We Blog CRM

Plenty of recent studies indicate that more and more large enterprises are going to move to SaaS CRM and productivity solutions, and last week, PDI, Inc. was added to that list of companies making the leap. PDI provides sales and marketing support to US pharmaceutical companies, and will implement Veeva’s VBioPharma CRM Primary Care and Special Care editions, VMobile, and VInsights, before the end of this year. All of those products are part of Veeva CRM’s suite of multi-tenant SaaS applications, helping customers deploy various sales teams nationwide, at different intervals and sizes, and for different needs.

PDI’s senior vice president of IT, Jo Ann Saitta, stated that the move to the Veeva CRM offering was largely influenced by the flexibility of their SaaS solution: “Veeva allows us to provide life sciences companies with tailored solutions without delay.” Changes to PDI’s SFA system can be made quickly, and cuts costs by providing what Saitta dubs a “hardware agnostic environment.”

Saitta said that Veeva’s solution allows SFA to be less about computer systems, and more about enabling sales force to be efficient. It is worth mentioning that PDI had been using a SaaS CRM system for several years prior to selecting the Veeva suite. It seems that we are quickly entering the age in which CRM selections won’t be made simply based on whether the solutions are on-demand or on-premise, but based on the true quality of the product.

Looks like there could be some enterprise software coming out of Ireland soon: this week, the Irish government announced a partnership with Bank of Ireland and Limerick University, where they’ll create a fund for start-up and early stage companies. So far the fund, dubbed Enterprise Ireland, has €26 million in its coffer, and will begin making investments ranging from €100,000 to €500,000.

Specifically, the company will focus on export-oriented companies operating in the technology, food and financial services sectors. Enterprise Ireland aims to encourage and support small and medium enterprises, which explains the slightly narrow range of investments. Still, there’s no reason the fund won’t continue to grow, and perhaps grow to support larger companies.

It is exciting to see technology companies and start-ups given a chance to grow in areas where they are relatively sparse. Of course, CRM heavyweights like Oracle and Sage already have branches in Ireland, but native companies will do even more to boost their economy. In addition, part of the Enterprise Ireland fund is dedicated to patent and patent pending projects within Irish universities, which is a smart was to encourage technological development at the ground level.

Meritide, a Minnesota-based IT consulting firm, announced last week that they expanded their full-service Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions practice. Meritide provides strategy, integration, design, and implementation services to upper mid-market companies, and with their expanded Microsoft Dynamics CRM products, will provide clients with insight into sales, marketing, and service activities.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is highly flexible and customizable, and is distributed entirely through a partner system (which allows for even greater personalization). It offers tight integration with Microsoft Office applications—which helps reduce training time—and one Meritide customer, Emprimus, was especially taken with the Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online tool.

Emprimus offers solutions protecting against intentional electromagnetic interference (IEMI), and does most of their marketing through trade shows, large presentations, and industry associations. Emprimus’s President and CEO, Gale Nording, said the Dynamics CRM Online application was extremely helpful for streamlining the sales cycle, but declined to give specific details.

Meritide also implements BMC solutions, but the company’s president, Patrick Irestone, noted that Microsoft Dynamics deployments have increased with customers’ demand for cost-effective solutions. Microsoft recently reduced the base prices of their CRM solutions (and are offering 6 months free to Salesforce.com and Oracle users), and given the satisfaction of Meritide’s customers, business will only get better for Dyanamics.

In a move reminiscent of Salesforce.com’s initial marketing campaign, hosting service Rackspace launched NoMoreServers.com, a site dedicated to Computing-as-a-Service models. In 1999, Salesforce.com commenced with the “No Software” slogan that promoted Marc Benioff’s cloud-based CRM offering, and today NoMoreServers.com embraces the rise of the All Cloud Enterprise (ACE).

The site considers itself a rally cry of “the new computing era,” positioned at the center of this shift within business IT. They encourage enterprises to empower themselves by learning, keeping current, and debating the trend. NoMoreServers will be edited by hosting expert and recent Rackspace addition Andy Schroepfer, and will feature articles and daily commentary about hosting, cloud computing, and key vendors like Amazon, Google, and Salesforce, as well as a forum for discussions.

Rackspace is based in San Antonio, Tex., and provides hosting for about 70,000 businesses, and more than 51,000 of those are cloud computing businesses. And they are pretty intent on propelling enterprise into modernity, recently partnering with blogger Robert Scoble to launch Building 43, which encourages businesses to use modern technology and social media for increased productivity.

CRM has grown in terms of its capabilities since the early days of the 90s. One important change has been the development of software that allows dialogue with the customer. The technology follows the thinking that customer feedback is a critical input to improve customer service.

Some things that need to be considered when selecting a CRM system –

• Sales automation

•   Contact management

• Automated marketing

•   Reporting

• Data integration

• Better customer interaction via call centers

Aspects of your business that influence your choice of CRM include

• The size of your business

• Your vertical and amount of customization required

• Security

• Budget

An effective CRM solution can help you with:

• Contact and data tracking at every stage of the sales cycle with analysis of sales forecasts, reduction of admin work, increase in productivity by faster expense management, quote generation, and proposal generation.

• Multichannel marketing to a targeted audience is the lifeblood of a marketing campaign, a proper CRM system enables effective lead management such that the strongest leads can be quickly passed on to the sales reps. Campaigns can be managed more effectively.

• Corporate reporting allows organization heads to take in information at a glance and make informed decisions. Pre-built reports that are ready to use can help marketing heads evaluate marketing efforts and view reports in interchangeable formats.

• A call center management system foster user-friendly customer service. A proper system helps create routing paths so that calls reach the appropriate person, employee performance analysis and forecasting, employee training and quality assurance.

• Seamless data integration allows unencumbered data access for the right person at the right time. Integration of sales, marketing, and service leads to integrated and targeted customer service. Inconsistencies in data are resolved and the cost of data management is reduced.

Of course, what works for one business does not necessarily have to be the right fit for another. Features will depend upon the size of the business and industry type.

The right CRM system can improve company efficiency, facilitate communications with customers, and help increase revenues. Consumers have grown increasingly service-oriented, making CRM a business necessity rather than an option. Customers have a vast array of choices for spending their dollars, thanks to the plethora of information on the Internet that allows them to comparison shop for just about anything. Going forward, they will continue to demand better customer service and personalized communications in return for loyalty: “In 2015 the consumers who grew up after the advent of the Net will be ages 10-34…this group of customers will expect you to conduct business with them in an always on, always connected, real-time way. Always on, always connected is a result of the move from an analog to a digital world, which will be completed around 2030,” according to Barton Goldenberg, president and founder of consulting firm ISM Inc.

With the growing importance of maintaining customer relationships to promote customer loyalty, CRM software will continue to increase in popularity. The shifts in strategy from procuring new customers to keeping existing customers has made CRM software a growing phenomen within businesses. As businesses recognize the benefits of CRM Software, it becomes necessary for companies to become adequately prepared for the implementation process.

 Proper implementation of CRM Software enables companies to realize the full benefits of CRM software and provide significant value to businesses.

1. Research what’s available on the market and compare it to your needs.

With the wide variety of solutions available on the market, it may be difficult to narrow your options down. Researching ahead of time can prevent your company from wasting time and money on a solution that does not match your company’s needs or does not fit your company’s budget. Adequate research can prevent these problems from occurring and save your company headaches later on.

2. Integrate new CRM solution with other existing software.

By integrating the new solution with existing business software used in the company, businesses can dramatically improve their existing processes. These improved processes will allow customers to benefit, providing customers with an improved customer experience and promoting customer loyalty.

3. Train employees to use the new CRM solution.

Prior to deploying the CRM solution, allow the employees to use the solution and provide feedback. Allowing those will use the solution most will allow them to suggest potential problems and possible fixes prior to deployment. This will also save a number of headaches for customers as it allows a majority of the kinks to be worked out and an efficient process to be set. Educated employees will be able to provide customers with a much better customer experience.

4. Track Results

After implementation and deployment, it’s not over! It’s important to be able to see how effective the CRM Software is. Tracking a variety of metrics prior to deployment and after deployment can give you a sense of the effectiveness of the software and allow your company to see whether or not the investment is worth it.

 Deploying and Implementing new software can be a very problematic and difficult time for companies. However, it doesn’t always have to be. With proper preparation and adequate research, companies will be able to enjoy a smooth CRM Implementation, providing companies a positive experience and allowing companies to reap the rewards of CRM software quicker.

In the last post, I talked about how companies were shifting their company strategies to keep in line with the economic times. Investing in business software such as CRM Software to help improve efficiency in certain parts of their business is becoming a much more popular strategy. But, why is it so effective?

 Large and small companies realize their business processes are not as efficient as they should or could be. This inefficiency does actually cost the company money. Although it is not necessarily a fixed cost shown on a company’s profit/loss statement, it still is something that companies must take into consideration as lowered productivity of workers or inefficient use of resources means lost revenue which hurts profits.

CRM Software can help companies optimize their business processes and increase profits. There are many benefits to CRM software besides maintaining customer relationships and retaining customers. Although this is a key benefit of CRM software, there are many other benefits which help to improve business processes overall.

CRM Software also helps companies improve efficiency within their business operations. It prevents any duplication of records by keeping records centralized in one location allowing all employees to access from a centralized database. Also, with improved tracking and monitoring over the entire business, employees are able to act much more quickly on customer data and rapidly respond to any customer inquiries. This rapid sales response time is critical in capitalizing on prospective leads and converting them to customers.

Employees are also much more productive with CRM Software. Centralized data allows employees to access customer data much more quickly and easily. In addition, workflow processes within CRM software help reduce inefficient processes and help improve them. With CRM Software, productivity increases dramatically and costs are actually saved over the long run with less maintenance costs and less employee time wasted on manual processes necessary to maintain customer data.

CRM Software is a great choice for companies looking to cut costs. Although initial deployment costs could be rather expensive, the cost savings incurred later on will more than make up those costs in the future. Considering CRM Software for your growing business could be the smartest decision you make in these troubling economic times.

A very nice and succinct piece here that touches upon the manner in which businesses into commodity trading and those selling high-value goods can make use of CRM. CRM is now being used by businesses to add to the soft value that a consumer perceives in a transaction apart from the object/service he purchases and the amount he pays for it.

The value-adds act as important differentiators and allow businesses to create space for themselves in competitive scenarios. Product and price differentiation is no longer sufficient to draw in the customers. CRM helps by making sense out of data that is gathered from the customers and the information is used to tailor service around a customer’s likes and dislikes.  The service sector finds it the hardest to do business on quantitative value alone and hence is pressed to come out with innovative value propositions for customers.

Reframing service as a profit center is the key to driving new growth – So says James L. Watson, regional manager, Neocase Software. In an exclusive viewpoint published at DestinationCRM, James states that all you need to do to drive growth from CRM is to look at it differently, consider it a profit center. Apparently, a shift in perspective will enable you to get your CRM activities to become a major revenue driver.

A read through his article tells that this is all that you need to do to make money from CRM, get a quick ROI. I say this because, although he suggests a difference in perspective, the accompanying activities are simply those that one would normally associate with a successfully operating CRM deployment.

James goes on mention activities such as offering good service, up-selling, cross-selling, etc as those that you need to do if you are going to look at CRM as a profit center on par with sales and marketing.

To be honest, I didn’t really understand the point of the article. I mean the ultimate objective of deploying a CRM solution has always been to make money – make money by keeping the customers happy. So, how does adding some new nomenclature to it make a difference when you are not introducing any new activities to go with your new concept? Is this vinegar in a wine bottle?

P.S The last paragraph of his article reminds me of typical boardroom pep talk that my boss used to give me. Does nothing to make it easy for the guys who are actually facing the heat out there.

Customer Experience Management, or CEM, is becoming a popular way for industries to capture customer loyalty. CEM puts the focus on the customer rather than the goals of the company, leading to better customer service and ultimately a higher number of loyal customers spreading word-of-mouth advertising to potential customers. Companies that use customer experience management practices strive to make the most out of every interaction with the customer; through advertising, sales, delivery, service and communications. This leads to the “customer-centric” approach that CEM stresses. The customer needs to have the experience that the customer desires and expects at every level of interaction.

Effective CEM plans start with data gathering and analysis and ends with a customer service focused start-to-finish strategy to increase customer loyalty in a financially optimal way for the company. The strategy must give your company an advantage over other industries that are currently implementing CEM programs as well. Probably the most important issue to watch is the involvement of top executives in the CEM program. Goals should be set including the involvement of all levels of personnel in the company. When programs are initiated but not followed through on, CEM cannot accomplish the purpose set forth. Staff from every department should be on board with the planning and implementing of the customer experience management program. Read more