|
|
CRM Project Monitoring (4)
An Interactive Session Between G-CEM Member And Advisors
Dr. David Yuan, CRM Director, Accenture Consulting
www.g-cem.org
Question : The unclear responsibilities of the involved parties (software, SI, implementation parties), especially for the failed projects, in CRM implementations are so common in China. Is it possible to find a 3rd party to monitor the whole thing, just like in construction industry? Please inform how is that 3rd party operating and functioning. Thanks so much.
I Completely Agree With Your Observation And I Am Recommending The Following For Consideration.
Dr. David Yuan, CRM Director, Accenture Consulting
1. The supervision and management party should possess professional qualifications that would allow them to objectively judge the quality and qualification of the project. Therefore, you should look for a certain brand name that is recognized both internationally as well as domestically.
2. The judgment released by the supervision and management party must be independent and must not be influenced by any other parties (including the customers). Once the supervision and management party is chosen, basic payment should be made in advance to prevent any influence in in the final judgment due to payment disputes.
3. Provide sufficient authority to the supervision and management party. Allow the party to do spot-checks, observations and utilizations any time during the course of implementation.
4. There should not be any implications or conflictions of interest between the supervision and management party and the implementation party. There should not have any other direct communication between both parties besides the contact carried out in the context of operational matters.
5. The responsibility undertaken by the supervision and management party should be described in detail in the contract. The supervision and management party must actively manage reports from customers and implementation parties and not merely initiate signatures on the reports.
6. A solid and well-established consultant firm will be able to carry out supervisory, management and planning of the project well.
7. It is often the case that the functions described above are carried out by professional organizations. Under the present situation of not having these kinds of organizations in China, one means of policing such job functions could be through initiating columns in related websites and publishing the results of such third party involvement in CRM projects to the public.
Consultation Of A Third Party
Mr. Kayeer Fan, Chief of G-CEM Research Institute, 3C Method Certified Consultant
The difference between the management consultant firm and the consultant firm or independent consultant that provides supervision and management services is that, the later is not affiliated to any of the software manufacturers i.e. they are vendor neutral. Their neutral stand enables them to participate in system model selection, project supervision and management more transparently. These firms, which provide first party advisory services to the enterprises, can solve the problem of information imbalance between enterprises, consultant firms and software companies, allowing the enterprises to determine the goal of their project and assisting them to carry out project supervision and management. Thus, they guarantee the successful implementation of the projects.
During the course of project implementation, often there is an information imbalance between the enterprise users, the consultant firm and the CRM software manufacturers. For the enterprise, this results in the internal team being unable to carry out scientific planning, select appropriate consultation partner and software system at the beginning of project implementation. It also becomes difficult to monitor the project implementation during the course; therefore directly causing CRM projects to fail. In situations such as this, it makes sense to get first party advisory services provided by a neutral third party organization, it will undertake the responsibility for the enterprise and provide clear instructions and safeguards for project implementation. This can prevent and reduce the project risk for the enterprise.
As a project develops, it is often difficult for the CRM software manufacturer to grasp the dynamic demands of the enterprise users. The enterprise users will continually change their requirements in accordance to the development and changes of their enterprise. However, the CRM software manufacturer actually often is sealed in a stage of self-development and deviates from the market unknowingly. The two crucial parts in the CRM market are: a lack of linking up and integration of between the user and the software manufacturer by a neutral third party and secondly (and possibly as a result of the first) there is a phenomenon of minor dispute over small matters, making some CRM projects or CRM demands severely painful and frustrating. The third party consultation company links up the customer and the vendor and acts a watchdog over possible areas of misunderstanding or unaligned expectations.
With regards to the question of project management and implementation for the implementing party, as there is no uniform standard and stipulation in the professional sector and the enterprise user is not necessarily has domain knowledge in CRM implementation, it may not be able to pro-actively control the risks and the problems and end up leaving all decisions at the discretion of the implementing party. A specialized consultant firm (companies that are independent and not associated to any particular software manufacturer) or an independent consultant will carry out project supervision and management functions, such as defining features, selecting a system model, selecting a suitable vendor, , appraisal of projects from an objective standpoint and help the enterprise user to control project risk more effectively. This in turn will increase the likelihood of project success.
The exact work scope needs to be determined depending on the companies involved in the project.
Certainly, I personally would be able to provide independent consultation of CRM supervision and management service for our members.
Having A Third Party Project Management Team Alone Will Not Solve The Problem Of Disputes Over Small Matters.
Grant Zhang, Marketing & Sales Manager, Shanghai eCaseSoft Co., Ltd.
In fact, the question you brought up is rather general. In my own experience, having a third party project management team alone will not solve this problem. This is a problem that is not exclusive to CRM projects but which occurs in the implementation of any application software.
Let's look at the cause of the emerging problem first. It can mainly be divided into two areas. Problems on the users' end and problems on the vendor's end.
We will look at the users' problems first. In fact, most of the problems that arise in application system implementation by enterprises in China stem from the users side. However, a lot of the users do not realize or are not willing to admit this. Problems that fall into this area include : the goal of implementing the system is not determined, ambiguity in management procedures internally (this points in turn to management problems), coordination dynamics (This is probably the most serious problem). The top-level management are often at fault. They are only superficially involved in the day-to-day operations, they do not concern themselves about the existing practical problems and do not bother to implement corresponding coordination. The business section also tends to give the excuse of being too busy to be involved. Requirements feedback often takes a back seat to one's work. When the problems arise, all the responsibilities are been pushed to the supplier. This is unfair to the supplier.
On the side of the supplier there are problems as well. Because of fierce competition, the suppliers often make impractical promises and are forced to lower the expenses too excessively. This results in problems in terms of flow of project technical staff and user expectations. This will all impact the final success of the project.
The above problems occur naturally and will not definitely be resolved by bringing in an objective third party.
That being said, the supervision and management party (or consultation party) can play an excellent role in recommending, consulting and controlling the project. The party must understand the idea of a CRM system, have a grasp of the standard feature set in a CRM system and the resource conditions that are needed to implement these systems. The party also must be able to communicate well with the decision-making and management layer of the customer, determine the problems and the goal that the CRM system must solve, all this taking into account the economic and environmental constraints of the customer. . Another responsibility of the supervision and management party is to help the user to choose a supplier. The party should have a detailed grasp of the CRM industry with knowledge of the skill sets of the different vendor and their reference customers. If conditions permit, the party should make some private investigations. Another thing to be noted: besides understanding the status of these companies, the more important thing is the party must understand the qualifications of the project team, in terms of their project experience and technical backgrounds. Their ability plays a very vital role in success or failure of the project implementation. Finally, after the launch of the project implementation, the supervision and management party has to monitor the implementation scope of the project and the progress of the implementation. The implementation scope is mainly focused on the user because the business personnel of the user can often propose more demands during the course of implementation. The party has to authenticate the necessity of these demands and disallow any abuse of scope. The implementation progress of the work mainly focuses on the supplier. The parties must communicate frequently and understand the work situation and carry out investigations and update the users. No doubt, the user needs to plan for extra expenses if he wishes to engage supervision and management personnel. As a user, you need to have sufficient budget,, attention and support from the decision-making level.
The True Need For Such Services
Mr. Sean Cao, Consultant, Accenture Consulting
Although it is still very rare to have third party supervision and management procedures even in large-scale projects, there have been attempts have carried out in some projects. Accenture has been hired to be the project supervision and management party to conduct supervision on operational and performance quality of a project under one of our customers in China. However, as a customer, the purpose of engaging such personnel generally is not to solve the phenomenon you mentioned but to enhance the project quality and ensure the success of the project. The supervision and management party is not the main contractor for the project and he does not take charge of the managing the relationship with the supplier. Therefore the customers need certain leadership and decision-making ability themselves during the period of cooperation between the three parties, namely: the customers, the vendor and the supervision and management party in order to coordinate the relationships and the interests of all involved. Hence, in view of preventing phenomenon of dispute over trifles in the CRM project implementation course, what we need is not merely supervision and management but a main contractor that can be trusted and with abundance experience in managing and implementing large-scale CRM projects.
Talents Of With Quality
Mr. Deng Meng, President, SYNLEAD
This is a good recommendation, I support it (It may also increase the employment opportunities!). Hopefully the supervision and management party will not be involved in supervising and managing the small matters in CRM implementation. I do not think the customer should pay them to do so either. Besides making sure all involved are adhering to the vision, other characteristics the supervision and management party should possess include:
1) Expertise in CRM methodology
2) Expertise in IT System Integration
This allows them to ensure suppliers do not cheat in terms of technical materials or labor.
3) Expertise in CRM project appraisals
This allows the third party to justify and defend various decisions and actions made during the course of the project implementation.
4) The ability to be objective, work well with the vendor.
In a nutshell, the supervision and management party needs to be of exceptional quality in terms of domain knowledge (in CRM and IT), people skills and certification. We should see these sort of special people rising up soon.
|
|
|
Email to Friends |
Print
|
|
|
|
| Top |
|
|
