On CRM Vendor Selection and Requirements Analysis

Richard Boardman, of Mareeba CRM Consulting has posted an article on CRM Requirements analysis and how this can help control costs when a company lays down clear requirements, before starting vendor selection for a new CRM system.

I agree with Richard that laying down a clear set of requirements is certainly necessary before selecting a CRM vendor and that some companies overlook their actual needs and the functionality of the selected product, which sometimes leads to challenges when undertaking the actual implementation of a CRM system.

I do feel however that one does not necessarily need to create a full blueprint of the CRM processes merely for vendor selection purposes. A high level specification, together with knowledgable evaluators of vendor's propositions or products should also go a long way. The full blueprint can than be created, taken the functionality of the selected CRM package into account and ensuring that the COTS functionality purchased is leveraged in the right way.