From evaluation
SOLUTION OR PART OF THE PROBLEM?
“David Jacobs poses the key questions you should ask when considering new systems that have a sales or customer focus.
A new system is often seen by the modern business as a solution to its problems. But without a careful questioning approach, the introduction of such a system can easily become more of a problem than a solution.
Worse, in the customer-facing systems arena, not ‘getting it right’ can be more damaging than in other areas of the business – resulting in loss of sales or even complete business meltdown.
As a start point, most people accept that projects to implement customer-facing systems usually fail when run as a technical exercise. This is so well-known that we should be way beyond such misapprehensions by now. The problem is, we don’t get much detail on how to run projects as a truly business-led exercise in order to end up with the perfectly aligned IS/IT and business functions the pundits talk so much about. We know we need to focus on business objectives but after that the signal goes weak.
One way forward is to ask the following key questions when you are faced with a possible systems project in the customer area. After each question, there is a short analysis describing how to get it right:
Question 1: Do you really need more ‘computerisation’?
Too often the sales department believes it needs ‘a new CRM system’ when in fact that’s not the real problem. Challenge the assumption that poor systems are to blame: is it improved business processes you need rather than improved software systems?
For example, I was once asked to specify requirements for a project to implement a package solution for a media sales business. What I found was, in fact, the client needed a new set of business processes before any new systems could be usefully considered. The existing processes were highly complex having evolved over time in a semi-manual environment; and shadowing them in a new software system (package) would have been almost impossible without an inordinate degree of customisation.
The new system was seen by management as ‘the answer’ when in fact it was a delusion that a new system would clean up their processes. Please be aware that any remit to change processes as little as possible when matching them to incoming software is dangerous, in terms of achieving business value. Any business process in scope has to be in very good shape at the very least or you will waste time and money computerising it.
Likewise, in order to get maximum value from your project, you need to know at least roughly where value comes from.
Further on, in Question 3, I present four categories of possible value. Once you know about these categories you can see why implementing new systems against complex processes without re-engineering the processes, or at least critically re-assessing them, can be so costly.
So, ask yourself what else you could do, pragmatically, to improve the customers’ experience (without making them pay for your time – there are too many poorly designed websites around where the customer is asked to do most of the work, gets frustrated and logs off!).“
