Hi, we are replacing our ageing CRM system with a more modern one.

Initially we need to document the AS-IS processes for each department.

What type of model have you used to document these?
Would probably want to do a high level analysis and then a more detailed one from this.

What recommended model do you use, eg UML swim lane process model, activity diagram etc?

Do you have any suggestions, links, or publications you could provide?

What methodology would you recommend, eg BCS http://certifications.bcs.org/content/ConTab/42
or Volere http://www.volere.co.uk/?

What tools do you use to produce these, Visio, Enterprise Architect etc?

thanks,

It largely depends on how much complexity you have to deal with.    If you have a complex as-is situation, you need guidance in performing a logical, natural partitioning, to achieve an effective decomposition, which is necessary to handle complexity.

Only Data Flow Diagram offer guidance in logically, naturally partitioning a system.   I use DFD's to decompose from the highest level user goals, down to a fairly detail level.   Then, I switch over to a more detail (ie sequential) modeling technique such as BPMN.

I would agree with Kimbo.  BPMN has lots of capability to include flow of information / data as part of the process model. If you look under the Templates page on the ModernAnalyst site, there is a good BPMN 'cheat sheet' that explains the symbols and notations.

Enterprise Architect is a very good tool, as Kimbo mentioned. 

Sandy