The monthly CRM fireside…

Which as a title is a little misleading as the last one was back in March, but this month I catch up with Geof Gibbons, Managing Director of the highly respected Sage reseller, E1 Business:

RB – Geof as a starting point, could you introduce yourself and explain how you first got involved with CRM?

GG – In a previous life I was invited to set up a sales and marketing operation reselling some American software – it was actually a reporting tool called IQ Software – and as part of that role it was mandated by the States that we use an application, that today we would recognize as CRM, but at the time was called sales-force automation. The business ended up with around 40 staff, and through using that system I became a real advocate for what these technologies could do for the operation of a business. So when I left there and set up on my own, one of the strands of the business we established was in the CRM market, and in a short period of time we stopped doing all the other things we thought we would make a lot of money with, and focused on CRM.

RB – Can you tell me a bit about E1 Business and how you position yourself in the market?

GG- Well E1 was formed in 1997, and we quickly established ourselves as a successful CRM reseller. In terms of differentiation, we have a vertical focus, particularly in professional services where we have a lot of customers in legal, accounting, and management consulting.

RB – You started the business in ’97 so you’ve experienced ten years of the CRM industry, how do you think the market’s changed over that time?

GG – The biggest change has been that the market has shifted from being one of early adoption to the mature majority. In the early years you might talk to a sales and marketing director who might initiate a project without really consulting with anyone else in the business, whereas over time systems have started to touch more areas and the decision making process has become much more complex, often more committee driven, more risk averse, a lot more detail oriented, and rigorous in the selection process.

RB – In terms of the future, what changes do you see coming through?

GG- I think people will stop seeing CRM as a standalone function. What we’ve seen so far has predominantly been CRM in the sales and marketing arena, with perhaps some of it going into customer service. I think what we will see is that people will view CRM as a true single cross-business strategy. I think pure play CRM will become much more niche.

RB – Which is interesting because E1 is seen very much as a pure play CRM company. Can you explain how your own strategy will change to address this trend?

GG – We are already underway with doing that, and are currently gearing up to support a much more integrated approach to deploying CRM. As an example we are working with a pure play accounting partner to deliver a fully joined up capability.

RB – While we’ve been through various phases of industry consolidation, with the rise of the hosted vendors we’ve got as many players in the industry as we ever have. What do you think customers should be looking for when selecting a CRM technology vendor?

GG- I think the most important thing is finding a vendor who has experience of business rather than just technology, because as CRM touches more parts of the organisation then it becomes more and more important to see things in a total business context. I think the hosted versus on premise argument is a bit of a red herring. I think what you need is something that’s going to help the business run better, and the technology is less of a critical issue than it was ten years ago because now there is good functionality for most people in lots of different products.

RB – What do you think are the most common mistakes people make when implementing CRM systems?

GG – The most common mistake is that people sign a contract and think that’s all they need to do, and lose track of the fact that they will need a high degree of commitment from their side to make sure they get the best out of the system. The systems we see work really well are where there are people in the organization that understand that it’s not a single purchase like buying a car, it’s something that evolves, that needs its own road-map. Technology companies talk a lot about product road-maps. I think it’s very important for customers to think in terms of a CRM project road map, i.e. where’s it going to go over an extended period of time, because it should be a core application for the business for many, many years.

RB – You mentioned developing a system over the long term, we certainly see a lot of systems that aren’t well looked after and reach a point of dereliction after a few years, do you have any advice on turning these systems around?

GG – It really depends on the management at the customer site. If they are determined it will work, it tends to work. The problem is that it’s not something you can sort out and just tick it off your ‘to-do’ list, it requires sustained pressure over the long term to get the best out of these systems.

RB – Do you see user adoption as a big issue with CRM?

GG – User adoption is one of the areas that’s become much easier over the last ten years. It’s still an issue and will never go away because human beings are involved. Over the years more organizations have staff members who have been involved in successful CRM projects, and the knowledge is there that when used properly these systems can deliver big benefits. Ultimately though the key to user adoption is being able to address the WIFM issue – what’s in it for me – when you crack that, things become a lot easier.

RB – You’ve been involved in implementing a lot of systems over the last ten years, how has your approach evolved over that time.

GG – The fundamentals haven’t changed very much. What we have been doing over the last year or so is try to find sensible ways to help our customers get more benefit from their systems, which goes beyond the technology into a more business solution oriented approach.

RB – Final question – are there any aspects to the life of a CRM value added reseller that you wished people understood better?

GG – The one thing I wish people fully understood is that we are on their side. People will only spend money with us if we can make them successful. It’s easy for CRM implementations to become confrontational, because customers are suspicious of vendors motives. However when people recognize we are looking for long term business relationships, because that’s only the way to run a commercially successful CRM company, we work better as a team and achieve more for them.