Problem Statements and Business Goals guide the CRM Project Scope

For establishing the scope of the project, we need to think through the statement of the business problem being addressed and the goals that the CRM project is setting out to achieve.

Problem statements for a business could be along the lines of:

• How do we stay competitive as a coffee shop chain? How do we keep our customers loyal to us?
• How do we, as a startup Pharma go to market with our new product line? Do we recruit and develop our own sales teams or do we hire a contract salesforce?
• What segment of the book readers do we target with our new e-readers and e-books product lines?

Business Goals of implementations may be along the lines of:

• The system being developed needs to be convenient for customers to order ahead and collect their hot beverages when they arrive at the store
• Fulfill the orders accurately 100% of the time

These two aspects guide you to define and manage the scope of your CRM implementation. A focus on Problem Statements and Business goals guide the requirements gathering exercise and serves as a good guideline for deciding on and prioritizing and resolving conflicts around desired features and requirements – thus the scope of the project.