As a CRM consultant, I often get asked the question of what a CRM implementation costs? I typically respond with the standard consultant speak of “it depends” and enumerate some of the factors that can influence the pricing of a CRM implementation. From a client perspective, I understand that it can be frustrating not to get a solid number or even a narrow range estimate. The problem is that a CRM project is kind of like building a house and depends on dozens of factors. Below is a list of some of the items that can influence the price of a CRM project:

• Business Functions – This is essentially a scope question. Are you trying to solve a specific need with your CRM or are you looking to turn your CRM system into a quasi-ERP system to run all of your internal data needs? The more scope, the more it will cost.
• Business Process Re-engineering – Is your organization fairly confident in existing business processes or are you looking to make some big changes? A CRM consultant can aid in this process, however, this tends to consume a lot of hours and raise costs.
• Iteration Cycles – Most Salesforce implementers will prototype an application. Each round of revisions on the prototype is often referred to as an “iteration”. Limiting the number of iterations can help to manage costs. One of the key ways to do this is to ensure that all stakeholders participate in the review process and that coordinated feedback is sent back to the CRM consultant.
• Training & Documentation Needs – For larger organizations, using a “train the trainer” model can save significant implementation costs. Also, be careful to only get as much documentation as you can maintain. If you are not able to maintain hundreds of pages of documentation, do not request it from your CRM consultant. Static documentation tends to become outdated very quickly on CRM systems.
• 3rd Party Applications – Does your CRM project need 3rd party applications? Sometimes this can help to lower implementation cost (could be at the expense of ongoing cost). However, some 3rd Party apps may require setup or configuration which can add to the implementation cost.
• Consultant – Like in any marketplace there are different types of consultants in the CRM Marketplace. Some thrive on transactional models were they execute a large number of projects and are able to charge lower rates. This is great for organizations that have limited budgets and fairly straightforward needs. Other consultants get deep into an organization and may re-engineer processes in addition to technology. This approach is great for organizations with complex business problems and more flexible budgets.
• Custom Code – If your business requirements cannot be met within the constructs of the CRM platform you are using, then your consultant may need to custom code. In Salesforce this means adding Apex, VisualForce, and S-Control code to your system. Custom code can quickly increase both your implementation costs and your long term maintenance costs.
• Systems Integration – Does your data need to be in synch with other databases or applications with your IT infrastructure? What type of synchronization (manual, bi-directional, uni-directional)? Systems integration can easily increase implementation costs.
• Web Integration – This one is a little more complex because there are some things that are very easy to integrate with a website (Web2Lead, Web2Case). Other items such as building a multi-page application form with save and return functions could be more complex and costly.
• Data Migration – This is the single area that we have seen the highest variance of cost. We will probably need an entire blog article to describe how data migration can influence costs. One thing that you can really do to help keep costs down here is to clean up your data. Remove duplicate records, correct spelling mistakes, and get paper data into electronic form. If you have 100 Excel files, see if you can condense that down to 20 or fewer files. This is one area were doing some prep work can save you substantial CRM implementation costs.
• Reporting Requirements – This is another area where there tends to be high variance among organizations. Some organizations have enormous and complex reporting requirements, while others can survive on basic data reports. A consultant will need to review your reporting requirements to get a sense of where you land on the spectrum. Reporting can get particularly expensive when there are complex business rules and formatting rules for report generation.
• DIY – One way for an organization to lower CRM implementation costs is to take on more of the work themselves. For example, if your organization needs to have 100 reports and 30 dashboards built, have your consultants build out the most complex ones and do the rest yourself. You will save money and also increase your system skills at the same time.

The above list is not everything that goes into CRM implementation costs; however, it does reflect some fairly important items. Also, consider the following when thinking about CRM implementation costs. If you decide to do a lot of the work in house, you are not really lowering the CRM implementation costs. You are just displacing them from an external resource to an internal one. Depending on how your org’s budget is structured, it may be easier to use internal resources. Also, be careful not to take on too many ongoing costs (3rd party apps and services) to lower implementation costs.

If you are a CRM consultant or have done a CRM project for your organization, please shout out some of the other major cost factors you have faced in the implementation process.

This has been posted about elsewhere, but this is a pretty big deal. VR and Salesforce are very nicely integrated, as you probably already know:

http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/detail_overview.jsp?id=a0330000000GI9FAAW

• If you already have Vertical Response, email nonprofits@verticalresponse.com to get it for free.
• If you don’t have it yet, go fill out this form and fax it to them directly. I found it at http://www.verticalresponse.com/non-profits/

More details can be found on the VR Email Marketing blog - http://blog.verticalresponse.com/verticalresponse_blog/2008/04/non-profits-ema.html, which I recommend heartily for all nonprofit communication folks out there. Janine Popick, who writes the blog, has a great writing style and gives lots of good tips around getting more people to actually read your emails.

Enjoy!

Is the Universal Data Model truly a myth in the nonprofit sector? After all, if such a thing were possible, why hasn’t it already happened in the NPO sector? I think we need to start by deconstructing the definition of the nonprofit sector. Often “nonprofit” is treated as a vertical; however, the reality is that “nonprofit” is a broader categorization comprised of many verticals (Health, Education, Human Services, Environment, etc.). We could probably even dissect those macro level vertical into sub-verticals. When we look at the NPO sector from the sub-vertical perspective, there is clear evidence that a universal data model is possible. All you have to do is look at the thriving ecosystem of software companies that are out there servicing these sub-verticals. Some of these software companies have even been able to more broadly define the data model and extract out to a sector level or macro-level vertical (fundraising software is a prime example). So, there is clear evidence that there is the possibility of a data model that could resonate across organizations.

What would it take for the NPO sector to define a universal data model? I think the most important element may be an understanding that the goal of 100% definition is not possible. If the goal is defining the 80% that is common and providing 20% flexibility/customization, then there is a chance to succeed. This is the model that the more successful NPO software vendors have already adopted.

We can take these same lessons and apply them to the CRM space and more specifically to the thriving Salesforce Ecosystem. Salesforce has afforded the NPO community a stable and secure platform to build upon. The next step is for us to agree on some operating standards for nonprofits. To date, this has been the work of the NPSF community and the non-profit template. The ideal scenario would be if we could agree on a general set of operating standards (i.e. Use of Person Accounts, How Financial transactions are handled, How we use the standard objects, etc.) and encode these standards into V2 of the Nonprofit Template. Doing so, would give us a strong base to operate off of and would allow for the development of Modules that can plug into and extend the V2 template. The Modules themselves would represent the data model of the sub-verticals (i.e. Soup Kitchen, Volunteer Program, Large Event Fundraising, etc.). When we combine the platform with a V2 template and a vibrant ecosystem of Modules, we should be able to achieve 80% or more of the needs of many organizations. There will still be the 20% of customization organizations will need to do in order to fine tune the application to their unique business model and operating procedures.

If we can strive for this goal, it would be a huge leap forward for the entire NPO community and especially the subset of the NPO market that is looking at or currently using Salesforce. If we can get to the point where we put the platform and NPO standards behind us, then we can begin the real acceleration of Module development which may be the beginning of the “Universal Data Model”.

9:58 - U2 playing, pretty crowded.  Looks like a mini-Dreamforce.  Lights dimming…

10:06 I’m sure you won’t be able to see Benioff since the iPhone camera sucks, but I’ll do my best.

10:11 2 Powerbooks on stage.  Nice.

10:15 Here we go.

We have an exciting day for you.  Presentation, discussion with Morgan Stanley, new stuff from CODA, SFDC vision of the future.  Then Nick Carr - “Why IT doesn’t matter.”

Safe Harbor, blah blah. 

SF Mission is to create the SaaS market.  Moving from client-server to cloud computing.  Moving from SAP, Oracle, Microsoft to new vendors.

Talking about multi-tenancy, sharing with other customers.  Huge shift for industry and basis of SaaS. Subscription model, pay-as-you-go, like a magazine, cell phone, cable model.

Multi-tenancy can support very large companies to very small companies (big banks to public schools). Very scalable, 150 million transactions daily. Nice hockey stick graph showing transactions and page load time over several years.

Old way of writing software: 5.25″ floppy, send to a store, hope to meet someone years later who uses the product.

New way: immediate feedback and reaction time.  Development cycle to change product is now 90 days (3-4 releases per year), 25 releases in 8 years.

Industry recognitions: Forbes, Gartner, Business Week, Fortune, etc etc etc.

Salesforce.com Foundation.  [Editor: Yay!]  When we started, 1% time,1% equity ,1% product, model.  16 employees.  501c3, 16 schools using SFDC. 3,000 Nonprofits using it.  $12 million grants.  NY public schools got a $100,000 grant - applause.

Going for the first $1 Billion SaaS company.  1.1 million subscrbers, 40,000 companies.

Google Apps + SF Integration - “your business in the cloud”.  Currently free for standard Google Apps, enterprise version from SF for $10/user/mo.

Strategy: Force.com is the Platform as a Service.  Visualforce in production within 90 days.  (Editor: That’s news…coming with Summer 08 perhaps?)

Showing Microsoft’s .net being built on a house of “server/database/etc” cards.  Emerging countries can’t afford all the infrastructure.  

Which path will you choose: Software or Cloud Computing?

Force.com is Salesforce’s cloud computing offering.  Low cost, easy to use, low risk.  

[Taking a break from liveblogging the sales pitch/architecture - will resume when I hear something nonprofit-y.]

Bringing up Dan Marionni from Morgan Stanley.  Will note anything NPO-ish. 

Bringing up Narinder Singh from Appirio. Demo-ing Dolby, their customer. VERY cool live instance using Visualforce.  Doesn’t look anything like Salesforce, but is.

Bringing up Jeremy Roche from CODA, a UK finance applications shop.  A general ledger accounting app built on SFDC.  Pretty neat.

Adam Gross from Salesforce is now creating an App, “Cooking Show style”.  Using Eclipse and Visualforce.  Getting started: https://wiki.apexdevnet.com/index.php/Getting_Started

Nick Carr talking about “the big switch” to the cloud.  

[Battery running low, so going to sign off here.  Hope you all enjoyed this.] 

One more little bonus for you - me and Lisa Glass with GIANT STEVE:

The Salesforce.com Foundation announced last week its latest round of Turn It UP Grants. Turn it up Grants are the Foundation’s way of investing in innovative projects that can be shared and leveraged by other organizations.  In other words, TIU grants raise the floor for the entire sector and our use of the platform.

Here’s their criteria:

• Strength and practicability of the proposed project and implementation plan
• Impact the grant will have on the organization’s efficacy
• Whether the implementation is scalable and replicable for other nonprofit organizations
• Ability and motivation to share best practices with the nonprofit community

Application dealine is May 2, 2008

Salesforce.com announced last night the much anticipated integration with Google Apps.  I haven’t had a lot of time to look at it.  Judi Sohn is already starting to implement.  Definitely watch her blog for a report out. Update: Here’s Judi’s Post

What’s truly amazing, is that from the setup page (click image to expand), it looks like everything is covered: Gmail, Gtalk, Calendar, Documents, Firefox buttons and more.  Its like they went inside my head and implemented my dream integration.  I truly can’t wait to get under the hood and play.

Update: Lee Lefever has made an introductory video on the Google Blog.  Or watch it here:

I was having lunch with a friend the other day and he told me about a recent horror experience he had within his own organization. His organization just completed a fairly large internal CRM project and was rolling out an application. During a training session with a core group of users, one of the users attempted to move from one screen to another without saving and lost some data. Mortified that her action was a bug in the system, she lashed out at the training staff and soon infected the entire classroom with a negative perception of the application. The training staff was eventually able to regain control of the session and finish it out; however, they all now know that an enormous user adoption hurdle lies ahead of them.

I wanted to bring up this story to illustrate a critical point that we often think about in our CRM implementations. Know your influencers!! It’s easy to fall into a trap where you assume management support equals end user support. This may be true in smaller organizations or organizations that have a very hierarchical organizational structure and culture. However, many organizations are operating in more flat and distributed models. This often means that the loud voice of a peer can be just as influential as that of an Executive Director. Getting insight into who the influencers are and getting buy in from them early on in the process can help to avoid situations such as the one above.

This is a short list of things I’ve gathered from working with a variety of nonprofits over the course of the past 2 years, and thought I’d share with you.

• Explain any acronyms used (like CRM, CMS, etc) unless they’re nonprofit-friendly (like 501c3).
• Better yet, try not to use acronyms at all.
• Show, don’t tell whenever possible (by using Yugma or PowerPoint or whatever).
• “let client staff drive during training.” - Joey, ONE/Northwest
• ALWAYS check for understanding: have people repeat back in their own words what we just talked about.
• Keep process conversations simple. If people get off track, try saying, “That’s great! Now, one more time in 20 words or less.”
• Use a project management tool that keeps people accountable (i.e. dates and to-do items are publicly shared with all the stakeholders). I like BaseCamp for this.
• Make sure you know who the stakeholders ARE.
• Communicate often using any method available. Never be afraid to use the phone - some people prefer this to email, even in our hyper-connected Twitter-addicted society.
• Corollary: Never assume emails have been read.
• Share bad news early - it makes course corrections or deadline slips less painful.
• “Assume your main project contact will leave the organization during the project or shortly thereafter. Plan for that occurrence.” - Steve, gokubi.com

That’s all I have time for today, but feel free to add your own items in the comments, and I’ll edit the post and give you attribution.

Techcrunch announced yesterday the integration between Salesforce.com and Google Apps that we (or perhaps I should speak for myself) have been anticipating for sometime. There have been rumors and teasers for couple months now, but nothing substantive from either company. While this isn’t an official announcement and there are no details to the extent of the integration, something’s coming down the pipe and I’m psyched. (Please please please integrate Gmail with sf.com!).

What does this mean for nonprofit Salesforce users? As I’ve written before, I believe on-demand applications hold a lot of promise for nonprofits. The integration of these two enterprise class applications provide us yet more opportunities to tighten our workflows, increase collaboration, decrease our data silos, lower our ICT total cost of ownership and ultimately focus on delivering our services, not technology.

One real life scenario where I can see this integration being leveraged is with the grant writing and management lifecycle:

• An organization can collaboratively write a grant and budget using Google Docs and Spreadsheets and have those documents embedded directly in an Opportunity that tracks the grant submission process.
• Both during the selection process and if the grant is won, email conversations with the grants officer can be added to the opportunity directly from Gmail.
• Progress reports to the foundation can be tracked from both systems and related to the opportunity.
• If Gcal is part of the integration, you could possibly map out your grant submission calendar from Opportunities data directly to your organization’s Gcal.
• Additionally, I could see simple Google Spreadsheets surveys being embedded in Salesforce and perhaps even the data from the surveys being pulled into an Outcomes object (I know…pie in the sky talk here).

What are your thoughts about how this could impact your organization? What are ways in which you see this integration being beneficial?

This last week, the Salesforce Foundation announced they are kicking off the much anticipated development of version 2 of the Nonprofit Edition. This is exciting on many fronts:

• It’s happening!
• The brilliant and uber-sharing Steve Andersen will be leading the project.
• The sf.com Foundation is again making this an open and transparent process with the NPSF Community:

-The NPSF community has the domain knowledge necessary to serve nonprofits with Salesforce.com–the Foundation doesn’t have this expansive knowledge
-The Foundation can’t be successful or sustainable without a vibrant ecosystem of integrators and add-on tool providers
-The Foundation puts great importance on it’s ability to listen to the community, and wants this process to reinforce that

Read Steve Andersen’s kickoff email for more information.

This affirms for me again why I develop off of this platform: The vendor is truly committed to the nonprofit sector (do I dare say…committed to social change) and does not assume to have all the domain expertise to prescribe a solution to its customers.