Madison Advisors just released a handy new guide to help enterprises through the selection process when considering a customer communications management (CCM) platform.
The need to engage with customers today is a top priority for enterprises but many organizations lack the proper tools needed to effectively engage and track the experience of their customers. With so many modern customer communications management (CCM) solutions available to choose from, it can be difficult to determine which solution is the best fit.
"Selecting the Right CCM Platform: A Guide for Enterprises" helps enterprises uncover:
- Current challenges
- What to consider when investing in CCM
- Where to start – gaining leadership support, managing the selection process and post-implementation strategy
- Needs assessment - developing a scope, gathering requirements and identifying current gaps
- The importance of a live proof-of-concept (POC)
And much more.
Before getting started
When the decision to invest in new CCM technology has been determined, there are some considerations before starting the requirements gathering and software selection process. Laying down the proper framework first, improves the likelihood of finding a solution that will grow with the organization. Again, understanding the vendor’s propensity to extend the platform and stay current with incremental enhancements, in some demonstrable way. Don’t just take the salesman’s word on it.
Gaining Leadership Support
Often technology acquisitions are delayed when the proper leadership support is not obtained and there is a lack of organizational alignment. Understanding the communication needs of the overall organization and the cultural impact will be key to ensuring that initiatives to obtain a new platform for managing communications is not delayed. In many organizations, more than just procurement and an allotted budget is needed for such a significant investment. Understanding who from a leadership perspective should be involved, even if they are not experts or play a role in customer communications, will be necessary. Obtaining financial support in addition to a clear understanding of the executive sign-offs needed for this investment will prevent logistical delays. This leadership support does not end when the solution is purchased, and any potential delays should be considered so that the installation is successful across the organization.
Managing the Selection Process
A common mistake in selecting CCM solutions is the absence of including all stakeholders in the requirements gathering and technology selection process. Understanding the various roles in the production of communications within the organization will ensure that all needs are acquired and an appropriate solution can be found. Various members of information technology, line of business managers, and procurement are often the first thought. Other stakeholders should also be involved such as legal and compliance officers, finance, marketing managers, business analysts, production staff responsible for managing output, as well as other stakeholders who have a responsibility for providing or reviewing the content within communications or the delivery of these communications. This group of stakeholders will ultimately be the steering committee.
Single Platform or "Best of Breed" Technologies?
When considering an investment in customer communications management, most enterprises chose one of two routes:
- Single software platform – One CCM solution as designated by a centralized group or IT that all lines of business are required to use for outputting and delivering communications. Modern CCM solutions have modules or components designed to manage each bucket of a customer communications workflow.
- Collection of integrated solutions – This option is where multiple solutions, selected for being “best of breed” for specific areas of workflow or output, are integrated together, often by an internal IT team and managed going forward. This is commonly seen in industries that select one composition tool for high-volume, batch output, and another for managing interactive communications such as claims and correspondence.
Selecting individual solutions that an IT group plans to integrate into a communications hub can be very time consuming and risky. Many organizations chose this path without fully understanding the breadth of capabilities provided by modern CCM platforms, instead remembering previous versions of these solutions that were heavily composition focused.
