Can customising existing IT systems be a more effective alternative to implementing off-the-shelf Customer Relationship Management systems? Darron Walton, managing director of the SAP consulting specialist, De Villiers Walton, explains why some firms are now embracing ‘CRM without CRM’

For many organisations, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems account for a hefty chunk of IT budgets. The two options that are usually considered are either the traditional, on-premise CRM system or a cloud-based Software-as-Service (SaaS) option. Yet, for some, the business case for CRM is still not compelling enough to adopt either of these options.

In the case of a traditional, on-premise CRM system, a company may wish to only buy and use a small part of the available solution such as sales force automation or customer service. However, the architecture of the software can require the company to implement more functionality than is needed by the business. Similarly, the licensing model for on-premise CRM systems can often require the company to pay for functionality that is simply not relevant.

The SaaS model, meanwhile, may provide the flexibility to buy only the functionality that is needed. Yet there can be significant additional costs associated with integrating these functions within a company’s existing system landscape and business processes.

Now, more and more firms are starting to adopt a third approach, which brings together functionality and data from a variety of systems into one application platform, without breaking the existing business processes. This new way represents a smarter way to leverage existing IT assets while delivering exactly the right functionality to support the existing business processes.

Many companies start their CRM journey by implementing a Sales Force Automation solution before addressing other areas such as Campaign Management, Customer Service and Trade Promotions Management. However, it is highly likely that the data required to implement many customer relationship management processes is already available within an organisation’s existing system landscape.

Take SAP’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, for example. This system already has customers and contacts that allow firms to engage in customer management as well as the functionality to define activities, including sales activities, to orchestrate day-to-day work. Additionally, it is also possible to build new, or re-use existing business objects within SAP ERP, and define business logic within these objects.

Cost-effective and business driven

As a consultancy, our ‘back to basics’ approach aims to remove IT complexities. Often this means looking at challenges in a different way and devising a different solution.

We have now delivered a number of successful projects which prove that CRM-type functionality can be achieved without our customers being forced to implement traditional on-premise or SaaS-based CRM. In a recent project for the UK’s leading food service provider, for example, a suite of CRM tools were developed that covered sales and customer management, price management and partner management, without the implementation of CRM-based software.

As the customer had not implemented CRM software - and had no inclination to do so – our ‘ZUI’ approach was used to build CRM capability within their existing business system. Essentially this approach is a custom-development, combined with our own ZUI application framework that provides a low-risk alternative for enhancing existing enterprise systems such as SAP. The approach puts CRM capability within reach of firms which do not want to, or cannot justify the expense associated with, implementing CRM software.

Why go CRM-free?

The types of firms that ordinarily authorise this third, ‘CRM without CRM’ approach tend to be those that do not believe that CRM software will provide sufficient value for their business. Other companies that could benefit from the approach are those that have already tried and failed to implement CRM software successfully.

‘CRM without CRM’ can also be an option for companies that cannot justify the considerable investment required for a CRM implementation and simply need some discrete functionality to support their business. In a project with an international jewellery firm, for instance, we realised that we could help them achieve their objectives more easily by re-engineering and re-architecting part of their SAP ERP system rather than implement SAP CRM.

Overall, this approach offers an ideal solution for many firms – providing them with the means to extend the value of their existing investments.

Making ERP work harder

Companies often believe that any sales or service business process needs to be supported by a CRM system. In reality, their existing ERP and other legacy systems are often rich with existing functionality. By taking a different approach and re-examining the way they have implemented ERP, it is possible to achieve the same result as a full CRM system.

Our approach is, therefore, to examine the option of a custom development whilst also understanding and taking into consideration the client’s true requirements throughout. Overall, this CRM-free option, based on our ZUI application framework, is very popular with clients who want to get the most out of their existing software investments - without making additional investment in new software.