Now that I’ve joined you all in running my own business, I’m realising a few things about CRM. The one that stands out the most at the moment is implementing a CRM system in your business. Recently, for one of our businesses, Go Go Gadget, we have noticed some issues in the performance of one of our suppliers. Now, being very familiar with Google, I was able to discover that this particular vendor has had difficulties implementing a CRM system. Basically, they had underestimated the impact of the change to their business.

I’m noticing similar trends around me, first hand, and I’m learning the lesson quickly. So, learn from our mistakes! Make sure that you plan out your implementation, spend time dreaming of worst case scenarios, and double the time you think it will take to get everything in place.

The benefits of a quality CRM system is worth the issues however, but it’s a place that none of us enjoy being in.

Kingdom Solutions is currently in the process of developing a new CRM system. All the details are yet to be worked out, but at the moment, the package is called “Kingdom Connections” and it is built in Ruby on Rails. We are currently working with a local customer to get everything implemented and ironed out.

The main industries that would benefit from the current version would be churches, recruiters and training organisations. If anyone is interested in discussing an opportunity to take a look at Kingdom Connections, just send an email to: crm@danharper.org.