When it comes to choosing an an approach to Customer Relationship Management inside your business, it's important to understand all the benefits of a such a system before beginning your selection process.

These "Back to Basics" ideas for implementing a CRM program within an organisation have been collected from executives, managers, employees and consultants who shared their experiences. The goal of this series of articles, appearing over 8 weeks, is to provide you with useful information as you choose a new CRM system.

Following on from our previous article, let's move on to our fourth post and two more ideas:

7. Implement relevant technology

When you choose a CRM system, make sure it's based on current technology. Don't let get talked into future promises. Insist on seeing a current version of the product as it can be deployed today. Equally important, don't accept old technology that's past its peak performance curve. You don't want to have to replace the system in the near future.

Look at what is in the product roadmap, planned enhancements and other features that reassure you that this is a product being invested in by the vendor for the long term.

Take a view on its integration capabilities and plans and the relevance to your back office systems. Look at how the product can be used in and outside the office and on what devices. Decide whether the interface and usability is suited to your user type. A good business consultancy will be able to help you make the right decision.

8. CRM is not a single department solution

CRM solutions should provide company-wide benefits. But many products that claim to be CRM applications only address a single functional area such as marketing, sales force automation or customer support. True, these role-specific solutions may be adequate for their specific intended purpose. But what happens when your requirements broaden?

If you implement dedicated sales force automation software, for instance, and down the road realise that you also need to automate your marketing efforts, you have to start from scratch, looking for vendors, trying products - and wasting time. Plus, you'll be faced with two separate products, two separate vendors and no single point of contact for support and problem resolution.

Even worse, with multiple point solutions, how will you share information across your company? Will information captured by the sales force automation software be leveraged in new marketing campaigns? Will marketing campaign data find its way to the customer support centre where cross-selling opportunities could be made, or lost?

While it is true that custom code can be written to integrate products, a true CRM solution provides the functionality of any single function solution, as well as a cost-free, seamless way to add features and capabilities whenever you need them.

So, if your needs require it, don't settle for anything less than a comprehensive solution that delivers on the true promise of CRM:

• Marketing campaign management
• Sales force automation
• Customer care
• Contact management
• Task management/scheduling

Read the next in the series