Case study – CRM platform deployment

Case study – CRM platform deployment

Context

• Client (finance sector) ordered a service for building and deploying CRM platform replacing several old software systems
• My company was offering services of building, customisation, integration and delivery of a SasS platforms
• In this case client opted for MS Dynamics CRM with significant modification: Custom CS process and tooling + Integration with Voice (we delivered also software for that) Customisation and automatisation of sales and operation processes: integration with finance and backend systems (payments, invoices, customer data)

Goal

• Build effective sales, operation and customer support processes on top of modern technology -> simplify operations, reduce costs and enable growth

Data

• Our client had 100+ thousands customers and a few hundreds employees involved in sales,operations and CS
• Team: from 6-8 people grew to 20+ developers, testers, admins, analysts
• Cost: initially 3-6 months of work quoted at a few hundreds thousands PLN, grew to 18 months long projects with end quote around 1.5 mln PLN

What i done / how it looked

1. Initially project was thought as a simple deployment of a CRM platform
2. Yet after just a few weeks it was apparent that client expectation and company plans were not aligned, that project suffered from initial misunderstandings and tensions only grew
3. I joined the project in the mid of initial timeline, where it was already apparent that what client expected is not going to be addressed
4. I took the role of lead business and system analyst and joined project leadership. My responsibility was to make do-over of initial requirements analysis, represent company and project in front of stakeholders and guide dev team to deliver solution that customer is expecting Identification of core issue – After initial investigation it was clear for me that requirements analysis done at initial phase was ignoring a lot of hidden but actual client’s expectations Fixing relationships – I was able to fix relationships with stakeholders. Before my join the team, relations were tense – lack of mutual understanding, low trust. In about a few weeks of my work with stakeholders (i.e. Customer Support director, Head of Operations, Director of Sales) we went back to substantive work on project goals, scope and deliverables. I was able to gain stakeholder trust and in we moved from tense arguing to mutual work on reaching products goals Guiding the dev team – I quickly understood that the problem laid not only in poorly set project plans but also in lack of understanding of subject matter (finance services, leasing contracts). The team didn’t understand what they were building and for what. I translated business specifics into technical terms, coached dev team on problem specific terms and cooperation with the stakeholders Proposing solutions instead of just waiting for requests – initial approach and the project inception, was “let’s write what the client wants and implement that”. It failed. I changed that approach to "Listen what customer is saying, understand what they need and propose solution”. And thanks to that my company and project moved from mere implementer to knowledge provider Improving validation and tests – additional issues with delivery were caused by poor quality. Dev team had to improve their testing skills and approach. I also took over responsibility for leading a 3 persons test team. I built a proper testing approach, make the whole process more productive and meaningful, delivering right insights to dev teams, cooperating with client on UAT and technical tests.

Results

• Saved project – situation between our company and the client was difficult, and on the horizon was an option of losing contract
• Changed culture of work with the customer
• Changed what is in the scope of requirements analysis

Learnings

1. You have to understand your client. Ask “why”, ask “what it means for you”, listen, ask again, discuss.
2. Delivering any product, building a bespoke solution is ALWAYS a team play. And the client is also part of the team. Only together you will be able to deliver right solution.
3. When you are working with the customer you are not just responsible for delivering a working piece of software. You are solving their problem, not just giving them tools.