We have a new investment bank coming on board this month. I worked so closely with this firm during the sales process that I decided to help them with the configuration myself.
As I was guiding them through the configuration exercise, I was reminded about a number of best practices to designing a system.
As it’s helpful to go back and revisit your configuration every 3 to 6 months (you ARE doing this, right?!!) I thought it would be a good idea to share some of these best practices.
1. Categorize shared contacts with simple, easy-to-understand names for your contact types.
I’ve seen firms come up with some creative catch-all names like “Industry Experts” and “Strategic Contacts” to name a few. As long as every single person in your firm can give you an example of a “strategic contact” then you’re fine. If someone in your firm has to ask what are “friends of the firm” you know you could have done a better job naming these categories!
2. Keep the number of Contact Types small.
We had one firm over-design their system and start out with over 120 contacttypes! Despite our warnings, they were confident that they needed so many and that each and every one was well justified. It turns out that only the group that designed the system ever used the system — no one else at the firm could understand it! Well, the folks that designed the system left the firm. We were called back in and promptly blamed for making the system so complicated! The new team slashed the number down to about 30 and saw adoption of the system grow immediately. They’ve been happy users ever since. Remember the old KISS acronym … Keep it Simple Stupid!
3. Only create additional fields when you know you have the data (and the resources) to populate the fields and keep them up-to-date.
The resource part of the equation here is the key. The last thing you want is to store a bunch of outdated information. Your co-workers won’t be able to rely on the data, and they’ll stop using the system. Keep the number of additional fields small, and add new fields only when you know you have the data and resources to manage them properly. (The rule of thumb here is that if you add a field, you should be able to populate it for at least 70% of the contacts.)
4. Revisit how Relationships CRM syncs with Outlook.
This feature is a definite strength of the system but there are so many options, and the functionality is so robust, that you can easily get complacent. We’ve had some clients even forget that the system automatically syncs with their Outlooks, as they initially configured everything to sync automatically with no prompts! On the flip side, we’ve had cautious firms configure it to never automatically add contacts and to prompt the user for everything. Most of the users of course ignore the prompts, and so the firm really hasn’t benefited from this functionality. So be sure to revisit your firm’s Outlook sync settings and make sure it’s still working for everyone.
5. If you’re tracking your Opportunities and/or Engagements, make sure the types of Opportunities/Engagements are still valid, as well as the fields your tracking.
At Swimfish, we add and delete fields in those modules every six months to a year.Why? Well for starters, our business changes. We offer new products and services, and discontinue others. We also continually look for ways to simplify. Our sales guys are just like your sales guys. They don’t want to fill out anything more than they have to – so we continue to refine the fields so that we’re capturing only the most important information in a way that is the most meaningful to us. If we’re not going to report on 15 fields, then why have them? Keep it current, and then simplify.
That’s enough for now! Remember, Swimfish provides full configuration support as part of our service to you. Just call Support at 978-767-2650 and as long as you’re an admin on the account, you can request changes to your configuration at any time. Many times we’re able to make the changes right when we’re on the phone with you – so you can see the results immediately!
