Browse > Home / CRM Planning & Implemenation, CRM Systems, Marketing & Sales / Pricing CRM’s Professional Services Cost

Pricing CRM’s Professional Services Cost

December 16, 2007

Please note it is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, opinion or advice contained in the content below.

By Vera Lang

Research forecasts that by 2010, organizations worldwide will spend $11 billion per year on customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. A large portion of this expense is allocated to CRM’s Professional Services Cost. As it is possibly the single biggest cost item on the bill, companies should pay close attention to it. How can they maximize Return on CRM Investment, and in particular, to its Professional Services component?

CRM software licensing cost is easy to determine: multiply users times user fees. Not so with CRM Professional Services. In contrast, they are hard to estimate, are highly variable, and depend on lots of variables, including your CRM scope of implementation & support, customization needs and existing software integration requirements. They also vary by vendor, product type and other factors.

How to Estimate CRM Professional Services Cost

Professional Services for CRM planning & design, implementation and post-implementation encompass a wide range of tasks. To get a handle on cost, companies are to first scope its entire CRM project. Vendors offer a methodology for implementing their solution, which might help you on your way. So do the services of CRM consultants help in determining details and cost drivers. By jointly detailing complexity, clarity and a real budget will emerge.

Break-down of CRM Project Scopes to Identify Professional Services Cost Variables

Phase I - CRM Planning

1. CRM Strategic Objectives, High-level Project Scope & Needs
2. Project Management, including definition of expected results & return schedule, mapping implementation plans and training roll-out. It also includes allocating internal staff resources as required.
3. Custom Business Process Mapping & Redesign, embracing industry best practices, preferred processes and process automation
4. CRM System Design & Specification for sales, marketing & customer service
5. CRM Customization & CRM Integration with existing applications.

Phase II - CRM Implementation

6. System Build & Configuration
7. Data Migration: data cleansing & import
8. Documentation of Redesigned Procedures - Corporate Communication for User Acceptance.
9. Administrator & User Training - cost depends on staffing numbers, existing skills, process redesign and system complexity
10. Hardware Installation, Upgrades, and Additional Software Requirements

Phase III - Ongoing Live with CRM

11. Post-CRM Implementation Audits & Transition Support

All components impact on Professional Services Cost, and #5 and #7 are real cost drivers of CRM Professional Services Cost.

#5: How much of the CRM software functionality you intend to use? What level of system configuration is required? The sophistication of your reporting requirement will influence system design. Existing IT infrastructure will determine if a company need to buy additional hardware and software, and degree of change to your current customer facing procedures will also influence overall costs.

#7: A CRM offers a real opportunity to re-evaluate true value of data as data can take up significant resources. Pertinent questions: a. What’s the value of your company’s existing data; b. How much of it will you use; c. What reformatting is needed to migrate it into CRM; d. How much data cleansing is required? It’s a big decision to discontinue data that has taken decades to build, however a future-focused data evaluation must made. Usually companies’ own skilled staff is instrumental in assessing, cleansing and reformatting the data to keep. This time-consuming, and thus initially costly, exercise has long-term benefits.

Coming in within Budget

Once you have a base-case of estimated CRM Professional Services cost, you can apply scenarios to see how the cost-structure varies by shifting requirements. Some tasks might be done in-house, while others must be undertaken by vendors for a fee. You might rethink your requirements once the price tags of options become apparent. It literally pays to do your homework well.

Related Articles on CRM Help Desk Software.com

Recent Articles on CRM Help Desk Software.com

Free Newsletter

Sign up for the free Daily newsletter, filled with tips and ideas on how to choose a proper CRM, Help Desk, Customer Support, or Enterprise Content Management software system. Your email address will be kept confidential and won't be shared. Easily unsubscribe at any time.

If you enjoy the free information available on this site, you're sure to enjoy the free newsletter as well:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Site Search Tags:

Share and Enjoy:

Written by Vera Lang · Filed Under CRM Planning & Implemenation, CRM Systems, Marketing & Sales 

Comments

CRM Help Desk Software