EVOLUTION OF BPR

To build or to buy, that is the question

Posted on the March 11th, 2008 under BPM, Business Risk, CRM, SaaS, Sales Force Automation by Gregory Yankelovich

When it comes to  CRM software, one would think that nowadays this question can only be asked by someone  as disturbed as Hamlet. Considering choices of products available for use on demand (SaaS) or for purchase to use in house, why would anybody even think about building something from scratch?

Perhaps the answer is hidden in the next question - What separates one enterprise from another? Hint - the marketing message in bold letters on their home page is not a correct answer. If one looks at a group of companies in the same segment of a market, it is often HOW a company does business is the most noticeable differentiate. Every company in a given group can look at their processes and separate them into two categories: common to the group, and unique or proprietary processes. In a rational environment there is no good explanation why any utility company, for example, would process their customers billing, rather than outsource the whole thing to someone who does that kind of thing for a living.

Returning to CRM applications, if we could look at our front office processes objectively and separate them from uniqueness point of view, we could come with an answer to the original question.

I think the reason so much money spent (wasted) in many implementation initiatives is rooted in the illusion that every process we execute is unique. It is an emotional issue which causes very expensive modifications to the purchased applications, and sometimes motivates internal build project.

This analysis, conducted honestly and steadfastly, can reduce the risk of implementation dramatically, and can possibly produce a combination of all three approaches:

1. outsource Customer Master processes to specialist (like D&B);

2. use SaaS provider (like SalesForce.com or SugarCRM) to do marketing campaigns and leads management;

3. buy and customize or build your forecasting model if economical.