When you think of the term “CRM Administrator”, is the very first thing that comes to mind is a person who is responsible for managing a dedicated CRM system for an organization? But if we rethink about the word managing in the above sentence, it has not only one meaning, but many.

Typically, organizations don’t hire candidates for a dedicated CRM administrator job role, as it is believed that people working with the CRM solution can carry out those responsibilities. But what are actual duties executed? What are the skills required? And what is the perfect time to hire one?

A CRM administrator is a job role which is dynamic in itself, requiring many proverbial hats. So let us have a look at the variety of duties and responsibilities a CRM administrator has to perform.

Business analyst: A CRM business analyst is primarily responsible for building customer relationships. Having said this, a CRM business analyst is therefore, involved from researching customer database to its detailed analysis. This role involves: research, analysis and monitoring customer database, making recommendations about successful marketing strategies and trends, and compiling detailed analysis. (Analysis is usually represented in the form of reports.) So, a CRM BA is expected to be sound in reporting skills.

Consultant: A CRM consultant is expected to have a deep CRM knowledge which can be utilized to translate business requirements into solutions. Apart from this, a consultant acts as a point of contact between delivery team and client, when the project is started. This role also involves mentoring juniors, working with technical architects to ensure proper delivery of client expectations, getting involved in project life cycle, client training, developing test plans, post project support plans and guiding the developer team(s).

A consultant can also be more focused on the technical aspect, knowing the ins and outs and pros/cons and best practices of CRM organizations, security, entities, workflows, infrastructure, ADFS, etc.

Skills highlighted: Before going through required skills for CRM Administrator job role, let’s consider these questions:

i) What is basic requirement in order to qualify for CRM administrator role?

With a CRM BA perspective, a candidate is expected to have a bachelor’s degree in business or management and valuable experience in customer service. With a consultant perspective, a candidate must not only possess deep knowledge of CRM but also some of the underlying software technologies used for custom development in CRM.

ii) Is this job role, limited to academic qualification?

The quick answer to this question is No. Academic qualification is only a basic requirement, and a candidate is expected to have few more skills such as interpersonal skills, communication skills and analytical skills followed by decision making expertise.

Apart from this, a CRM administrator is expected to keep CRM system up to date, few of which involves password changes, adding custom fields, managing staff training and inquiries, developing various templates, reports and custom applications and workflows.

By this time, I am sure that there might be one question that is crawling in your mind.

Why can’t a business analyst and consultant be a CRM administrator individually or vice-versa?

Well, it really depends upon the CRM system you are working with. If it is small and manageable, there is no harm in these individuals, managing CRM system. But it might be risky, when CRM system outgrows their abilities. This might result into slow performance as far as their primary duties are concerned and also stress to maintain huge system. And if we think, other way round, it is equal to impossible as one person cannot perform all duties in a given time constraint and capabilities.

Therefore, it is always advisable to have a dedicated CRM administrator who can perform duties pertaining to CRM system, up to the company standards and therefore help grow a successful business practice.