Post-Project Organizational Structure

Carol Smalley
Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Member

Posted 15-Jul-2003 06:00 AM
Posted by Carol Smalley (Editor) on behalf of Lindsay Folk [lindsay.folk@fcc-fac.ca]

We are in the midst of a CRM implementation project. We understand that there should be a post-project structure, but are looking for more clarity on roles (who?) and accountabilities.

What are best practices in this area? This is an enterprise-wide implementation, focusing on integrated customer profile and activity tracking for Wave 1.

Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
www.CRMGuru.com
carol@CRMGuru.com

Carol Smalley
Managing Editor, CRMGuru
Member

Posted 15-Jul-2003 06:07 AM
Posted by Carol Smalley (Editor) on behalf of Bill Brender [bill@brendler.com]

Lindsay:

There is a substantial amount of clarity on roles and responsibilities in an enterprise wide initiative—I use a role/responsibility charting process (best practice) that is very powerful. It delineates out each role in
detail. It is very important to design the post-project structure as early as possible—you are creating another system that has to be accepted, utilized, and adopted by users and middle management. I use a template
that outlines that structure.

Bill Brendler
Organizational Change Professionals
Accelerating Strategic Change
Author & Keynote Speaker
http://www.brendler.com
http://www.crmguru.com

Carol Parenzan Smalley
Managing Editor
www.CRMGuru.com
carol@CRMGuru.com

PR
Member

Posted 18-Jul-2003 12:43 AM
Hi Lindsay,
If you have implemented a new CRM system then I would recommend that you should drive your org structure based on the position—responsibilities relationships defined there. In other words try to stick to the CRM package functionality. This helps in migration to later versions and clarity of the business processes and who is using what.

However, if you are not implementing a package but custom building the application then you might want to drive these against the functional areas that you are dividing your CRM solution into as in Sales, Service etc. I agree with Bill's suggestion that you use a template however, you have to know where the template drives the Org Structure and where the CRM system drives it. And my recommendation would still be that the CRM solution should drive it based on mapping of each functioanlity (screen) to a particular responsibility and then driving it up to the Org level.

Regards,
Prasoon Ranjan

Graham Hill
Guru
Member

Posted 25-Jul-2003 09:49 AM
Lindsay

I would suggest that you develop your organisation (it is actually much more than just structure, reporting lines, roles & responsibilities) to suit the needs of your business, not the structure of your IT solution.

The form of the organisation should be the conscious result of how the company wants to operate in its business environment.

I suggest that you go out and buy a good organisation development textbook, such as those of Nadler & Tushman, Jay Galbraith, or Henry Mintzberg, and take a robust step by step approach to developing your organisation. Or hire a consultant who knows about organisation development first, and CRM second (not the other way round).

Developing roles & responsibilities definitions, and mapping them to the appropriate business processes and systems is a part of High-level Design in most organisation development approaches.

Graham Hill
Independent CRM Consultant

Vishal Sarkar
Member Council
Member

Posted 29-Jul-2003 06:35 AM
Lindsay,

I think that Graham has made a very important point here by pointing out that the post-project organization structure should be driven by business requirements rather than the IT solution.

The IT solution may mirror certain role definitions that are already present in your organization and I hope it does, based on the requirement analysis and mapping that would have been earlier during implementation. But these roles may not be the ones that are required to supportthe post implementation stage. Post implementation, roles change and so do the tasks and activities. This is a stage where you have to define roles that monitor the implementation and roll out. Roles that involve in the daily working and support of the CRM processes and the IT system.

It would be inappropriate to suggest specific roles and responsibilities without a fuller description of the business areas and the impact of the CRM processes on those areas, but I would like to reiterate the fact that you should look at your business and organizational structure need rather that the IT solution for organization re-structuring / role definition and responsibilities.

Vishal