Who’s in control?

Who has control of the CRM systems and processes by which you cultivate relationships with your people?

You've got department heads and project leads and other staff members on the inside. You've got vendors and support and other consultants on the outside.

Who's in control?

Consider these two amazingly high-tech diagrams of a hypothetical organization:

1. Everyone talks separately to your outside consultants.

This approach centralizes the control outside of the organization. There's nobody on the inside who can really know everything that's going on.

And really, could anyone on the outside keep track of what's happening on the inside? (Spoilers: No, they can't.)

2. Communications streamlined through a single staff member.

This approach, on the other hand, centralizes that control within the organization. The Systems Coordinator is in a position to know how the systems are being used and to ensure things are working well for everyone.

So what about your organization?

Is that control inside your organization, or outside? If it's outside, how's that affecting your work?

Now, where would you like that center of control to be?

What steps could you take to shift it in that direction?

All the best,
A.