Extending CRM

Computerworld - Cessna Aircraft Co. faced an unusual problem in arming its salespeople with the right data to make and close deals: It wanted to install a sales force automation tool and connect it to the "most extensive" customer database in the aircraft industry, says Dave Turner, manager of network systems at the Wichita, Kan.-based aircraft manufacturer.

Originally, database administrators had to look up prospect information, print it out and then fax it to salespeople. The system also generated multipage end-of-month printed reports. To save money, time and effort, Cessna decided to automate the process.

The sheer size of the database made the task daunting. Cessna needed to be able to extract information not only about its customers but also on individual airplanes and then slice and dice the data and get it out to the global sales force. The company decided to customize the data models—the sort of move many users and analysts view as a risky proposition.

The less tampering users do with vanilla applications the better, practitioners say. Customizing customer relationship management (CRM) software can be expensive, difficult and time-consuming, and it can make the core application unstable and difficult to upgrade. Indeed, some users advocate retooling business processes rather than tinkering with CRM code. However, for companies that need to preserve a competitive advantage, adding vertical-market features or exploiting homegrown technology may make sense.

Rather than customizing, look for applications that are flexible enough to allow changes through configuration, says Steven Bonadio, an analyst at Meta Group Inc. in Stamford, Conn. This includes having access to developer tool kits, being able to develop and configure business rules and workflows, and adding new fields on the user interface layout.

On the other hand, Bonadio says, it's unrealistic to assume that there will be no customization. The degree of tweaking will depend on the sophistication of the user's operations, whether external interfaces are needed and the CRM project's goals. "Given that every organization has unique business requirements, some combination of both configuration and customization is often necessary," Bonadio says.

Cessna chose Fairfield, N.J.-based StayinFront Inc.'s Visual Elk sales force automation product and Panorama decision-support tool to extract customer information stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database. The project required programming services from StayinFront to create special data models before two in-house developers took over.

"It's always growing," says Turner. "You don't make it too complex. Define the requirements very clearly, and live, breathe and eat and drink the requirements. You need to be hard in not letting people change the scope of it."