eCentric Media Best Practice White Paper               Critical CRM Decisions - Choosing Your CRM Systems Integration Specialist   Also Available In PDF                                                                                            Print-Friendly Version                                                                        [Page Five]

Systems Integration Specialist Selection: Common Pitfalls continued

 10. Consultancies who promote 'the latest thing'

 The software world moves quickly and tremendous advances have been made in the last decade in terms
 of software development. But all new developments have teething problems. Java may well now be the
 industry standard development platform, boasting open source, extreme interoperability, platform
 independence, object orienteering and so forth, but its introduction was hardly trouble free.

 The truth is, there is nothing ‘the next thing’ can do that cannot already be done by an existing, proven,
 relatively modern technology. And your chances of success are greatly enhanced by using proven strategies
 that have had a chance to mature best practice.



 11. Consultancies promoting a sledgehammer to crack a nut

 The CRM solution that suits a huge media empire managing millions of customer records through multiple
 call centres - perhaps even with some outsourced to another continent - is unlikely to be best suited to a
 regional company with a few hundred thousand customers. Similarly, a CRM solution targeted at medium
 sized enterprises is unlikely to scale to the needs of a large multi-national.

 Select a consultancy that recognises your individual needs and promotes the tools most suitable to them.



 12. Systems Integration Consultancies who won’t ‘own’ the integration

 What do you want your systems integration specialist to do? Are they simply providing developer resource
 whilst you try to find in house staff experienced and capable of managing the integration and implementation
 exercise? Or are you expecting the integration specialist to bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to
 the table?

 There are integration companies who will own the implementation and integration exercise. Some even going
 as far as working fixed price or accepting penalties for late delivery. There are others who will merely
 provide resource on a time & expense basis with no apparent regard or incentive to actually deliver
 anything.



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