ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY
who may not have worked on the floor for years, can be dangerous. If we don’ t engage the people actually doing the work, we risk building a solution for a business reality that existed seven years ago, rather than one that aligns with how teams operate today.
What role does ongoing collaboration with end-users play in helping Braintree evolve CRM platforms as business needs and budgets change?
Ongoing collaboration is critical because technology and business landscapes change rapidly. For instance, the launch of Microsoft Copilot just three years ago has already fundamentally reshaped how we engage with customers and systems. As technology changes, the way our customers do business changes, and our solutions must keep pace.
We cannot simply be an implementation partner that walks away after deployment but rather, we strive to be a solution partner that grows with the customer. By maintaining a strategic engagement, we can place emerging trends and budget requirements on a roadmap, helping clients navigate changes – like the explosion of AI assistants – ensuring they get long-term value rather than just a one-off implementation. through internal business process changes. Customisation adds a level of complexity and cost that is often overlooked, so it always needs to be the last resort. We are transparent about what the standard solution can do to ensure we don’ t‘ panel beat’ a solution just for the sake of a sale.
In a modular CRM approach, how does Braintree help end-users measure value and ROI before deciding to activate additional capabilities?
We focus on measuring value by looking at how readily users can solve problems without incurring heavy development costs.
We cannot simply be an implementation partner that walks away after deployment but rather, we strive to be a solution partner that grows with the customer.
How do you balance standardisation with customisation when working with end-users who have very different processes and maturity levels?
Our starting point is to avoid putting‘ square pegs in round holes’. While we are a Microsoft house, we recognise that the best solution is one with the highest‘ fit gap’ – ideally around 92 % standard fit with an 8 % gap. The most successful deployments are those with close to zero customisation, relying instead on configuration of the core, native functionality that Microsoft has spent millions testing and perfecting.
When we identify that 8 % gap, our first step is to see if it can be mitigated
16 www. intelligenttechchannels. com