How can you align IT operations with customer relationship management and sales automation goals?

In my experience, looking at IT Operations as a silo is the biggest reason there is miss-alignment. Alignment between business and IT is critical to smooth service delivery whether it be CRM, Sales, or any other business function that IT operations support. I would re-phrase the question to How can you ensure alignment of IT operations to business priorities? Rather than the process laid out in the document, The process below would be more effective. 1. Implement a process that measures Alignment at all levels between Business and IT 2. Do a gap analysis for your IT Governance with Best Practices that can bring about alignment. 3. Implement changes needed to address these gaps. 4. Repeat periodically to keep improving the alignment.

When it comes to looking at your current state, start with a candid assessment. Picture it as a thorough checkup for your IT landscape—infrastructure, services and policies. We need to lookout for gaps, risks, and chances to shine. Whilst we have frameworks and tool such as SWOT, ITIL, COBIT, or ISO 27001, we need to be clear on what the goal is. Understanding how your current IT setup supports or hinders your CRM and SA processes. By knowding your current state, you can craft a roadmap for improvement and growth.

It is important that we look at these pillars from two different perspectives, the first from the inside out, that is, how I expose my products and/or services to the market in order to absorb the entire sales cycle and customer behavior supported by AI to predict scenarios and make accurate decisions. On the other hand, we have an outside-in vision, which consists of being internally prepared from both an infrastructural and application point of view to absorb information in a structured way to deliver the best experience to customers.

Be sure to include the voice of customer during your assessment. In this case it would be the sales and customer service organization. Key question to ask would be this - Is IT an enabler or a barrier to delivering outcomes they are accountable for? If the latter, understand the challenges without diving into solutions at this stage.

Starting with a proactive shift left, I'd engage with business stakeholders, unraveling their goals, challenges, and IT expectations. This dialogue sets the stage for meticulous IT assessments - voyages into the IT landscape, exposing gaps, redundancies, and frictions. The assessment becomes a compass, guiding the way to a recommended future state. This envisioned state isn't static; it's a dynamic process with defined processes and a loopback mechanism. Customer and employee feedback become integral refining operations continually. The roadmap emerges as a guide for this transformative journey, leading towards a horizon where IT seamlessly supports business aspirations with each loop back creating opportunities for business development

Integration between the IT Ops tools and the CRM/SA systems should include transparency about any issues currently reported on the applications or services that the particular customer is using. This way the customer doesn't have to open cases for issues already being worked and also knows the progress being made and when the issue is likely to be resolved. Since in many cases the customer has systems that depend on our services, detailed information helps them take care of any operational actions they need to handle on their end. Transparency is key, but the information should be curated to ensure that it is accurate and actionable.

I would also consider facilitating a vision workshop with stakeholders from different disciplines to reimagine the future state, supported by some outside-in leading practice research and examples to inform / inspire the discussion. It can be fun, collaborative and engaging!

This is all about experience. Experience for the customer is an outcome of experience your org sets out internally and externally. If you have an attitude that is not about delivering digital capabilities that meet customer needs and your supporting infrastructure doesn’t align, doesn’t matter how good your CRM or IT Ops is. Making simple is hard. Making great experiences is hard. Be the organisation you would spend your own money on because of the great experience you received.

Drawing from my time overseeing IT for a jewellery eCommerce company, setting SMART IT goals is crucial, but often the 'achievability' aspect is overlooked. For example, while aiming to enhance data quality for CRM, we found it essential to balance ambition with operational realities, like resource constraints and existing system limitations. This pragmatic approach to goal-setting not only ensures progress towards enhanced CRM capabilities but also maintains team morale and avoids burnout. Achievability, grounded in real-world limitations, is as critical as the other SMART aspects in defining a productive and sustainable IT strategy.

Define “To-Be” is the key. What is the goal - business what is being changed / added is there change in customer persona Are you changing your channel e.g. B2B adding B2C , adding distribution What is the IT need for the To-Be state and define new IT landscape Define change management and adoption for IT and operationalize the process

Plan for challenges and as a part of your risk mitigation identity your critical path and potential roadblocks. Create mitigations and plan that you will need to implement some of them. No plan survives reality…

It is important to realize that it is okay to take time to implement these features right rather than fast. Customers need to be able to trust the features and information provided so correctness is very important. As features are rolled out over time, make sure they are communicated in advance. In some cases, customers with significant engagement can be invited to review beta versions and give feedback before production roll-out.

Planning is the foundation of any digital transformation. Prioritize initiatives based on the size of the prize. Develop a clear roadmap with milestones, timelines, and dependencies, coupled with a robust change management plan encompassing resources, communication, training, and stakeholder management. Proactively identify and mitigate potential risks, developing contingency plans. A cloud tech stack with cutting-edge DevOps and automation is crucial. Establish a robust real-time monitoring mechanism and feedback loop. Define entry and exit criteria with SMART KPIs for success measurement. This systematic approach ensures a smooth transition, aligning IT and digital transformation with organizational goals for sustained success.

This is a good time to also put your people in the centre to explore any upskilling opportunities required and have an objective understanding of where the organisation might benefit from the capabilities and/or capacities that could be provided by your partners or service providers.

In my role at a Site Management Organisation, planning for transition involves a blend of methodologies, with a focus on flexibility and adaptability. While tools like Agile and DevOps are indispensable, integrating them with a clear understanding of organisational culture is crucial. For instance, prioritizing IT initiatives not only by their impact but also by how they resonate with team strengths and company ethos can dramatically enhance execution efficiency. This approach, balancing methodological rigor with a nuanced understanding of organisational dynamics, has been instrumental in successfully transitioning IT strategies without disrupting ongoing operations.

I won’t underestimate the significant change and communication effort to sustain exec buy-ins and their ongoing support, and continually build a strong understanding of ‘what’s in for me’ across stakeholders / employees and especially those who are directly impacted by the change. Building a new way of operation requires both minds and hearts.

In implementing IT changes, especially in my role at a jewellery eCommerce company, I've found that the emphasis on stakeholder communication is as critical as the technical execution. We used a phased approach, ensuring each stage met our CRM and SA benchmarks before proceeding. This not only allowed for fine-tuning based on real-time feedback but also fostered a sense of ownership among users, crucial for smooth adoption. Balancing the rigour of deployment protocols with transparent, iterative communication has been key in ensuring changes are not just technically sound but also organisationally embraced.

The action begins with a comprehensive approach to project oversight. Utilize a Health Dashboard for a 360-degree view of your Tech, QA, Solutions, and Delivery Excellence teams. Incorporate RAG (Red, Amber, Green) indicators for each milestone, regardless of the methodology/tools used. Establish transparent communication channels with internal and external stakeholders through daily/weekly status updates and monthly governance calls. Facilitate effective end-user training with the right tools and techniques, complemented by well-articulated user manuals to ensure seamless system adaptability.

Automate by Implementing integrations between CRM, sales automation, and other supporting IT systems. Ensure that data flows seamlessly across systems, and implement API connections where needed. Conduct comprehensive training sessions for users to ensure they are proficient in using the updated systems. Automate IT infrastructure to support the updated sales automation systems with continuous system performance monitoring and issue resolution promptly.

Al principio, si los cambios son más de los que están acostumbrados ciertos colaboradores, podríamos identificar cierta resistencia al cambio en dichos procesos, por ello es importante dar un seguimiento puntual, así como esclarecer la importancia de dicho cambio y del beneficio que se obtendrá del mismo.

Data needs, common data attributes that help measure the correlation, data excellence / governance needs to be thought through ahead aligned with pre defined success metrics vs reacting and stitching a story later on.

As an example Where master data is nailed, then there should be a correlation between reduction in customer claims and improved customer pricing, forecasting accuracy and so on. Will the recognition be fairly distributed across all stakeholders. I am not sure enough thought is given to linking the success through all the enabling KPI’s which contribute to the over all success of profitable businesses growth.

In measuring project outcomes, SMART Success Criteria are vital. Begin by comparing Actual vs. Expected Results against predefined benchmarks, analyzing variances for insights. Utilize surveys and feedback sessions to gather qualitative insights, capturing end-user perspectives for a comprehensive evaluation. Establish an iterative feedback loop, fostering continuous improvement. Assess the overall impact on organizational efficiency, documenting valuable lessons for future optimizations. Celebrate successes and recognize team and stakeholder contributions to reinforce a positive culture. This holistic approach ensures a thorough evaluation and sets the stage for continual improvement in future projects.

Measure the time and resources saved as a result of IT changes. Evaluate whether the implemented systems have streamlined processes, reduced manual efforts, and improved overall operational efficiency. This is particularly important in assessing the return on investment.

I can’t agree more on (regular) celebrating success and sharing examples and stories of how the new ways of operation have led to positive impacts on the people, stakeholders and businesses. Any reflections on where we might consider tweaking or improvement are useful insights to drive the next iteration of the IT operation improvement work.

Regularly measure and evaluate performance against defined KPIs for both CRM and sales automation objectives and IT operations. Use feedback to identify opportunities for improvement and address emerging issues. Adopt an agile approach to make iterative improvements based on feedback and changing business requirements. Conduct audits to ensure data integrity. Address any data discrepancies or errors promptly.

Continual improvement is a key to success. The metrics should always be set so that they are yellow/red at the beginning of the improvement cycle and targets set appropriately so the metrics can be green at the end, if the team does its work. Setting unnecessarily high targets can be de-motivating, and low targets mean the team is not challenged to meet the goals of the program.

Continuous improvement is actually often influenced by the culture of the business more closely than the overall delivery There is usually a less obvious driver to improving vs a clear target to deliver to, this is where a culture of continual improvement makes a significant difference. A key that's often missing is having a view on 'what good looks like' in terms of continual improvement. Maybe nothing will 'break' if you don't improve anything, but over time the effects will be felt. To support the culture of improvement, there should be at least some metrics and KPIs to both track progress, but also raise the visibility and importance of this work as it often has to complete with tasks that have very clear goals and measures of success.

Continuous improvement is not an add-on or a feature, it must be at the core of IT operations. Sooner or later you will have a failure or an outage, it is inevitable, and that is the reality. However you must always improve. If something happened once it might not happen again, or at least not in the same circumstances. There is no such thing as perfect IT operations as it is always a balance between reliability and flexibility. Business demands speed but when you drive a car at 30 km/h and get a flat tyre you most likely will be okay. However if you drive at 220 km/h and get a flat tyre it might get really dangerous.

I believe the key point lies in establishing a responsible organizational culture, particularly within IT operations, CRM, and sales. When these units do not believe in the importance of thinking and acting in a way that creates value for customers, no tools, methodologies, or KPIs can lead to achieving the desired goals. First, create value for your personnel; then, train them and utilize tools, methodologies, and define SMART KPIs.