I am currently involved in a project where we need to estimate the costs for integrating and customizing a new CRM system with a service integrator. To ballpark the potential costs before we go to procurement, we are considering using a methodology that calculates these costs as 150% of the total subscription cost of the SaaS. This estimate is derived by considering project complexity and the specific requirements of our business. We do not have the time to issue an RFI to gather this information or reach out to vendors individually. Therefore, we want to use this technique to get an approval to go to procurement based on this estimate. Once we have a more accurate figure through the procurement process, we will return for approval of the actual amount. I would appreciate any feedback or shared experiences from others who have used this or a similar approach for their projects. My goal is to confirm that this methodology is commonly used and recognized as effective by other project management professionals. Saving Changes...
CRM, ERP, PPM and other such enterprise-spanning platforms can often cost an order of magnitude more than the license or subscription costs depending on the degree of integration and customization you are planning to complete within the scope of the project.
This is one reason why a multi-phase approach with each phase costed and approved separately might be advisable. Start with a vanilla, minimally integrated implementation and then subsequent phases can tackle customization and more complex integrations.
