CRM in the 21st Century

Cloud CRM Development - IT Project Proposal Implementing a Cloud-Based CRM Application Creating and strengthening relationships with customers is critical for the growth of any business. The most challenging aspect of making customers the center of a business is the lack of clarity regarding customer-centric processes and programs (Cunningham, 2010). Increasingly businesses are turning to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications to orchestrate internal processes that align them to customer-specific needs and preferences, along with providing analytical insight regarding customer lifetime value (Harding, Cheifetz, DeAngelo, Ziegler, 2004).

CRM systems are designed to manage and optimize the many processes and tasks of attract, see and serve customers on an ongoing basis (Banerjea, 2011). The ability to manage customer relationships to a level of accuracy and clarity that is not possible with manually-based systems is making cloud-based CRM systems a viable alternative to all businesses today (Tian, 2011). Add in the fact that many companies rely on outbound sales forces, the need for an automated, real-time and cloud-based CRM system becomes even more pronounced (Cunningham, 2010).

This project focuses on the implementation of a new cloud-based CRM application across our organization. As our organization is a leader in the development and sales of build-to-order computer systems and tablets, the CRM system will be especially needed for tracking quote requests for customized products. Several of our customers are Fortune 1,000 companies who have very large sales teams who also use CRM to manage their many customer prospect calls, sales leads and ongoing activities with their customer base.

As these customers rely on CRM to manage their business, it is possible to learn from their successes and incorporate their practices into this organizations' CRM implementation as well. Instead of choosing to use a manually-based CRM system, the decision has been made on this project to rely on a cloud-based CRM system that can quickly be implemented and introduced quickly across the entire company.

Sales managers today have no visibility across the entire sales funnel and there is no accountability for upsell and cross-sell of existing products across the customer base. Having a single, unified CRM system that can scale across the entire company and provide a depth of analytics not available before will make the organization I work for more effective in selling and more profitable over the long-term. Finally there is no accurate, reliable process for providing sales leads to the sales teams that are located in diverse regions globally.

CRM systems that are cloud-based have proven very effective at managing leads and escalating them to the specific sales person and teams that can take action on them quickly to close more sales (Harding, Cheifetz, DeAngelo, Ziegler, 2004). As our organizations' problems are diverse and multifaceted, it is advisable that an enterprise-wide CRM system be implemented to solve these challenges. Goals The following are the goals for the proposed implementation of a cloud-based CRM application across our organization: 1.

To define and execute a project plan for the customization, testing, validation and successful launch of a cloud-based CRM system organization wide, providing each member of the sales team with immediate, 24/7 access to all relevant customer information. 2. To design and quickly implement a lead generation and escalation strategy using the cloud-based CRM applications'; functionality and features to ensure sales leads are delivered to sales reps immediately after they are captured. 3.

To provide sales managers with the ability to see sales funnel performance across all sales reps, regions and sales channels on a 24/7 basis using any mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop device connected to the Internet. Resources The most effective CRM implementations successfully blend the core strengths of internal sales teams and the unique strengths.