A ZOHO CRM implementation can be a great investment for any business. Unfortunately, for many companies, the entire scope of CRM is a mystery, and as a result, the CRM implementation process is set up and executed independently from company management and stakeholders. This results in higher implementation costs, lower acceptance levels, and even corporate infighting.
Therefore, it is important that companies performing a ZOHO CRM implementation understand and participate in the process. Each deployment will generally involve roughly the same phases:
DISCOVERY
INSTALLATION
PERSONALIZATION
DATA MIGRATION
TRAINING
Obviously, each implementation will have its own unique twists, but generally the process will follow the same pattern.
A proactive company can do much of the groundwork before implementation. One of the biggest mistakes companies make is relying too much on their consultants. They consider that their only function is to approve the work and sign the checks.
But if they were more involved, they would write smaller checks and increase the likelihood that their implementation will be successful. By looking at the process, a company has many ways of eliminating the work that a ZOHO CRM consulting company will charge a significant amount of money for.
The discovery phase is an important opportunity for a company to take charge and dictate the direction of the entire process. Most companies are surprisingly passive during this phase. Often times, they will let their consultants determine all aspects of Discovery without question.
But a company can do a lot of upfront work to reduce costs in this phase and control the CRM deployment path. The information collected during Discovery will dictate the nature of the business processes that are integrated into ZOHO CRM, the roles of each of the users, as well as their security permissions, the nature and degree of customization, and what data is migrated. And all of this flows into end-user training and has a major impact on the number of licenses that are required.
One of the simplest and most crucial activities a business can do on its own is to properly document the processes they expect their CRM implementation to capture. This should start with meetings with relevant stakeholders and end users. You must reveal the smallest detail of each process. It should also be an opportunity to streamline processes.
Once these processes are documented, it will become apparent, among other things, what data should be tracked, what fields should be migrated from legacy systems, what other applications should be integrated with ZOHO CRM, which users should be licensed, and what security was in place. you must grant them.
The value of the client-consultant relationship is generally based on the level of service that a consultant can provide. However, when companies believe that their consultant should present them with a ready-to-use CRM solution on its launch date, almost like a Christmas present, they do themselves a disservice. Your passive approach to ZOHO CRM implementation will cost more and will be less likely to be successful.