My steps to CRM
In September I took my organization through a process to migrate from ebase (a filemaker pro database) to Salesforce.com for CRM. Much like Dr. Jeckyll, we thought it a good idea to experiment on ourselves. Unlike with Dr. Jeckyll, it did not end badly.
We have been using Salesforce.com for over two months now. I’ll talk about using Salesforce.com and how it’s changing the way we work in a later post. In this post, I’ll run through the general steps of the process I took us through in our move to Salesforce.com.
- Process Reivew Meetings
- We talked a lot about what currently stunk about the way we did CRM, what the ideal would be, and what unintended consequences might come out of it.
- I spent 6 hours with key staff here to understand how they work. Once their process for working was laid out, I could then identify the data and workflow necessary to support that.
- We identified necessary reports, and sources of data that we should bring into CRM.
- Customization
- I went off with this information and decided how to modify the application to support the identified processes.
- I created custom fields, built some custom objects (data tables), set up permissions, and created some custom code to make data entry easier.
- I set up the reports we needed. We didn’t have many reports because we had really been limited in our reporting ability by ebase. I’ll be creating more reports as we get used to being able to create them!
- Data Migration
- I got to spend lots and lots of time with ebase and filemaker. Real fun. I recommend it.
- I got our data out of ebase and into Salesforce.com in the right format
- Integration
- We didn’t integrate into any outside systems in this first project.
- Training
- I worked with key staff and showed them how to use Salesforce.com to do their work.
- We skimped a little on this because I sit in the office and can answer training questions on short notice…
- Launch
- Follow Up
- Since our launch I’ve been adding new fields, changing page layouts, changing permissions, creating reports, and giving training.
- I also have had to do some data cleaning because of mistakes I made during the data migration process
Overall the process worked pretty well. I have to get better at being exhaustive in the requirements gathering because I won’t have the luxury of walking across the hall to ask for more info. And my clients won’t be as forgiving as we are, because as we like to say, we have a very high pain tollerance when it comes to technology.
I learned a lot during this work, and have made a lot of changes. I’m now testing the process on two real-world projects. I’ve fully disclosed that I’m not really sure what the heck I’m doing here, and they’re game. I’ll let you know how it goes.
