Customer Relationship Management Implementation: ABC Corp.

This proposal discusses the implementation of a Hosted CRM system at ABC Corp. to improve customer service and increase efficiency. The proposal covers the planning, analysis, designing, development, implementation, and maintenance phases of the project. The existing system at ABC Corp. is also discussed, along with the challenges and risks associated with CRM implementation.

Running head: CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION
Customer Relationship Management Implementation: ABC Corp.
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

1CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
Cover letter to Sponsor
To,
[Name of the Sponsor]
[Designation]
[Location]
Sub: Proposal for ERP Implementation
After analysis of the condition of ABC Corp. we have understood the fact that the
organization need a new CRM system to be implemented so as to increase their efficient and
become an efficient organization. For this reason, we are looking forward and working with a
team in order to present a proposal for implementation of a Hosted CRM in the ABC Corp.
The New CRM solution that has been proposed would be capable of helping the organization
by taking assistance from the previous experiences that has been gained while working in the
industry and by providing numerous CRM solutions to clients located all across the globe.
Below is the proposal which would be consisting of all the aspects of the project. Besides this
various option has also been analyzed like the upgrading, new or custom built.
If you could spare us with some time then we can present the proposal in details which would
help in taking the final decision.
Regards
[Name]
[Designation]
[Location]

2CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
Executive Summary
The organization ABC Corp. has thought of implementing a new CRM system which would
be helping in the storing of all the customer and sales related data in the CRM system. The
practices of the organization would not be changed even after the implementation of the new
CRM system so as to fit the vendor’s CRM. The CRM is to be implemented in a customized
way so as to suit all the existing process of the organization. The CRM that is to be used is
the Hosted CRM which is accessible by making use of the web interface. The vendors are
associated with providing training to the end-users as well as to the system engineers.
Training is also provided so as to have further customization in new CRM systems if there is
any need of doing so. CRM would be entirely responsible for providing guidelines for the
organization so as to operate in an efficient way.

3CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
Table of Contents
Introduction:...................................................................................................................4
Discussion:.....................................................................................................................4
The existing system at ABC Corp:.............................................................................4
The New CRM implementation:................................................................................5
Planning phase:......................................................................................................5
Analysis phase:.......................................................................................................6
Designing phase:....................................................................................................6
Development phase:...............................................................................................8
Implementation Phase:.........................................................................................10
Testing phase:.......................................................................................................11
Maintenance phase:..............................................................................................12
Implication of the CRM system:..................................................................................12
Challenges or risks associated with CRM implementation:........................................13
Conclusion:..................................................................................................................14
References:...................................................................................................................16

4CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
Introduction:
CRM or the Customer Relationship Management generally refers to the specific
practices or the strategies or the technologies that are used by the companies for the purpose
of managing and analyzing the various customer interactions and the data throughout the
entire lifecycle of the customer. The CRM is having the aim of improving the customer
service relationships along with assisting them in the retention of the customers and driving
the growth of sales. The CRM systems are generally associated with getting compiled with
the customer data across different channels or the main point of contacts between the
customer and the company. This point of contacts might eb including the website of the
company or the telephone, or live chat and many more (Farhan, Ellatif and Abed 2017).
Besides this the CRM is also having the responsibility of providing the customer-facing staffs
a detailed information about the personal information of the customers along with their
purchasing history, the buying preferences and concerns as well. In this proposal we would
be mainly discussing about an organization ABC Corp. and its existing system. ABC Corp is
one of the Multinational Global Technology and IT service company that is associated with
delivering of business along with technology solutions to numerous fortune 500 companies as
well as to the SME or the Small and Medium sized enterprises all across the globe. Besides
this the proposal would also be putting forward a new Hosted CRM that can be used by the
organization so as to increase their overall performance.
Discussion:
The existing system at ABC Corp:
The implementation process of the new CRM was initiated by the organization so as
to make advancement in the processes of the organization (Khan et al. 2016). The first step of

5CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
the process is associated with including the buy-in of the top management along with
facilitation of the transformation process of the company into an organization which would
be customer-centric. The implantation of the new CRM system is not only considered to be
an implementation need but is also a business need that is it would be helping the
organization in facing the severe industry competition along with helping it in obtaining a
strategy which would help in the retention of good customers (Mellor 2018). One of the
biggest contributions along with the involvement in the CRM implementation process of the
senior management was in terms of the providing security to the adequate financial as well as
to human resources. The implementation of the CRM is to be kicked off by a through
assessment of the readiness for the successful implementation. The development of the
differentiated CRM strategy along with the alignment of the CRM strategy with the new
business strategies requires planning which are to be developed (Pedron et al. 2016). This
planning’s are in turn associated with breaking down of the CRM activities into numerous
smaller sub-projects and for the actual implementation of the CRM the company needs to
focus upon the activities and should also be associated with accepting these activities as the
subpart of the entire CRM implementation process.
The New CRM implementation:
Planning phase:
New plans are to be put in place for the purpose of carrying out the technological
parts of the CRM implementation and the plans should be aimed ate providing of advanced
communication channels for the customers of the company as well as for its employees.
Another aim of this CRM includes the providing of a fast as well as differentiated software
services which would be helping in leveraging the level of performance as well as the
productivity of the employees (John 2018). The overall implementation plan would also be
including certain steps for the purpose of improving the infrastructure and for providing a

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better support to the customers. Besides this the organization should plan of signing a five-
year plan with the CRM vendor so as to provide consultancy service for the implementation
of the CRM (Lipiäinen 2015). This contract would also be including the various type of
technical support that are needed as the entire process is strategic and is associated with
involving a significant amount of investment as well.
Analysis phase:
The assessment helps in identifying the fact that the poor human resource skills is one
of the biggest reason responsible for the failure of the CRM system and one of the biggest
aspects included the proper training and buy-in from the employees. The strong resistance
which is put forward by the employees in adapting the new changes in the work system
would be avoided by the implementation of the new system (Ali, Ishaya and Hassan 2015).
The learnings from the previous processes as well as the from the past mistakes helped in
ensuring the fact that the employees are understanding the resistances, along with poor
orientation and the training programs for the staffs are the major reason for the failures. The
new CRM implementation would be including the entire structure of the resources which is to
be designed in accordance to the assessment of the current capabilities. Additionally, the
contract is going to include the development of the training programs for the employees as
well. All these new aspects are generally aimed at leveraging the skills up to a certain level as
required and this would be helping in making sure of the fact there is no such problem in
coping up with the new customer-centric strategies of the company (Gandhi and Tandon
2017). Besides this a series of training program at the headquarter of he company is to be
launched along with organizing the other programs outside the company.
Designing phase:
Depending upon the operation front-lie functions and service deliver which is not
having a clear vision of focusing upon the customers, it can be stated that the old structure is

7CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
not capable of supporting the CRM. The new CRM strategy would succeed there is an
essential need of having a new organization structure (Rigo et al. 2016). This is to be done by
creation of new departments and re-engaging of few older functions within the new
department. For this new attempt the committee which is headed by the CEO or the Chief
Executive Officer of the company would be associated with controlling the forces which in
turn are responsible for supervising the entire process of the CRM implementation.
Additionally, each of the CRM program would be owned by particular departments who
would be entirely responsible for the technical implementation of the CRM projects.
Followed by this the shared service department would be having the responsibility of
unifying the processes related to the implementation of the CRM by different departments.
The shared service department is also responsible for the creation of the strategies for the
redesigning of the various processes and procedure.
Fig 1: Guide for the New CRM implementation
Source: (Rahimi and Gunlu 2016)

8CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
The figure provided above is a guide of the CRM program. The provided current
economic and business scenario globally helps in understanding the fact that any of the
technology enabler which promises to add value to the business should be having the
strategic objective. Besides this the retention of the customers, the maintenance, loyalty and
satisfaction are considered to be major business mantras. Competition is one of the major
aspects and each and every sliver of the market is associated with making a huge difference
(Rahimi and Gunlu 2016). There is a need of data by each and every organization along with
a unique approach and deep insight of the mind and preference of the customers. The CRM
programs can be acting as an effective sales strategy which would be helping in achieving all
the major objectives. The faster the organizations are capable of mapping done the benefits
related to the revenue and the market share from the sales the faster they would opt for the
CRM implementation so as to put into action the strategy in the market.
Development phase:
This is the phase which would be starting with the process of outlining the plan of the
new CRM system. The CRM committee is to be formed under the tutelage or at least support
of Top Management so as to kick start the entire process of the implementation. The team
would be consisting of various representatives from different teams that would be including
the IT team the back-office operations team, the resource allocation team, and the customer
facing sales team. Besides this the committee should also be responsible for the gathering of
the requirements along with the identification of a core team which would be accountable for
the deployment and the operations of the CRM system, along with getting of sufficient
budget which are allocated to the CRM project (Dalir et al. 2017). Besides this the would also
be responsible for the monitoring of the processes included in the process of CRM
implementation and some of the steps which needs to be enforced includes the following:

9CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
 Planning along with top down communication so as to make sure of the fact the employee
buy-in is in place
 Changes in the processes which would be consisting of the structural changes along with
the changes are to be done in the strategy as well and should be communicated to the
employees
 There is need of doing readiness assessment
 Mandatory training of the end users
There is also a need of evaluating the various CRM systems along with the vendors
by considering various criteria except the cost factor and these factors include the following:
 The experience along with the capability of the vendor in aiding the project execution
along with the technical support at the time of implementation.
 The maintenance service and the support provided by the vendor
 Providing of training along with support for upgrading the software
 Integration of the functionality along with the compatibility that the new system would be
having with the old or the existing system.
Additionally, the CRM committee is also having the responsibility of evaluating along
with selecting an appropriate IT infrastructure and business process and followed by this the
committee needs to make a choice between the hosted and the Installed CRM and the also
between the Integrated Suite and the Best of Breed CRM systems (Ahmed 2016). There exist
advantages and disadvantages of all these systems and the choice is generally dependent upon
certain factors which includes the following:
 In case of the global official scenarios a hosted system generally works out to be more
viable financially along with providing benefits related to global access

10CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
 If the organization is having legacy IT infrastructure and application then it should opt for
the installed systems so as to avoid any kind of compatibility issues.
 The companies which are not having any kind of fixed number of users then arrangement
like pay-as-you-go would be working in the best way so as to tackle any kind of issues
related to attrition.
Implementation Phase:
This is the phase which is the most popular and consists of three important factors
which includes the people, processes and the technology that requires to be put in place.
These three components are interlinked and besides this they also need to coordinate with
each other so as to implement the CRM program in a successful way. By receiving the
employees along with the stake-holder buy-in essentials are one of the important factors
responsible for getting the processes in place. Besides this the employees are also to be
informed in advance regrading the CRM plan and processes (Zouaoui, Triki and Ferchichi
2016). Additionally, the level of skills of the end-users also needs to eb developed for the
purpose of including the plans required t prepare the IT infrastructure and also for handling
the CRM system.
The strategy also must be consisting of the end-to-end project execution plan so as to
keep the business objectives act as the main focus. The information of the customers which
have been collated earlier needs to be migrated into the new CRM system whenever the
implementation takes place and along with this the processes related to needs of cleaning and
migration need to be done under the supervision of the vendors so as to avoid any kind of
later problems (González-Benito, Venturin and González-Benito 2017). Followed by this is
the sorting of the data in order to make sure that the analysis and the reporting is being
aligned with the business strategy which has been drawn up by the company and besides this

11CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
there is also a need of sorting the needs of the CRM system so as to manage it in an efficient
way. All the data must be secured in the location where the data is being stored.
Despite of making sense the implementation of the ERP and the CRM should ideally
be dependent upon the needs of an organization. However, the integration is always
associated with allowing the best utilization of the system for the strategy purposes.
Organization which are consisting of large back-office application can help in streamlining of
the various operations along with the integration of the CRM as well as the ERP (Pagoti,
Mathew and Manoharan 2018). So, it can be suggested that it is better to choose the ERP
vendor so as to procure the CRM simply and the major reason behind this is that the ERP
vendors are often associated with providing a seamless integration of the two systems.
Additionally, the Top management should also be associated with considering the financial
feasibility as well before they move forward towards the integration of the ERP system with
the CRM system.
Testing phase:
This is the phase which includes the need of monitoring the usage and the utilization
of the CRM by the end-users in order to make sure of the fact that all the operational
guidelines are being followed along with following the proper processes. There is a need of
provide a clear outline of the CRM process along with providing of proper information and
training to the end-users about the processes which are to be followed while using the new
CRM system (Reid and Catterall 2015). The data which are gathered by doing market
research and computer interactions must be recorded as well as managed in an appropriate
way for the purpose of analyzing the data and put forward a meaningful report.
After the implementation of the CRM the success of the system is to be measured
along with its operation which would be helping a lot in getting a clear sight of the efficiency

12CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
of the process and this would also be associated with reveling the effectiveness of the CRM
process as well which is drawn up as an essential part of the business development strategy
(Corner and Hinton 2015). The performance of the CRM is to be measured time-to-time in
order to evaluate its effectiveness and for providing a framework which is suitable and needs
to be adopted for the purpose of measuring the CRM performance. Besides this the ROI
calculation would also be helping in measuring the performance of the CRM by the
development of a CRM-specific framework.
Maintenance phase:
There exists a very good way of extracting the best utilization of system and this is to
be done by planning particular reward programs so as to motivate the employees in using the
new CRM system. Human Resource policies must be including the plans for motivating the
employees in usage of the CRM. Besides this there is a nee of training and development
program which should be planned as an ongoing Human Resource Development activity so
as to train the new hires and for providing training to the existing resources to the new
features that have been added to the new CRM system or for better utilization of the different
existing features (Simanjuntak, Balqiah and Pawitra 2016). Additionally, the training
programs should also be including the CRM vendor training along with trainings which are
developed internally regarding the organization processes and plans. Besides this the
personnel or eth engineers also needs to be provided with training regarding the technical
aspects of the CRM system so as to conduct troubleshooting of any kind of technical issues
that might arise due to the usage of for doing further customizations.
Implication of the CRM system:
The implementation of the CRM is considered to be one of the most significant steps
that is included in the decision of the company so as to move forward with the CRM system

13CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
and besides this it is associated with encompassing the entire nine-yards of the readiness
assessment which matches the capability according to the demands of the market. This is also
associated with getting the people as well as the processes that are needed for making the
changes in accordance to the requirements (Bahri-Ammari and Soliman 2016). Most of the
companies are associated with going at least three fourths of the way for the purpose of
ensuring the fact that it is moving towards success. This could be done in modules which are
smaller in size as in the case of the ABC Corp happened. The readiness assessment is
something which is associated with making the difference in the implementation process of
the CRM at a smaller scale.
The article has been associated with putting forward the guidelines which helps in
having a clear and flexible path of implementing the new CRM and followed by this the
implementation of the different phases of the Implementation process would be helping in
providing the organization with a clear vision of the accountabilities and the responsibilities
related to the implementation of the CRM within the organizational structure
(Skoumpopoulou and Franklin 2019). In order to achieve success in the CRM the companies
are generally suggested to take time and should be associated with understanding the issues
which affects the people, processes and the technology components individually. Besides this
the companies also needs to manage the integration of the three components in a proactive
way so as to make sure that the people, processes and the technology are being mixed in a
right way in all the phases of the CRM implementation (Mukerjee Prasad and Rao 2017). The
change process needs to be made in a customer-centric way so as to move forward in order to
achieve success in the CRM implementation and business objectives. The top management
also needs to take a complete ownership of the complete program.

14CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
Challenges or risks associated with CRM implementation:
There exist numerous risks in the process of implementing a new CRM. Along with
bringing a lot of advantages the implementation is also associated with putting forward
numerus challenges dome of the major challenges have been listed below:
1. Cost: This is one of the biggest challenges which are faced at time of CRM
implementation. In case if the implementation is done in a haste and without any
planning then the cost might be high.
2. Setting of clear objectives: This is the second challenge faced at the time of CRM
implementation. A clear and well-defined objective would always lead to
successful implementation of the CRM and in case if the objectives are not clear
then the project is sure likely to fail.
3. Lack of Training: Training is another widely encountered challenge faced at the
time of CRM implementation. Training is to be emphasized and the system that is
to be implemented is entirely new to the users so they would be needing proper
training in order to operate the new CRM.
Conclusion:
The foremost requirement in achieving success in the CRM practice generally starts at
the top. Besides this the top management of a user organization needs to be the first
evangelist for the concept. Along with this the mindset for the adaptation processes and
people to implement the CRM has to flow down from the top which in turn would be making
the company in making wide efforts along with receiving an active support from the senior
management. Executives present in the decision-making positions also needs to be done in an
active way and this would be involving the processes related to changing so as to make them
more effective customer-centric as well as cross-functional. This in turn would be associated

15CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION: ABC CORP.
with putting in place the various new processes which makes use of the technology in a better
way. This would also be helping in the installing of the disciplined cooperation along with
corporation is carrying out the various cross-functional processes. The system would be
needing a proper training of the employees for the purpose of making them in becoming more
customer-centric which in turn would be adding more value to the customer interactions. This
in turn would be associated with the enhancement of the market as well as the customer
related skills which helps in motivating them in achieving the goals of the CRM.

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References:
Ahmed, T.T., 2016. An Empirical Examination of Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) Implementation in Islamic Banks. International Journal of Academic Research and
Reflection, 4(2), pp.14-25.
Ali, Z., Ishaya, I. and Hassan, H., 2015. The Critical Success Factors of e-CRM
Implementation to Small and Medium Enterprises. In International Conference on E-
commerce.
Bahri-Ammari, N. and Soliman, K.S., 2016. The effect of CRM implementation on
pharmaceutical industry’s profitability: The case of Tunisia. Management Research
Review, 39(8), pp.854-878.
Corner, I. and Hinton, M., 2015. Implementation dynamics for CRM system development.
Dalir, M., Zarch, M.E., Aghajanzadeh, R. and Eshghi, S., 2017. The Role of e-CRM in the
quality of customer-bank relationship. Human Resource Management, 4(2), pp.12-22.
Farhan, M.S., Ellatif, M.A. and Abed, A.H., 2017. The Success Implementation CRM Model
for Examining the Critical Success Factors Using Statistical Data Mining
Techniques. International Journal of Computer Science and Information Security, 15(1),
p.455.
Fernandes, S.M. and Coutinho, C., 2017, June. Key performance indicators for improving a
CRM implementation. In Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC), 2017
International Conference on (pp. 1401-1406). IEEE.

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Gandhi, P. and Tandon, N., 2017. Study to analyze the variables that affect the CRM
implementation in the Hospitals. Advances in Computational Sciences and
Technology, 10(5), pp.933-944.
González-Benito, Ó., Venturini, W.T. and González-Benito, J., 2017. CRM technology:
implementation project and consulting services as determinants of success. International
Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making, 16(02), pp.421-441.
John, W., 2018. Modelling CRM applications and its impact on relationship outcomes: a B2B
relationship perspective. International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship
Management, 11(4), pp.347-362.
Khan, H.U., Fournier-Bonilla, S.D., Jinugu, A. and Madhavi Lalitha, V.V., 2016, March.
Possible challenges of the successful implementation of CRM in the service sector: A case
study of Saudi Arabia. In Northeast Decision Sciences Institute Conference (Vol. 31).
Lipiäinen, H.S.M., 2015. CRM in the digital age: implementation of CRM in three
contemporary B2B firms. Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 17(1), pp.2-19.
Mellor, A., 2018. 25 Design, development and implementation of a CRM program. Aviation
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Mukerjee, H.S., Prasad, U.D. and Rao, S.P., 2017. Defining success in CRM implementation
projects: An empirical study from the IT consultants’ perspective. Parikalpana: KIIT Journal
of Management, 13(1), pp.116-125.
Pagoti, D.K., Mathew, S.T. and Manoharan, K., 2018. Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) Implementation: Failures, Successes, And Lessons Learned. International Supply
Chain Technology Journal, 4(04).

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Pedron, C.D., Picoto, W.N., Dhillon, G. and Caldeira, M., 2016. Value-focused objectives for
CRM system adoption. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 116(3), pp.526-545.
Rahimi, R. and Gunlu, E., 2016. Implementing customer relationship management (CRM) in
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UK. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), pp.89-112.
Reid, A. and Catterall, M., 2015. Hidden data quality problems in CRM implementation.
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MARKETING EFFECTIVENESS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF INTERACTIVE
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Appendices:
About the Organization:
ABC Corp is one of the Multinational Global Technology and IT service company
that is associated with delivering of business along with technology solutions to numerous
fortune 500 companies as well as to the SME or the Small and Medium sized enterprises all
across the globe. The portfolio of the ABS Corp’s solution mainly consists of the Enterprise
Business Services, Product Engineering and R&D services and Enterprise Information
Security Services (Fernandes and Coutinho 2017). The organization is having 25% of its
client from the Fortune 500 companies and the other 25% are from the large global
multinational organizations and the rest of the clients are from the small and Medium sized
enterprises from all across the globe. Some of the future strategies of the ABC Corp includes
the farming of the existing customers along with acquiring of the new customers. The
customer centric approach that they use is having the plan of focusing upon the customers in
an unprecedent way. The organization is also having an intension of making additional
investments upon the innovations labs for the purpose of incubating the business models that
are new and also for the purpose of innovating their business. This in turn would be
associated with including the expansion of the focus of the organization upon the new
horizontal services along with helping in the scaling of the businesses up to a level which is
much higher.