Getting the right mix of people involved is critical to the success of your CRM project.In reality, when assembling your project team, you'll work with what you've got. If you're a smaller business without a large IT department, multiple business units, dedicated business analysts and project managers and a large senior leadership team, you'll assemble your team differently to a larger enterprise.

We've worked with many businesses between 10 -150 staff who have successfully implemented CRM by identifying the best people they have to fill the below roles:

Product owner

Typically a senior business manager

The person ultimately responsible for the success of the project and the CRM's ongoing evolution and expansion within the business. They'll play a leading role in the evaluation, implementation and future roadmap. They have a deep understanding of the team's operating environment, commercial drivers and business strategy.

They're able to:

• Clearly define the challenges and needs of the business Manage the project team
• Delegate, mentor and keep on track
• Manage the relationship with your implementation partner
• Understand and provide feedback on a technical scope
• "Sell" the CRM to the end users

Business user

Typically manager of the specific team/s using the CRM

The person who represents the "front line" perspective of the end users. They're at the coalface and will have the most in-depth understanding of how their teams work, their processes, current challenges and likely roadblocks to system adoption.

They're able to:

• Define existing business processes in detail
• Identify the gaps - double handling, slow manual processes, poor customer experience
• Articulate what data and insights they need to effectively manage their team
• Gather feedback from users and identify opportunities to improve the system over time

Technical user/s

Typically the most IT-savvy member/s of the team

This user/s may have a variety of responsibilities, including:

Super user: responsible for system testing, training and supporting users post-launch
System administrator: responsible for the ongoing maintenance and improvement of the system
IT support: integrating with other business systems

They're able to:

• Understand the system to a deeper technical levelCommunicate technical concepts to less-technical users in a training environment
• Troubleshoot and escalate technical issues to a CRM customer support team or consulting partner
• Learn how to customise the CRM platform to give users what they need over time

In our experience, project teams of 3 - 4 work best. More than this can be too many cooks in the kitchen. Once you've selected your team, involve them in the evaluation at the outset.

Continue to the next post in this series: Selecting the ideal CRM