Association Insight International & European Association Insights Winter 2015 | Page 18

Association Insights | Article

With this understanding, the project sponsors can develop
the roll-out strategy judging the impact of changes to the
investment plan in terms of acceleration or prioritised
phasing for implementation, quantifying the impact of a
This will enable the organisation to focus resources on the
most important elements with prioritisation and phasing
of projects being led by the project team. It should not be
forgotten that this includes aspects of technology, data
acquisition, data cleaning and business process.

convincing propositions and recognising opportunities and
the best channels for communication. Organisations will be
better placed for testing initiatives and creating membership
through insight and understanding.

Executive Sponsor

Delivery
Team

Successful implementation of a C/MRM
– who should be involved

Project
Menagement

In order to implement a C/MRM successfully, identify an
executive sponsor who will subscribe whole-heartedly to

Data
Integration

Steering
Committee
Commercial
Team

Business
Analyst
Membership
Marketing

members and act as a conduit to the Board. Create a project
team; it is vital to have buy-in from the board or trustees
and involvement from all process owners and stakeholders
– representatives from the business – the Finance,
Marketing and Membership departments (branches if
appropriate) as well as the delivery team (internal or external
group responsible for delivering the solution). Include
representatives from HR, given the implications on working
practices, expectations and business processes and on staff
recruitment and new employee induction. Also, establish
a steering committee with executive powers to drive from
a strategic viewpoint. See Figure 2 (below) for the project
structure.
Once signed off for implementation appoint or recruit
the services of a strong project manager who can both
direct constructive, productive planning sessions and is
experienced in C/MRM implementation and hold regular
review sessions while implementing the various stages of
development.

Finance
HR

Fig 2. Project structure

In summary, 10 points to be considered:
1 Access a complete view of your customers, products and

channels
2 Understand the value of the data collected in the

business – transactions, promotions, market research
and website
3 Increase that value by merging it with information from

external sources
4 Analyse the information to determine where to direct

your marketing efforts

Another key success factor is the development and
acceptance of an enterprise-wide data strategy to control
collection, management, governance and usage of data
in the organisation. Often the challenge of introducing C/

5 Initiate campaigns that will yield new members and

concept of data strategy. Developing C/MRM is a continuous
process and not just a one-time exercise, because members’
preferences change constantly.

7 Be aware of the actual cost of acquiring and servicing a

As more is learnt about them and greater insight
achieved, so the organisation will need to tune the strategy
to form deeper relationships. Managing member and
customer information in the way