Anchoring CRM in the company – the CRM project sponsor

In the company, there must be a person who is responsible for customers and customer relationships and strategically positions and expands the area of CRM in the company. Particularly important here is the necessary decision-making competence.

In the United States, but also the United Kingdom, Finland and France, groups that operate on highly competitive markets have set up the function of Chief Customer Officer: a member of the company, often at board level, who anchors the philosophy of Customer Relationship Management in the whole company. The CCO spreads the message of customer orientation in the company and is responsible for the cultural shift from product to customer orientation.

The project sponsor takes on a managerial and decision-making role and provides „backing“ and „support“ for the project manager in project management and the use of CRM as an organizational form and as a system. The function has a higher strategic level and the time required is generally expected to be fairly low.

Expertise in project manager - the CRM manager

The CRM manager should be deployed as a staff position of the executive board in the organization. The CRM manager is the central contact person and inter face coordinator for the various depar tment s in the company and is responsible for all the department ’s/company’s relationship management, both internal and external. In parallel with the “sponsor”, the CRM manager understands CRM as a concrete project that needs to bring together various functions and departments.

The CRM manager‘s main goals are the maintenance and continuous enhancement of the organization and thus also the sof tware in accordance with user and market requirements and the options for implementation. The CRM manager also ensures that all sales and communication channels, such as telephone, e - mail, fax, internet and personal contact to the customer are integrated and mapped appropriately in the system. All relevant data and information on customer communication must be available in transparent form for all employees.

Powers and authority

The CRM manager and CRM project group therefore also need clear competences in the line functions. For example, a CRM manager may have the authorit y to put together the CRM project team to complete the identified tasks. The CRM manager can encourage employees to use the customer contact management system and make specif ications relating to the documentation of all customer contacts in the system. In conflict situations, the CRM manager implements measures together with the disciplinary superiors, and is also responsible for modifying all documents and forms in accordance with CRM requirements.

Impor tant: If a CRM manager, CRM depar tment or project group becomes established for customer orientation across the whole company, they must have the skills and expertise necessary for this.

A lot of responsibility

The extensive tasks per formed by a CRM managers start with support for sales management and the executive board for the setup of a comprehensive CRM system. The CRM manager puts together a cross-department/all-encompassing view of current and completed projects for a check on possible mapping in the CRM system. This often results in modifications to business processes and workflows for document controlling needed for software-supported and smooth customer support . To ensure acceptance among users, the CRM manager draws up a communication concept for implementation of the sof tware and training documents with the IT company concerned, and holds training together with the system administrator and system provider. The CRM manager then builds up f irst level support with a group of key users.

However, the CRM manager is also the inter face between the IT CRM administrator and Sales or the individual functional areas; usually from the Sales, Marketing, Service and QM divisions. In addition to documenting, evaluating and executing requested changes and improvements to ensure acceptance among users, the CRM manager ensures the implementation of these changes together with IT/system administration.

Finally, the CRM manager plans and monitors the budget for continually enhancing the system and observes the market with the aim of enhancing and optimizing the sof tware.

Key competences

Experience has shown that successful CRM projects are driven from the Sales depar tment. However, comprehensive CRM affects every customer contact in a company and is not limited to the specific sales or after-sales process. It covers the complete customer life cycle and thus all the organizational units involved in the individual phases of support . To bring together the departments affected by CRM, a CRM manager needs a great deal of communication and integration skill. In addition, the CRM manager must be able to think laterally across all areas of the company. Someone geared towards traditional hierarchies and departments will quickly reach their limits. Other qualities are also recommended, for example: proactive, goal-oriented approach, strong communication, argumentation and presentation skills. Experience in Sales and a good reputation among colleagues and users is very useful and important . And at least a basic interest in IT is an advantage.

Schedule requirements

The position of the CRM manager depends greatly on the following factors:

Company size

Project volume

CRM objective

Rollout concept

In a small company with around 30-50 users, the position can certainly be filled with a workload of on average 1 day per week; there will be intensive blocks in which the topic will be the focus of work for a whole week (e.g. rollout) and quiet phases in which there will be hardly any work on the subject for several weeks in a row. In larger companies or groups, on the other hand, whole CRM depar tments have recently been set up solely dedicated to this topic. Often, a department of this kind starts with concrete project work on the selection and introduction of a CRM system and is then firmly established in the company strategically and over the long term as a CRM staff office.

In addition to the positions mentioned above, other functions may be af fected to a greater degree in the company, in particular:

Technology/IT (already mentioned) . Sometimes, employees from these areas provide support for project organization as they have experience in project execution.

Organizational unit s from the areas of ISO, supervisory board, data protection, process department, BSC and similar areas.