Replacing a CRM solution should not be this difficult...


  • sekret PM club

    So the pharma company I do outsourced helpdesk support for has decided to bite the bullet and send out iPads to the entire field sales force so they can replace our CRM software with one that will hopefully be less crap (read: not Siebel)

    In this process, they have committed the following sins:

    • Decided to not send out the iPads pre-configured

    • Along with the above point, decided to not have us (who manage the field sales force's hardware) organize shipping the iPads to everyone (because the vendor did it for free)

    • Because the vendor from the above point required that the company bow to their terms in order to obtain said free shipping, none of the iPads were shipped signature-required on delivery.

    • Decided to use what is quite possibly the WORST mobile device management platform imaginable to manage these devices, that got bogged down every Monday during that phase of the rollout as all the users who just got their new devices go to activate them all at once.

    • Decided not to bother with the hassle of mandating corporate Apple IDs for these devices.

    • Decided to enforce a 6-digit passcode requirement on the devices, and then didn't give the Helpdesk the ability to reset said passcodes at first. (We got THAT fixed right-quick.)

    • Sent at least two Verizon iPads to users in Alaska who have no Verizon coverage.

    • Didn't bother getting contracts from AT&T and Verizon for access to their service management portals until a few weeks after these devices started shipping to users.

    • Didn't get the Helpdesk any information or training on the Verizon system until after nearly all the iPad wave shipments had gone out.

    • Didn't bother providing the Helpdesk with any sort of training materials until after these devices were already shipping (and that information consisted of the same setup document being sent to the users.)

    • Didn't feel it necessary to provide the Helpdesk with additional technicians to ride out all the calls relating to most of the above points.

    Thankfully, we're now pretty much done with the major shipments of these devices, being down to the few stragglers out in the field who were on leave or vacation or whatnot. We're now in Wave 2 of the actual CRM software switchover...and there's a whole 'nother list of sins just for this stuff.

    • The Helpdesk never received any sort of training materials on the new CRM platform beyond taking the same crap-ass Flash-based online trainings (that are about an hour long each) that the sales reps are required to view. We had to make do with these trainings, some technicians' prior experience with this new software from other helpdesks my company supports, and wishing.

    • I need at least 2 weeks to properly train a technician to take calls on our account. One week for classroom training and tethered learning, and another week for evaluation and review. Add to that fact that they are also mandated to take a week of corporate basic training for our company if they're coming in from the outside, and that means that when I get told the week before the rollout that I have two new technicians I need to train the next day on top of all the other crap I need to do, I nearly blow my stack.

    • I'm the only one who can write the Helpdesk's training materials and knowledge objects for our knowledgebase for new things. I had to sponge KOs from other helpdesks here that use this new CRM platform because my client company didn't provide me with ANY useful information about this software, how it works, or how it's known to break until the day before Wave 1 started launching. The information they gave us? The same Quick-Reference Cards that were given to the sales force on how to do common actions. Still no break/fix knowledge, and now I have to rewrite half my knowledge objects so that they align with the client company's instructions.

    • We didn't get access to a sandbox environment for this new CRM software until about three days before go-live for Wave 1.

    Now, I know that pretty much none of this is my company's fault, it's entirely on the heads of the client company. That doesn't lessen the urge in my head to run screaming from this building and never look back. I need a vacation.



  • Other than that, things went well, eh?



  • Yeah, that seems par for the course for any outsourced helpdesk. Internal IT feels threatened by you guys, or is otherwise clueless, or this project itself was outsourced to someone else.

    Reminds me of the final days of Circuit City; there was:

    -us, the helpdesk at IBM Global Services in Vancouver (of course contracted through Kelly Services)

    -Server operations, based in IBM Brazil.

    -Store field techs, contracted out to ADT.

    -Legacy POS (point of sale [system]) support based out of CCity's head office.

    -Internal deskside at CCity head office.

    About two years before they went under, they decided to replace their POS system with a replacement developed by IBM. Aside from the project itself being a typical corporate clusterfuck, we received very little training and no direct access to the system. Knowledge base articles were outdated or incomplete. We were pretty much flying blind. And direct access was provided to another helpdesk at IBM somewhere (Calgary, I think)

    Oh, and they used Peregrine Service Desk. I despise that software.


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    So, CCity were a wholly owned subsidiary of IBM? If not, why not? Sounds like they'd already signed over virtually all their operations to them...



  • @Nexzus said:

    Oh, and they used Peregrine Service Desk. I despise that software.

    Fuck. Peregrine. That is all.



  • @e4tmyl33t said:

    Verizon iPads

    TRWTF right there. They didn't buy "Verizon PCs" running a customized (and locked) "Verizon Windows" that only connects to Verizon broadband, right?


  • sekret PM club

    @anonymous234 said:

    @e4tmyl33t said:
    Verizon iPads

    TRWTF right there. They didn't buy "Verizon PCs" running a customized (and locked) "Verizon Windows" that only connects to Verizon broadband, right?

    No, actually the majority of the iPads that were sent out to the field were AT&T ones. They supposedly researched what markets our field force was in that had shit AT&T coverage and went with Verizon ones for those areas. Apparently whoever did this research pulled some of the numbers straight from their own nethers.



  • ...errr...

    @e4tmyl33t said:

    ...and send out iPads to the entire field sales force

    ...

    ...

    ...the same crap-ass Flash-based online trainings (that are about an hour long each) that the sales reps are required to view...

    How's that gonna work, then?


  • sekret PM club

    @skotl said:

    ...errr...

    @e4tmyl33t said:

    ...and send out iPads to the entire field sales force

    ...

    ...

    ...the same crap-ass Flash-based online trainings (that are about an hour long each) that the sales reps are required to view...

    How's that gonna work, then?

    The flash trainings are to be done on the reps' laptops, which they've used to do their job for the last few years. Though I wouldn't put it past my client company to put together Flash trainings at some point and expect the reps to take them on the iPads, only to get confused when we start getting calls...


  • Discourse touched me in a no-no place

    @skotl said:

    ...errr...

    @e4tmyl33t said:

    ...and send out iPads to the entire field sales force

    ...

    ...

    ...the same crap-ass Flash-based online trainings (that are about an hour long each) that the sales reps are required to view...

    How's that gonna work, then?

    Well, clearly, you do the training on something that isn't an iPad, since you probably need the iPad free in order to practise the stuff you're learning from your non-iPad device.


  • @e4tmyl33t said:

    Didn't bother providing the Helpdesk with any sort of training materials until after these devices were already shipping (and that information consisted of the same setup document being sent to the users.)
    Well that makes sense - you know the users aren't gonna read it.



  •  Your RTFM tag works! How's that possible? Is it the lack of spaces?

    Update: Yep, my tag worked. But CS failed to find a post with it...



  • @Mcoder said:

    Your RTFM tag works! How's that possible? Is it the lack of spaces?

    Update: Yep, my tag worked. But CS failed to find a post with it...

    Wait a minute . . . . tags don't actually work.  If you click on one you just get a 404. UNLESS the tag has no spaces.

    The amazing retardedness of CS has just blown my mind.

     



  • @El_Heffe said:

    @Mcoder said:

    Your RTFM tag works! How's that possible? Is it the lack of spaces?

    Update: Yep, my tag worked. But CS failed to find a post with it...

    Wait a minute . . . . tags don't actually work.  If you click on one you just get a 404. UNLESS the tag has no spaces.

    The amazing retardedness of CS has just blown my mind.

     

    Replace the pluses with %20s. Watch in horror as community server is able to fulfil a request only after it is manually edited.



  • @El_Heffe said:

    @Mcoder said:

    Your RTFM tag works! How's that possible? Is it the lack of spaces?

    Update: Yep, my tag worked. But CS failed to find a post with it...

    Wait a minute . . . . tags don't actually work.  If you click on one you just get a 404. UNLESS the tag has no spaces.

    The amazing retardedness of CS has just blown my mind.

     

     

    Do you want amazing? When I tagged my comment, CS couldn't find any comment under that tag, but now, some hours later, my  comment is there.

    CS has a caching system for replacing a database index.

     


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