1. Strategic Layer
Think of this as the foundation and roadmap to success. At this stage, it’s all about setting a direction and purpose—getting crystal clear on why a CRM will move you forward and what specific goals it will achieve. Here, you, or with the help of a consultant be asking questions like: “What problem are we solving?”, “How does this fit with our big-picture goals?” and “What order should various aspects be done in?”
This layer sets the course and gets everyone rowing in the same direction before any actual work begins. Here, expertise is at a premium because any wrong decisions will have a cascade effect on the 2 layers below.
2. Implementation Layer
Once you’ve got the strategy, it’s time to shift to the “doing” stage. The implementation layer is where things actually get built. It’s all about melding in your real life organization to a data model that actually represents it, configuring the right extensions, plugins and building the workflows all with detailed execution.
This is where your team, developers, or partners get their hands on the tech itself based on their experience configuring, coding, and setting it up to do what’s needed.
3. Maintenance Layer
This is the phase where you need to come in, if it hasn’t happened already. Aside from CiviCRM hosting, system maintenance for CiviCRM upgrades, and some occasional support and a provider that is keeping in tune with the software’s new developments, you should take most of the ownership at this layer. It’s an in-house task.
I’ve said CiviCRM calling card is about ownership but it’s also true with any tool. If you are depending on an expert to get inside your head and move the levers of the CRM for you as you go; it’s bound to be clunky, inefficient and more expensive then what’s really necessary.
So what does this really mean?
You’re keeping your data clean, duplicates to a minimum, your groups organized and reports and dashlets are adapting to your uses as new needs that arise. You handle any data imports that couldn’t be automatically integrated already and add new forms and contributions pages as your development and outreach calendar needs.
And, documentation will be built and continually revised here so if someone is “hit by a bus”, they won’t have to start from nothing on what’s really going on.
This layer is crucial for ensuring your tool grows with you, not apart, over time.
Here’s the deal:
“Doing it all” on your own could be extreme. Delegating it to an outside group isn’t magical and is equally extreme. The answer is in the middle based on all the factors I tried to list out previously.
You wouldn’t call your home builder to rake your lawn, make some landscape adjustments, patch a little hole in the wall or replace a leaky faucet, so why would it be different here?
At some point, this will be your system to run and manage day to day. Getting familiar with why things work the way they do will only allow you to get the most of your CRM and save some bucks down the line for as long as it exists.
“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
Sounds like a good idea to invest in yourself and your team, doesn’t it?