At CRMworldclass we have developed two proven and rather sophisticated methods of managing projects. Choosing which is most appropriate for your company requires a basic understanding of the two methodologies.

The Extended Service and Support Agreement

We have used this methodology at CRMworldclass successfully since the early 1990s. The basic concept is that together we will estimate the scope of your project. This estimate is based on a relatively brief discussion between you and one of our managers. We may fill out a simple spreadsheet (called CRM Steps) that helps us prepare that estimate. We will review the estimate together and jointly decide if it makes sense.

Based on that estimate, you will pre-pay us, at a substantial discount, for a block of our consulting time. We promise a faithful, diligent effort on your behalf for every one of those hours, but since we did not take the time to develop a formal project plan, we can not guarantee precise results. On the other hand, we have been doing this for many years, and for literally hundreds of clients, and our estimates are usually quite close, assuming the scope of work does not change in the middle of the project.

This type of agreement is generally appropriate when

The Needs Analysis

The Needs Analysis is a more sophisticated and more controlled approach to successfully managing and completing a project. The Needs Analysis involves several days of analysis and compiling information and producing a set of specifications for your project. This Needs Analysis is a billable item. Depending on the complexity of the project you envision, the Needs Analysis costs between $2,500 and $5,000.

Typically, one of our Senior Analysts will spend at least one day at your site beginning the Needs Analysis. During this session, we will

Following this session, it is our assignment to analyze the situation, and put together a project plan based on the information we have been given. When this is complete (usually in 1-2 weeks) it will be formally presented to you. You will receive a detailed report which you can give to any other SFA/CRM vendor for them to provide you with a proposal, or we can use it as the basis for the planned project.

Once we have completed all the necessary work involved in a Needs Analysis, we can then confidently provide a time frame and a fixed price quote on the project. In fact, that is part of the Needs Analysis report itself. This is one of the major differences between the two approaches we have.

With the first method (the Extended Service and Support Agreement) we can only guarantee to make our best effort to faithfully work on your behalf. Usually, we come very close to our estimates, but surprises sometimes happen. Sometimes good ones, sometimes not.

With the Needs Analysis, there should be very few surprises, although sometimes the scope of work does suddenly change in the middle. Such “scope creep” will require a Change of Scope form to be signed, and may affect the ultimate price or schedule.