Role Of A Crm Manager In Enterprise Success

1. Role of a CRM Manager in Enterprise Success
CRM has become one of the hottest areas in enterprise and technology strategy. As a result,
organizational roles, such as CRM manager, have become vital for enterprise success following
an implementation. Companies are investing heavily in supporting resources, partners and
principal functional groups within their organizations to ensure that their CRM solutions are
effectively managed, steered and enhanced. Companies with successful CRM project delivery
are those that align the role of CRM managers in the earliest phases of initiative planning and
analysis. The activities of a CRM manager do not simply end with the successful implementation
of a CRM project. Instead, their responsibilities continue and are, in many ways, a mirror of the
work they completed during a project implementation.
A CRM project manager's full-time responsibilities fall into four categories following the go-live
of a CRM system. They include:
1) Functional management of the existing CRM solution
2) Operational management
3) Change management
4) Strategic partnership
The need for post-project stewardship across these functional domains is vital to ensure the
longer-term success of your CRM implementations.
Functional Management
CRM managers should have visibility into all systems that interface or subscribe to the core CRM
solution. CRM managers should document and understand how business transactions and
workflow events map across external systems and application groups. This is vital because it
enables prompt and accurate assessments of the effects of organic or acquired growth
strategies. It also leaves more time for better aligning stakeholders and undergoing due
diligence deep dives.
By maintaining the CRM manager as the single point of reference for the CRM systems, he or
she can hasten time-to-market for new initiatives. This insight and functional maintenance of
the company's CRM presence enables the company to have a 360-degree view of how its
customers interact with it through various channels, business units or transactions by
understanding how core business processes outside the CRM system are mapped end-to-end
with the new CRM system that has just been implemented.
Action Items
Ensure that CRM manager has a 360-degree view of in-flight technologies and process
initiatives within your organization.
Assign CRM managers to business and IT competency domains. Given the scale of your
CRM architecture and processes, assign multiple CRM managers by functional area.
Document end-to-end "as is" workflows and how your CRM road map aligns to them.
Operational Management

2. CRM managers should be involved in all facets of the operational management of a CRM system
following a go-live. This includes activities such as ensuring service-level agreements (SLAs) are
met with relevant groups, including customers, and that support is provided for the ongoing
development and testing of sandboxes and functional mappings to the as-is and any to-be
functional mappings, even after a go-live soak period. Maintenance and modifications to the
CRM system should also be maintained by the CRM manager to leverage planned functional
design, development and testing schedules. SLAs for customer issue resolution, trouble-tickets
or responses to customer requests are metrics that the CRM manager should have daily insight
into through the organizational groups (such as marketing, sales and customer service) that use
those metrics for operational planning. If these service-levels are not being met, then the CRM
manager needs to partner with those relevant groups to determine the root cause of those
service degradations.
End-to-end transaction management of what comes into the CRM system, at what interval and
for which downstream application must be detailed by the CRM manager. When those service-
levels are not being met for data or other elements that the CRM system needs to function, then
it is the job of the CRM manager to interface with those external application groups, outsourced
providers or managed service vendors to determine the best course of action to ensure
compliance. A CRM implementation without its requisite informational data marginalizes itself.
Action Items
Assign SLA management of the CRM solution to CRM manager.
Have CRM manager generate a dependency matrix for upstream/downstream
integration points and data mappings for your CRM solution.
Align incentives for CRM manager to SLA achievements.
Change Management
Ideas for improving the customer experience, enhancement requests, further personalization of
applications and other user extensibility requests should be managed by the CRM manager.
Detailing requests, identifying potential impacts on the implemented CRM solution, as well as
prioritizing the business impact or need for such an enhancement, is vital. A CRM manager is the
single point of maintenance for all CRM system change requests and, in turn, would involve
relevant application groups to further investigate whether such an enhancement was
warranted. Alternatively, a CRM manager can create global templates based on his or her
functional insight of the system to identify the key application groups and individuals who need
to be consulted to validate change enhancements for different kinds of activities (such as
campaign management, mobile sales or e-commerce).
Action Items
Impact assessments on new functionality should be led by CRM manager.
Have CRM manager create a template for change requests and publish the workflow
steps for reviews and assessments.
Position CRM manager as the focal person for any change requests to your CRM
solution from various lines of business.

3. Strategic Management
Perhaps the most vital aspect of the CRM manager's role following an implementation is the
strategic role he or she plays among key stakeholders within an organization. CRM managers
should closely align with application stakeholder groups and business stakeholder groups in
more-traditional definitions (such as finance, sales, marketing, engineering and fulfillment) to
help align those groups to create value and benefits for them within the CRM system. Similarly,
where those key business stakeholder groups require customized insight or value driven from
the CRM system, the CRM manager helps assess, coordinate, plan and implement that insight or
value.
Action Items
Involve CRM manager in strategic planning and big-picture goals for your organization.
Scorecard your CRM solution regularly and have CRM manager provide tracking on
return on investment and trends in efficiency using real-time executive dashboards or
interval reporting.
Assess emerging trends and review best practices in CRM with CRM manager to ensure
your CRM solution remains relevant and agile.
Failure to address any of these roles will result in poor alignment of CRM needs.
Author
Dinesh Chandrasekar DC*
Practice Director CRM & MDM CoE
Sierra Atlantic Software Services Ltd, India
“Dinesh Chandrasekar is the global Practice head for CRM & MDM CoE, at Sierra Atlantic Inc. He
has over decade of experience in multiple CRM & MDM Packages Implementations, Consulting
& Industry Solutions Domain expertise and published various whitepapers and articles in various
Oracle and non Oracle Forums. Before joining Sierra Atlantic, he worked with GE Capital
Software and Citibank Technologies. Dinesh comes with a rich experience and expertise in
solution orchestration of CRM, MDM and Analytics solutions.”
Email: dinwin@ hotmail.com
http://in.linkedin.com/in/dineshchandrasekar