crm increasing user adoption ensures successful crm projects

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INCREASING USER ADOPTION ENSURES SUCCESSFUL CRM PROJECTS

By Managing User Adoption Challenges, Health Insurers Will Implement CRM Systems that Rapidly Deliver Optimal Business Results

By John Jagtiani

Vice President

Innoveer Solutions, Inc.


INCREASING USER ADOPTION ENSURES SUCCESSFUL CRM PROJECTSBy Managing User Adoption Challenges, Health Insurers Will Implement CRM Systems that Rapidly Deliver Optimal Business Results

MITIGATE TOP CHALLENGES

As health insurers attempt to cut costs, quickly deliver products to market, and effectively

compete in this era of health product commoditization, they typically rely on more sophisti-

cated CRM systems to sell and service an increasing number of products. Accordingly, CRM

project success is measured by the extent to which all users — from internal salespeople,

service personnel, and managers, to underwriters, external brokers, and agents — embrace the

software.

Too often, however, health insurers encounter significant user adoption challenges because

they fail to take end users’ needs into account. In particular, many insurers regard CRM

projects solely as technical endeavors, and do not involve actual users in the design or imple-

mentation. If users perceive new CRM functionality as adversely impacting their productivity,

is it any surprise that they would resist using it? The secret to CRM project success, then, is to

deliver applications that users want to adopt. This requires reconciling business requirements

with user needs, and helping users maximize their efficiency and effectiveness.

How can health insurers best manage user adoption challenges to deliver projects which pro-

duce optimum results? Innoveer has identified five best practices for maximizing user adop-

tion: involve end users in planning and implementation, ensure that projects produce clear

user benefits, continually highlight user benefits, involve employees’ supervisors from project

inception, and finally, introduce new CRM functionality in discrete project stages. By pursu-

ing these best practices, companies will drive rapid user adoption of their CRM systems, thus

increasing business efficiency, improving employee satisfaction, and achieving CRM project

goals much more quickly.

To avoid ineffective CRM launches, and the accompanying requirement to expend a greater

amount of time, effort, and money to remedy poor user adoption, companies must carefully

manage these challenges:

• Industry Regulations:

Complying with regulations from within the CRM system decreases the cost and complexity

of compliance. Yet users may resist such changes because they can lengthen sales and service

cycles.


BEST PRACTICES

• Long Sales Cycles:

The relatively long health insurance sales cycle — especially for lucrative corporate plans —

can lead to sales force CRM fatigue. Yet using CRM also creates the institutional knowledge

required to track and capitalize on these opportunities.

• Institutionalized Caution:

Healthcare executives, schooled in risk management practices, traditionally enshrine existing

business processes. Yet using CRM software typically enables companies to streamline existing

processes and maximize employee efficiency — provided executives buy in.

• Hierarchical Corporate Cultures:

Overly rigid corporate cultures often develop CRM projects in secret, to avoid user resistance

to change. Yet CRM is no abstract exercise. Rather, effective CRM teams balance the project’s

business requirements with the need to design a system that employees can actually use on an

everyday basis.

With the above challenges in mind, what is the best way to entice users to adopt new, upgrad-

ed, or expanded CRM systems? As mentioned earlier, Innoveer recommends pursuing these

five user adoption best practices:

1) Involve end users:

Too often, companies delegate CRM implementations to technical project managers whose

sole responsibilities are to implement the software or new functionality. As a result, these im-

plementations become IT endeavors focused on technical change management and delivery of

new or upgraded applications, as opposed to improving existing business processes or provid-

ing real-world workflow enhancements. Instead, invite a small group of end users — and not

just power users — to participate in the design, testing, and deployment of the CRM system

or new functionality, as well as to assist in peer training. Offer them a stake in the success of

the CRM project by enlisting them to help in delivering a CRM system that they can “live in”

to more efficiently and effectively perform their jobs.

2) Demonstrate clear user benefits:

Successful CRM projects introduce demonstrable benefits for users. Often, however, compa-

nies design CRM systems that satisfy management or organizational requirements, without



considering how the functionality will address user needs. As much as possible, identify how

the CRM system can automate rote user activities and increase their efficiency. On that front,

also combine and integrate as much health information as possible within a single CRM

interface.

One technique for improving user adoption is to ensure that the application is central to the

life of the employee. For example, when health insurer, Norwich Union, an Innoveer cli-

ent, studied how its employees processed applications or claims, it discovered that gathering

paperwork from fax machines and the mail room consumed an enormous amount of time.

Accordingly, as part of its CRM rollout, Norwich Union created an in-house group that scans

all mailed or faxed forms. Now, employees access these forms digitally from within the CRM

application, which has led not only to increased user efficiency and faster sales cycles, but also

to improved CRM adoption.

3) Communicate clearly & thoroughly:

According to a recent Forrester Research survey of executives with CRM oversight, “new

CRM processes and technologies that have a clear benefit for users but are not properly

introduced to the organization will not be adopted.” Accordingly, communicate early and

often: Tell employees about forthcoming CRM changes, explain the personal benefits, debunk

myths, and detail the underlying business logic.

For example, at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, sales agents protested a switch from paper

forms to a CRM-based interview process for individual health plan applicants because it

lengthened interviews and decreased compensation. Unbeknownst to agents, however, the

new CRM approach reduced the average time needed — from eight days to four — to con-

clude the entire application process, by eliminating the need to digitize the paper forms, and

allowing immediate scheduling of required home visits and lab tests. After adjusting compen-

sation and improving communication, this insurer was able to increase user adoption.

4) Involve supervisors & sponsors:

Involve end users’ direct supervisors in all aspects of CRM — from strategizing and develop-

ment through to testing and training — so that they will hold users accountable and rein-

force their propensity to utilize new CRM capabilities. Also, ensure that project sponsors are

involved in all aspects of the implementation.



As an example, one user adoption challenge at a large health insurer was the lack of a top-

down mandate for change. More precisely, underwriting and sales teams demanded that the

CRM project team — which had little power — precisely mirror the company’s existing,

largely manual, and relatively inefficient business processes within the new CRM system. The

resulting excess number of customizations led to poor CRM application performance. Activi-

ties that should have taken seconds sometimes took a minute, and employees avoided using

the new CRM system.

The lesson: Secure a top-down mandate for change, especially when it involves improving the

efficiency of existing processes. If a new CRM template accomplishes a task — such as the

application approval process for new individual health plan members — in eight steps, and an

insurer’s existing process involves 10 steps, then the business mandate is clear: streamline the

existing approach. Otherwise, why implement CRM?

5) Pursue a phased plan:

When implementing CRM, avoid a “big bang” approach. Instead, create clear definitions

of CRM requirements, and introduce CRM functionality in discrete project phases, with

each stage tied to achieving specific business outcomes. Otherwise, companies risk delivering

incomplete CRM projects, which only increase employee workloads. For example, about four

years ago, one health insurer began implementing a new CRM system for its corporate health

plan sales and service representatives, and then decided to also include individual health plan

personnel. When the insurer launched the new application, however, it only offered about 50

percent of the functionality any particular employee required. Employees immediately resisted

using the new CRM system. Not long after, as call center wait times increased and employee

productivity declined, service managers allowed employees to abandon the new CRM system

altogether.

Instead, start small and first pursue low-hanging fruit, meaning capabilities with low technical

complexity and high levels of business value. Small project successes will beget more success,

attract users, and help transition them away from other systems or old ways of doing things.

Also consider targeting discrete groups of users in different project phases, since the CRM

needs of in-house sales agents, external agents, service personnel, and underwriters will largely

differ.



PURSUE END USERS

Successful CRM projects actively court end users. By contrast, if health insurers ignore users

until after new CRM applications or enhancements go live, they must expend much more

time, effort, and money to realize their objectives. In addition, until those goals are met, the

project may be perceived as failing, which leads to dramatically decreased user adoption levels

at best, or outright project cancellation at worst.

In short, pay attention to end users. By balancing business, regulatory, and sales cycle require-

ments with users’ needs throughout the life of a CRM implementation, health insurers will

ensure high levels of user satisfaction with — and adoption of — their CRM systems, and

avoid expensive false starts or perceptions of failure. They will also deliver more effective

CRM capabilities, reduce customer management costs through process automation, and most

of all, achieve CRM project goals more quickly and completely, leading to increased business

efficiency and effectiveness.

INNOVEER SOLUTIONS, an award-winning customer strategy and solutions consultancy,

provides advanced customer management services to healthcare and high-technology com-

panies, among others, in the areas of planning and strategy, technology implementation, and

optimization. The company’s deep industry knowledge, broad technical skills, and Multishore

Methodology enable organizations to address their critical customer-facing issues and achieve

an integrated view of all customer information. With an exclusive focus on customer manage-

ment since 1998, Innoveer has worked with more than 300 organizations to increase their

overall business growth, improve internal efficiency, and enhance the customer experience.

ABOUTINNOVEER


crm increasing user adoption ensures successful crm projects

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