EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ICS is a well-established successful organisation offering IT services which built
extensive client relations with companies in manufacturing, banking, financial services,
entertainment, media, health and education. ICS has now recently acquired few
strategic businesses which help to expand their opportunities in security management,
audit and e-forensics markets. The acquisition process faced problems in integrating the
different service lines and to operate smoothly. David, the Marketing Partner intends to
build a strategic client base by implementing a CRM. This report discusses about the
CRM implementation, its objectives, benefits, evaluation of various CRMs, costs and
risks, strategies for risk mitigation and also the recommendations for the best CRM
solution to ICS along with the change management and communication matrix.
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...............................................................................................................................
2
1.INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................................
4
2.BUSINESS DRIVERS ..................................................................................................................................
4
3.INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................................
4
4.BENEFITS & THEIR EXPLICITNESS OF CRM IMPLEMENTATION .........................................
5
5.BENEFITS STRUCTURE ...........................................................................................................................
6
6. CRM APPLICATIONS ...............................................................................................................................
7
7. TEAM ........................................................................................................................................................... 10
8. TEAM STRATEGIES................................................................................................................................ 10
9. COST ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................................... 12
10. RISK ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................................... 15
11. RECOMMENDATION........................................................................................................................... 16
12. CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES ...................................... 17
13. REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................... 20
14. APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................................... 21
14.1 COMMUNICATION MATRIX ...................................................................................................... 21
14.2 GANTT CHART. .............................................................................................................................. 22
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1. INTRODUCTION
ICS acquired few new strategic businesses such as data processing centre, a software
development business specialising in custom applications and an information security
company specialising in e-forensic security audits and distributing certain security
hardware. ICS is operating on one service line which is to be expanded to five separate
service lines such as IS Strategy, E-Forensics, Information security, Infrastructure and
Application Architecture, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services. Sarah
Lee, the National Marketing Manager was hired to develop the proposal of CRM
implementation and to find the most appropriate software application that fulfils the
requirements of the organisation. The project team analyse the current system, provide
recommendation and risks that ICS may face and also the risk mitigation strategies.
2. BUSINESS DRIVERS
Business drivers are factors that motivate or support the goals of the organisation.
These are requirements that describe what the business wants. There can be External
and Internal drivers. The major factor of ICS that drives the change is the lack of
expertise in clientele administration. Each client is to be handled independently at
respective client locations. ICS being a very successful firm has lot of client networks
which substantiates the need of a good CRM system.
Furthermore, ICS focus on improving their customer relations. Enhancement in this
area helps the organisation in attaining competitive advantage over the rivals. It also
helps in attracting more customers and improving business. This can be achieved
seamlessly along with a centralised database with the application of an effective CRM.
CRM also help in estimating future sales trends and forecasts which aids in improving
efficiency and ultimately increasing the revenue margin of the company.
3. INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES
The primary objective is defining the system requirements, major function processes
and the as-is condition of the organisation. Since, ICS has expanded from one service
line to five service lines, the same will be considered while choosing the CRM
application. The different solutions that are compared for ICS are In-House built, Offthe-shelf, Open-Source and Cloud (SAAS).
There will also be a requirement specification phase which evaluates all the functional
requirements and solutions.
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The other objectives are:





Centralised database 

Cross-selling of services 

Integration of Systems 

Increase of Revenue 

Strategic decision making through report generation. 
Fig 1: CRM objective
4. BENEFITS & THEIR EXPLICITNESS OF CRM IMPLEMENTATION
The implementation of CRM application ensures the achievement of certain benefits
which can be measured. This ensures the benefits offered are realistic as it can be
measured. Moreover, we have identified owners for each benefit who gains advantage
from the benefit. When overall objectives are met this provides advantages to the
specific group or groups. After an extensive research, many benefits are identified
which would be gained when the defined objectives are met.
Firstly, we have identified the benefits, and owners who gain from the benefits; then the
measures for calibrating the benefits were identified. Measuring the benefits helps us to
express a particular benefit more precisely than otherwise.
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Various benefits are:
1.Increase Revenue:
The CRM application helps to achieve the increase of the revenue which can be
measured through the sales volumes, i.e. selling more product lines to one
customer. It is identified that the National Marketing Director will gain the
advantage from the benefit, so becomes the ‘owner’.
2.Collate customer data from different data bases:
Sales team will obtain advantage from this particular benefit which can be
measured by checking whether the customer data is collated to single data base
3.Stops work duplication:
Currently there is a duplication of works (esp.in sales department in maintaining
data base) which can be reduced significantly .National Marketing Director will be
the beneficiary of this particular benefit.
4.Better Reports on customers and Services:
The new CRM application will help the ICS to generate better reporting especially
about purchasing behaviour of customers and the services they avail from the
organisation. This becomes the great tool to assist in better decision making as it
offers wealth information on current trends.
5.Motivated Staff Increases Efficiency:
It is vital for any organisation to sustain high morale among the staff; motivation
influences the efficiency tremendously. The new CRM implementation will
improve the staff efficiency resulting in high morale. This will help ICS in staff
retention as unwarranted turnover is an expensive affair.
5. BENEFITS STRUCTURE
The benefits can be categorised based on the degree of explicitness such as Financial,
Quantifiable, Measurable, and Observable. The below diagram illustrates the benefits
and owners comprehensively categorising into aforesaid groups; it elucidates the
measures as well which would help to evaluate the extent of the success in achieving the
benefits when the organisational objectives are met.
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Fig 2: Benefits structure
6. CRM APPLICATIONS
The entire scope of the CRM implementation is first analysed before evaluating the
various CRM applications. In addition to the scope definition, the system requirements,
major functional processes and the as-is condition of the organisation is also analysed
and defined.
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Based on the current requirement of ICS to expand their services lines from one to five,
the evaluation of CRM applications will be done based on this requirement.
Internally Developed
Internally developed solutions are software which is developed by the employees of the
organisation. In house development can be cost effective and can be tailored to meet the
requirements of the organisation. On the other hand, they can be time consuming due to
development and testing. It also requires skilled professionals and has increased
chances of uncertainty which regard to risk.
Off The Shelf Software
Off the shelf are ready to use packaged software solution for businesses. These are
designed to be implemented easily to the existing systems without the need for
customisation. The advantage of off the shelf software is that it is least time consuming
and bug-free. It also provides vendor support and fulfils the functional requirements of
the organisation. Microsoft Dynamics AX is the preferred off the shelf CRM.
Open Source Software
Open source is software whose source code is available and is open for modification by
the public. Source code is the program codes which are used by the programmers for
adding new features or fixing parts that do not function as expected. Open source
software promotes collaboration and sharing. The disadvantage of open source CRM is
that since it’s free, no support or security can be guaranteed by the vendors. Sugar CRM
is one of the preferred open source CRM.
Cloud (Software As A Service)
SAAS or Software is hosted on cloud. This is another cost effective option as this is a
service that can be rented whenever the requirement arises. This is most suited when
the organisation has shortage of resources and skills. The drawback of SAAS is security
which is managed by the vendor themselves. SalesForce is the recommended cloud base
CRM.
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The chart below shows the comparison of chosen CRMs:
Fig 3: CRM Comparison
Evaluation Criteria
The table below shows the various evaluation criteria that were compared with Microsoft
Dynamics CRM
Evaluation
Criteria
Data
Integration
Automated
Analytics
Data
Processing
Integration,
Customisation
Compatibility
with Mobile
Sugar CRM
Custom Built
Weightage
Microsoft
Dynamics
SalesForce
(Cloud)
Score Points Score Points Score Points Score Points
4
2
8
3
12
3
12
3
12
3
1
3
3
9
3
9
0
0
3
2
6
3
9
3
9
2
6
2
0
0
3
6
2
4
3
6
3
0
0
0
0
2
6
3
9
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Cost
Effectiveness
Industrial
Implementatio
n
Experience
Quick
Implementatio
n
Security
Integrating
Social Media
4
3
12
0
0
3
12
3
12
3
3
12
0
0
1
3
2
6
3
3
9
0
0
3
9
3
9
4
0
0
3
12
3
12
0
0
3
1
3
3
9
3
9
0
0
Total Score
15
53
18
57
26
85
19
60
Max Score
36
111
36
111
36
111
36
111
7. TEAM
Designation
National Marketing Director (Sarah
)
Responsibilities

Monitors and report to David Green
Program Director


Team Management
Sponsor
Database administrator

Maintain database
System Architect
 Co-ordinate Technical Team
 Develop Implementation Plan
Program Coordinator
 Co-ordinate activities of consultants
 Guide project according to plan
Sales Manager

Co-ordinate the inter- service line sales
8. TEAM STRATEGIES


 Formation of team from each service lines :
To form the team 5-6 members from each service line were selected based on the
experience and the capabilities. Sales teams and technical teams were given
appropriate participation to ensure the effectiveness and ease of implementation of
the project.

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

Efficiently address concerns & requirements:
1. Understanding requirements:
ICS aims to integrate five service lines which are (IS Strategy, E-Forensics,
Information security, Infrastructure and Application Architecture, Disaster
Recovery and Business Continuity Services) into one IT Professional Services
practice. Moreover, a central database to store all data from different lines in order
to create customer files is essential to manage the sales centrally which aids in
understanding the purchase behaviour and to develop cross-selling architecture to
generate new revenue by selling multiple services to companies.
2. Addressing concerns:
There are many concerns in this projects that need to be addressed and solved.
One of the major concerns is about amalgamating the different sales teams which
may make some positions redundant. This concern can negatively affect the
progress of the project; to address this, we have included key people from
different sales teams.


Monitoring progress:
SCRUM methodology is used to monitor progress as this allows lot of flexibility being
a methodology using “empirical process control”. Three roles are identified in this
project based on SCRUM methodology.




 Product owner (David). 
 Team members. 
 Scrum master (Sarah). 
The process of SCRUM to monitor the project will be:



 Backlog refinement: 
Team in this process can share their ideas and concerns, and understand more
the workflow. 
 Sprint planning: 
Product owner starts the explanation of the high priority features to the team
members, and clarify which feature should be processed first. The team divide
the tasks among themselves after the briefing 
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 Sprint review meeting: 

During this meeting, team shows their work to David, Sarah and executive
partners. This will make a clear picture to product owner and stockholders of
the process of entire project to accept or reject. 

9. COST ANALYSIS
As we have examined many CRM solutions, we found Microsoft Dynamics as the best
suitable CRM for ICS. Microsoft Dynamics is a flexible, powerful business solution for
customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) that
can help make people more productive and can grow with the business.
It has been identified that the following cost will incur for the organization if the CRM is
not implemented.



Expenses are not reduced 

Efficiency is not gained 

Sales revenue is not increased 
A low level of adoption is frequently a problem for CRM strategies, often resulting from
a lack of understanding about why it is important for employees in the organization. As
there is a high chance of failure in CRM implementation, we have decided to clearly
identify the cost and Return on Investment (ROI) which would enhance the clarity of the
benefits of CRM thus helping a better acceptance.
As we have examined many CRM solutions, we found Microsoft Dynamics as the best
suitable CRM for ICS. The solution enables more efficient business processes and
improves team and personal productivity.
The below cost is identified in relation to MS Dynamics implementation. We have taken
the number of users as 30 for the calculation purposes and to get a realistic perspective.
 Software Licence Fees
The software licence fee per user is identified at $150(after contacting the Micro Soft
Sales Team) per user for 30 users. The annual subscription charges will be AU$54000.
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Fee per user per
No. Of Users
Period
month
30
$150
12 months
Total Cost
$54,000
 Professional Fees (Partner Implementation)
The implementation costs calculated at 3 months as the total time taking for
implementation is $30000. The Micro Soft partner will charge an annual support fee of
$5000 as well on an ongoing basis.
Implementation Fee
Annual Support Charges
$30000
$5000
Total Cost (1st Yr.)
$35000
 Planning and Design Cost (Internal)
We have estimated that 5 employees will be required to utilize 20% of their time for 3
months to plan and design the customisation required for the effective implementation
of the CRM. The cost is calculated to be $24000
No. of
Employees
5
Duration
3 months
Monthly
Gross Salary
$8000
% of Time
20%
Total Cost
5x3x8000x.2=$24000
 Deployment Cost (Internal)
Internal staff is required to assist the Micro Soft partner to achieve a smooth and timely
deployment of the CRM system. 5 employees are required to utilize their 20% of time
for 3 months which is estimated to be $15000.
No. of
Employees
5
Duration
3 months
Monthly
Gross Salary
$5000
% of Time
20%
Total Cost
5x3x5000x.2=$15000
 Training Costs (labour)
It is identified that 3 days of full time training is required for the employees to gain an
adequate knowledge of the CRM system to work on effectively. The training cost is
estimated at $18000 for 3 days.
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No. of
Duration
Employees
30
Hourly rate
3 days
Hours per day
$25
8
Total Cost
30x3x25x8=$18,000
 Administration Expenses (Labour)
We have estimated that an administrative officer has to spent his/her 20% of the time
to assist administrative requirements of the new CRM. It is estimated to be $12000
based on annual salary of $60,000
Administration Expenses=20% x $60000 = $12,000
 Telecommunication Expenses
It is estimated that the business will incur $30 per user per month towards the
telecommunication expenses which adds up to $10,800.
 Hardware Cost
The ICS has to purchase additional hardware to facilitate the implementation of the new
CRM which is estimated at $700 per user. This is a once off cost which is estimated to be
$21,000 as the total number of users is 30. There is an ongoing maintenance fee of
$2500 towards the additional hardware procurement
TOTAL COST.
Category
Cost
Software Licence Fees
54000
Professional Fees (Partner
Implementation)
35000
Planning and Design Cost
24000
Deployment Cost
15000
Training Costs (labour)
18000
Administration Expenses (Labour)
12000
Telecommunication Expenses
10800
Hardware Cost
23500
Total Cost
192,300
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10. RISK ANALYSIS
 Technical Risk 

The new CRM implementation can cause technical risks arising from the complexity
of the new system. MS Dynamics being a proven CRM with the support of an IT giant
like Micro Soft reduces this technical risk to the minimum which provides ICS a boost
in the confidence of the system. Also, the Microsoft partners who provide assistance
in the CRM implementation are the expert who brings tremendous cumulative
experience. Moreover, ICS being a champion in IT professional services sector has
adequate know-how available in-house to reduce any such risks. 

 Financial Risk 

The financial risks associated to the CRM implementation is mitigated as we could
provide an accurate estimate of the costs of implementing the CRM system. This
provides a better clarity on ROI and significance of such a system as MS Dynamics. 

 Organizational Risk 

Organizational risk is an important aspect of risk management as it can affect the
project in different levels. It becomes essentials to ensure that the organization is
ready for the change management. 
Risk Mitigation
Risk mitigation allows for the promotion of original thinking while at the same time
ensuring that risks and actions generated are evaluated objectively. Then the best
possible options are selected to ensure the mitigation is carried out successfully. It is
essential to check both threat and opportunity associated with risk to carry out the
mitigation process effectively.
The management can adopt certain risk management strategies associated to the
organizational risk as this area has a lot of intangible risks compared to any other areas.
Risk Response Planning



Avoidance: seeking to eliminate uncertainty. Examples include: clarifying
requirements, obtaining information, improving communication. 

Transfer: seeking to transfer ownership and/or liability to a third party. This
may not be viable to address the organizational risks 

Mitigate: seeking to reduce the size of the risk exposure below an acceptable
threshold 
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT


Accept: recognizing residual risks and devising responses to control or monitor
them. Acceptance is appropriate for minor risk 
Risk management committee is formed to address the risk and actions
periodically. A reporting system is implemented as well and escalated wherever
necessary. It has been identified from the initial discussions that the major risk
will be organizational as the new CRM is intended to merge different sales teams. 
Organizational risks arise from the fact that the new CRM implementation and
merger of sales lines will have impact on the Sales Teams as this may inevitably
results in a leaner organization which is essential for achieving the efficiency
anticipate from acquisition of the product/service lines. This risk has to be mitigated
by creating an appropriate communication strategy to address the different
departments. This is discussed in another section of this report.
11. RECOMMENDATION
After an in-depth analysis of the As-Is process of ICS, implementation of CRM can have a
lot of positive impacts on the organization. Based on the research done on various
CRMs, Microsoft Dynamics AX is the most preferred CRM.
Some of the other reasons for recommending Microsoft Dynamics are as below:

It has process driven interface which assists the users in tasks such as lead
qualification, service cases and sales opportunities. It also provides the users
with easy access to important data and work with Microsoft applications that

enable them to generate early user acceptance. 

Provides a full-suite of CRM Functions creates a single source of relationship
information that is shared across the business units. This also enhances the


accessibility. 

Flexibility of Microsoft Dynamics offers multiple choice of deployment as it’s
available on cloud service or can be installed on premise. 

Real-Time insight delivers business intelligence through CRM dashboards &
charts. Helps in generating Sales forecasts, buying patterns, sales history,
visibility of key performance metrics across all business areas supports timely,

informed decision making. 

Offers compatibility and connectivity through multiple devices. 
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT

Integration with other applications and data sources such as accounting
database, email marketing, websites, customer portals, survey tools, web



analytics and many more. 

Adaptability to various relationships and processes saves time, money and effort
spent on customization. It also includes management of events, assets and
projects. 

Advantages such as email automation, call scripting, lead scoring, case routing
improves the process efficiency and hence reduces processing costs. 

Scalability ensures easy configuration and simple database maintenance. 
It is also recommended that ICS use COTs based solution since David wants to improve
the revenue as quick as possible and the wants ICS to be a strong competitor in the
industry. In addition to that, a successful implementation happens when the project
plan is in par with the project scope, time and cost.
12. CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
The major aim of ICS services is to extend their IT professional services into the
burgeoning and highly profitable security area. In addition to that ICS now having the
foundation of successful Information Technology organisation it also aids in
implementing security and e-forensic as well as infrastructure ,application portfolio and
architecture solutions. But since ICS currently operates on one single structure, the
integration of the five separate lines is a tedious task, which is in turn a major change.
To implement this change, the strategic objective that has been initiated is to build a
strategic client base. A strategic client base is clients using two or more service lines.
This helps in increasing the revenue via cross-selling. Cross selling can be achieved by
selling multiple service lines to clients thereby increasing consultant networks and
hence improving the margin obtained from the savings of productivity and efficiency.
The areas of ICS that is been focussed on are:





IS strategy 

E-Forensics 

Information Security 

Infrastructure and Application Architecture 

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services. 
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
Since the implementation of the above service lines is a critical challenge, the
organisation needs to be more sophisticated in the best practices for organisational
change management. Change management is very sensitive and keenly affected to the
role culture plays. On the same hand, the expenditure when the change goes wrong- not
only financially but also loss of opportunity, wastage of resources, diminished morale
and obviously the organisation do not achieve the transformation or result that was
expected. ‘When employees who have endured real upheaval and put in significant
extra hours for an initiative that was announces with great fanfare see it simple fizzle
out, cynicism set in’ (DeAnne Aguirre, 2014)
The success rate of change initiatives is only 54 precent. The top reason why change
initiatives fail is because of change fatigue; which means too many change initiatives
without power decision. The second reason is the Managing partners/CEO is dictating
what is the change and what is it all about, which do not very often work. This can lead
to the organisation being quite passive aggressive and waits until the executives turns
over before they in act the change. Thirdly, is the thought that communication is the
same as that of engagement? Both are different and incredibly important.
Communications, training and changing alone is not enough in moving an organisation
to a new place. Culture is critical to the success of change management program. The
definition of culture is ‘how things get done around here’ and is proportional to how
someone thinks, believes acts and feels. Hence dealing with cultural aspect is very
important to impact the change, the ways it needs to be achieved. David and Sarah need
to address culture by first focussing on the culture strings such as ‘what is in the culture
that can actually make employees feel proud about what they need to do in front of
someone?’ This can be an asset in the organisation that is rarely used. Furthermore,
unleash the power of special forces who are the informal leaders in the organisation.
Lastly, create an environment that is coherent such that everyone clearly understands
what is to be done.
The ideal change management team should have multiple entities engaged. Firstly, the
managing partner (David) and his executive team who needs to understand the change
program and also need to act in different ways that is very visible to the rest of the
organisation. The junior partners including Sarah should themselves show that they do
things differently. It is also critical to engage the other employees (practice leaders) to
the change process. There should also be consultants to ensure that program happens
and to give expert advice.
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
The Change management strategies elements in a nutshell are; (Change Management
Strategies, 2014)

Situational Awareness 
o Change Characteristics
o Organisational
attributes
o Impacted groups


Supporting Structures 
o Team Structure
o Managing Partner coalition


Strategy Analysis 
o Risk Assessment
o Anticipated
resistance o Special
tactics
Formulating the change management strategy is foremost crucial step in implementing
the change. The strategy elements mentioned above gives the direction for the change
process. This strategy also contributes to the formulation of the rest of the change
management plans as given below:







Communication Management Plan and Matrix 

Sponsorship Roadmap 

Acquisition Map 

Process Map 

Training Plan 

Resistance Management Plan 

Reinforcement Planning 
The Key stakeholders identified are:






Managing Partner: David Green 

Junior Partners 

National Marketing Director: Sarah Lee 

Program Director/Consultant 

Consultants and Project Managers 

Central Marketing/ Sales Team 
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13. REFERENCES
10 Principles of Leading Change Management. 2014. 10 Principles of Leading Change
Management. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.strategy-business.com/article/00255?pg=all.
[Accessed 22 September 2014].
Change Management Strategy. 2014. Change Management Strategy. [ONLINE] Available at:
http://www.change-management.com/tutorial-2007prep-strategy.htm.
[Accessed
22
September 2014].
What is Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS)? Webopedia. 2014. What is Commercial Off-The-Shelf
(COTS)? Webopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/C/COTS.html.
[Accessed 25 September 2014].
| Opensource.com. 2014. What is open source software? |
What is open source software?
Available at:http://opensource.com/resources/what-openOpensource.com. [ONLINE]
[Accessed 25 September 2014]. source.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Top 10 Benefits | Preact. 2014. Microsoft Dynamics CRM - Top 10
Benefits
|
Preact.
[ONLINE]
Available
at:http://www.preact.co.uk/microsoft_dynamics_crm/top-10-benefits-of-microsoft-crm.
[Accessed 25 September 2014]
Ahmed, A 2014, ‘Lecture3’, INF 80033, Systems Acquisition and Implementation Management,
Learning materials on Blackboard, Swinburne University of Technology, view 21 September
2014.
Building Better Business Cases for IT Investments, MIS Quarterly Executive Vol. 7 No. 1
/ Mar 2008
Pfeffer, J., and Sutton, R. Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-truths and Total Nonsense, Harvard
Business School Press, Boston, Mass., 2006
Kohli, R., and Devaraj, S. “Measuring information technology payoff: a meta-analysis of
structural variables in firm-level empirical research,” Information Systems Research
(14:2), 2004, pp. 127-145.
Blumberg, B., Cooper, D. R. & Schindler, P. S. (2005) Business research methods.Berkshire:
McGraw-Hill Education.
Chang,S. L.(2000). Information technology in business processes. New York: Hill-Town
Press
Danziger, J. N. & Kraemer, K. L. (1986) People and computers: the impacts of computing on end
users in organizations. New York: Columbia University Press.
Davies, P. B. (2009) Business information systems. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ward J, Daniel E, Peppard J, (2008). Building Better Cases for IT Investments. Berkshire:
McGraw-Hill Education.
Lucey, T. (2005) Management information system. London, Thomson Learning.
Boer, B. H. (1993) The art of strategic planning for information technology. New York, John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
14. APPENDIX
14.1 Communication Matrix
Stakeholder Type
Managing
Partner
 Status
Report
Communication Medium
Frequency
 Email and Phone Conversations Once in
wee
k
 Online Video Conferencing
Responsible
Party
a National
Marketing
Director
 Face to Face live meetings
Project
Manager
 Status
Report
 Email and Phone Conversations Twice
wee
k
 Facebook and IM
a Project Team
 Live Meetings
Program
Director
 Project
Analysis
 Email
 Live Meetings
Once in
wee
k
a National
Marketing
Report
Sales
Team/Leader
 Project
Execution
Report
User/Client
 Final
Release
Director
 Email and Phone Conversations Once in
wee
k
 Online Video Conferencing
a Project Team
 Face to Face live meetings
 Email and Phone Conversations At the
 Online Video Conferencing
note
of  Face to Face live meetings
the final
implemen
tatio
n
and
end Project Team
of
the
projec
t
cycle or as
per request
of the client
the
change
managem
ent
Project Team  Personal
 Email
Progress
 Live Meetings
Report
 Facebook
As per
reques
t
Project Team
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
14.2 Gantt Chart
ICS Project Plan
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
14.3 Arguments and Suggestions
The success of any business in the world today highly depends on its ability to
control its activities (Blumberg, Cooper, & Schindler, 2005). The various activities that
persuade ICS to acquire a new system entail both external and internal business drivers.
The external
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drivers include the integration of service lines that will enable clients to have a clear
vision of
ICS services, and the company’s desire to have a system that can help them ‘shop’ for
clients from a common communication system. On the other hand, internal drivers
entail the poor integration that has resulted from lack of communication between the
service lines. In an endeavour to ensure cost-effectiveness, ICS has adopted a modern
system known as the Customer Relations Manager (CRM) (Chan, 2000). The objectives
of investing in this modern system is to acquire a centralized database, increase of
company revenues, integration of systems, facilitation of report generation in aiding
strategic and enhanced decision making processes, and to improve cross selling of the
company’s services.
Owner’s benefits:
The installation of the CRM modern technology will bring with it significant
measurements, benefits and owners. First, the company through the National Marketing
Director will realize financial benefits that will see the increase of sales because a
customer will be able to receive more than one service. Secondly, the system will
introduce quantifiable benefits that will stop the duplication of work through the
introduction of cross-selling services resulting in the reduction of the overall costs to
half as the current system duplicates the cost. These benefits will be owned by the
National Marketing Director and the sales team.
Thirdly, the observable benefits include the motivation of the company staff through the
training on the use of the CRM system that will lead to the quality and quantity of the
data of customer profile, which should be realized directly by the company’s marketing
staff and the sales team. CRM system has diverse use solutions for IT professional
services Ltd whereby, it has made it more suitable for modern business operation.
Customer Relation Manager has ability to track all sales activities, support customers
through emailing services, show pricing services and demonstrate the products that the
company offers (Lee, 2009).
Economic benefits:
A CRM system has become a major contributor to business success for it reduces costs
involved in dealing with customers individually. Additionally, CRM system reduces time
wastage that individual sales agents do round introducing products offered by the
company to customers (Lester & Lester, 1992). ICS evaluated four applications of the
CRM system using approaches and criteria that could ensure maximum productivity.
The applications include Sugar CRM (an open source), Custom Built CRM, Sales Force
CRM, and Microsoft Dynamics AX. The evaluation criteria that were employed in the
selection of the applications
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
entailed the comparison of the pros and cons of the applications with respect to cost,
customization, integration, and service and support.
Regarding cost, Sugar CRM is the cheapest while custom built is the most expensive, and
the other two have a medium cost. Service and support can be purchased for the Sugar
CRM while the rest have the service already (Ward, Daniel & Peppard, 2008).
Customization can be done for the sales force at an expensive cost but cheaper for
Microsoft Dynamics AX. However, for the Custom Built CRM, customization is quite high
while the Sugar CRM has none with community version. Integration, on the other hand,
can be done for some versions of Sugar CRM and for the other applications at higher
cost. The National Marketing director, Program Director, System Architect, and the Sales
Manager should be involved in the team that evaluates and selects the applications of
the CRM as they have the
IT experience and exposition that is required in the system’s selection and
implementation.
Cost Risk:
The risks include cost risk, staff preparedness, adoption of new strategies and
collaborative agreement among the staff members. With respect to cost, the company
should prepare itself to invest financially in the introduction of the CRM system as it
comes with it cost implications. However, the selection team should conduct thorough
feasibility studies to determine the best and cheapest way to achieve the anticipated
productivity through the system. The employees who will be taking part in the
implementation of the modern technology system should be well trained and given
proper exposition on the use of the system. The criteria of selecting the team that will
take part in the evaluation and selection of the CRM application should be transparent
to avoid conflict of interest and work-related disputes. Based on the criteria on the
selection of the applications, the Microsoft Dynamics AX CRM is the most preferable as
it is relatively economical, can be customized, and is linked to Microsoft products, has
many deployment options and is easy to use.
Customer Relation Manager has ability to track all sales activities, support
customers through emailing services, show pricing services and demonstrate the
products that the company offer (Danziger, Kraemer, 1986). A CRM system has become
a major contributor to business success for it reduces costs involved in dealing with
customers individually. Additionally, CRM system reduces time wastage that individual
sales agents do round introducing products offered by the company to customers
(Davies, 2009).
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
Jobless Concerns:
The use of CRM system has been criticized as a way to make people jobless for it has
ability to deliver services that were delivered by employees to customers. Although this
has become a point of concern to many job seekers, IT professional services Ltd has
improved its service delivery and constantly employed team of sales people who ensure
products are uploaded maintained for customers to view (Lucey, 2005). The system also
ensures the quality organization of the customer services sections. They include call
center services, retail centres and sales force individuals.
High profitability:
The automation of service delivery has led to high profitability to IT professional
services Ltd. The service has brought about a high reduction in the operating cost,
marketing and holding costs. No building of huge retail centres since IT professional
services Ltd process and deliver ordered products whenever customer makes an order.
The use of modern technology manned from a single system has made it easy to receive
customer needs and deal with any customer complaint appropriately. CRM system has
enhanced sales services (Boar, 1993). The system has ability to control sales activities,
give the manager's ability to calculate the cost involved in any sales activity and also
offer a forecast future sales service.
The CRM system on its own cannot ensure productivity and the expected
positive and improved outcomes without the active support of the practices of the IT
professional services. Some leaders may see this new introduction of the system as a
form of office interference and a way to cut jobs. As such, from the inception of the
system throughout its implementation, the leaders and employees of ICS should be
introduced to the new CRM and be allowed to be part of the implementation process to
add and enhance value post-live as the system becomes part of the organization.
Strategic changes should be made in the department of IT professional service practices
to change the psychological and emotional process of the people as the system and
company as a whole undergoes CRM implementation, respective promotions,
reorganization, and proposed outsourcing.
As such, the IT professional service practices should be changed to be
transparent as the machine has no transparency inefficiencies, accuracy should be
emphasized among the IT professionals. Moreover, the implementers should
experiment the emerging technology and evaluate the new resources of the technology
to offer the IT professional service providers an exposition to what awaits them with
the use of CRM. In addition, changes should be made to the IT service practices with
regards to periodic reviews of the CRM network services,
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INF 80030 SYSTEM ACQUISITION & IMPLEMENTATION MANAGEMENT
enhancement and implementation of the system’s CRM initiatives, and conducting
scheduled
reviews for the backup and restoration applications and procedures of the CRM.
27