There are three key steps you should take to prepare your CRM power users for the task: Train them on the basic application, train them on the prototype, and make sure they understand the business processes underlying the software. There's one in every project deployment—the employee who has more questions, more curiosity, and more enthusiasm. Identifying and training that person to become a power user is especially crucial in deployments of customer relationship management (CRM) software. Like enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications before them, CRM applications demand that employees significantly change the way they track, share, and analyze data, and user adoption has always been problematic as a result. Having a power user (or more than one) can help ensure that other employees adopt the CRM system. In many ways, training CRM power users follows traditional train-the-trainer course. You start with one-on-one or small group sessions and help them understand how to communicate the features of the CRM application to the rest of their department. But after that, because of the myriad ways users can configure most CRM applications, the similarities end. For Jeremy Ward, training CRM power users is a multistep process, something he learned only through experience. "Initially, we would push to get a prototype of the application a company needed," says Ward, the Microsoft CRM program manager for Aspective, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Staines, England, that specializes in Microsoft Dynamics. "But we realized we were forcing people to work on something they didn't fully understand." 1. Start with CRM basicsWard believes it's better to teach power users how to use the core application first and then how it can be configured. That way, they understand both the basics of the application and how to tweak it when other users come to them with particular needs. Be sure to train power users on the deployed application so that they can lead training sessions themselves. "Some midmarket companies can't afford to have us come in to do the training, so we train the power users to do it," he adds. 2. Focus on key business processesThe benefit of having power users conduct training is that they can more easily focus on the company's specific business processes, rather than the extraneous capabilities of the application. Users don't care that there are 32 ways to access customer records, they just want to know how to do it within the course of their responsibilities. To help with employee training, Aspective staff frequently helps put together process-specific guidelines or lists of tips and shortcuts. 3. Be clear on business goalsEqually important, ensure that the power users understand where and how the CRM application fits into the company's business goals, says Scott Vinson, vice president of sales for Ibis, a Norcross, Georgia-based Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in Microsoft Dynamics applications. Knowing that will help them provide context for training, answer user questions, as well as provide feedback to IT for future improvements to the application. In essence, to communicate how to get the most out of the CRM application, power users need to understand the three phases of its gestation: the basic application, the configured application, and how the permutation supports the company's business objective. They also should place equal emphasis on all three—focusing on any one phase to the detriment of the other two erodes the value that they offer their colleagues.
 | Silicon Valley-based freelancer Howard Baldwin writes regularly for the Microsoft Midsize Business Center. His work has also appeared on AllBusiness.com and in CIO. |
| |
