You have decided to implement a CRM. Now you need to know where to start. Installing a CRM has nothing to do with installing a spreadsheet: the tool affects your processes, and therefore your organization.

Hence the value of getting support. Here is how to choose the right provider, which pitfalls to avoid, and the contract clauses to check before signing.

The team behind our flexible, automatable CRM tells you everything.

What support covers

A provider can step in at every stage, and you do not necessarily need them for all of them.

• Selecting the tool.
• Defining needs and the target state.
• Configuration and implementation.
• Migrating existing data.
• Connections with your existing systems.
• Training and change management.

One piece of methodological advice before anything else: do not entrust the definition of your needs to the party who will then sell you the solution. It is not a question of honesty, it is a question of perspective. An integrator naturally expresses the needs their tool can cover.

1. Define your criteria

The size of your company

For a small or medium-sized organization, a renowned provider is expensive and not necessarily the right choice: your project will carry little weight in their portfolio, and the consultants assigned will often be the least experienced.

A smaller provider will give you stable contacts and a more direct relationship. Large companies, on the other hand, turn to players able to sign framework agreements.

In all cases, there are big differences from one provider to another, and sometimes from one team to another within the same provider. Ask who will actually work on your project, and meet these people before signing. It is the only question whose answer predicts anything.

Where the team is located

The underlying question is the use of offshore resources, which lowers the daily rate. Here again, quality differences are considerable.

The benchmark is as follows: offshoring works for standardized tasks, with stable specifications, on projects of limited size. On more ambitious projects, geographical and cultural distance absorbs a good part of the price advantage. A mixed team, with a local contact, is often the best compromise.

One point not to forget: if the provider handles your customer data, its location also becomes a compliance issue. Data migration carried out from a country outside the European Union requires a specific contractual framework, a topic we cover in our article on GDPR and your CRM data.

2. Assess skills and references

Business expertise before technical expertise

Mastering the tool is necessary, but not enough. What makes the difference is knowledge of your business and the number of projects actually delivered.

Ask for references, and above all ask to speak to those references. A successful experience in a company of comparable size and in your sector is worth more than any certification. Ask them three questions: what went wrong, how the provider reacted, and whether they would hire them again.

Interpersonal skills

A CRM project is first and foremost a human undertaking. Assess listening skills and teamwork, but above all transparency: a provider who reports regularly, with indicators, and announces bad news early is better than a reassuring one.

A reliable signal during pre-sales: the one who says no to you on a point, or advises against a feature, is generally more trustworthy than the one who says yes to everything.

3. Choose the type of engagement

The collaboration model is chosen according to how stable your scope is, not according to your contractual preferences.

• Fixed price: the provider commits to a result. Suited to a stable scope described in detail.
• Time and materials: the provider makes resources available for a set period. Suited when management stays with you.
• Capped time and materials: a commitment to results with dedicated resources over a period. Suited to a scope that will change.
• Work units: a volume agreed in advance, drawn down as requests come in. Suited to small scopes and maintenance.

Fixed price is reassuring, which is why it is often chosen wrongly. A fixed price on a poorly defined scope produces change orders, and change orders cost more than the time and materials you wanted to avoid.

The four clauses to check before signing

This is the most neglected point, and the one that costs the most when the relationship ends badly.

• Ownership of the configuration: does what has been configured and developed belong to you?
• Reversibility: under what conditions do you get your data back, in what format, and how quickly?
• Documentation: is it delivered and maintained, or does the knowledge stay in the consultant’s head?
• Exit: notice period, cost of a takeover by another provider, knowledge transfer.

These four points are negotiated at the start, when you still have bargaining power. Afterwards, you no longer do. The other classic causes of failure are in our article on why CRM projects fail.

Your questions about choosing a CRM provider

Do you necessarily need a provider?

Not for a simple scope on a configurable tool. Support is mainly justified for data migration and connections between systems.

How many providers should you consult?

Three are enough. Beyond that, comparison becomes unmanageable and you end up choosing on price because you cannot compare anything else.

How do you compare very different proposals?

Impose your own response template. If each one answers in their own way, you are no longer comparing offers but writing styles.

What should you do if the project goes off track?

Reduce the scope before adding time. Delivering a subset that works restores confidence; pushing back the date restores nothing.

Should the provider be a partner of the software vendor?

It is a technical advantage and a commercial bias. Keep this in mind during the tool selection phase, less so afterwards.