Top 5 CRM mistakes - revised

Digital Transformation should be linked to Customer Experience, Operational Efficiency, Employee Engagement and Empowerment not to forget Risk management and innovating new Products and Services - that is - we should be transforming if we want to keep this world sustainable and safe.

For me it's after all these years about Business Processes and Business Applications, since I truly believe there's no digital transformation without Power Platform and Dynamics 365 capabilities.

So I decided to reveal my secret; and this is now my 5 year old article revised - so please comment - are we on the same page here? Do you disagree?

My lessons learnt over all these years with Customer Relationship Management projects and processes, starting from early days with Abalon CRM, Dynamics 3.0, not to forget LimeCRM, iScala CRM, etc., then moving to SalesForce, Hubspot, and now "back" in Dynamics 365 CE world.

Please take advantage of these and don't make the same mistakes. Please :-) or ask help!

1. Requirements is everything. "We want CRM. " - is not just enough. Measure, analyze, improve. It's always good to go back to requirements every now and then and ask for yourself "are they still the same?". If yes, don't create any extra asks or wants. But if not, make informed decision to change requirements and remember to communicate it both internally and externally.
2. Using industry standards and best practices instead of customizing: CEO (or active Sales Director) of the company: "I took the trial from web, now we have our CRM. How come it's so complicated?" If you are tech-savvy CEO/CMO/CSO you still shouldn't spend your time with playing with features and functionalities. There's plenty of excellent Dynamics specialists, MVP's (Microsoft Valued Professional), partners and individual contributors out there who can guide you with it, based on Your business needs and Your industry and Your willingness to adopt new things. Make sure they don't customize it based on your asks but configure it based on your true needs!
3. Communication. "We can do it by ourselves, take it off from your proposal." If you have chapter about communication, change management and adoption in your Project Charter, don't under estimate the value of it. It's crucial. It should be number 1 priority. Put 90% of your efforts and resources here and only 10% into technology. I mean it. I beg you. I've learnt this hard way (many times) - technology is easy - it's just 0's and 1's to simplify a bit. But people.... How to make sure people will change their behavior and stick with the new process ;-)
4. "We don't need end-user training because all this is so intuitive". Other version of this is that "we'll deliver full one day training on Go-Live" (and then let users survive themselves from there). It's not a modern way of learning. You need to slice and dice the needs, handle resistance and then make sure adoption really happens and make it again and again. Small portions, embedded into everyday life. Someone wants videos or step-by-step manuals, others might just want hands-on support every Monday so consider arranging regular "CRM & Coffee" Open-House sessions.
5. Change management and roadmap for improvement. Everything is going to change. Your requirements, your organization, your business so be prepared. Once upon a time I was taught: CRM might be a project with your (first) implementation partner, but for you it should be a process. It evolves and it should be doing it.

Have I made these mistakes? All of them. I truly hope you don't fall into same! Have I learnt something - yes indeed and that's why I'm still passionate about helping others to succeed!

And I need colleagues in this journey - so please check Sulava's open D365 positions here: https://sulava.com/company/careers/dynamics-365-arkkitehti/

If you read this far (thank you for that) - drop me a message - let's continue the conversation!