Bringing in an expert to get you on the right path can be worth it many times over. After all, you do believe in the value of specialization, right?
“Expertise doesn’t come cheap, but the alternative is far more costly.”
Or in other words, it doesn’t matter how much of a “bargain” something seems to be, if it fails to meet the project’s key objectives.
One, you have your everyday mission to carry out and taking on a major technical project is not within your core mission. In fact, it can distract and hurt your bottom line. Fundraising, communications, your programs and tending to your service recipients is your core competency, probably not a new tech implementation.
Two, learning on the go is risky and if you find it time-consuming to collaborate and work thru an implementation with a partner, try doing it yourself the first time, only to get it wrong and needing a do-over. Cue, the blame the system let’s find a new tool fallacy. This is especially true if you lack full-time IT staff with CRM implementation experience.
Initially I said there were 4 main pathways, and while that’s true there is a key distinction in how you work with a CiviCRM partner:
- The partner leads the implementation for the 3 main phases: strategic, implementation and training with your requirements and input.
- You project manage it and seek a strategic, advisory relationship early on to avoid wasted energy.
I’m gonna tackle the former; using the traditional “partner-led” style in this case. Here’s how I think this approach stacks up against those 8 key factors I mentioned rated on a basis of very low to very high (1-5).
Control – 4
The benefit of bringing in help is you get the best of both world’s. You get to make a system that is exactly what you want (retain control) without you having to carry the burden of understanding CiviCRM’s inner workings…aka figuring out how to get there and having the talented people to execute it.
It’s essential to map out your requirements thru a discovery process involving user stories and their functional requirements. Your partner should ask hard questions and push back if you are jumping to the technical solutions or fancy features without a clear connection to advancing a quantifiable goal.
Tip: you will need to let go of being prescriptive with features and “bells and whistles” and stay focused on the high-level with what people you are trying to serve and why.
Curiosity & Patience – 3
You might have some curiosity and patience, but only limited time to work directly on the project. Your involvement will be essential during the initial discovery, requirements gathering, and final feedback stages during testing.
Essentially, you’ll engage early on and toward the end, while staying “hands-off” during the build itself unless the consultant needs your feedback.
Technical Skills – 2
You won’t need to be hands on but some level of “technical speak” will help translate your ideas into system functionality easier. Depending on your appetite, you can work share various aspects of the project, such as defining initial goals, data migration preparation and your user training rollout.
One-Time Budget – 4
Having a partner-led agency implementation can get expensive, and that’s because they will bring in a whole range of expert staff to specialize in each unique area. From a project manager keeping the tasks and milestones on track, graphic designer, system architect, consultants to developers, each one brings additional cost.
Want to try and make it more affordable? Assuming you have some internal resources, make it clear at the outset what you and your team will be handling. While this requires more on your part, you may be able to do a mini-discovery and requirements analysis, data migration or documentation.
But at some point, one has to lead, and the other has to follow so don’t muddy the waters too much here and have clear lines of responsibility.
Annually Recurring Budget – 3
You’ll be developing your own system and you could have a CiviCRM partner host it. That’s the most common route. Or, deploy it on hosting you procure that fits CiviCRM’s minimum requirements and the consultant finds suitable. Either way, the costs are lower significantly lower than commercial CRM’s or a SaaS hosted tool.
Risk Level – 2
With a partner guiding the implementation, nonprofits avoid common pitfalls, reduce trial-and-error, and speed up the launch of their CRM, making the best use of their limited resources.
A gotcha? If you aren’t clear on what you want in the first place. That’s simply a red flag for me.
Any good provider will pause and wait for you to clarify your goals or help you suss them out. And, if it is not fixed price arrangement you will run the risk of cost-overruns if you don’t communicate clearly during the discovery phase. Hint: you should always get a fixed price with a clear scope of work.
Speed of Project – 4
Typical implementations should estimate around 3-6 months when all things are said and done. Though, this can be longer based on complexity and development of new features in the CiviCRM ecosystem or custom extensions.
Look, 9/10 partners have done your type of project before, which let’s them re-use various approaches from previous implementations for inspiration. This will put you on the fast track to going-live; many hands make light work.
Ongoing Support – 5
When you develop a close relationship, they’ll know your system so spotting the resolution usually is quicker. Having a support contract gives you an easy escalation point. That’s opposed to the DIY route where bringing in someone would take more spool up time for them understanding the mechanics of why things are, as they are.
Here’s the deal:
It’s not shocking that most successful implementations are from consultants or highly skilled in-house staff with sufficient CRM experience. If you aren’t in either of those camps, you could end up penny wise and pound foolish.
Going with an expert is an investment in your nonprofit’s infrastructure. This is doubly true for complex implementations consolidating multiple data sources, complex user levels and permissions structure, a member portal or third-party app integration.
With a CiviCRM partner-led implementation, they’re not just setting up software—you’re setting yourself up to make a real impact on the first try without sweating the tech stuff and losing track of your mission.