Project Management New CRM

Roger Burford Axia Collage IT205 9/19/2010

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Our company has tasked the IT department to design and manage a project to implement a new Customer Relations Management (CRM) for our company. CRM is a product which includes both

hardware and software which will allow you to enter and retrieve customer information about your current and future clients which will enable you to better market directly to your customers, analyze the effectiveness of marketing techniques and find new customers. Scope To determine what the new CRM is needed for and what it will do we must first understand the current processes used to collect customer information and how the marketing department currently decides what is the best way to market our products to our clients. From the IT departments research we have determined that the sales staff currently uses a combination of 3x5 cards in a Rolodex format with customer information and some salesmen use Outlook contact information to record information. This is a very ineffective means of using the client information because it is not easily shared between sales staff and other departments in the company and depends entirely on the sales staffs memory of clients purchasing habits and trends. The proposed CRM must be able to store current customer information such as name, address, phone number, e-mail address and items purchased in the past by that customer. It must have an easy and effective means of collecting this information from our company web site and allowing input of existing information into the system. It must also interface with our existing product database and be available to all departments though out the company while maintaining security of customer information from unauthorized access. It has been determined from preliminary investigations of current hardware and software available within the company that we will have to replace our current servers and network hardware in able to facilitate these improvements.

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We have selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM as the software package due to its capability to interface with our current software systems and cost and will be using Dell as the hardware provider for all replacement hardware devices. We have determined that the entire project should take no longer than three months to complete. The first phase will begin with the purchase of two new servers and two forty eight port gigabit switches. One server to become the new application server for the CRM product and the other server will replace the existing database server. The replacement of the current switches with the gigabit switches will facilitate faster data transfer for the application and all users. Timeline The first phase of the project will begin October 1, 2010 with the arrival of the new servers and switches. These items have already been purchased and are expected to ship September 19, 2010 and arrive no later than the 21 . Upon arrival the receiving department will inspect for accuracy of the order, tag and add to inventory the new hardware for the IT department. The IT department will receive the new equipment and rack and stack the equipment into existing rack space install operating systems and software required to meet company standards. The second phase of the project will begin October 8, 2010 with the IT department installing the Microsoft CRM software on the application server and a copy of Microsoft SQL on the new database server. Next the IT department will on October 9, 2010 begin the process of porting the exiting database information onto the new server and testing connectivity and accessibility to the new server from the network. This phase will be completed over the weekend and will be completed prior to Monday morning October 11 . The third phase of the project will begin with letting the network and new hardware settle down over the next two weeks to verify that all existing functions are operational. During this time the IT department will begin the process of modifying the CRM software to meet the requirements stated by the
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scope of the project. This will include creation of new intranet web interfaces for input of data and standard report formatting. The fourth phase of the project will begin on November 13, 2010 with the IT department connecting the interfaces with the CRM software to the database, new intranet pages and reporting system. On Monday November 15 the sales department will begin the process of entering data into the newly created intranet page from their existing 3x5 cards. This process should be completed no later than 30 November 2010. This should provide enough time for those sales personnel to complete the data entry and will also allow for the testing of the system while still having the 3x5 cards available. The fifth phase of the project will follow on December 1, 2010 with the remaining sales team data conversion. The sales team will be instructed on how to export the PST file from their outlook contacts and submit them to the IT department. The IT department will begin the process of converting the data from Outlook and importing it into the database.
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This process will be completed no later than 15

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December 2010. Again this time between the 1 and 15 of December will allow for the simultaneous use of both means of accessing customer information. The sixth phase and final phase will begin December 16, 2010 with the IT department providing access to the intranet site to the marketing department for them to begin the process of evaluating the existing customer data. By January 1, 2011 the marketing department will have had time to annualize the existing data. The marketing department and sales department will provide input to the IT department with modifications to be made to the intranet site and database to allow entry of any additional customer information that may be desired for future use. All existing 3x5 cards and Outlook contacts will no longer be used to store customer information. Cost The projected cost of this project is expected not to exceed $100,000.00. This is to include the cost of the two new Dell servers, two new switches and new CRM software. Also included is the overtime required by the IT department to complete work needed over the weekends. Existing operating system

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and database licenses will be used for the new system. Also included is the salary to hire one temporary employee to enter data from the 3x5 cards for sales staff out of the office during the project. Quality The quality of the existing data in the current database will be maintained and will only be modified in a way to allow access to new functionality. No other modifications will be made at this time. Risk The primary risk to this project is the loss of existing data in the database during the porting process to the new server. Prior to the process all data must have a completed backup and all access to the data restricted to the IT department so as not to corrupt the data. If too many of the sales staff is out of the office for sales work or vacation during this process the project may not be able to meet deadlines. Please restrict to office outages to a minimum during this time to allow for data entry and prevent the need to hire addition temp workers which may cause cost overruns. The above is an example of an overview of a business plan I would put together for the project requested. The scope of the project must cover all aspects of what you want the project to accomplish and the existing environment. The time must include everything from beginning to end including if

possible any contingencies and extra padding so you do not burn out your teams but allow the project to be completed in a reasonable timeframe. Cost should include not only hardware and software but the time it takes personnel to complete the work. In this case the plan is to only use one temp worker and allowing overtime for the IT staff while all other work is to be accomplished during normal working hours. Quality is a little harder to define other than the project must meet all of the objectives stated in the scope and stay within the timeline and the fact that allowing all departments to share the customer data will improve marketing. Risk must look at all aspects of the project and anticipate anything that could go wrong like the hardware not showing up in time, to many people going on vacation at the same time or

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crashing the companies database during the process. You do not want to make things worse while trying to make them better. When selecting a project for a company multiple factors must be taken into consideration. You do not want to take on a project just because someone wants something, it must benefit the company in ways that outweigh the cost of the project. Do not replace a server just because a new one came out, if the existing hardware is functioning properly and meets the existing need it can continue to function properly for a long time. Processors should last ten years, but most companies look at replacements with five years or shorter if it is a critical system. Warranties can be extended to cover hardware failures and in critical systems some vendors even allow you to have spare parts on hand or allow for four hour turn around on parts. Taking on a project like the one I outlined could increase sales by allowing for targeted marketing and the project can be expanded on in the future to include more functionality. Factors that influence project risk would be things like software failure, hardware failure, not meeting the timeline of one phase jeopardizing the other phases and cost overruns. Timelines must be reasonable to allow for contingencies and do not cause a burden on other aspects of the company. Another thing that can affect the timeline and other aspects of a project is project spread. Project spread is when you or someone else finds something else they want to add to the project after it has been finalized. Take these things into consideration for future projects do not add to an existing one unless it is essential. Costs must be maintained so the companys finances are not placed in jeopardy and quality is an aspect of all other factors. With a well designed and thought out plan you will have thought of anything that can go wrong and be able to stick to the plan.