business over to ZOHO and taught the employees how to use it and showed them how it could help them. Tasks they previously did in Excel or MailChimp they now did in the new tool.
We’ve consolidated all data originally stored across a myriad of media into one data format and uploaded it to CRM. Data is now shared by all departments and branches, so they can monitor key customer activity and develop company wide business strategies accordingly. Customers can be easily tagged and categorised into activity, turnover, location etc. which means that the marketing activity is more accurate, more focused and more effective.
Main features
- Interactive reporting
- Online availability
- Team collaboration
- Mobile ready
- Each module has its own application
Outstanding benefits
- We saved the company money. Hooray! Who wouldn’t be happy?
- We simplified their internal processes. Doing things in one application is better than doing them in three.
- The percentage of respondents to campaigns rose rapidly - emails don’t appear as spam - the credibility of the business and the brand increased.
- Data security improved. Having all your contacts in one place means it's easier to track abuse, for example, should anyone steal a contact database.
What about our initial promise?
We did say that we would do all the work in 2 months. And yes - we have to admit the implementation actually took two and a half months. But then after three months the applause came. It was at this time that positive changes started to appear and management and employees were able to assess the benefits of the change.
Martin Krivy
Founder and CEO of Dworkin
Approach matters
The advantage of our way of working to a client is that we are able to use this approach to solve similar challenges from beginning to end, all whilst involving the users. Few clients have the time or people to do this. Another bonus is our team. We have people who have management experience of mergers and acquisitions, and restructuring companies. Moreover, we are focused on more than implementation. We concentrate on making sure that once we’ve left site everything still runs smoothly.
