7 Steps to Customer Relationship Management Procurement and Selection Success

Tendering for a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) or Content Management System (CMS) doesn’t have to be a complicated or a long and drawn-out process as long as you keep some key points in mind. It’s easy to get swayed by ‘bells and whistles’ but it all comes back to a clear list of business and data objectives.

We have outlined 7 key areas to consider, which, we hope will help you drive a successful outcome.

1) Every question on the tender must add value to your final decision. Creating a clear list of business objectives across the touchpoints in the organisation will govern this process. There is no upper or lower limit when it comes to the number of questions, if they are adding value to the final decision, they are worthwhile.
Ultimately you are tendering for better data insights into your organisation helping you to understand your member satisfaction levels, churn etc and how you can make data informed decisions.

2) Research suppliers, based on peer reviews, forum research, secret shopping etc… understand the good, the bad and the ugly. The importance here is to be open-minded, there will always be frustrated clients – but this is not always the supplier’s fault! Don’t get biased by new technology; keep your focus on the business requirements and then look for what fits into your organisation. This industry has a fairly select list of suppliers, if needed, don’t be afraid to widen your search.

3) Be open with your budgets from very the start – this will help you gauge the focus you will get from the supplier. More importantly, it will ensure that you get a realistic response to your tender.

4) After investing time in collating your business requirements and structuring your questions, allow the suppliers time to respond. Depending on the complexity we would recommend a minimum of 3 weeks. This will allow the suppliers time to evaluate the questions and ensure that they fully understand and align with the project. Ultimately a win win for you.

5) There will be questions from the suppliers during the response process, we would recommend replying to all suppliers once a week with the collated answers. This ensures that you continue to have a level playing field across all suppliers.

6) Creating a simple scoring system helps with the general review. Remember it is not as simple as the highest score wins, but it will help drive the discussion and review across the panel keeping a focus on boxes that must be ticked.

7) Think through the interview day with care, while logistics of the day are sometimes left to the last minute – they are key to ensure that you get the best review. If you have done the preparation work, this process falls into place.

Ensuring you have a level playing field is key and this will help you make the final decisions.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, while this step can seem quite time consuming, it’s not – it will be worthwhile and help you make a balanced decision on your digital future.

If you want to read some more of our thoughts and advice on your digital journey, we have created articles and videos designed to focus on the key areas.

D ata empowers decision making

Chrysalis Digital provides a digital transformation service designed to help build a more agile, efficient and innovative organisation. With its broad cross-sector experience Chrysalis has helped many organisations map their digital path and through careful planning and assessment, choose the right technology partners. Chrysalis Digital is 100% agnostic when recommending CMS and CRM suppliers to its clients.