Frieda Maher on the challenges of the sales back office

Frieda Maher of SalesPOD joins us to discuss the her work with organizations deploying or improving CRM systems and processes. One of the key challenges to successful CRM, she says, is establishing a strong relationship between end users like sales reps and the largeyl technical teams that roll out a CRM-based solution. We discuss notable projects like Frieda's work at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), innovative use of Microsoft technology like Power Apps and Teams, and how projects apply agile techniques and Scrum, particularly in the context of CRM. Show Notes: 3:00 - Why CRM requires the successful interaction of sales teams and back office systems-focused workers 4:30 - How Frieda tends to get involved in projects, including organizations 7:00 - Why organizations need a sales ops team to keep CRM-related systems alive and evolving 10:30 - The role that agile plays on different types of projects 14:30 - Frieda's experience leading product development of UNSW's CRM-based system 19:30 - The challenge of replacing legacy systems across the university 25:00 - Have CRM projects improved over time in sharing responsibilities between IT and the business? 29:00 - The challenge of adopting the ongoing flood of new CRM features from Microsoft and other vendors 31:00 - New solution areas that Frieda is watching closely 35:30 - Why cloud is so critical to agile development 38:00 - How is the Power Platform going to change the way solutions are designed? 41:00 - Why the broader user base faces challenges to trying to take ownership of Power Apps 43:30 - An example of a user leading the way on innovative use of Microsoft applications 45:30 - What Frieda's most excited about for the future of CRM