Things to consider before upgrading your CRM

Ahead of our recruitment technology event on Thursday Wayne Barclay of Barclay Jones (a Consultancy working with agency recruiters, corporate recruiters and B2Bs advising them on the most effective use of technology, web and social media) has written this for us.

Once you've decided that your current software for managing your data (CRM / ATS) is ready for a kick up the butt!  You may be wanting to upgrade your existing software, or migrate to a brand new system...  STOP: are you about to simply move into a new house with all of your old stuff?

If you've made the decision that enough is enough, and you're ready (and willing) to change the way you store (and manage) one of your most valuable assets, then you will also be thinking about the existing data you have (won't you?)

I was with a client recently who is ready to make the move and we were discussing his current database and it turns out that he actually has a dataDUMP.  It's a great system, although to be fair he's outgrown it and its but full of junk.

His recruiters don’t search it; they rarely add data to it, and if they do it's merely to ring fence it - they don't keep the data up to date. He spends a fortune on other databases and job sites to help with candidate sourcing; he has little visibility over what he has and what the business “owns” in terms of data; social media is not helping the situation by giving his staff even more “private” access to data that he has zero visibility over.

His database is therefore worth very little; in fact it is probably costing him money! We got chatting about what he wants to get out of the move to a new system...

Like many of our clients he has had the following experience:

• Invested well before recession
• Held on tight during recession
• Got a bit giddy post-recession and focused on bringing the money in (too right!)
• Now realises that strategy is key and he wants a safer, structured, visible environment for his data and his people
• The CRM that he has is not fit for purpose going forward - his business is very different to what it was when he bought the software and the software has not moved with the times.  Upgrading to the newer version would in effect mean a completely new process - so he may as well see what's out there! (Right decision!)

Thus, the decision to move systems has been made and he wants to know about how to deal with the legacy data.  Options:

Bin the old data and start again with a nice shiny new system! Trust me, the theory is great - in reality, your staff will hate you for this (even if they are the ones whinging about the rubbish they have to sift through to get what they need).
Migrate the lot! Some CRM / ATS software houses will happily take money for migrating your data (as a removal man will happily take your old junk to your new home...) - but you will be charged for this AND your staff will still have to wade through it.
Study what you have and see what you have to gain by migrating it - please think about what good looks like.  Think about the typical life-span of a client and candidate and search your datadump for data that you need going forward.

The key to this is to think long not short term; ask yourself:

• If your data was paper-based, filed away in a multitude of filing cabinets, would you pack it up and move it to a new office?
• Is one of your objectives for the new CRM/ATS a cleaner working environment?
• Do you have a policy / process which clarifies to your people when the data that they have goes on to your system?  You don’t want to be spending time and money getting a gorgeous clean house, only to invite a load of hoarders to stay, who nip out to every car boot going, and trawl eBay for stuff they may “need”.  Be clear about what goes onto the system and why.  And perhaps have a system that "archives" data that has not been touched in a while.

Investing in a new CRM / ATS is a great way of moving your business to a new work ethic, ensuring that your workforce has the best tools and that you can maximise the data that you have.  Make sure that you don't simply move your junk to a new system and in 6 months have the same complaints that led you to migrate / upgrade - otherwise it's just geography.

Are you planning on migrating / upgrading your CRM? If so, how much data have you got? what's your strategy?

You can follow Wayne on Twitter, his Facebook Business page, his Pinterest boards, read his blog and connect via LinkedIn.

 

Comments

[Michael Restivo]

Wayne great post. Just thought I could add a couple of points I have seen over the years as a CRM provider.

I completely agree that when you move to a new recruitment system that you should absolutely have a strategy in what data, if any, you choose to bring over from your old system. At Bullhorn, we see firms choosing to start fresh, but most tend to import some or all of their historic data. What's really important with a new system is that you are putting in place the necessary items to ensure your team is going to use it AND also have good data quality. Without that, you don't have the necessary foundation for accurate insight into your business. So when adopting a new CRM we think you should:
1) Set up your new CRM the way your company works, as opposed to being forced to use the workflow dictated by the CRM you just purchased. By making the system map to your workflow, that helps ensure your team will use it.
2) Put rules in place about how you capture data. When you are going to start using your new CRM, be sure to think through exactly what data you require and how you want to capture that data. For example, do you want to require your team to capture one phone number or two on a new candidate? Do you need to capture University degrees in a uniform way so you can have good data quality and easily search on those later. Make sure you choose a CRM that gives you the flexibility to name your fields, determine if they are required or not, and what format they need to be (ie: open text box vs. a pick list)
3) Monitor and fix data quality issues. Bullhorn and our partner InsightSquared have some very easy ways to monitor data quality, identify and quickly fix issues. With this approach you can ensure you are establishing the right foundation for making business decisions.

We've also seen the trend you noted, that firms seem to accumulate data but don't actually use it. Frequently, we see that's because the tools they've had to extract data from the system aren't easy to use. So when choosing a new CRM be sure to check out how those systems search for candidates for example. If your team won't have the tools necessary to find data in the new system, then your data quality doesn't even matter.

[Shane McCusker]

Hi Wayne,

I'm sorry to say I disagree with some of your points. There is no such thing as junk data, its just data that you have no ability to get any value from. The problem is therefore not the data but the system it is in.

Correct me if I'm wrong but these are people who have taken the time to apply with your agency and have given you a wealth of information about themselves, people they know and the companies and industry they work in.

Information management systems are not there to simply store information. Their primary purpose is to retrieve data and do something useful with it. Your information management system should automatically highlight opportunities to make placements and generating real revenue within your business. All your data can be used for this.

Shane McCusker
Intelligence Software
http://www.intel-sw.com

[LisaMariJones]

:) Thanks Mike and Shane. Massively respect your approaches.

At the risk of appearing to be a woman who wants the last word...

We often come across recruitment businesses who's systems are full of junk. This could be a variety of reasons, but mainly due to processes over the years where data was added that was of little use then, let alone now. I have seen whole drawers of paper CVs being added to systems by temps/administrators. I have seen old CRMs with bucket loads off online data being mass migrated without a thought to it's worth. I have seen consultants not really getting when in the process they get the data online and so merely use CRM to ring fence.

I know that all data could be seen as good data - but imagine a workflow that relies on admin-level or IT-level, non-sector specific teams of people adding data to a system only for the consultant-level sector specialist trying to find that data again... Wasn't junk when it went on, became junk as soon as it was saved.

My definition of junk: useless stuff that we would be better off having a good tidy up of - which most recruiters haven't the time to spend cleaning...

There, I feel so much better now ;)

Feel free to answer back (my husband always does! ;)

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