CRM Learning

Crm Mash-up Catch-up

2009-05-15T03:30:00.000-07:00

A mash-up, sounds yummy, with gravy. But for anyone out there who doesn't know what a mash-up is, or what it has to do with Customer Relationships, it is about technology, and it's great with or without the gravy! Mash-ups are basically web applications that combine content from multiple sources and serves it up as an integrated information piece. For instance, in servicing a customer, you can build a page that has the customer information (your old legacy database), past purchasing activities (your less old legacy database), the store locations (new POS) and details of purchases (inventory system), weather and news clips for their customer's area (weather network, google news), status of customer order (UPS), and payment history (SAP). What customer rep wouldn't want access to that screen. Mmmmm........

Mash-ups are going to change the way everybody does business. Mostly because mash-ups are changing the way people view and use information on the Internet, generally, right now. As a result, customer expectations will translate into very rich and specific service experiences. The push for a customized customer experience will translate into software expectations that can deliver a familiar processing environment that is in the ?comfort zone? and available where and when.
Mash ups are an exciting genre of interactive web applications that draw upon content retrieved from multiple external data sources to create entirely new and innovative services. Salesboom.com delivers on demand CRM software on a web platform utilizing mash-up capacity. This facilitates development of powerful and efficient use of information resources in the improvement of processes in the business line along with incredible improvements in data contextualization and sharing.

Salesboom incorporates standard tools such as AJAX, Javascript and XML and has separated application logic from presentation and reporting pieces to save processing resources and increase transaction times. This in turn allows Salesboom to deliver lightweight tools with rich features previously reserved for expensive, on-site applications.

The greatest benefit is that Salesboom.com can create highly customized tools, and because the technology behind the mash-up is flexible, if the business or a process changes, it is possible to change pieces of code without having to rewrite or acquire a whole new software. There are some steps though in preparing for good mash-up presentation, and it is important for any business considering CRM solutions to consider the following:

1.Salesboom uses AJAX and COMET as programming tools, a move that increases responsiveness and user interaction
2.Salesboom has a Professional Services Team that specializes in cleaning and preparing data for use in mash-ups.
3.Salesboom presents clean, intuitive interfaces in the form of Push Panels, that enable users to interact with the web mash up, be it company data, outside Internet sources, partner sites, etc.
4.Salesboom offers users tools that promote evolution of an informal corporate taxonomy enabling possibilities for organizations to use mash-ups in an incredibly profitable way.
5.The Salesboom platform guarantees access to mash-up functionality because it has adopted the Service Oriented Platform (SOP) and has a public Application Program Interface (API) as part of it's Operating System (OS) for easy incorporation of relevant information sources.
6.Salesboom promotes the formalization of the organizational workflow model.

"At Salesboom.com we offer a CRM solution, with integration options at every business line. This approach supports delivery of a highly customized customer service experience in the form of interactive mash ups. We believe that your customers are our customers ? once removed, and we take pride in delivering solid, flexible tools to you and yours?. Tom Stephano, Marketing Director, Salesboom.com

Robert Dimning is a programmer/analyst who tracks on-demand CRM Services like www.salesboom.com

4 Ways to Automate Tasks in Microsoft CRM Using Workflow

2009-05-09T02:52:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of entering data into Microsoft CRM manually? How about dealing with inconsistent data that makes reporting difficult and time-consuming? Whether you are a business user or IT user, you are guaranteed to appreciate the power and flexibility of workflow within Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0. Here are four easy ways to use workflow to automate tasks that support sales and customer service. By the end of this article, you will be able to automate your processes using Microsoft CRM and workflow.

1. Assign New Leads to the Appropriate Person or Queue

If you have multiple sales people to whom are assigned leads meeting specific criteria, then this is a handy way to use workflow. For example, let's say that your territories are defined by state, and the Joe is the sales person for all of New York state. Upon the creation of a new lead with a state of New York, the lead can be automatically assigned to Joe so that it appears in his My Leads view. Then an e-mail can be sent, again automatically, to both Joe and his manager notifying them of the new lead.

Do you assign leads by some other criteria, such as industry (e.g., equipment manufacturing) or region (e.g., Northeast)? Not a problem. As long as the data identifying the lead as an equipment manufacturer or as located within the Northeast is entered in CRM, workflow events can be triggered using this data.

2. Assign New Cases to the Appropriate Person or Queue

If you have a customer service or support function, or even an internal support function (e.g., IT department), then workflow works beautifully with the service management functionality within Microsoft CRM. A common use is to assign a new case to a specific person or queue, depending on specific criteria. If the case type is IT, then it would go to the IT queue. If the case type is a Contract, then the case would be assigned to the sales person assigned to that customer.

Another criteria is priority. Most companies treat emergency requests differently than normal or low priority requests. Depending on the priority, different rules can be triggered. For example, an emergency request could be routed to the Emergency Response team. If they don't respond within five minutes, then a follow up task would be triggered to the VP of Customer Service.

3. Notify Customers on Status of Their Case

Not only can cases be assigned automatically, but customers could be kept informed about the status of their cases. Upon creation of a case, an e-mail would go to the customer who opened the case, giving them case number and who to call if they have questions. Once the case has been resolved, another e-mail could be sent to the customer informing them of the resolution and who to call if there are additional problems with the case. Constant customer contact is critical in service/support situations, and workflow can automate much of that contact.

4. Automate Creation of Procedural Tasks

Do you need to follow a procedure? Who doesn't? Let's say that upon creation of a new lead, the sales person is supposed to send a welcome letter introducing them to the lead. At the same time, the marketing department is supposed to mail a standard packet of information. Finally, five days after the packet of information has been sent, the sales person is to call the lead. How does everybody remember to do this stuff?

Workflow, of course.

Upon creation of the lead, a personalized e-mail based off of a specific template can be sent automatically to the lead.

A task would be created and assigned to the appropriate marketing queue, where a person assigned to monitor the queue handles it. Perhaps they even process the requests in bulk at the end of the day or the beginning of the next day. They may even use an external fulfillment center specifically for this purpose. Either way, the task is created automatically.

Finally, the phone call activity for the sales person is created with a due date of five days in the future, with the specific script included in the task. Now they have a reminder to call the lead and they know what they need to say.

Pretty cool, isn't it?

Conclusion

As you have seen, workflow in Microsoft CRM can help anybody using CRM, whether it is the sales manager, sales person, customer service manager, customer service rep, or anybody else. There are many other ways to automate tasks, including using more complicated logic.The only limitation is your imagination. With the ideas in this article and some creativity, you should be able to think of other ways to use workflow in Microsoft CRM for your business.

Michael Cross is a Microsoft Certified CRM Professional with Small Business Systems LLC. Visit http://www.bturnkey.com/crm.html to learn how Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 enables your people to work the way they want to work, while providing you wih the data you need to increase the number of customers, provide the quality of service your customers expect, and increase your revenues.

Crm End-state

2009-04-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Most strategic planning methodologies are built upon a triad of convergent processes that are a variation of a) evaluation and review, b) definition of goals/objectives and c) mapping route(s) to goals. This methodology has enjoyed certain success, but as applications evolve and can incorporate the softer side of automation and processing, strategic planning should also include another triumvirate of activities, d) visualization of the end-state, e) study of current situation and identify gaps to end state and f) identify actions that will close the gap.

Strategic Planning Overview for CRM Projects

Strategic plans typically look five or more years into the future and differ from tactical plans, which look two to four years into the future.

The early triad of activities for strategic planning, mentioned above, were appropriate for fixed solutions, and for expensive development projects that had limitations due to technologies and/or funding. With the advent of online CRM, it is possible and prudent to include triumvirate strategies to expedite deployment of new functionality available with on-demand CRM/ERP solutions.
There are a number of possible ways to identify barriers to success, and also some best practices that help to address these barriers. The following pages provide a good general reference for on-demand CRM deployments from a vendor's perspective.

Incorporate End-State Strategies for Successful CRM

1.Clearly define the objective, or end-state.
Identify major disconnects in technology, embrace and manage changes wholeheartedly.

2.Assessment and analysis.
Pursue change and improvement, challenge old policy/procedures that can be changed or eliminated as part of process automation and improvement. Identify technical and procedural redundancies and clearly identify gaps.

Plan to identify and capture information that supports use of end-state metrics.

3.Honestly evaluate the feasibility of the end-state objective
Identify questions that help clarify the end-state vision. Establish roles and responsibilities for evaluation input. Consider the barriers to change and closing the gaps.

4.Strategy/Tactics.
Eliminate traditional rituals in planning that strangle opportunities to leap forward. Truly address impediments to customer service and increased revenue. Ensure Strategy and Tactics are in line with desired end-state.

5.Closing Gaps

Identify Benefits: What to be expected from implementing a CRM solution?
Plan Actions: What will be done?

Identify/Delegate Responsibilities : Who will be the corporate sponsor and who will be in charge of the project?

Scheduling: When will the project start? When will it be completed?

Resourcing: Identify what is needed: people, money, information, other resources?

Establish Metrics & Set Rewards: How will progress be measured and reported?

Contingency Planning: What will be done if results fall short?

Strategic Planning Pitfalls

There are several activities that come into play when deploying new processes/solutions. They typically fall into the categories of strategy and tactics. In general, strategic plans can fail for several reasons: inappropriate strategy, conflicting tactics and poor implementation. The strategy is the high level plan and the tactics are basically the actions that happen to support and deploy elements of the strategic plan. Do good work on the triad and triumvirate planning components and have good contingencies in place to work around problems.

- Strategic Difficulties

- Failure to define the desired end states correctly

- Analysis irrelevant to the desired end state(s)

- Lack of creativity in identifying possible strategies

- Poor gap analysis

Conflicting Tactical Activities

In preparing and delivering components of the strategic plan, it is important to ensure tactics used do not undermine strategy. It often happens innocuously, often in an effort to maintain the status quo, or from a lack of information, but these tactics can gain purchase, and pull the strategic plan apart.

- Actions taken/not taken because of perceived threats to established processes
- Missed opportunities or compromises because of resistance/misunderstanding
- Too many ad-hoc activities/actions by too many people from within the organization
- Actions taken/not taken no longer support the strategic plan

End State Disappointments

Difficulties delivering because of lack of resources/abilities due to over estimation of resources and or time and/or loss of senior management support.

- Inaccurate forecasting of financial requirements
- Failure to manage expectations and coordinate tactical
strategies
- Ineffective change management strategies

Use Professional CRM Services ? Before and After Deployment

There are many components to delivering a CRM solution that is often the most appropriate, and best, business solution to improve cash flow and position for future markets. Taking the time to consult with your CRM solution provider is critical to a successful deployment because you want them to understand and be participants in delivering the desired end-state.

Have a set of measurable improvements in mind that can be used as both deliverables and to determine the success of the deployment in business terms, not just technical.

Post Deployment Metrics

Some possible metrics that can be used to track the success of a CRM deployment might include the following:

- Track qualified leads generated at the same/lower cost
- Track ability/ease of converting prospects to customers
- Track the customer share growth
- Track customer loyalty and retention rates
- Track cost of selling/servicing customers
- Track employee efficiency/improvements/feedback, etc.

SalesboomTM is a world leader in delivery of on-demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. Salesboom has over 28,000 subscribers from the SMB sector, with 3,400 customers in over 154 countries around the world. Salesboom.com web services solutions drive innovation, enable business realignment, and enriches customer relations across the enterprise.
Katie Campbell, consultant and writer. Has worked in IT sector in government, private and non-profit sectors with focus on technology and knowledge management. Tracking new technologies in CRM like http://www.salesboom.com

How BPM Improves CRM

2009-04-14T00:19:00.000-07:00

How BPM improves, CRM can be understood with the fact that it is difficult for a company to achieve the target of customer profitability in the absence of a business performance management or BPM system. Different CRM software provides different facilities. Some of the CRM packages help with the transactional customer data only. On the other hand, some other packages are capable of making very wide customer analysis. However, no matter how much advantage financial experts of the company may seek, they have to relate this information with the important factors that affect the overall performance of a company. They need to balance the customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and operational quality control.

Comparatively, not so interesting people in the filed of finance when talk about how BPM improves CRM, put forth an interesting analogy. They compare the situation of analyzing data from the CRM tool for leveraging BPM by a company with the person who has poor vision first time puts on spectacles. Confusions surrounding the customer profitability metrics are no more. Similarly, misrepresent perceptions, regarding the behavior of customer when we use very different data sources, have also become irrelevant.

Figuring Out Most Profitable Products; The views of many financial executives are changing regarding how BPM improves CRM. They now see customers in a very different way. Customers are now a consolidated and comprehensive lot rather than a fragmented one. This has resulted in better understanding and improved relations with the every single customer they serve. Moreover, now companies can easily find out what are the products that are generating most profits. This has helped the companies to set the future targets more realistically.

Linking Data With Strategies; Another point that proves how BPM improve CRM is that companies were unable to connect the data and their business strategies when using data from enterprise resource planning or ERP system and CRM system. On the contrary, linking the data with the strategies is easy while using BPM system. Moreover, the distribution of important data becomes more efficient by using the combination of CRM and BPM capabilities. It also helps in locating and concentrating the geographical areas where maximum profitability is expected. According to financial experts, it is not the tool that affects your company?s performance, but it is the way you move the information. What is the point in having so many systems if the information is not reaching to the right person at the right time?

Finally, we can say that BPM system, if used with a right approach, can help the company in taking maximum advantage from the CRM software asset.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.

Business Owners all across the country are joining "The Community of Small Business Owners? to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.

Sugar CRM a new Roadmap to Commercial Open Source Technology

2009-04-02T02:02:00.000-07:00

Sugar CRM is commercial Open Source Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for companies of all sizes, based on LAMP stack (Linux-OS; Apache-Web Server; MySQL-Database Server; PHP-Programming Language). Its rich functionality and intuitive user interface provides a gateway to all CRM applications thereby enabling corporates to migrate to SugarCRM to expand their customer base.

Sugar CRM takes your business to a new level by integrating the enterprise server software sales model with that of a software-as-a-service model. It is available in both free and commercial editions.

Free edition of SugarCRM is available and is best suited for small industries. These industries can download SugarCRM under the Mozilla Public License. This open source product offers all the basic customer-centric functionalities.

The commercial edition of SugarCRM is available in two versions, Sugar Professional and Sugar Enterprise, for medium and large scale industries respectively. They provide more flexible deployment options (On-demand to host you own information; Cube to plug-n-play CRM appliance; On-site to manage CRM on your own server) and advanced features like add-ons, software patches, proprietary code, technical support, etc.

Professional edition is flexible and includes features such as sales, marketing, customer support, reporting and collaboration, migration, integrity and security. It also includes integration with Microsoft Outlook, sales forecasting, document management, access control, multiple deployment options to suit customers' security and integrity needs.

Enterprise edition is a fully customizable for the most demanding businesses. It includes features like SQL reporting, offline client synchronization, support for Oracle 9i and 10g etc, and is ideal for organizations having a large number of users. Apart from all the basic functionalities and features of Professional, it provides Oracle database support and offline client synchronization.

SugarCRM has also launched a server appliance called Sugar Cube, for companies which don't want to devolve their customer's details to third parties.

Sugar Cube if attuned with Professional edition gives an extra edge to overcome implementation and technical support problem and also bringing down costs of CRM deployments. Sugar Cube conglomeration with Enterprise edition provides complete hardware and software solutions with minimal resource utilization at lesser expense. "Software is bought, not sold," says John Roberts, co-founder and CEO of SugarCRM and this is the strategy that must be followed. The Sugar CRM product has created a strong gravitational pull for the customers trying the open source version and making there investment a success by paying a premium for our Enterprise Edition. This great CRM product provides complete CRM functionality ranging from opportunity tracking, lead management and customer tracking to task management, marketing campaign, trend analysis, advanced reporting and team selling and many IT enabled services.

There are lots of online communities and many more are emerging all around the web where you can share your innovative ideas with CRM developers. These communities provide customer feedback, range of informational services and support for CRM players. A wide array of forums and discussion boards are available enabling users to learn about the best practices and upcoming functionalities of Sugar CRM.

With the release of Sugar4.5, Sugar CRM continues to move ahead with the following features:

* Personalized home page by drag-drop of relevant items for fast access to view important information.

* Improved sales forecasting with better planning and forecasting worksheet.

* Improved information sharing on any topic, with the integration of different Sugar modules with discussion forums.

* With saved and global search and inline adds and edits user interface has improved.

* Enhanced installation and upgrade process offline client synchronization has also improved.

* Administration is simplified with improved Sugar Studio for code-free customizations, back-up and recovery.

* Multi-lingual support and internationalization.

Look for you're A-Z SugarCRM solutions at http://www.icreon.com.

A consultant of Sugar CRM - a new Roadmap to Commercial Open Source Technology.

CRM-Turn Customers to Clients

2009-03-25T03:01:00.000-07:00

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of bringing the customer and the company closer together. Estimates show that just 20 percent of customers account for nearly 80 percent of total revenues in some businesses. While getting more customers is critical for the sustenance of any enterprise, optimizing returns by furthering relationships with the existing clients is a key business practice. Barry Stamos, in "Best Customers: More Profitable Relationships" points out, "Why spend resources attracting new customers until optimizing the profitability of your client relationships?"

"Successful CRM is about competing in the relationship dimension" explains Bob Thompson, CEO, CustomerThink Corporation, "Not as an alternative to having a competitive product or reasonable price- but as a differentiator. If your competitors are doing the same thing you are (as they generally are), product and price won't give you a long- term, sustainable competitive advantage. But if you can get an edge based on how customers feel about your company, it's a much stickier--sustainable--relationship over the long haul."

Customers come first in business. Managing relationships with them is very vital. Through cross-selling and up- selling techniques, you can continue to add more leverage to your business. High value referrals from them can also procure endless opportunities. Cutting down time and marketing costs through client network selling, you increase the profitability of your organization. Usually, a 'sale' converts a 'client' to a 'customer'. More and more sale transactions with him make him a client. By then, he has developed a liking for your service and has taken you in his confidence. The first transaction was just not a one-time event; it perpetuated continuing business through credible relationship building with the customer.

CRM has clearly defined roles:

? Focus on the customer and develop sustainable relationship with him.

? Manage the post-sale period well.

? Provide flexibility to your solutions in meeting customer requirements.

? Get qualified referrals for more business expansion within the network.

? Always keep in touch and have an explaining mindset.

Customers bring business. The more healthy relationships you have with them, the more is the value addition to your business. Continuous introspection about the level of service being offered and providing innovative solutions can help you to stay in the front. To quote former New York City mayor, Ed Koch, simply asking clients, "How am I doing?" is a great way to know where you stand. CRM provides you with tools and techniques to help you in nurturing healthy and dynamic client relationships and turning more customers to clients.

T Chakrabarti and his global colleagues write for KPO2INDIA (http://www.kpo2india.net), a premier Writing and Content Development Farm.

Crm - Eliminate Layers Of Complexity

2009-03-16T05:48:00.000-07:00

Traditional approaches to system development include design of both the application and platform strategies. With on-demand CRM services it is possible to avoid the burden of complex application development and integration because they deliver multi-option,tightly integrated portal platforms for workplace collaboration.

When developing a proprietary architecture, it is necessary to go through a process of creating and developing models, that are worked and reworked, discarded and/or refined until they satisfy the desired result. A list of some typical models are listed below and they constitute the 'layers of complexity' in application development.

Concept Models

Requirements

Behavior (operational scenarios)
Structure: system hierarchy, interconnection, interfaces
Properties
Analysis
Detailed engineering models
List of deliverables

The process of bridging these layers together is complex and very difficult in trying to guarantee the exchange of underlaying data. Building these various layers, begets volumes of documentation, requires teams of programmers, architects, administrative support, and so forth. It is a process that becomes progressively time consuming and expensive.

Additional 'layers of complexity' in application development include integration of collaboration tools and partner portals while trying to maintain a consistent look and feel. Application development can address organizational needs, but it adds so many layers of complexity to integrations that it becomes less profitable as an option except in very specific situations. Using on-demand CRM solutions are a strategic and cost efficient alternative for most organizations to application development initiatives.

On-demand deployments offer easier integrations, have many standard collaboration tools and processes for sales and marketing activities already integrated, and are more cost efficient in terms of actual adding of content. With on-demand CRM it is also possible to incrementally deploy only the necessary parts of the application in strategic deployments for further cost efficiencies. On-demand CRM is the most evolutionary state of the portal market, it is a platform approach that brings together all the necessary content and applications from across the enterprise.

Salesboom.com delivers robust CRM services without the layers of complexity you would expect in a typical application deployment, instead you receive an integrated web platform and that includes standard tools for collaborative workplace success.

Benefits of Salesboom On-Demand CRM

Reduce complexity and cost ? Access standard tools for point integration and enable services for access to legacy data and current transactions. Modify and tailor user screens through local administrators.

Excellent process visibility and control ? Access mainframe data so it is transparently available to applications that require it. Use standard tools for management, audit and trace functions, browse and display so that specific processes spanning both distributed and mainframe environments can be easily and intuitively updated, contextualized and shared.

Fast deployment of new business processes ? create new processes or refine existing ones using workflow. Make customizations and updates easily through your local administrator.

SOA deployment ? Enjoy bi-directional integration between applications via Web services. Salesboom uses AJAX and COMET programming to enable fast processing. Salesboom CRM makes it possible to make mainframe and distributed systems peers within a standards-based SOA infrastructure.

Real-time results ? Access real-time information for business events, wherever they originate on the platform. View business processes in real time and participate in complex event processing from the dashboard within Salesboom.com.

Template-based configuration and tailoring of Salesboom.com. - Use templates to customize and tailor screens for many activities, eliminating the cost of custom modifications.

Katie Campbell, information/business analyst, particular interest in CRM, http://www.salesboom.com

How To Boost ROI through CRM Tools

2009-03-09T00:56:00.000-07:00

Looking for ways to boost your CRM through ROIs? Let us discuss about some ways to achieve your goals. Whatever CRM solution you opt for, remember that its implementation needs to be quick, well planned and relevant to the target customers in order to be effective.

Boosting ROI through CRM:

1) Inbound Marketing: Inbound Customer Marketing, or ICM, is one of the most effective ways of boosting ROI. The latest development in ICM involves rewarding a customer when he or she calls to know about the products and services of the company.

2) Proportionate Spending: If you are spending more than 70% of the projected profits on software and consulting, then you should look again at the spending patterns. Most vendors overprice their services. Therefore, you need to keep the 70% ceiling in mind before reaching a final agreement with the vendor.

3) Vendor: Choose a vendor as quickly as you can. You should not take long to decide on your requirements and selecting a vendor.

4) Training: Training your employees on CRM should not take more than a few hours.

5) Implementation: Do not waste time trying to make the system perfect. By the time you have every part of the system in place, it will be outdated. Just start working on the areas of CRM that you think are crucial.

6) Plan: Have a plan in place. How long do you think the CRM implementation will take? Try to stick to the deadline that you have set for your business; otherwise, the system runs the risk of becoming outdated.

7) Customization: Every CRM application will need some amount of customization to yield optimal benefits to your business. This does not mean that you should spend days on customization. Calculate the amount of time you need on customization so that you can start with the implementation as soon as possible.

8) Relevance: The CRM plan should be relevant to your business needs in order to boost ROI. See if the CRM program complies with the following criteria: Breadth, repeatability, cost, knowledge and collaboration.

9) Relevance of Data: No CRM program, no matter how sophisticated, is of much use if the data it provides is not relevant. You should be able to use the inputs of the sales staff, customers and agents in a constructive manner in order to boost ROI.

10) Maintenance: If you have a small business, you should not need more than one dedicated staff for maintaining the program.

The guidelines above should help you jack up your ROI through some effective CRM tools. Only well-organized and effective use of the CRM tools will give you the results you are looking for. If you are a small business owner who needs to learn more about CRM tools, you can approach a small business consultant who will help you with the installation and implementation of the CRM program.

Turn Leads Into Customers With CRM

2009-03-01T22:23:00.000-08:00

In order to turn leads into customers, you need to understand exactly what the customers want and rapidly set the wheels turning to provide what is wanted in the minimum of time. This, of course, is a simplistic view, so let?s have a look at more detail and how CRM can help achieve the desired end.

A good CRM system will rapidly analyze every lead and quickly and automatically route it to the right person to handle it. The fully customizable rules in Microsoft Analytics CRM 3.0 allows you to so on the basis of area, product, cash volume or any other rule that you want to apply. You can also apply different rules to different products or customers so that every variable is optimized. The familiar Microsoft architecture enables this to be achieved easily and integrated with other Microsoft applications.

By automatically passing new leads rapidly to the correct individual, CRM ensures that the customers? needs are met rapidly, which is one of the main requirements necessary to turn leads into customers. However, there are many other aspects of CRM systems which are important in making it simpler for you to turn leads into customers.

Microsoft CRM provides a complete range of communications applications which can be customized and automated, and their acquisition of Colloquis, the CRM communications company. should reinforce this. Entire email topic threads can be captured automatically: remember when you had to ?cut and paste? to keep tabs on specific threads? No more! And your sales reps can take their customers with them, all customer data being available in portable computers or PDAs.

Integration between sales teams is automatic, and your company?s complete sales force can be combined to provide the potential customer with every one of your products that meets his needs. Gone are the days when one customer would have to communicate with several salespersons or offices within your organization for his carious requirements. This provision alone can turn leads in customers in a very short time.

Due to the atomization of all of these functions ?short? is the word. The whole sales cycle is speeded up, and Microsoft CRM can meet the growing need for the rapid conversion of a lead to a customer which is a necessity in today?s cut-throat competitive business environment. If you don?t work fast you lose out. CRM provides this speed of reaction which is why its ROI is so quick. This is just one feature of the many in which Microsoft Dynamics CRM outperforms alternatives such as GoldMine and ACT.

The portability and accessibility of data is another area in which Microsoft Dynamics CRM excels. It does not matter where in the world the lead originated, or in what remote office the sales force is based, the full power of Microsoft CRM is available. All product data is available at the press of a button. All health and safety data, where applicable, and all information available on the lead or prospect can be accessed from anywhere in the world.

This can be done either through a company network or to remote hand held devices such as PDAs, wireless laptops, palm computers or even mobile phones. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing and whenever equipment you have to hand, product information, quotations, terms and accurate product stock and delivery dates can supplied directly to the potential customer immediately upon request. No ?I?ll get back to you on that?, or ?Head office will send you details?. All requested information can be supplied on the spot, immediately, from an integrated system available to any authorized employee, anywhere in the world.

So is it easier to turn leads into customers with CRM? You bet your life it is.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

Sales Management With Microsoft Dynamics CRM

2009-02-20T22:08:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is a comprehensive customer relationship management software package that helps business to improve all aspects of customer service and improve marketing and sales performance.

Integrating with Microsoft Office and Business Solutions as well as third party applications, Microsoft CRM is available through the web and from Outlook.

Sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is effective and easily achieved with the modules provided, and duplication of data entry is avoided through the use of a single centralized database which can be accessed and edited by all relevant departments. The database can be maintained in real time so that all information is current and up to date.

An important feature of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the provision of a comprehensive view of customer data, ensuring efficient sales service and immediate access to updated information. Your service personnel can track enquiries from initial request to fulfillment, and the customizable rules of all major processes allow the creation and automation of most sales activities, which significantly improves the acquisition of new customers.

Due to rapid response to customer enquiries, they are never allowed to fall through the cracks, and every stage is followed through and supported to ensure satisfactory conclusion and completion of the request. The whole sales cycle is shortened, closure rates are increased and customer retention is improved.

An important aspect of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is its comprehensive communications system including e-mail, fax and telephone with auto response and synchronization with Outlook. Access to all reports and customer information is instantly available offline and online and sales personnel are provided with the ability to answer any customer enquiry instantly through the use of a laptop or PDA system. This remote access to all relevant customer data is a prime feature of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM which not only promotes a high degree of customer service and satisfaction, but also job satisfaction to sales personnel.

This is of extreme importance in situations where customers tend to be loyal to their regular sales contact rather then to the product or company. Such situations are common and customer retention is generally improved in companies with a low sales personnel turnover.

Another important feature of sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the automated identification of trends and opportunities according to customized rules. Reports can be designed to forecast sales and other trends, which allow accurate budgeting and planning of future sales campaigns and expenditure.

Sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is easily installed with expert help on set-up and initial training. Training costs are minimal since the user interface and work tools are similar to those used in Microsoft Office and Outlook applications. Online tutorials and web-based support are available for all modules of Microsoft Dynamic CRM.

Your business will be able to increase capacity without increasing staffing levels due to the degree of automation available, taking over many of the repetitive tasks of sales and marketing staff. For small to medium businesses, sales management with Microsoft Dynamics CRM is an essential option, with a rapid return on investment, which can give you a positive advantage over companies without it.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

Mobile Crm Sale Team Management

2009-02-16T22:21:00.000-08:00

In today?s competitive marketplace, customers have come to expect excellence in service and immediate provision of information. Personal contact at the customer?s site has become of extreme importance, and the provision of immediate communication with head office has become essential for the modern sales representative. Mobile CRM solutions can provide this.

Your company must be perceived as being customer friendly, customer orientated and able to provide whatever your customer requires when your customer requires it. Customer service can create or lose sales. Create or lose profits. Orders can be won or lost through the time delay between an enquiry and a quotation; between an order and its execution. This requires an efficient communications system that far exceeds anything a sophisticated telephone system could provide.

A good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system can provide this, and many provide the mobile CRM solutions required.

Customer service takes up a large slice of your company?s budget, which is why the management of your mobile sales team should be regarded as a priority and the tools required for a professional job be provided.

There are many mobile CRM software systems available, but it is difficult to escape the fact that most companies use Microsoft applications in their business, from Microsoft Word and Outlook, to Access for their database management requirements. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 interfaces seamlessly with these applications to provide a peerless customer relationship management solution that is not only simple to integrate with your existing IT system, but provides the mobile CRM sales team management answer you are looking for.

Your sales team can use palm computers or laptops to provide quotations instantly on-site, together with product availability and delivery dates. No more need for endless phone calls or emails flying back and forth. Your field staff will have full PC access from mobile equipment using a system that supports most PDA, laptop and palm devices to give screen displays providing any information necessary for instant communication to the customer at his site. Modern mobile CRM systems even come with mobile printers and scanning devices can provide instant hard copy to the customer without the need to use HIS fax or HIS printer ? and how important and impressive is that!

Nothing is more important to a company that a customer. Without customers companies would not exist. The way to provide customers with the best possible service is to ensure that they have instant answers to any question or query they have, whether from the person in the office, or the rep in the field.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 will provide this capability: you look after your mobile sales team management, and mobile CRM will look after the information they require to respond efficiently and effectively to all customer needs.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

Increase Sales With CRM

2009-02-16T05:25:00.000-08:00

A key factor in increasing sales is the speeding up of the total sales cycle and more rapidly and efficiently converting leads into sales. This is where a good CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can demonstrate its full potential. The benefits provided by a CRM system such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in speeding up the whole sales cycle from the initial lead to order and improved close rates render the system totally affordable to companies of any size.

Customization is the key: with customization you can increase sales with CRM very rapidly by the use of rules which allow automation of lead management and routing and sales process management which, when combined with fully targeted competitor tracking, enables you to keep ahead of the pack until the order is closed.

All of this is completed automatically and extremely rapidly, thus minimizing the possibility of counter bids and competition reaction. This speeding up of the sales cycle not only improves customer satisfaction but increases staff productivity and your profitability.

The automated systems allow analysis of specific leads and their allocation to the relevant product or account managers. Flexibly customizable rules allow automated tracking of these leads throughout the sales cycle, analyzing and tracking opportunities, constructing quotations or tenders from given rules, converting them to orders and closing the sales.

When operated with the assistance of the associated comprehensive reporting systems covering every aspect of the complete sales cycle, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 allows your sales force to achieve a lot more in a lot less time, increase overall sales and hence generate revenue at a faster rate. You can increase sales with CRM at a considerably faster rate if your CRM software integrates seamlessly with the office software used by your company.

The benefit of Microsoft Dynamics CRM is that it is accessible from Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft company intranets allowing staff to work interactively in accessing all relevant customer data either directly or remotely, so that sales staff can respond immediately to urgent requirements and emergencies. This saves valuable time in the accessing of existing quotes and orders and the execution of any modifications required prior to closure. All information can be shared between departments throughout the organization: we have all experienced the frustration of delays due to breakdowns in the transfer of pieces of paper between departments, and misunderstood phone conversations.

All transactions and communications can be carried out electronically and hence instantly. Not only this, but communication can be made remotely to wireless systems such as hand held palm computers, laptops and mobile phones, thus providing information rapidly at the point of contact with the customer. You not only impress the potential customer with your ability to react instantly to enquiries, but demonstrate your investment in, and command of, the modern technology required to stay ahead of the game in an increasingly technological environment.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 gives a very high return on investment, and is very easy and rapid to set up. The customization available allows it to be tailored precisely to your requirements, and you will very rapidly be able to increase sales with CRM.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

How To Retain Customers For Life With CRM

2009-02-12T22:44:00.000-08:00

While you are working hard to attract new customers in order to maintain growth, your existing customers expect the same personal communication they had when you first attracted them.

If you want to retain your existing customers for life, you will have to develop a means of utilising time efficiently so that communication with your original loyal customers can be maintained, while your sales force is concentrating on attracting new ones. The answer is Customer Relationship Management (CRM). It is not a coincidence that CRM can also stand for Customer Retention Marketing!

Using modern CRM software you can hold all of your information on each customer in a central location so that it is easily and quickly accessed by all relevant authorized employees. All of the information required to maintain the good and effective communication that makes your customer feel valuable is available immediately in a single location to whoever in your company needs it.

A rapid response with instant answers to an enquiry shows the customer that he is important to you, a vital factor in retaining loyalty. Studies have proved that product satisfaction, while important in initially attracting customers, is not so important in retaining them. Customers like personal contact, which shows them that they are important to you.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is able to send personalised e-mails to customers to achieve this personal contact. The Small Business edition (SBE) is a powerful tool that allows small to medium businesses keep in touch with existing customers, while managing marketing campaigns designed to attract fresh ones and expand the business.

It is well known that many customers are more loyal to their contacts within your organization than to the company itself, and prefer contact only with their regular sales representative or account manager. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 enables these individuals to have all customer data at their fingertips through mobile or portable communications devices. Retention of customers for life is promoted through CRM enabling personal communication with their contacts who have all the information immediately to hand required to deal with their query, irrespective of its nature.

In cases where smaller businesses do not have the resource to allow this degree of service, Microsoft CRM provides data and reports which enable the company to use Pareto principles to identify the more profitable customers. The 80/20 rule states that 80% of profits come from 20% of the customers. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 SBE allows small businesses to identify these 20% and work to preferentially retain these customers for life. Although the other 80% of customers are important, and should also be made to feel important, it makes sense to focus restricted resources to ensuring loyalty from the most profitable customers rather than spreading them thinly and satisfying none.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is a powerful set of tools which integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft Office software and is therefore not only easy for employees to use, but can be customized to fit in with their existing working practices. This allows thin resources to be spread more widely by increasing their effectiveness by automating many repetitive tasks.

The loyalty of customers to their personal contacts can be so strong that it is not unusual for customers to move with their contacts. It is important to develop loyalty of your own employees to your company to avoid customers moving to your competitors when your sales personnel do. Microsoft Dynamic CRM 3.0 helps build this loyalty through the provision of powerful tools enabling your employees to provide customer satisfaction quickly and easily without having to learn too many new skills. This promotes job satisfaction, and hence loyalty.

Customer Relationship Management systems, therefore, enable you to retain customers for life by promotion of loyalty, not only of the customer to your company, but of your employees, allowing long-term bonding to cement relationships between customers and their contacts within your company.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

CRM Software That Works The Way You Do

2009-02-05T02:23:00.000-08:00

How often have you had to change the way you work to fit in with the latest software needs? It?s a nuisance and disruptive, and frequently breeds resentment against a software solution requiring employee cooperation to achieve the desired result. Training is difficult and the implementation frequently results in failure.

This is as true with CRM software (Customer Relationship Management) as it is with any other. Fortunately, Microsoft have come up with their Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 package that works the way you do. The way your employees work and the way your business works. If your business currently uses Microsoft Office and Outlook then Microsoft CRM software will slip seamlessly into your existing systems without any changes at all to your standard procedures.

Information can be transferred from the Microsoft CRM software to other Microsoft applications, and the mobile support is an extremely useful tool, allowing customer information to be obtainable to employees in the field through a PDA, palm computer or laptop. Employees have access to all the customer data they require, when they require it, and specific preferred views of data can be saved and reused with the elimination of all unnecessary information.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 can easily be customized to suit your current documentation style and flow, and will fit the needs of your business perfectly without disruption. It will work the way your business does, but do it efficiently and effortlessly.

This easy integration into existing business practices overcomes one of the major reasons for CRM software implementation failures: resistance to change. It is difficult to persuade employees that time-proven methods have to be modified to suit new systems. They will resent the change, and rather than strive to succeed, and will find excuse for failure.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM software is not subject to these problems since it not only fits in ideally with employees existing work methods, but also is also simple to plan and implement. Because it employs proven Microsoft platforms, training requirements are easy to understand and the software will be well received due to its ability to be moulded round your existing procedures.

Users will like the Microsoft Dynamic CRM software package since it will make their life easier, not harder. They will find that tasks that were once considered chores, such as sending out multiple emails or carrying out customer analysis, are now easily automated giving them more time to use their skills where they are most needed.

The major pitfalls in CRM software implementation can be overcome through use of Microsoft Dynamics communities technical chat, blogs and webcasts which is a major reason why any company using Microsoft Office and Outlook should opt for Microsoft Dynamics CRM if it want to implement an automated customer relationships system.

Many industries, from the smallest to the largest, focus strongly on their processes and pride themselves in excellent consistent products. Not all place the same emphasis on the processes they use to track their customers and their requirements. By focussing on the customer, a company can make more money. By adopting Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 software, all of the various processes and procedures involved in customer relationships, whether lead management, quote generation or management of a complete sales force, can finally be brought under the umbrella of a single software solution.

Integration is the name of the game and Microsoft Dynamics CRM software solutions provide it.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

Automation With CRM

2009-02-02T02:36:00.000-08:00

Sales and marketing personnel are best employed in sales and marketing rather than carrying out repetitive administrative tasks. This is particularly true of small and medium sized businesses with limited personnel resources and the need to focus on customer contact in order to maintain and expand the customer base.

Automation with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) can be invaluable in such cases and provide very rapid return on investment. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 in particular is eminently suited to a high degree of automation and allows employees to more easily and more effectively use existing customer and account data to integrate marketing and sales efforts.

The automation tools provided by Microsoft CRM automate routine tasks such as direct e-mails, communication management and the management of a variety of sales processes. Such processes include account and contact management, qualification of leads and opportunity management and the maintenance of a database of customer and account information. This is available to sales personnel online or offline either in the office, at the customer premises or in transit through portable communications devices such as PDAs, palms, computers, mobile phones and laptops.

Automation with CRM achieves this and brings the benefits of instant communication and information retrieval, which promote customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Automation with CRM can analyze factors such as the proportion of time spent by a sales force between administrative task and direct sales-related work and hence the effectiveness of the sales force and any remedial actions required to improve this. The performance of individual employees against targets is also analyzed and reports prepared. In this way not only is efficiency measured, but resources can be deployed to their greatest effectiveness with an overall reduction in costs and improvement in customer service.

The marketing automation in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 enables analysis of the efficiency of the marketing department and provides integration of all aspects of marketing, sales and service so that a single company image is presented to the customer. This allows a more professional image to be projected, increasing customer confidence and loyalty.

Automation with CRM allows the generation of lists of contacts, accounts and leads which can be used by sales personnel for the generation of campaigns for execution at a later date, with automatic analysis of responses and outstanding actions required.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 uses the sales and customer data you already have and makes it easier for employees to use that information to improve service to customers, integrate more effectively between departments, and improve efficiency with resultant overall cost reductions. Automation with CRM promotes productivity improvements and better use of personnel resources, the overall result being a more profitable company with more satisfied and loyal customers and a marketing and sales force that is being used at maximum effectiveness.

Automation with CRM is the way forward for any progressive company that is seeking maximum employee involvement in directly promoting sales and marketing with automation of the daily repetitive tasks that can be so labor intensive. The adoption of Microsoft Dynamics CRM allows sales and marketing personnel to be fully effective in the main objective of the company, which is to make money.

Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

5 Quick Tips On Increasing Productivity With A CRM Solution

2009-01-30T00:36:00.000-08:00

A good content relationship management (CRM) solution can greatly assist your sales team in increasing sales and customer service effectiveness at each step of the sales process. From the early stages of gaining leads and investigating potential opportunities, to fulfilling orders and sending out invoices, a good CRM can keep it all under control--and increase productivity at the same time. Here are a few quick tips...

1. Choose the best solution for your company. There are a number of excellent competing CRM solutions available, all with their own good points. It can be hard to make the right choice, especially if you have no previous experience.

Take time to examine the available options. Do you want a desktop program, or a web-based solution? There are pros and cons for each, but generally the desktop solution has the edge in all round flexibility. Does it have all the features you need? The ability to report on just about everything is a big advantage. Not every CRM can do this. Ease of use with a low learning curve is another consideration. You don't want your staff taking weeks just to learn how to use it. The leading makes, like GoldMine or ACT!, and especially the new Microsoft Dynamics CRM, can do these things, some are better than others, of course.

2. Use the built-in reporting features of your CRM to maximize efficiency. This is one of the areas of a good CRM that is often underused. If you chose a CRM application that is unable to produce meaningful reports, or one that can only do a few basic reports, then you did not choose wisely.

The best CRM's will let you set up rules that force users to enter data in a certain way. That standardizes the input data, and when the data is always entered the same way, it can be filtered and output in the same way too. Meaningful reports from live data in other words. Reports that actually let you pinpoint the problems or weak areas and eliminate them or modify them. Reports that can highlight the opportunities or underused possibilities and exploit them or maximize them.

Most good CRM applications will do this for you. Microsoft Dynamics CRM, for example, is one of the best and easiest to use to produce reports that can analyze and dissect everything imaginable.

3. Allow your sales people to effectively monitor themselves. Sales people want to do well. Their performance is crucial to results. When they can see where their weak spots are, and where their strong points are, they can adjust the way they work to produce better results in future. All this is child's play with a good analytics and reporting capability CRM, such as the Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Its reporting and workflow features allow operatives to monitor and view sales and lead data filtered in a variety of ways.

Increasing productivity with a CRM solution is easy when you make use of all its features. This is only possible when you fully understand what each feature does, and how it affects and complements other features. First and foremost, start out by knowing all there is to know about the application, and make sure that everyone else does too. Then, if that knowledge is not being properly applied, there can be no excuse.

CRM Training Is Essential For Success

2009-01-24T04:57:00.000-08:00

Imagine yourself wanting to run an airline company ? a budding Freddy Laker. What do you need? Well, planes of course, but let?s say you have a bundle of these. What do you really need to make them work?

That?s right ? pilots! So how are you going to train them? Will you introduce them to an airliner? Take them up the steps and show them the insides ? the aisles, the seats, the toilets? Why not take them into the cabin and show them the instruments, the dials, the communications system, the . . . Or how about showing them how it works. That?s right, get a pilot and get him to take off, fly about a bit while they watch, then land.

Then would you give them their wings, fill the plane full of passengers and ask them to do just what the pilot did? No, of course you wouldn?t.

Then why is it that this is precisely the way that many companies train their employees in how to use newly installed Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software? Failure to train staff properly is the path to failure. Your business will crash just as effectively as that plane would ? and just as quickly, without effective CRM training.

The major reason for the failure in implementation of CRM systems is the failure of a planned and structured training and implementation procedure. That is the Number One reason. CRM training is essential for success.

Customer Relationship Management is a science ? it is not the art that the old-style reps would have you believe. It absolutely true that the personal touch is with the customer is critical to success, but the day-to-day management of a CRM system requires the application of science and the provision of adequate tools to manage all of the stages of an integrated customer relationship management system.

There are many companies that provide computer CRM training classes, though the corporations that develop the software frequently develop the software with the customer?s training requirements in mind. Microsoft, for example, integrate training resources right into the software systems they develop, and this is as true for their CRM software as it is for Office applications.

Applications such as Marketing Analysis, Event Managing, Sales Forecasting and Incentive Compensation and Bonuses are but a few of those which computer based CRM training cover, though the Microsoft CRM 3.0 training course is more easy to understand than most due to the seamless integration with Microsoft Office applications and Outlook. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 software sits nicely alongside other Microsoft suites and integrates perfectly to provide a CRM solution for small to corporate size businesses which is simple for employees acquainted with Microsoft Windows applications to learn.

CRM training is essential for success, and it is essential that it is carried out effectively. How much simpler to do so if it is already programmed to be an integral part of an accepted suite of business programs! CRM training will not only be easier, but accepted by employees as an extension of their existing knowledge, rather than an addition burden placed upon them.
Syed Ali, is the lead CRM Analyst for a Toronto based company. His company, offers Microsoft CRM software Solutions www.crmsoftwareprovider.com Syed can be reached at Tel : (905) 815- 1995 ext 22, email :asyed@cqsolutions.com

Getting The Right CRM Software Package

2009-01-12T22:59:00.000-08:00

Learning how to use a complex software package is usually a daunting task, and trying to learn all the ins and outs within the time limits of a free trial is even harder. Not only do you need to find out how the CRM software package works, but you need also to learn if you can apply it to the specific needs of your business.

For the inexperienced person, choosing the best Customer Relationship Management system can be a difficult. Does your business need an on demand solution, meaning a hosted, accessible over the Internet platform, or can your organization use a real run-on-Windows application.

The basic acronyms CRM (Customer Relations Management), ERP (Enterprise resource planning, integrating all data and processes of an organization into a unified system), SFA (Sales Force Automation, automated, time saving systems that help the sales people) can be intimidating, but you should know them. A simple Google search will usually tell you what the acronym means.

To make the best of it, you should stick to a few simple rules that can show you what systems are worth looking into and what packages should be avoided. Having these pointers will let you quickly find a system that will work for you.

First, you should make sure the product can be customized to fit your needs. There are many systems out there but most likely none of them will work for your business right out of the box.

To make sure a system can be customized, look for companies that sell multiple editions of their product, this usually means they have tailored their products to other customers and that they will be willing to meet your needs, and make the product work for you.

Also, you should look for a road map for the product. Having a road map usually indicates that the company believes in their product and that they are here to stay. You want a product that stays in the market as you grow and grows with you.

A product that is usable for you entire company is desirable, paying for a fully hosted CRM you should make sure that it is backed by a Service Level Agreement as well.

Getting the right CRM software package is no easy task, but if you use the above rules as you research the field you should be able to find a system that works for you and your organization.

Kim writes stuff about CRM software over at crmsystem.blogspot.com

How to use Microsoft CRM to Manage Client Projects

2008-11-01T01:28:00.000-07:00

As a Microsoft partner, we help our clients implement the solutions they purchase. One challenge we have is how to track the project tasks so that we can:

1. Leverage the time-saving capabilities of Workflow within CRM.

2. Leverage the integration between CRM and Outlook so that project tasks appear in our users' Outlook Task lists and Calendars.

3. Keep the process simple while still providing enough control to keep the project on schedule and under budget.

Here is what we chose to do to manage our projects. Perhaps it will be suitable for you, as well.

1. Use Workflow Manager to create a new sales process for client fulfillment/project delivery.

While we could have chosen to create a new project entity, we wanted functionality similar to the Sales Process workflow available for Opportunities. Unfortunately, the only way we could do it (without a lot of custom coding) was to use the Opportunity entity. Sales Process workflow is not available for any other entity.

We created a new Sales Process called "CF - CRM", with a description of "Client Fulfillment - CRM Project Delivery." This naming convention separates the project processes from the true sales processes (they start with "LC" for Lead Conversion). This is a manual rule, meaning that we manually apply it to the opportunity.

The project management Sales Process has various stages (Initiate, Analyze, Diagnose, Develop, Deploy, Operate, Close) that are based on the Microsoft Dynamics Implementation Methodology. You can use whatever you want.

The beauty of this solution is that you can have as many processes as you want and apply the correct process depending on the project.

For example, we could have a project process for Point-of-Sale projects, another one for Great Plains projects, and a third one for CRM projects. Each process could be customized with its own stages and activities.

Within each stage, there are the appropriate activities and milestones. For example, within the Initiate stage, we have tasks for "Create project charter" and "Schedule project kick-off meeting."

If there are particularly critical or time-sensitive activities, then you might want to create activities to monitor the status of them and use workflow to escalate neglected or delayed activities to a manager.

You need to be careful about the level of detail and number of activities you create. Remember, this is NOT a fully functional project management application like Microsoft Project.

You can attach supporting documents or links to SharePoint documents to the activities if you need more detail.

2. Complete all stages and activities for existing sales process on opportunity.

You are now ready to start using the project management process you created in step 1.

If there is a true sales process assigned to the Opportunity, then be sure to close or cancel all activities so that the sales process is completed.

Keep the Opportunity open once the sale has been closed. We are going to continue to record activity against the opportunity.

3. Assign the appropriate sales process for client fulfillment/project delivery to the opportunity.

Now, manually apply the correct project management process to the Opportunity. The activities from the first stage will be created and assigned.

4. Complete project activities.

No go ahead and do the work. Activities can be assigned to individuals or queues. Tasks that are not on the project management Sales Process you defined in step 1 can be manually added to the opportunity.

As you complete each stage, the activities for the next stage will automatically be created.

5. Use the Sales Pipeline report or a custom report to keep track of projects.

Since we are using the built-in Sales Process functionality, you can easily run reports showing the progress of the projects. You will probably want to create your own custom reports using the standard Sales Pipeline report as a template.

6. Close the Opportunity upon completion of the project.

Once the project is completed and all activities in the project management Sales Process are completed, close the Opportunity.

Conclusion

As you have seen, Microsoft CRM can be used in creative ways to help you best manage YOUR business. Using it for simple project management is a great illustration of the "Affordable Adaptability" of Microsoft CRM. Using this illustration, think "outside the box" to come up with other ways to use Microsoft CRM to support your business. Be sure to let me know what you come up with!

How Branding, MarComm and CRM Relate

2008-10-30T05:08:00.000-07:00

The most important single distinction we must make in our target group for any brand is the one between prospects and customers. This is because these two groups play very different roles in our business building program.

There are two broad strategic activities involved in increasing our brands? market share. We have to keep getting more revenues. And we have to avoid losing revenues we are already getting.

We will never grow our market share if we don?t keep in-creasing our revenues. We will also never grow our market share if we keep losing more revenues than we are getting.

Each of these two strategic activities involves two functions:

There are two broad ways to keep getting more revenues:
1. We have to convert more prospects into customers.
2. We have to get our existing customers to use more of our products or services.

And there are two broad ways to avoid losing revenues we are already getting:
3. We have to avoid disappointing customers? experience of our products or services.
4. We have to avoid disappointing customers in all the other the experiences they might associate with our brand.

Of the four strategic functions, the first, that of converting more prospects into customers, is, by far, more difficult than the other three.

This is because this function involves overcoming two major barriers:
a) prospects have little or no interest in or any relation-ship with our brand;
b) prospects are already engaged in another activity that we will have to discontinue, typically that of using our competitor?s product or services.

This is the function that focuses on our prospects, the people who possess the money that is not yet being transmuted into our revenues, and are therefore the most important target toward increasing the market share of our brand.

Prospects have to made to notice our brand, they have to be made to get interested in our brand, they have to be made to desire our brand, and they have to be made to prefer our brand over its competitors, and ultimately, of course, they have to be made to purchase our brand, which is when their money becomes our revenues, and when prospects become our customers.

The remaining three strategic functions, that of increasing customers? usage, and avoiding disappointing them either with our products/services or in any other way, are, relatively, significantly easier. This is because all three of them involve dealing with people who, as existing customers, are already in a relationship with us. As such, these three strategic functions involve a degree of receptivity toward us from the people we are addressing. Indeed, with today?s interactive media, it has become easier for us to know them individually by name, know where they live, how to reach them, and be familiar with their demographics of gender, age, education, lifestyle, and other habits; and their psycho-graphics of values, interests and other preferences.

Coming back to the first strategic function, that of converting prospects into customers, we have literally to transform their existing disinterest toward our brand into a relationship. This toughest business challenge involves, above all, the WHAT of branding, and the HOW of MarComm, advertising, sales promotions, merchandising, pricing, distribution, packaging and other marketing and communications media and activities.

Branding is the most important of these because it is the conceptual essence of the entire business building effort. Branding comprises the cluster of concepts and signals that have the challenge of overcoming the greatest barriers between us and the prospect ? those of their disinterest and pre-existing preferences and habits. The disciplines and media of sales, advertising, sales promotions, distribution, pricing, merchandising and packaging, etc. then have to deliver this brand communications essence to the prospect so that it can break through the barriers of disinterest and prior practice.

CRM, or customer relationship management should cover all the HOWs involved in maintaining and strengthening the relationship with the customer, once branding has broken through and established the relationship.

In this, CRM must remain consistent with the brand communications essence, which lives on in the customer as a cluster of expectations and signals, which is the de facto the brand. Just as the above mentioned sales, marketing and communications functions must deliver the brand through media and locations, CRM must deliver, and stay true to the brand essence through all its human and other experiential interactions with the customer.

So every element of the functioning relationship with the customer, the ease of opening the package, the ease of use of the product, the performance of the product, the disposal of the packaging, the messages received by the customer, the experiences of the customer with customer service staff, with billing staff, with credit control staff, with collections staff, with vehicles bearing our brand?s logo, all must not only avoid negative residue, but also regard themselves as brand communications as well, and deliver all these activity-media in ways that are consistent with the brand.

It must be noted that CRM can also contribute indirectly to increasing revenues and market share as well. This can be accomplished by fulfilling the brand essence vis a vis the customer so thoroughly via the latter?s experiences, that customers are delighted enough to make the effort to recommend it to other people who also happen to be prospects.

Over 30 years world-class experience in strategic marketing, market research, branding, communications, and design for top global companies across the world; specifically, USA, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Egypt, Middle East, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, India and Afghanistan.

Participated in launching or building scores of major global brands, including AT&T, IBM, Kodak, CitiBank, ICI, AT&T Wireless, AT&T Business, Sperry Rand, Remington, Memorex, Frito-Lays, Pampers, Tide, Camay, Mr, Clean, Dash, Spic 'n Span, Ariel, Head & Shoulders, Vicks Vaporub, Good Year Tyres, Band-Aid, Horlicks, Aga Lux Batteries, Saridon, Aspro, Shell Oil and Cadburys.

Formerly: CEO Saatchi & Saatchi ME. Management Director, Young & Rubicam Germany. Account Director, Young & Rubicam, NY, USA. Regional Brand Director, Asia Pacific, AT&T Corp. Frankfurter Ring, Frankfurt, Germany. Commissioner of Civil Rights, Princeton, NJ USA. Director of the Board of Ethics, Princeton, NJ, USA. Treasurer, Ethical Culture Fellowship. Princeton. USA.

Currently, EVP, Senior Operations Strategist, Stealing Share, NY, USA

Crm Mash-up Catch-up

2008-10-16T23:58:00.000-07:00

4 Ways to Automate Tasks in Microsoft CRM Using Workflow

2008-10-13T01:39:00.000-07:00

1. Assign New Leads to the Appropriate Person or Queue

2. Assign New Cases to the Appropriate Person or Queue

3. Notify Customers on Status of Their Case

4. Automate Creation of Procedural Tasks

Workflow, of course.

Upon creation of the lead, a personalized e-mail based off of a specific template can be sent automatically to the lead.

Pretty cool, isn't it?

Conclusion

How BPM Improves CRM

2008-07-22T01:39:00.000-07:00

Finally, we can say that BPM system, if used with a right approach, can help the company in taking maximum advantage from the CRM software asset.

Crm End-state

2008-07-12T01:11:00.000-07:00

Most strategic planning methodologies are built upon a triad of convergent processes that are a variation of a) evaluation and review, b) definition of goals/objectives and c) mapping route(s) to goals. This methodology has enjoyed certain success, but as applications evolve and can incorporate the softer side of automation and processing, strategic planning should also include another triumvirate of activities, d) visualization of the end-state, e) study of current situation and identify gaps to end state and f) identify actions that will close the gap.

Strategic Planning Overview for CRM Projects

Strategic plans typically look five or more years into the future and differ from tactical plans, which look two to four years into the future.

The early triad of activities for strategic planning, mentioned above, were appropriate for fixed solutions, and for expensive development projects that had limitations due to technologies and/or funding. With the advent of online CRM, it is possible and prudent to include triumvirate strategies to expedite deployment of new functionality available with on-demand CRM/ERP solutions.
There are a number of possible ways to identify barriers to success, and also some best practices that help to address these barriers. The following pages provide a good general reference for on-demand CRM deployments from a vendor's perspective.

Incorporate End-State Strategies for Successful CRM

1.Clearly define the objective, or end-state.
Identify major disconnects in technology, embrace and manage changes wholeheartedly.

2.Assessment and analysis.
Pursue change and improvement, challenge old policy/procedures that can be changed or eliminated as part of process automation and improvement. Identify technical and procedural redundancies and clearly identify gaps.

Plan to identify and capture information that supports use of end-state metrics.

3.Honestly evaluate the feasibility of the end-state objective
Identify questions that help clarify the end-state vision. Establish roles and responsibilities for evaluation input. Consider the barriers to change and closing the gaps.

4.Strategy/Tactics.
Eliminate traditional rituals in planning that strangle opportunities to leap forward. Truly address impediments to customer service and increased revenue. Ensure Strategy and Tactics are in line with desired end-state.

5.Closing Gaps

Identify Benefits: What to be expected from implementing a CRM solution?
Plan Actions: What will be done?

Identify/Delegate Responsibilities : Who will be the corporate sponsor and who will be in charge of the project?

Scheduling: When will the project start? When will it be completed?

Resourcing: Identify what is needed: people, money, information, other resources?

Establish Metrics & Set Rewards: How will progress be measured and reported?

Contingency Planning: What will be done if results fall short?

Strategic Planning Pitfalls

There are several activities that come into play when deploying new processes/solutions. They typically fall into the categories of strategy and tactics. In general, strategic plans can fail for several reasons: inappropriate strategy, conflicting tactics and poor implementation. The strategy is the high level plan and the tactics are basically the actions that happen to support and deploy elements of the strategic plan. Do good work on the triad and triumvirate planning components and have good contingencies in place to work around problems.

- Strategic Difficulties

- Failure to define the desired end states correctly

- Analysis irrelevant to the desired end state(s)

- Lack of creativity in identifying possible strategies

- Poor gap analysis

Conflicting Tactical Activities

In preparing and delivering components of the strategic plan, it is important to ensure tactics used do not undermine strategy. It often happens innocuously, often in an effort to maintain the status quo, or from a lack of information, but these tactics can gain purchase, and pull the strategic plan apart.

- Actions taken/not taken because of perceived threats to established processes
- Missed opportunities or compromises because of resistance/misunderstanding
- Too many ad-hoc activities/actions by too many people from within the organization
- Actions taken/not taken no longer support the strategic plan

End State Disappointments

Difficulties delivering because of lack of resources/abilities due to over estimation of resources and or time and/or loss of senior management support.

- Inaccurate forecasting of financial requirements
- Failure to manage expectations and coordinate tactical
strategies
- Ineffective change management strategies

Use Professional CRM Services ? Before and After Deployment

There are many components to delivering a CRM solution that is often the most appropriate, and best, business solution to improve cash flow and position for future markets. Taking the time to consult with your CRM solution provider is critical to a successful deployment because you want them to understand and be participants in delivering the desired end-state.

Have a set of measurable improvements in mind that can be used as both deliverables and to determine the success of the deployment in business terms, not just technical.

Post Deployment Metrics

Some possible metrics that can be used to track the success of a CRM deployment might include the following:

- Track qualified leads generated at the same/lower cost
- Track ability/ease of converting prospects to customers
- Track the customer share growth
- Track customer loyalty and retention rates
- Track cost of selling/servicing customers
- Track employee efficiency/improvements/feedback, etc.

SalesboomTM is a world leader in delivery of on-demand Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions. Salesboom has over 28,000 subscribers from the SMB sector, with 3,400 customers in over 154 countries around the world. Salesboom.com web services solutions drive innovation, enable business realignment, and enriches customer relations across the enterprise.

Katie Campbell, consultant and writer. Has worked in IT sector in government, private and non-profit sectors with focus on technology and knowledge management. Tracking new technologies in CRM like http://www.salesboom.com

Crm Faq: Crm And Your Business

2008-07-03T23:16:00.000-07:00

* What exactly is CRM?

CRM means Customer Relationship Management. This is a method used by businesses or enterprises to organize and manage customer relationships. It has methods, software, software and web-based capabilities. It is about being aware of customer needs and responding to them efficiently.

* What is eCRM?

eCRM is basically a customer service, self-service web application, sales force automation tools, or the analysis of a customer?s buying behavior on the internet.

* How does customer relationship management benefit a business?

There are many benefits that CRM can provide for a business. CRM can and will help a business if you use it properly. By doing so, your business can really profit and keep your customers loyal. Here are some benefits that CRM can give you:

- Collect customer details, order history, and other vital data.

- Suggest ideas for selling products more effectively.

- Develop more efficient communication channels.

- Identify customer preferences.

* Is it better to have an in-house CRM program or to outsource it?

It depends; both outsourced and in-house CRM have their own pros and cons. It is up to you to choose what will suit your needs. If you are a beginner in CRM, it is probably better to outsource it at first.

* What kinds of CRM Help Desk software are available?

There is a lot of available CRM software in the market today. You can download it through the Internet or you can obtain a program through your local software store or computer shop. However, it is recommended that you first download the free version of a CRM software from the internet and try out which type suits your needs best.

* What tips can you offer for finding good CRM software?

You have to consider some factors in order to find good CRM software that you can use easily and effectively. Here are some of the things you should consider:

- Ease of use

- Ease of maintenance

- Essential tools and features

* What types of automated answering systems are available?

Automated answering systems in a call center are important to improve customer service. There are different types of automated answering systems used in a call center. Here are two of them:

- Interactive Voice Response (IVR)

- Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

Chad Ivins is editor of CRM-i, the online guide to Customer Relationship Management. He also writes CRM FAQ's for PrettyGreatAnswers.com.

Getting the right CRM Software package.

2008-06-26T22:47:00.000-07:00

Learning how to use a complex software package is usually a daunting task, and trying to learn all the ins and outs within the timelimits of a free trial is even harder. Not only do you need to find out how the CRM software package works, but you need also to learn if you can apply it to the specific needs of your business.

The basic acronyms CRM (Customer Relations Management), ERP (Enterprise resource planning, integrating all data and processes of an organisation into a unified system), SFA (Sales Force Automation, automated, timesaving systems that help the sales people) can be intimidating, but you should know them. A simple google search will usually tell you what the acronym means.

First, you should make sure the product can be customized to fit your needs. There are many systems out there but most likely none of them will work for your business right out of the box.

Also, you should look for a roadmap for the product. Having a roadmap usually indicates that the company believes in their product and that they are here to stay. You want a product that stays in the market as you grow and grows with you.

A product that is usable for you entire company is desirable, paying for a fully hosted CRM you should make sure that it is backed by a Service Level Agreement as well.

Getting the right CRM software package is no easy task, but if you use the above rules as you research the field you should be able to find a system that works for you and your organisation.

Kim writes stuff about CRM software over at http://crmsystem.blogspot.com

The Need For CRM

2008-06-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

What priority would you put on the need for CRM (Customer Relationship Management) in your company? If you understood what CRM was that would be an easy question to answer. After all, what is the most important part of every business ? even your business? What?s that aspect of your whole operation, without which the whole kit and caboodle would fall down like a house of cards?

The answer is, as you are probably aware by now, your customers. Without customers you have no business. Every business has the need for CRM. Every business, from the very smallest one man operation to multinational global corporations, relies on customers. Not only rely on them, but are competing with others to attract new customers in order to expand and to retain the ones they have in order to survive.

So why is it that the customer is frequently the most ignored aspect of your business when it comes to computerized management systems? The need for CRM seems to come second to every other system such as Sales Analysis and Management systems, Production Management, Inventory and Purchasing systems, etc, etc, etc. In fact, many companies have not even heard of CRM.

Your business will stand or fall on you maintaining good relationships with your customers, especially in this increasingly competitive era. CRM is not just about keeping customers happy from a personal point of view, and once you find out what a good package can provide, you will understand the need for CRM.

It is important to understand why customers buy your products or services. To be able to identify your most profitable customers, and to forecast what to give them when they want it. Here is the need for CRM, which can set your company apart from the others and provide all the tools required to give you the edge over your competitors that can get you ahead of the pack, and stay there.

There are several software packages than provide adequate tools to enable you to meet the need for CRM within your business, but is ?adequate? enough? Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 leads the field in providing everything you should be looking for in a state of the art CRM system, and also has the versatility and flexibility to fit in with the way your company operates. Sure, it can make extremely valuable suggestions for improvement, but can also work exactly as your company works. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 meets the need for CRM without requiring you to change your processes and procedures to fit in with software requirements.

There is nothing more annoying than have to retrain employees in your own internal procedures as well as in the use of the CRM software. It is important to you business to balance the need for CRM software with its acceptance by your employees.

Do not underestimate the need for CRM within your company. It can automate and analyze such functions as sales forecasting, sales cycle analysis, time management, sales force optimization, account management, and all the reports and analyses required. Your sales force can have essential information at their fingertips through palm computers or PDAs at the point of contact with customer. No more having to ?send the information later? or ?we will get back to you on that?. All information available on the network is visible to your sales force when they require it. You can secure that order before your customer has time to change his mind, or be tempted by a competitor.

This is just one simple example which indicates the benefits that CRM can bring to your company. The need for CRM does not require much thought, and can not only get you ahead of the pack but will also keep you there.

Chris McElroy helps manage the Microsoft CRM Software Provider Blog

CRM Software Advantage

2008-06-16T22:26:00.000-07:00

CRM systems give businesses many strategic advantages such as the ability to personalize relationships with customers. CRM software provides better customer service. Using CRM, a business can be maintains customer profiles, thereby treating each client as an individual and not as a group. This way, every employee can be better informed about each customer's specific needs and transaction profile. Business can identify various information about customers like their location and needs, then target market accordingly.

CRM softwarehelps any organization in lots of ways, both in terms of delivery more to the customers and also in terms of gaining more from them. CRM also helps the organization to easily adjust the level of service to reflect the customer's importance or status. Better customer service through improved responsiveness and understanding helps in building customer loyalty and decreases customer agitation. It also helps the company in getting continuous feedbacks from the customers on the product they have bought.

CRM systems help the organization by identifying potential customers. By keeping a track of the profiles of their existing client, the business can easily come up with a strategy to determine the kind of people they should target such that it returns them maximum clientage. CRM systems facilitate cross-selling (offering customers complimentary products based on their previous purchases) and up-selling (offering customers premium products in the same category).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?

Author is SEO Of OTS Solutions Gurgaon, an Offshore software Development Company

CRM Software Importance

2008-06-11T02:00:00.000-07:00

In today era success of a business depends on understanding of their customers. The use of customer relations management software (CRM) can greatly increase a company performance by enhancing company relationship with its customers. Reacting to your customer's needs and new marketing opportunities are necessities in order for you to stay in business and be successful. Using CRM software will help you achieve your business goals, as well as help you succeed in a marketplace that is constantly changing.

By using CRM software customer information can be easily accessible. Because of this, employees will always have the most accurate and up-to-date information about customers at any time. This information will assist company staff in maintaining better relationships with customers. This will also allow your employees to set up appointments and send messages to your customers - an important tool for those who want repeat customers.

Some CRM software has the capability to create reports and customer analysis to give you insights on what you need to do to make your business better. They also have features to prevent non authorized people from viewing your customer data. This will allow you to restrict access to private information to only those who need to know. Losing customer means losing business so satisfying customer must be primary objective for a business and CRM Software can help in this.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?

Author is SEO of OTS Solutions Gurgaon Offshore Software Devlopment company India

CRM Solutions Providers

2008-06-08T23:42:00.000-07:00

CRM solutions providers are companies and individuals who provide solutions to build a good and profitable customer relationship. CRM is the abbreviation of Customer Relationship Management. In the present world, CRM has become a milestone in businesses strategies. It assists in building new business strategies which will not only improve relation with the customer and but also to enhance the prospects of overall business. Today, CRM has become equally important to small, large, and medium business organizations.

Increase in the demand of customer relationship management (CRM) has lead to the popularity of CRM solutions providers. CRM solutions providers are broadly classified into two - in-house CRM solutions providers and hosted CRM solutions providers.

In-house CRM solutions providers are also known as customized CRM solutions providers and on-demand solutions providers. Generally, in-house CRM solutions providers give solutions to meet the specific needs of a company or a customer. They give business solutions to all types and sizes of companies. Based on the size of the company or organization, in-house CRM solutions providers usually take three to twelve months for the complete implementation of their program. In-house CRM solutions providers have many added advantages when compared with hosted solutions providers. In-house CRM solutions providers generally have an intimate knowledge of the legacy systems in the organization. Thus, their programs are easy to install and maintain. Usually, in-house CRM solutions providers give solutions for sales, marketing, and other services. In-house CRM solutions providers are more costly, when compared with hosted CRM solutions providers. For example, an in-house CRM solutions provider will charge around $2,000 to $3,500 for a business service.

Hosted CRM solutions providers are better known as outsourced CMR solutions providers. This type of CRM solution providers simplifies the entire management process, and thus reduces the risk and increases the value of the businesses. Hosted CRM solutions providers have solutions for sales, marketing, and other major services.

When compared with in-house CRM solutions providers, hosted CRM solutions providers are more cost-effective. Generally, hosted CRM solutions providers will cost around $70 per month for a medium size business organization. Therefore, it is widely used by small and medium-sized business organizations.

CRM Solutions provides detailed information on CRM Solutions, CRM Business Solutions, CRM Call Center Solutions, CRM Software Solutions and more. CRM Solutions is affiliated with Live Customer Support.

CRM Web Based Solutions

2008-05-31T01:11:00.000-07:00

CRM web based solution is an easy and cost effective way to maintain a healthy relationship with your customer on the Internet. It is the latest trend in modern business organizations. With the wide use of the Internet, business organizations have become more reliant on web based CRM services.

Customer relationship management, abbreviated CRM, is a comprehensive business strategy planned to maximize profitability, revenue, retention, and customer satisfaction. However, CRM business strategies mainly focus on customer satisfaction only. With the coming of CRM web based solutions, the entrepreneurs are able to offer support to the customer through the Internet, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Depending on the needs, CRM web based solutions can be availed by any type of businesses. For example, specialized CRM web based solutions are available for client profiles, frequently ordered items, automatic replenishment systems, one-click ordering, and market basket analysis. Mostly, CRM web based solutions are built after systematically understanding the needs and demands.

In a CRM web based solution, the Web is used as the platform. The software is generally installed on a single server. Hence, a user from any remote location can access the facilities of the CRM web based solutions through the Internet. Any slight change in the software of the main server will be reflected throughout the system. CRM web based solutions are cost effective and easy to maintain. Apart from these, CRM web based solutions also provide accessibility through wireless devices such as PDAs and WAP-enabled mobile phones. Thus, CRM web based solutions overrun all the downsides of their counterpart, client-server CRM solutions.

In the past, CRM Web-based solutions were used mainly by medium sized business organizations. But in recent year, almost all small and big business organizations have started using the facilities of CRM Web-based solutions.

Web Based CRM Solutions

2008-05-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

CRM solutions are business strategies that assist in building a healthy relationship with customers. They have become a milestone in the marketing strategies of modern business organizations. Earlier, CRM solutions had been based on client-server architecture. A few draw backs of the client-server model CRM solutions led to the development of web based CRM solutions. Web based CRM solutions are business strategies intended mainly for e-commerce.

As the World Wide Web serves as the platform in web based CRM solutions, the software need be installed on a single server. The installed software can be accessed from any remote location, and any change made in the software will be reflected throughout the system. The client-server model CRM solutions do not support remote access or wireless devices. But, web based CRM solutions have facilities to access wireless devices like PDAs and WAP-enabled mobile phones.

In a web based CRM solution, only the central server has to be maintained. Thus, web based CRM solutions are very cost effective. When compared with client-server CRM solutions, web based CRM solutions are more flexible and easy to maintain. As the web based CRM solutions are based on Web, they can be distributed faster than the conventional CRM solutions and client-server CRM solutions. Also, adding of new clients in a web based CRM solution is very easy. The number of users in web based CRM solution is unlimited.

Netgain, Upshot, SAP, Clarify, ONYX, Trilogy, Oracle, Siebel Systems, and Firstwave Technologies, Inc. are some of the leading vendors in the web based CRM solutions.

CRM Software Solutions

2008-05-28T23:28:00.000-07:00

Management is a key concept in today?s world. Whether it is business, health care or looking after customers, management and its various kinds of ethos can bring about a major change in the whole process of business, in terms of its returns. CRM, an abbreviation for the term ?customer relationship management?, is a major concept to all the leading corporate sectors, including big and small firms. Customers and clients are the most important factor in any kind of business.

Therefore, taking care of customers or clients has been a major area of concern ? the more the customers and clients are happy, the more products and services they will buy. However, CRM entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customers, no matter whether the relationship involves sales or services. CRM software helps businesses manage sales, marketing, service, and support information.

These tools are ideal in covering the sales force automation, marketing automation, analysis, data processing and custom applications. In order to manage a good relationship with the customer, a business concern should be aware of customer information by collecting and analyzing it. The work of the CRM software solutions is to make it approachable and accessible to the other business employees, and to convert this data into products that might be of great use to customers.

The software is used to organize, scrutinize and interpret the collected data. Most of the software solutions are user-friendly, compatible for both large and small business firms. Web-based CRM software has come of age to provide online support to the companies in handling their customers. Most CRM software provides turnkey solutions and is available as package tools.

CRM Solutions provides detailed information on CRM Solutions, CRM Business Solutions, CRM Call Center Solutions, CRM Software Solutions and more. CRM Solutions is affliated with Live Customer Support.

Generating Online CRM Software Sales Leads

2008-05-27T23:56:00.000-07:00

If you are a salesperson selling customer relationship management (CRM) software a good place to start for generating online sales leads is on pay-per-click (PPC) ads on internet search engines. This is a step-by-step guide to generating CRM leads via the internet.

To start a PPC campaign to generate CRM sales leads on internet search engines such as Google, MSN, and Yahoo, first make a list of keywords that you think people that are looking for when searching for CRM software are searching for online. A sample list of keywords is available below.
Sign up for PPC ads and register your chosen keywords. The most popular PPC system is Google?s AdWords program.
What happens is every time someone searches your chosen keyword, a link to your website will be shown alongside the "sponsored results" section of the search results. You pay a small fee for every time someone clicks on your link and is taken to your website. The fee is small compared to the revenue you can generate from the sales lead.

Of course for you to generate CRM leads online via PPC you will need to have a website to capture the lead. If you don?t already have a website you will have to create one first.

The following is a list of sample CRM keywords that you can use in your PPC campaign:

Microsoft CRM software
CRM sales solution
Free online CRM
Customer relationship management implementation
Small business CRM software
Saleslogix CRM
Siebel customer relationship management
Open source CRM
CRM tools and resources
CRM sales leads
Automotive CRM software
If you sell CRM visit Tino Buntic's website, TradePals, to receive free sales leads without cold calling, including CRM leads. TradePals is a B2B and B2C directory of business professionals and entrepreneurs across North America, providing qualified leads to its members.
Tino recommends Jim Berkowitz's CRM Mastery Blog, providing commentary on CRM best practices and industry news.

Top Ten Reasons Your Company Should Consider Mobile CRM

2008-05-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

Mobile CRM is on the rise in the world of CRM and demand is growing as companies and employees are demanding access to crucial information in real time. Allowing for a more versatile, mobile workforce and faster access to information, mobile CRM is here to stay. Here are the top ten reasons your company should consider implementing a mobile CRM system.

Faster access to data
Sales professionals can access data in real-time, so it is always the most current, up-to-date information available. If you need to know about a client or lead, you can find what you need to know immediately via phone, laptop, PDA, or other mobile device.

Central data center
A central data center allows you to access all the information all the time. No one person has longer access to a file or case; you can look at it simultaneously without slowing anything down. And if a client id shifted to you suddenly, you have access to all their information in a matter of minutes. Thus, mobile CRM is an extremely effective, efficient ancillary to your normal CRM system.

Leads stay hot and glide down the pipeline
Leads don't get cold because there will always be someone to pick up the slack. Mobile CRM also makes it easier to ensure the lead gets nudged down the pipeline gently but effectively and ends up in the correct place.

Access to critical information anytime, anywhere
Mobile CRM allows you to access information in the central database from anywhere in the world at any time, provided you have access to a mobile device that works.

Easy to use
Mobile CRM is amazingly easy to use and takes much of the stress off of professional sales people. It allows them to stay in touch and get new updates.

Ideal for travel
Mobile CRM is especially conducive to sales professionals who travel a large part of the time. Because you can use any mobile device, traveling isn't difficult, and it's far less stressful. If you suddenly remember something you have to find or look up, forget a client's information, or any other number of scenarios, mobile CRM can be the way you solve the problem.

Usable online and offline
Mobile CRM can be used online and offline. If the internet doesn't work or the connection has failed, you can get on your mobile device; if you lose your phone but have your laptop or PDA, you're covered. Thus it provides an almost fail safe way to get the information you need, when you want it.

Competitive advantage
Mobile CRM offers a competitive advantage because it offers a way to reach more customers than just using a traditional CRM system. It is quickly growing to be one of the de facto methods of CRM outside of the workplace.

Reasonably priced
Once priced ridiculously high, mobile CRM systems are now more reasonably priced, and this has added to their growth in popularity.

Allows for a highly mobile work force
Professionals are no longer confined to the office; they can leave for an appointment or business trip and still remain totally connected to the workplace and their clients.

Salesforce.com is the world's first on-demand application service and a giant in the field of CRM. With over 24,000 customers, over 500,000 subscribers, and a 97% customer satisfaction rate, Salesforce.com continues to lead their field. To find out more about them, please visit www.salesforce.com .

seo experts

Mobile CRM 101 - The Basics

2008-05-23T23:50:00.000-07:00

Previous to mobile CRM, sales professionals were limited in the ways they could transfer and access information. This often meant less access to updated information, more leads going cold, and a less effective work methodology. Luckily, the tables have turned and people are getting connected in new, completely unique ways that allow for such applications as mobile CRM. Here are some of the major capabilities of mobile CRM and its most important components:

Remote Access This allows users to access data such as contacts, leads, and other information remotely from a mobile device wherever they're at. This concept is new to CRM and is gradually forming an integral part of the CRM system.

Total Customization Businesses can show users the information they need to see any way they want. This allows mobile professionals to manage many tasks and activities far easier than before, and exchange instant, updated information to help the smooth flow of leads down the pipeline. This also allows companies to standardize mobile CRM devices if they so choose. Since many companies already offer perks like company laptops and cell phones, this is just one way they have the ability to create the system they want. The application software also allows a company to set up its mobile CRM system in the way that works best for the company.

Disconnected Access and CRM Management Over the Air Even if a user isn't dialed in or online, they still have instant access to information. Thus, if their computer connection dies or they lose their phone, they have other options for getting information, ensuring they get their job done. Likewise, a user can get all the information they need via phone; this ensures that users never need to plug in to access administrative data.

Centralized System This allows all the necessary information to be in one place at the same time, enabling a company to manage users, devices, and other applications from a single location. A central management system allows a company further reach and control over its employees and its customers. This in turn decreases wasted time and man hours, allowing for a stronger, more efficient system for generating and converting leads and sales. .

Since most mobile CRM systems are internet based applications, the time involved in getting data is miniscule and has severely cut down on the time it takes to get data. The central system furthers this goal, and is usually created around an internet application available to all authorized personnel. This might mean that each user gets an account and a password with which they access the database from their phone, laptop, or other mobile device.

Salesforce.com is the world's first on-demand application service and a giant in the field of CRM. With over 24,000 customers, over 500,000 subscribers, and a 97% customer satisfaction rate, Salesforce.com continues to lead their field. To find out more about them, please visit {a rel="nofollow" href=" http://www.salesforce.com "} www.salesforce.com .

Mobile CRM 101 ? The Basics

2008-05-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

Mobile CRM is emerging into the mainstream as an excellent method of relaying information between marketing and sales personnel. Busy sales and marketing professionals on the road can now communicate quickly and effectively through mobile CRM. Mobile CRM refers to the use of a mobile device to conduct any CRM related activities, including mobile phones, PDAs, and laptop computers.

Previous to mobile CRM, sales professionals were limited in the ways they could transfer and access information. This often meant less access to updated information, more leads going cold, and a less effective work methodology. Luckily, the tables have turned and people are getting connected in new, completely unique ways that allow for such applications as mobile CRM. Here are some of the major capabilities of mobile CRM and its most important components:

Remote Access
This allows users to access data such as contacts, leads, and other information remotely from a mobile device wherever they're at. This concept is new to CRM and is gradually forming an integral part of the CRM system.

Total Customization
Businesses can show users the information they need to see any way they want. This allows mobile professionals to manage many tasks and activities far easier than before, and exchange instant, updated information to help the smooth flow of leads down the pipeline. This also allows companies to standardize mobile CRM devices if they so choose. Since many companies already offer perks like company laptops and cell phones, this is just one way they have the ability to create the system they want. The application software also allows a company to set up its mobile CRM system in the way that works best for the company.

Disconnected Access and CRM Management Over the Air
Even if a user isn't dialed in or online, they still have instant access to information. Thus, if their computer connection dies or they lose their phone, they have other options for getting information, ensuring they get their job done. Likewise, a user can get all the information they need via phone; this ensures that users never need to plug in to access administrative data.

Centralized System
This allows all the necessary information to be in one place at the same time, enabling a company to manage users, devices, and other applications from a single location. A central management system allows a company further reach and control over its employees and its customers. This in turn decreases wasted time and man hours, allowing for a stronger, more efficient system for generating and converting leads and sales. .

Since most mobile CRM systems are internet based applications, the time involved in getting data is miniscule and has severely cut down on the time it takes to get data. The central system furthers this goal, and is usually created around an internet application available to all authorized personnel. This might mean that each user gets an account and a password with which they access the database from their phone, laptop, or other mobile device.

Salesforce.com is the world's first on-demand application service and a giant in the field of CRM. With over 24,000 customers, over 500,000 subscribers, and a 97% customer satisfaction rate, Salesforce.com continues to lead their field. To find out more about them, please visit www.salesforce.com .
seo experts

CRM Call Center Solutions

2008-05-22T00:22:00.000-07:00

Computerization and the implementation of recent communication systems have changed the way companies are approaching their CRM strategies. With the big bang of information technology across the world, especially the proliferation of self-service and self-catered ones, there is a great change in the whole process of CRM solutions. The most suitable examples are the World Wide Web, WAP phones and telecommunications, which have converted the very essence of customer communication and service into electronic form.

So the companies are looking for ways to personalize online experiences (a process also referred to as mass customization) through tools such as help-desk software, e-mail organizers and even call center solutions. To put it simply, CRM call canter solutions are the part of an organization that handles inbound a well as outbound communications with customers.

The primary job and function for the CRM call centers is to take care of all the requirements and complaints of the customers, in order to give customers the right and the freedom to express their views. CRM call centers also take care of services like the help desk, customer support, lead generation, emergency response, telephone answering service, inbound response as well as outbound telemarketing.

But the call-center executives are the ones who have to interact with customers through their speeches, mannerisms, accents and patience. Therefore, it becomes quite obvious that recruiting the call center executives or simply CRM telecallers have to be done with great care. CRM call center operations are mostly done through computer automation. They can really boost any sort of business as they have the capacity to handle a considerable volume of calls at the same time, thereby giving a good solution for CRM strategies. Usually, calls are forwarded to someone qualified enough to handle them, and to log calls.

CRM Business Solutions provides detailed information on CRM Solutions, CRM Business Solutions, CRM Call Center Solutions, CRM Software Solutions and more. CRM Business Solutions is affiliated with Live Customer Support.

CRM 101 - The Basics of Customer Relationship Management

2008-05-21T02:47:00.000-07:00

How Does CRM work? Essentially, CRM works by allowing a representative or agent to access detailed customer information quickly and efficiently while the client is on the line. This means less hassle for the client and a quicker transaction.

For example, say a client contacts a company representative about possibly purchasing the company's product. With CRM, the representative would be able to see if the client had bought anything previously, and if so, what their name is, their age, how long they've used the company, what products they've bought before, how often they buy the product, and much more. This would then allow the representative to suggest and recommend the product or service option that best suits the customer in a timely manner.

Who does CRM benefit? The beauty of CRM is that is benefits both the customer and the business or service provider. Customers receive a higher level of customer service because their needs are met and anticipated, allowing them to relax through transactions that are often much quicker than they're used to.

The business benefits via improved sales, higher customer confidence and satisfaction, and a more effective work environment. With CRM, a small business or large corporations can know what its customer wants; thus it can provide the service or product the client wants, keeping them as a repeat customer and gaining greater sales volumes.

What are some CRM applications? CRM applications are created around the same idea as a spreadsheet, where values can be filled in and tabulated to quantify, analyze, and interpret data. A CRM application can both collect and analyze information simultaneously. This means faster, better applications and better ease of use. Clients can download, share or install these programs at their leisure via sites like Salesforce.com.

What is online CRM? Online CRM is where a business uses an online system to manage its CRM. Straightforward and easy, online CRM is an option often taken by smaller businesses as it allows any representative to access a client's information immediately, without hours of tedious training. A example of an online CRM system might be a 24-hour call center.

What is web based CRM? Web based CRM is where a business uses real-time updates that are integrated with their existing CRM system. This allows new information to be accessed immediately without any time lapse. It is different from a software-based Customer Relationship Management program in that it allows for live, as-it-happens updates. Thus customer information is always fresh and current.

How do CRM systems help businesses? CRM systems help businesses by improving customer service and relationships, generating quality leads, monitoring accounts more effectively, always keeping data fresh and ready so leads don't grow cold, allowing mobile CRM (orders through a mobile device), and managing sales.

CRM 101 ? The Basics of Customer Relationship Management

2008-05-20T03:45:00.000-07:00

What is CRM?
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, can be defined as a software program, business strategy, or internet system that helps a business manage and organize its customer database. This includes contacting customers more efficiently, keeping leads hot, aiding in workplace effectiveness, and generally improving customer service and business relationships.

How Does CRM work?
Essentially, CRM works by allowing a representative or agent to access detailed customer information quickly and efficiently while the client is on the line. This means less hassle for the client and a quicker transaction.

For example, say a client contacts a company representative about possibly purchasing the company's product. With CRM, the representative would be able to see if the client had bought anything previously, and if so, what their name is, their age, how long they've used the company, what products they've bought before, how often they buy the product, and much more. This would then allow the representative to suggest and recommend the product or service option that best suits the customer in a timely manner.

Who does CRM benefit?
The beauty of CRM is that is benefits both the customer and the business or service provider. Customers receive a higher level of customer service because their needs are met and anticipated, allowing them to relax through transactions that are often much quicker than they're used to.

The business benefits via improved sales, higher customer confidence and satisfaction, and a more effective work environment. With CRM, a small business or large corporations can know what its customer wants; thus it can provide the service or product the client wants, keeping them as a repeat customer and gaining greater sales volumes.

What are some CRM applications?
CRM applications are created around the same idea as a spreadsheet, where values can be filled in and tabulated to quantify, analyze, and interpret data. A CRM application can both collect and analyze information simultaneously. This means faster, better applications and better ease of use. Clients can download, share or install these programs at their leisure via sites like Salesforce.com.

What is online CRM?
Online CRM is where a business uses an online system to manage its CRM. Straightforward and easy, online CRM is an option often taken by smaller businesses as it allows any representative to access a client's information immediately, without hours of tedious training. A example of an online CRM system might be a 24-hour call center.

What is web based CRM?
Web based CRM is where a business uses real-time updates that are integrated with their existing CRM system. This allows new information to be accessed immediately without any time lapse. It is different from a software-based Customer Relationship Management program in that it allows for live, as-it-happens updates. Thus customer information is always fresh and current.

How do CRM systems help businesses?
CRM systems help businesses by improving customer service and relationships, generating quality leads, monitoring accounts more effectively, always keeping data fresh and ready so leads don?t grow cold, allowing mobile CRM (orders through a mobile device), and managing sales.

Salesforce.com is the world's first on-demand application service and a giant in the field of CRM. With over 24,000 customers, over 500,000 subscribers, and a 97% customer satisfaction rate, Salesforce.com continues to lead their field. To find out more about them, please visit www.salesforce.com .
seo experts

CRM Business Solutions

2008-05-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

Customers and clients are the most important factor in any kind of business. Therefore, taking care of customers or clients has been a major area of concern, as it is related to the whole area of work ? the more the customers and clients are happy, the more products and services they will buy. However, CRM entails all aspects of interaction a company has with its customers, whether in sales or services. Therefore, the implementation of the CRM strategies has become a key issue of concern for companies. CRM solutions have gained enormous importance over the years, as they have the capacity to manipulate and change consumer behavior and buying patterns.

Computerization and the implementation of recent communication systems have changed the way companies are approaching their CRM strategies. With the big bang of information technology across the world, especially the proliferation of self-service and self-catered ones, there is a great flourish in the whole process of CRM solutions.

Nevertheless, CRM business solutions are meant to get more out of their sales forces. The sales are going to automatically increase once the business develops a good rapport with its customers. Not only this, the rapport will improve the company?s business interests. Various companies use business-oriented CRM software. But it is often found that most of them are not used by the business solutions.

For a business to flourish using CRM strategies, one should always go for tested CRM software, because unused software is a waste of money. However, some of the steps that contribute to the ideal CRM business solutions are: managing contracts, managing cases, managing the knowledge base and taste of the customer, case routing and using queues, patiently examining and listening to the customer about the needs and requirements, taking care of contracts and such other topics.

CRM Solutions provides detailed information on CRM Solutions, CRM Business Solutions, CRM Call Center Solutions, CRM Software Solutions and more. CRM Solutions is affliated with Live Customer Support.

Call Center CRM Solutions

2008-05-16T23:35:00.000-07:00

Call centers are offices that make use of phone facilities to assist client companies engaged in fields as diverse as healthcare, education, law and market research. As the call centers function round the clock, and its employees communicate with customers in a completely virtual environment, the risk of getting stressed out is great. Like any employer, call centers too are expected to keep their employees happy. Only if they are happy can they make the customer at the other end of the phone line happy. Moreover, the sustenance and reputation of a call center depends basically on its relationship with customer companies. Hence call centers view Customer Relationship Management [CRM] as a top priority area and offer a wide range of in-house CRM consulting services. This is seen to increase productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.

An effective CRM program trains the call center employees on a consistent basis to build a good and everlasting relationship with the customer [companies]. Before developing CRM programs, call centers make use of the knowledge and understanding of their employees about customer requirements. Based on this, they develop modules and train them to use a wide variety of information and communication technology tools to accomplish a strong relationship with their customer companies.

An effective in-house CRM will ensure that the call center?s business functions make both the employees and customers happy and comfortable as members of a cohesive team.

One of the most important objectives of using CRM is to make the call center more profitable, reputable and sustainable in today?s highly competitive global market.

Call Center Solutions provides detailed information on Call Center Solutions, Call Center Software Solutions, Call Center CRM Solutions, Call Center Management Solutions and more. Call Center Solutions is affliated with Outsourcing Call Centers.

Kaizen Blitz for Industrial CRM

2008-05-16T03:15:00.000-07:00

Kaizen blitz procedures quickly identify the best opportunity for lean efficiency and productivity. The most glaring omission of these kaizen blitz efforts has been in the sales and marketing elements of the manufacturing enterprise.

According to manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler in a recent issue of Industrial Focus magazine, "Manufacturers all face a similar challenge: a complex sale that often requires a team selling approach. In every industrial organization one finds internal representatives, outside representatives, managers, technical specialist, distributors, and customer service professionals. Often this team manages several product lines with thousands of specific items and interacts with numerous influencers who affect the sale. During the lengthy sales process the team does their best to manage this complex environment, producing notes, sales call reports, quote logs, memos, faxes, e-mails, and customer service reports, however the information is almost always fragmented. There is rarely one central database of customer information that can be accessed and shared among the people who need it to efficiently do their jobs. As a result, acting less like a team, these people act independently when conducting business and are far less effective. "

According to Larry Caretsky, President of Commence (www.commence.com/mfg), an industrial customer relationship management (CRM) firm, "CEO's of these companies often share how their new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system provides them all the information they need, but fail to recognize that ERP systems provide information after the sale, not before or during the sales process. ERP systems provide no value for improving the efficiency of how to sell and service customers. This is one reason that forecast reports are always inaccurate."

Industrial senior executives avoid addressing a customer-centric approach including the misconception that an accounting system provides the information needed; they provide only post sale information. The pre-sales process and information drives the sale.

Manufacturers do not resist funding back-end ERP systems; however the front-end CRM solutions often make a substantial impact on reducing new customer acquisition cost and improving sales efficiency by first addressing data capture, data consolidation, and data sharing.

Commence offers industrial companies complete "Freedom of Choice" to select the solutions and platform that best meets the business requirements of manufacturers and distributors. The comprehensive CRM Industrial application suite is available for use on premise or on-demand as a hosted service. Industrial leaders often build departmental CRM solutions with the award winning Commence Industrial CRM Framework. These choices are why so many industrial companies choose Commence as the solution for managing customer relationships. All Commence Industrial solutions support mobile or wireless connectivity and integration to back-office accounting and ERP systems.

Commence Corporation www.commence.com/mfg/ Larry Caretsky Marketing@commence.com 732-380-9100

The New and Improved Microsoft CRM 3.0

2008-05-15T04:11:00.000-07:00

Microsoft CRM (customer relationship management) was created in order to assure the proper management of your company's budget and to support the needs and requirements of your business. By using Microsoft CRM, you will be able to analyze the competitors' performances and to evaluate the trends, using reporting tools. But Microsoft CRM 's main purpose is to support and adjust the needs of the mid-market businesses and to deliver superior customer service. All employees who work directly with customers can get all the information they need by using Microsoft CRM, in order for the cooperation process to be successful and the customers to be surprised of the efficiency of the services they receive. A big advantage of Microsoft CRM is that it gives users the ability to work offline, using Microsoft Outlook, which belongs to the CRM's support of data. Microsoft CRM can support not only Microsoft Outlook, but Microsoft Business Solutions for Financial Management as well, which is another inspired program that has the abilities of overcoming high business problems in order to maintain the company's most valuable data. Microsoft CRM 3.0 represents the newest version of the software and has many new and improved features such as new marketing facilities, response and campaign management. A new thing from Microsoft, CRM 3.0 features a service-oriented architecture and includes a description language web service for core CRM functions. A new upgrade has been introduced in this release of Microsoft CRM 3.0, the workflow engine. Nevertheless, Microsoft Outlook has very well elaborated features in combination with Microsoft CRM 3.0. Microsoft Outlook has a sophisticated basis, users being able to use Microsoft CRM 3.0 from the Outlook menu as well, the two programs cooperating together as if they were one. In CRM 3.0 the marketing module offers users new features such as list-building tools in order to create target groups. Thus, the users will be able to plan and monitor campaigns much easier. Furthermore, Microsoft CRM 3.0 has an improvement in the licensing area as well. Now you can very well use the Customer Service and the Marketing module as a part of the Microsoft CRM 3.0, which in the previous release could not have been possible without further taxes. Overall, Microsoft CRM 3.0 is a tool that will bring your company guaranteed success. You will obtain much better profits using this ultimate version instead of the old ones. Users will be satisfied of its new and improved features and will also use this excellent tool in common interest. Access to expert information on implementing and integrating Microsoft CRM 3.0 with existing enterprise systems can be found in the Microsoft Practice area of www.unitekconsutling.com

Shannon Margolis
IT Marketing Coordinator
www.unitekconsulting.com

Industrial CRM Leader Commence Profiled in Manufacturing.net

2008-05-13T00:24:00.000-07:00

In Manufacturing.net, manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler notes, "Some ERP vendors offer industry specific CRM solutions; many do not. Bolt-on generic CRM solutions are frequently sold as the panacea; few are."

Larry Caretsky, President of New Jersey-based Commence, (www.commence.com/mfg), developers of a stand alone industrial CRM solution, suggested that most ERP companies offering CRM have shortfalls. "Managing the sales cycle and sales representative performance, marketing campaign management and integration with customer support are not provided by ERP tools," he said. CRM is not the strength for most ERP systems, which often utilize an add-on module but are rarely a full CRM package. In many cases, industrial customers who require full CRM capabilities are relegated to third party products or services.

Stand alone industrial CRM solutions provide effective lean CRM processes as long as the vendor truly understands the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the manufacturing sector; most do not. Generic databases do not address central issues facing all industrial operations. According to Caretsky, "Smart industrial organizations gather several key data points during customer research, which helps to define a CRM profile."

According to Cutler, "Expertise in industrial CRM is more significant than whether fully integrated in an ERP system or stand alone industrial CRM; vendor experience in industrial sales and marketing trumps the selection of technology." The complete feature article may be read at http://manufacturing.net/article/CA6363848.html.

Commence Corporation www.commence.com/mfg/ Larry Caretsky Marketing@commence.com 732-380-9100

Commence Industrial CRM Emphasizes Understanding Customer Needs

2008-05-11T23:43:00.000-07:00

Smart industrial organizations gather several key data points during customer research, including the following: * How clearly can your customers articulate your value proposition? * How well do your customers know your products or services? * What is their preferred method of purchasing the products and services you supply? * Who do customers consider to be the preferred supplier for your products and services. When do customers typically purchase your products and services? * Why do customers typically purchase your products and services? * How do customers use your products and services? * Who is the decision maker? Who else influences the purchase? * How do your customers evaluate suppliers? Get as specific as possible. * What pain do they feel on a daily basis? * How does the problem they are encountering impact others in the organization?

According to Larry Caretsky, President of Commence Corporation (www.commence.com/mfg./) "Understanding the customer's needs is paramount. Industrial distributors and manufacturers have myriad ways to access information about their customers. The important thing is to do it thoroughly and not cut any corners. The more comprehensive information you have, the better you will be able to develop a winning strategy."

In an effort to help industrial distributors and manufacturers thrive, Commence Corporation presents Practices That Pay: Leveraging Information to Achieve Industrial Selling Results, a compendium of smart practices from the leading industrial sales and marketing experts and organizations that are growing in today's challenging environment.

Commence offers industrial companies complete "Freedom Of Choice" to select the solutions and platform that best meets the business requirements of manufacturers and distributors. The comprehensive CRM Industrial application suite is available for use on premise or on-demand as a hosted service. Industrial leaders often build departmental CRM solutions with the award winning Commence Industrial CRM Framework. These choices are why so many industrial companies choose Commence as the solution for managing customer relationships. All Commence Industrial solutions support mobile or wireless connectivity and integration to back-office accounting and ERP systems.

Commence Corporation www.commence.com/mfg/ Larry Caretsky Marketing@commence.com 732-380-9100

Manufacturing Journalist Thomas R. Cutler Profiles ERP/CRM Leader Technology Group International

2008-05-09T23:26:00.000-07:00

Thomas R. Cutler recently wrote a feature article about industrial CRM for AutomationMedia.com. Cutler noted, "With up to ten years of continued process improvements on the plant floor, back office, and distribution operations, manufacturers have finally arrived at the front door of customer relationship management (CRM). Still engineering and operations focused, many senior manufacturing executives are strongly resistant and visibly uncomfortable in approaching lean CRM. Applying a kaizen blitz approach to sales and marketing quickly results in the obvious for most manufacturing firms: an area of neglect."

The full feature article may be read at http://www.automationmedia.com/ARDetail.asp?ID=%2013.

Toledo-based Technology Group International ( www.tgiltd.com) is an ERP vendor that has developed a customized industrial CRM solution. Rebecca Gill, vice-president of TGI noted several key reasons for purchase an integrated ERP/CRM solution. Full integration allows:

* Access to data in manufacturing, distribution, and accounting. * Instant notification of credit issues. * Instant capability to promise data for both manufactured and distributed products. * Direct tie between anticipated sales and related costs. * Instant access to historical information like sales, returns, on-time payments, margins, and other data. * Integrated dashboards that go beyond the typical sales funnel; show true margin comparisons. * No need to re-shuffle sales data, or re-evaluate, or re-key. Data is all available to dice and slice as needed. * No lag time between data syncing or replicating. Management staff has live, real-time sales data. * True 360 degree view of the customer for the organization and not just the sales representatives.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Technology Group International is a proven technology leader delivering Tier 1 application software functionality at a price performance level that can be readily accepted by organizations of all sizes. Specializing in software solutions for small and mid-market manufacturing and distribution companies, TGI's integrated Enterprise Series software suite is a complete business process management solution. The product offering includes Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Warehouse Management System (WMS), Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS), Decision Support System (DSS), Business Intelligence (BI), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and eCommerce. TGI implements, maintains, enhances, and supports its packaged distribution and manufacturing software solutions directly and via its channel partners.

Technology Group International www.tgiltd.com Rebecca Gill rgill@tgiltd.com 800-837-0028

Why CRM Projects Fail

2008-05-09T02:08:00.000-07:00

1 Overview

This articles looks at some of the ?human?, i.e. people-related factors that can cause a CRM project to fail. We then look at why, for those businesses already utilising Microsoft? Outlook? for their day-to-day e-mail, diary and contact management, implementing an Outlook-based CRM system gives you the best chance of overcoming these issues and ensuring a successful CRM implementation.

2 The Problem

CRM has received a lot of negative publicity over the years because of the failure rate of CRM implementation projects.

A recent Butler Group report found that 70 percent of CRM implementations fail. A Gartner study found that approximately 55 percent of all CRM projects failed to meet software customers' expectations. In a Bain & Company survey of 451 senior executives, CRM ranked in the bottom three categories among 25 popular tools evaluated for customer satisfaction.
While there are a multitude of reasons cited for failure of these projects, our experience in implementing over 200 CRM projects directly is that user acceptance is the one of the most critical factors.

In his article on ?Why CRM Projects Fail?, Rajiv Chaudhry quotes:

You can design the best process in the world, and back it with the latest and greatest technology, but if your people don't buy into the project, it won't work. There are three people-related issues that have surfaced in many of the CRM programs, that are worth noting:

The Fear-of-Change Syndrome. You already have a sales process in place. It may be based on printed reports, paper clips, and post-it notes, but it does work to some extent and people are familiar with it. Reengineering requires change, which most people instinctively resist. This fear of change needs to be dealt with early on, or the very people the system is designed to help will be the ones to see that it fails.

The It's Easy Enough Syndrome. For your CRM system to be successful, every single person must use it. For the sake of speed, a temptation may be to let IS or a few computer-literate users design the system interface. What you will end up with is a system that they think is easy enough for them to use, but isn't easy enough for everyone. One CIO's observation sums up the whole issue about usability: Too easy never is.

The Big Brother Syndrome. Be aware that horror stories of the hidden reasons that companies implement CRM programs may already be circulating through your sales force. They may have heard how these systems are designed to track their every move, just waiting for them to make a mistake so that management can pounce on them. This initial distrust is a very serious issue that must be dealt with swiftly.

Leaving any of these concerns unresolved will only result in bigger problems when you get ready for implementation. They need to be dealt with head-on so that everyone is on board and supportive of what the company is trying to accomplish.

Another one that I would add to the list above is:

The ?WIIFM? Concept: More completely known as ?What?s In It For Me?. It?s no good introducing a system that only benefits the company. This is closely allied to the Big Brother Syndrome above. That is, you cannot expect a system to sustain itself if it does not produce any direct benefits to the users themselves.

3 Answering these Challenges with a CRM System based on Microsoft Outlook

The Fear of/Resistance to Change Syndrome dictates that the less the users have to change the way they work, the more likely they will adopt any new system that is based around what they are already used to. So if your users are already sending mail, managing their own contacts in their own Personal Contacts folder, and scheduling appointments with the Outlook Calendar, they don?t want to change this. We saw this frequently in the past where the first thing users asked us after introducing a new non-Outlook-based CRM system usually was ?Why should I learn a different calendar? ? I already know Outlook and I?m comfortable with it?. And trying to introduce a system that ?sychronised? or ?integrated? with Outlook also caused endless problems with calendars that got ?out of sync?, etc. So this did little to reduce user frustration.

The Resistance to Change factor has another side that?s reflected in a popular saying namely ?Up to the age of 18 you make your habits; thereafter they make you?. The reality of these words of wisdom is summarized as follows: If a new system is introduced such that not only is training required to learn the system but one also has to form a new set of habits associated with the procedures necessary to run the system, then it will take the average worker 3 to 6 months to develop these new habits to the point where they are ingrained into their daily work routines. And invariably if the user does not see sufficient benefit in the system soon enough (i.e. before these new habits are fully developed), then they continue to do what they were doing before the new system was introduced and as such the new system falls into disuse. One common excuse we used to get during post-implementation audits from users who were found not to have been entering activities into the new CRM system was ?Oh, I keep forgetting to open the system?, or ?it takes too long to open the system when I need it?.

The It's Easy Enough Syndrome: If everyone is already using Outlook, and has been trained on Outlook, or at least has become familiar with its functionality then it will be easy enough for them to learn a few new things associated with ?relating? items together to transform Outlook into a Customer ?Relationship? Management system. Microsoft has made enormous investments in studying the usability of Outlook and soliciting user feedback. So why reinvent the wheel when the users already know (and usually love) this interface.

The Big Brother Syndrome: Installing a new Sales Automation system with Activity Analyses and Productivity Comparison Reports already conjures up the wrong impression amongst the sales people. However just adding to Outlook?s functionality to provide a customer-centric ?related? view of the existing disjointed elements in Outlook (appointments, tasks, journals, contacts and documents) makes all the sense in the world to users, and does not introduce any negative connotations.

The ?WIIFM? Concept: Here Outlook definitely comes to the rescue. Users already appreciate the benefits of Outlook as a ?Personal Information Manager?, especially as Microsoft touts Outlook as being one. The emphasis on Personal implies the primary benefit is to the user and not necessarily the company. So Microsoft in that sense has solved the issue of ?What?s in it for me??
Having looked at the fact that Outlook certainly addresses some of the ?human? factors associated with a CRM implementation, we still need to look at how well Outlook meets the challenge in terms of functionality. We can do this by looking first at the basics of a Contact Management system, which still today is the core of any CRM system.

4 The Basics of any Contact Management System

Any contact management application needs at least the following basic functionality:

a) A mechanism to store and profile Contact information.

b) A means to plan and organize appointments with those contacts, not only for yourself but other team members managing those same contacts.

c) A means to schedule tasks and to-do?s for those contacts.

d) A mechanism to record any kind of interaction with a contact, namely meetings, phone calls, e-mail, documents, etc.

e) Some way of storing documents sent to and received from a contact.

f) A way to send and track e-mail communication.

5 Outlook?s inherent Contact Management Functionality

With reference to the requirements list above, Outlook at least satisfies the following requirements:

a) A mechanism to store and profile Contact information: The ?Contacts? folder in Outlook already allows a comprehensive profile of any personal or business contact to be maintained.

b) A means to plan and organise appointments for those contacts: Outlook?s calendaring facilities provide these very effectively and when coupled with Exchange Server incorporate a huge number of collaborative features that are extremely difficult for any other stand-alone CRM system to emulate or reproduce.

c) A means to schedule tasks and to-do?s for those contacts: Outlook?s task management facility is excellent for this.

d) A mechanism to record any kind of interaction with a contact: The ?Journal? facility of Outlook contains the standard fields necessary to record phone calls, meeting, etc. with clients, and can even time such activities.

e) A way to send and track e-mail communication: The Inbox and Sent Items stores inward and outward e-mails.

However, while Outlook does have the basic foundation for solid contact management functionality, there are certain limitations of Outlook that one needs to be aware of.

6 Limitations of Outlook

As a contact management application however, Outlook has the following limitations:

a) Private Mailbox (Contacts, Appointments, etc.): Without setting up and customising Public Folders, most users will just utilise their Private Mailbox Contacts folder for managing their contacts, thus limiting the sharing of that information and potentially creating massive duplication of the same data within the organisation.

b) Contact-centric: By virtue of their being only a Contacts folder (and no Companies folder), Outlook tends to be Contact-centric rather than Account-centric, which can be limiting for those users managing corporate accounts.

c) Discrete, independent folders: Most users tend to use their Outlook folders as discrete elements, i.e. because it is fairly cumbersome for users to link one item to another, (e.g. a contact to an appointment) they seldom do this. Thus it is difficult for users in the organisation to get an overall picture of all the activity occurring within the organisation against any particular company or contact. The universal objective of any CRM system however, is to provide a ?single-view of all customer-related information to everyone in the organisation?.

7 Overcoming Outlook?s Limitations

Several Outlook-based CRM systems such as MX-Contact (www.mxcontact.com) are Outlook Add-Ins that overcome these limitations by extending the functionality of Outlook to transform it into a powerful CRM system without changing the way users send mail, schedule appointments, etc. Such systems utilise all of Outlook?s existing functionality but add the functionality found in CRM systems to co-ordinate the activities and items in Outlook into ?one central view of all customer related information?. This is the so-called holy grail of CRM.

8 Other Advantages of an Outlook-based CRM System

There are several other distinct advantages to deploying Outlook as the basis for contact/customer management. We summarise them here:

Ease of Use:

a) Outlook is always the first application to be opened: Whenever knowledge workers arrive at their place of work each day, Outlook tends to be the first application that is opened, given that one needs to check what e-mail has been received since last clocking out of the office. He or she therefore opens by default the application needed for Contact Management. One of the greatest obstacles to overcome in the implementation of any CRM system is to get the users into the habit of opening the new system. With Outlook this is not an issue.

b) Outlook is always kept open: The nature of customer interaction is that it is very often re-active, sporadic and impromptu. Therefore it is imperative that the application used to log these interactions is always ?at one?s fingertips? so to speak. Given that users keep Outlook open all day so as to respond timeously to e-mail ensures that this is the case.

c) Familiar Interface: If users are already utilising Outlook for at least e-mail and calendaring then they are already familiar with the interface and how to add new items, edit existing items, etc. Thus there is usually very little requirement for extensive training when an Outlook system is deployed. This dramatically shortens the average implementation time.

d) Increasing Percentage of E-Mail Interaction: An ever-increasing number of users are discovering the advantages of e-mail communication over other forms of contact (phone, fax, letter, etc.). So as e-mail becomes more widely used for customer interaction, it makes sense to deploy your e-mail client as the primary vehicle for managing customer communications, rather then utilising a totally different application.

e) One calendaring system universal across company & supply chain: Given that the vast majority of corporate users are utilising Outlook, it is easy for instance to send meeting requests to suppliers or customers, who can then use many of the same collaboration features that are available to internal users/co-workers. Many CRM systems have their own calendaring system and given that not all users will (or can) necessarily adopt this system means that one has to immediately contend with the problem of keeping these dissimilar calendars synchronized so that all users can effectively co-ordinate their diaries.

f) One e-mail store: Many of the conventional database-based CRM systems on the market have difficulty linking to e-mails given that an e-mail is not the same type of object as say a document. For this reason most systems not running inside Outlook tend to copy the contents of an e-mail into their database tables, thereby effectively duplicating the data and also disconnecting it from its original item, thus losing its formatting and also making handling of ?Replies? and ?Forwards? to the item difficult.

g) One document management system: Some CRM systems also copy documents into their database so as to enable replication of these documents to remote users. The disadvantage of this approach is that a document can only be edited from within the CRM system and not also from its original source on the Windows File System or Exchange Public Folder in the way that most users would already be familiar with.

h) Easy synchronization with most PDA?s: Given that all PDA?s synchronize with Outlook as a standard, this means that you have automatic access to your Contact Management data if it is kept in Outlook rather than being in another application.
Reduced Cost of Ownership:

i) No additional Infrastructure Needed: If a company already has the infrastructure in place necessary to run Outlook on client machines and Exchange Server, then no additional client or server hardware is needed to run an Outlook-based system.

j) Cost of upgrade to new versions of Outlook shared: Very often a client has to justify the costs of upgrading Office as well as the costs of purchasing the CRM application. With an Outlook-based solution this upgrade cost is shared given that the company receives a whole host of additional benefits and functionality from upgrading Office/Outlook as well as receiving a new CRM system.

k) Reduced Training Time (Cost): Given that users will already be familiar with the basics of Outlook, the time needed to train users, and hence the cost of that training, is significantly reduced.

l) Wider Support Base: Given that there are a large number of internal users and external consultants that know Outlook and VBA/VBScript (used to extend its functionality) it is easier and therefore less costly to enhance the functionality and support your user base.

m) Wider application of same training: If a company invests in training its staff in the functionality of Outlook, so as to more effectively use a CRM system based on Outlook, then this knowledge of Outlook will be utilised in everything a user does in Outlook, even those activities not linked to customer management but more internal collaboration etc. However, when one invests in training around a separate proprietary system then this training can only be applied to the use of that system and nothing else.

n) Reduced Installation Time: Given that an Outlook-based system installs itself inside Outlook, it is a simple matter for IT personnel to install the system. In many instances this can be done by the user him or herself.

9 Summary

Microsoft?s earlier promotion of Outlook as a ?Personal Information Manager? created the impression amongst users that Outlook was only intended to manage one?s personal contacts and was not suited as the basis for a corporate-wide Customer Management System. Hopefully this article has rectified some of these misconceptions and shown that, given that so much of one?s day-to-day customer interaction is initiated from within Outlook, Outlook coupled with Exchange or SQL Server is the perfect environment for one?s all important Customer database. For an example of an Outlook-based CRM system, have a look at MX-Contact (http://www.mxcontact.com). A free version is available for download from http://www.free-contact-manager.com.

10 PDF Version

A PDF version of this article may be downloaded from:

http://www.outlookwise.com/OutlookWise/Why_CRM_Projects_Fail/01_Why_CRM_Projects_Fail.htm

Brian Drury is the founder of ExchangeWise (http://www.exchangewise.com), and the architect of MX-Contact (http://www.mxcontact.com), a CRM, Contact Management and Sales Automation System for Microsoft Outlook. Brian has focused on Contact Management, CRM and Collaboration systems for the last 15 years. He is also the editor of OutlookWise (http://www.outlookwise.com), a free newsletter aimed at keeping Outlook users up to date with news, views and articles of interest on Microsoft Outlook and Exchange Server.

Mortgage CRM 101

2008-05-08T02:20:00.000-07:00

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, has always been an essential part of the mortgage industry, as the customers are the primary source of earnings. A good relationship with each individual customer is the beating heart of any mortgage company. Offering the best, useable programs available to them and finding other ways of fulfilling their needs is the basis for retaining current customers while being referred to new ones.

Lead management is one of the toughest, time-consuming, but highly important parts of any company, as it is crucial to obtaining new customers. Mortgage leads within the lending industry are especially significant, for if managed properly and efficiently, an agent or broker can turn the information obtained into a loyal (and profitable) customer. Good mortgage lead management software is a shortcut to improving CRM within the firm.

For starters, the right mortgage lead management system mediums, like software and websites, will offer pre-sorted mortgage leads to the lending industry, including any prospects who are more likely to buy a home, have an adjustable rate mortgage that is about to expire, etc. Through a number of ways, genuine leads from credible sources can easily increase a lender?s closings by 20% or more, as employees of the mortgage industry will spend less time searching for leads and referrals and more time on customer service. With the focus on customer service, more available programs will be found to meet the customer?s needs. In addition to newly delighted customers, you will gain referrals from them.

Secondly, with a good lead management system in place, not only will you be able to act upon only ?hot? current leads, but they can be generated into specific categories such as credit history, zip and/or area codes, type or size of mortgage needed, etc. Now a company?s agents and brokers can prepare ahead of time for such leads, creating a new level of CRM while making your customers feel at ease.

Next, a proven track record with a faster response time will help win the customers before they can even think about finding another company to do business with. Potential customers typically do not enjoy the mortgage process. A quick start followed by a smooth finish is the best way to retain your customers? mortgage needs for life.

Security is the final check for proper lead management. By granting access of company files and potential customer?s valuable information to only well-qualified employees, your security risk will decrease.

As you can easily see, lead management is crucial to the success of any business in the lending industry. Mortgage CRM follows closely behind. By implementing the right lead management program, a healthy bottom line and a returning client base will ensure your company?s success for years to come.

James Hasson recommends http://www.leads360.com/ for mortgage CRM

Why Small Businesses Choose CRM As A Service?

2008-05-07T03:53:00.000-07:00

In order compete and survive in today?s business market the young business must be able to leverage more than just its human capital to contend with bigger brands. In today?s volatile business environment big corporations can quickly swallow the little guys market whole. The importance of attracting and retaining customers has never been more significant. As a result, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions have morphed into an internet based service to provide their customers with greater accessibility and versatility to battle their brand at a level beyond their current means.

CRM software solutions are every where you look on the web and they come in all models and offerings, however, the model of choice for small businesses has been, and continues to be, the internet based application. The hosted internet model, also known as Software as a Service (SaaS), caters to the small business in so many ways that it leaves buyers/users with few reasons to look elsewhere for a CRM solution.

Running a small business requires one to wear multiple hats and manage all facets of the operation. As a result small business owners turn to the versatility of the SaaS model to facilitate their multitasking needs. From marketing automation and sales management to customer service and support, the standard entry level on demand CRM solutions such as http://Salesboom.com offer a simple and intuitive platform to manage ones customer relations. Also, the SaaS model ensures fewer computer and IT headaches, no up front costs, and access to the latest CRM technology, as the whole solution is managed and maintained by the provider. This affords the small business owner and employees greater time to really focus on the goal at hand.

Furthermore the SaaS model offers the end user greater flexibility of business management as they can access their customer info from any where with an internet connection. This enables on demand CRM users to work with their customers on more than one clock, with customer support features that can automate case routing and escalation, users are able to service customer needs around the clock. In addition, CRM as a service improves employee collaboration as customer information and employee activity is recorded and maintained in real time.

SaaS for the small business market is clearly more than just a business trend with CRM revenues expected to eclipse 12 billion by year?s end 2007. What we are witnessing here is a full out transformation of the way businesses are managed today and in the future. Gone will be the in house systems and IT teams of today, replaced by entirely supported software systems hosted by the vendor and integrated in any manner to meet specific customer needs. SaaS is the beginning of what will likely be the biggest change to business development and standards since the industrial revolution.

Colin Duffy enjoys writing about CRM subjects and on demand CRM software vendors such as Salesboom ( http://www.salesboom.com )

How A Holistic CRM Solution Will Increase Overall Business Performance

2008-05-06T01:29:00.000-07:00

Born out of the high priced custom built CRM and ERP solutions of Oracle, Siebel and SAP, on demand CRM solutions built on the Software as a Service (SaaS) model are beginning to incorporate more than just customer relationship management. This newly developing multifunctional on demand solution is widely perceived by many to be part of the evolutionary process of the SaaS model, and a direct result of customer desire to have an all in one solution, without heavy integration and customization.

Holistic CRM is the future of the SaaS model, while some CRM vendors have elected to support niche markets, the bigger more robust CRM vendors of today are positioning themselves to provide their customers with one final solution. From front office to back office, on demand CRM vendors are revolutionizing the way we do business today and for generations to come.

By taking this holistic approach to on demand business management, current CRM providers such as Salesboom Inc. are opening their doors to a larger customer base, as well as providing their current customers with the tools to meet their growing business needs. Furthermore, the holistic CRM approach will improve your company?s customer reach, and enable greater collaboration between employees to meet the diverse needs of customers.

The out and out benefits of this evolution will not only include greater capabilities, but also increased efficiency and collaboration on all fronts. Your organization will also stand to benefit from greater accessibility to pertinent customer information and history from all areas in order to deal accurately and prudently with new requests/concerns. In addition, the holistic CRM will also remove the cost and need for integration with other stand alone in house systems, ensuring that all your employees/users are focused on doing business rather than supporting it.

Having this fully integrated system will provide your workforce with the tools to manage your business more effectively and give you access and clarity into all facets of your organization in real time. While many are content with present on demand CRM solutions, the potential for rapid business growth could leave them looking for a new CRM solution in less than a year.

The evolution of the holistic CRM solution is inevitable, with a few industry leaders already having laid the foundation to fully integrate their front office CRM features such as Marketing, Sales and Customers support, with back office Enterprise Resource Planning and Human Resource Management tools. This hybrid software as a service solution is set to absorb the unilateral CRM solutions we have grown accustomed to seeing today.

Colin Duffy enjoys writing about CRM subjects and on demand CRM software vendors such as Salesboom ( http://www.salesboom.com )

How CRM Software Helps in Account Management

2008-05-03T03:00:00.000-07:00

The increase in competition in all business fields positioned customers at the top most point. Customer Relationship Management or CRM practices have thus became mandatory for all business enterprises today to satisfy their customers. Companies use standard and customized CRM software tools to enhance their customer relationship management activities. All these software programs are capable for automating each and every business processes from customer tracking to business undertakings, including account management practices.

Account management as the name implies is the storing, sharing and reviewing of all business accounts. Account management practices are so important to the business enterprises that they act as the chief resource for all customer and company related information. The introduction of CRM software solutions and sales force automation (SFA) practices made account management including data collection and data integration easy. These software programs eliminated traditional account management activities that need lot of paper works and manual labor.

The account management CRM software programs are capable of maintaining complete history of various accounts. They automatically track all small and large interaction of accounts such as customer contacts, money transformations, partnership programs, employee payment etc. Account management activities through CRM software solutions help the companies to store account and customer information in a centralized database connected to different data processing devices. These account management application software programs are capable of providing timely reviews and analytics about the financial health of an organization.

CRM account management software programs track each customer interacting with the company. These software programs store all customer information like customer name, customer visits, contact information, number of visits, visiting intervals, how much money spend on products/services etc in appropriate CRM databases. Timely these data are retrieved and integrated to find good customers. This CRM account management software feature helps organizations to design and develop suitable marketing and service plans for each customer. The built-in communication devices of the account management software help in marketing of products/services through direct marketing, e-mail and phone.

The standard features of modern account management systems include single database having links to all data resources of the organization, multiple modularity for receiving all data, capability to cope with any data format like work, excel sheet, images, graphs etc, adaptability to any operating system, web-linked communication devices for fast data tracking and recovery, the capacity to work both online and offline, and the capacity to carry out multiple functions like contact management, product management, lead routing , custom reporting , partner tracking and sales forecasting.

Customer relationship management software assisted account management guides employees to effectively provide appropriate services to their customers. Account management software enables the sales professionals to schedule and track activities related to accounts, tracing the delivery and to launch innovative business opportunities. The sales force automation and effective communication also help employees, especially sales representatives, to easily coordinate different activities. The company management can also monitor and regulate their employees more effectively. CRM software solutions also ensure flexibility of business in changing climates.

The other advantages of account management through CRM software include -time and working capital saving, elimination of manual data entry and paper works, timely warnings about inadequate data and deadlines, proper organization of data, easy data tracking and sharing, elimination of duplicate data entry and false data entry, helps in designing customer service plans, better trouble shooting and above all less mental pressure on company management and workers.

This article has been provided by eSalesTrack.com , a US based provider of on-demand CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and other application software such as Sales Force Automation. To learn more about CRM visit CRM Articles.

Marketing Automation - A critical segment of CRM

2008-05-01T01:58:00.000-07:00

Every business defines a marketing system, either manual or automated. Some emerge as giants, while others, either give up on business or constantly struggle to keep their heads above the water. So, what are the variables that make or mar the success of an organization?

The successful enterprises have the capacity to address the market needs by using right marketing automation tools and analytics, which enact as time and money saving mechanisms and help in making good business decisions.

Marketing automation, an integral component of customer relationship management (CRM) involves using a software application to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration (CDI) and campaign management. Marketing automation allows manual processes to be performed much more efficiently and conceiving some new ones.

It's Functions

Most companies have taken to marketing automation tools in order to tune their customer marketing efforts to acquiring and retaining customers and generating new sources of revenue. Marketing-automation application allows you to: -

1.Perform critical, real-time market analysis that lets businesses gauge the effectiveness of marketing initiatives. 2.Build, execute and measure their marketing campaigns. 3.Update information on customer segments and profiles based on the constant input of new data. This information can come from click stream analysis of customer behavior on a Web site or from response patterns across multiple campaigns such as direct mail, conferences and training initiatives. 4.Collect, analyze, disseminate and act on a wide range of data, with greater speed without greasing your elbows.

The core of this technology lets you streamline your data as per categories such as - which information goes where, which messages are sent to whom and likewise. From the very first step, marketing automation allows you to carefully segment your in-house list. Accordingly, no entry can be made without being classified. Thereon, every single action taken by an individual, from every clickable link to slightest piece of information, all gets recorded under one central database. Whether you're sending out your first email or fifteenth, every person's record is updated instantly.

Knowing the Answers

By analyzing the volume of data (open rates, clickthroughs, form completions, expressed and implied preferences...) accumulated by your data marketing automation system, you as a marketer, can find answers to some of your most persistent queries such as:

1.By the designated category, which prospects are the most and least active responders? 2.What has been your response rate over the past 6 months for one email type communication versus another? 3.What number of prospects responded to the current month's product promotion compared to the one executed 2 months ago?

Knowing your Prospects

You can better understand your prospects by letting them choose the type and level of communications they do / don't want to receive from your end. Such communications might include:

1.Product announcements 2.Corporate press releases 3.Event announcements 4.Broad informational resources

Once your prospects have expressed their preferences, the information gets stored in the centralized database, supported by your marketing automation, which further lets you capture your prospect/s professional interests.

Advantages

With marketing automation application, you enjoy a number of benefits:

1.You spend more time on the tasks that you like to do, which usually are those that got you into the business in the first place. 2.Instead of you having to chase clients, they come to you already knowing about your products / services. 3.While you are occupied entertaining existing clients, you're still getting the word out about your services allowing you make informed decisions about your company' 4.You get the leverage to accelerate your business growth.

Most marketing-automation applications let users design, schedule, execute and evaluate multi-channel marketing campaigns. Major components to be considered under marketing-automation are: -

1.Marketing analytics is important for companies that do not have a sophisticated data-management infrastructure. Companies that are new to data analytics might want a marketing-automation tool that can generate data models. 2.Campaign management is another key piece of marketing automation that supports campaign design, scheduling and execution capabilities across multiple channels, including direct mail, E-mail, Web, phone, fax and events. 3.Real-time decision support helps marketing managers track campaigns and make tweaks on the fly in response to customer activities. 4.Learning algorithms track and predict customer behavior. 5.Finally, response management and reporting lets business managers review the results of their campaigns.

Any major marketing automation project must be initiated with a strategy and process evaluation. Many companies attempt to redesign processes in the middle of an automation effort. This is can significantly increase costs and induce delays. Strategy, process and automation - in that order - deliver the best and most predictable results.

Selecting the best product is often a matter of aligning with a company's CRM infrastructure or selecting the most viable software vendor. While functionality is important, products should offer maximum support for most marketing processes. A number of CRM vendors offer marketing automation as part of larger offerings that may include sales-force automation or customer-service capabilities.

Get winning results with Salesforce.com

As a global leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM), Salesforce.com provides closed-loop marketing automation application. Understanding the importance of integrated sales and marketing, Salesforce Marketing Automation helps you advocate multi-channel campaigns. Real-time analytics and reporting tools help marketers to evaluate campaign results and make necessary tweaks to enhance their performance.

Salesforce.com's comprehensive on-demand marketing automation offers you: -
Integrated marketing and sales application with automated lead conversion. Real-time analytics to measure and optimize campaigns for positive results. Multi-channel campaign management and analysis. Simple-to-use and rapid deployment encouraging better and faster user experience.

Want to get quality results? Choose Salesforce.com for award-winning functionality, proven integration, point-and-click customization, global capabilities and more. Free Trial & Demo - Apply Today!

For more information contact us at: Sales Force

Small business CRM: How to select the right CRM software for your company

2008-04-11T04:42:00.000-07:00

You've decided that you need a better customer relationship management system ("CRM") for your small business. You need a good place to store and access your customer information just like bigger companies. You want to be able to generate meaningful reports and manage your marketing campaigns. But there are so many options in all price ranges.

So how do you choose the best CRM software for your company?

What is CRM, exactly?

In its simplest form, CRM is a database where sales and marketing teams store critical account data such as contact & account information, lead source, sales activity history, purchase history, and marketing campaign data and projections.

CRM can also be an important reporting tool. For example, you can use it to

Generate revenue projections for a product, a sales rep, and your company as a whole
Tie revenue to the original marketing campaign
Pull up lists of leads and activities by sales rep
View the number of leads you have at each step in your sales process
Track your progress against your goals
Manage marketing campaigns
Capture leads from your website
Minimize the time your team spends creating manual sales & activity reports

Choosing the right CRM

When you choose the right CRM software, you gain knowledge and power to keep your team on track and measure progress against goals.

Best case: Your CRM matches your marketing, sales, customer service and retention strategies. It's easy to use and provides reports that eliminate the need to generate tedious manual reports. It may integrate with other software like accounting and inventory, enabling your entire team to view important data and reports in real time.
Worst case: You don't have a solid system for managing customer information; it's kept in various files or databases that aren't linked. It's difficult and time-consuming to create revenue projections, sales reports and marketing campaign reports. The result: lost revenue, productivity and opportunity. Even worse: you use paper files.

How to compare CRM software

The key to selecting the right CRM is to analyze your needs.

Decide what information your team should be able to access and how they'll use it.
Identify who needs to use the system and where they're located (i.e. in different offices).
Determine what reports you'll want to generate, particularly your revenue and pipeline reports.
Identify the marketing programs you'd like to be able to run and how that information can help you better manage your accounts.

If you've outgrown your current system, you may be able to purchase add-ins to give your existing system more power. You may also decide to evaluate new systems to give you the true functionality you need.

Select a CRM vendor

Once you've defined your requirements, look for a CRM package that meets your needs. Remember that many systems come in several versions; you can start with a basic version and upgrade as you grow, but make sure the upgrade process is seamless.

Manage CRM implementation

When you're nearing the end of your selection process, get ready for implementation.

Create an implementation team.
Develop a schedule for key tasks: configuring fields, migrating data, creating reports, training users.
Create a solid training plan.
Launch the software.
Do followup training to ensure that your team uses the software as planned. Most implementations fail because employees don't use the software properly.
Gather feedback and modify the software configuration as needed; make it as intuitive and powerful as possible.

There are plenty of consultants who can help you through this process. But you can save a lot of time and money by educating yourself. We've created a free CRM selector tool to help you define your needs and narrow your vendor list -- just email us now and we'll send it to you.

James Sagar is one of the creators of the Marketing M.O., web-based software that delivers marketing strategy, guided best practices and interactive templates in 29 business marketing subjects. Entrepreneurs, executives and marketers use the M.O. to solve the challenges they face each day.

How To Define Your Needs Before Buying Crm

2008-04-11T04:41:00.002-07:00

Like many other business trends, the pressure to keep up with the latest technology developments and hold on to your competitive edge can often lead to rushed and poorly researched decisions. Such is the case with Customer Relationship Management and its enormous industry growth and migration rates. Many CEO?s have been left scratching their head, wondering how to keep up and which CRM product is right for them?

The CRM market is packed with solutions that range from the simple contact management and tracking to the feature rich comprehensive solutions that can reach across you entire organization. However, the question for the interested buyer should remain, ?What can our organization/company/employees do with this CRM?? and not ?What can this CRM do for my company?? Approaching CRM vendors with this mindset will allow you to see past the over kill features and cumbersome processes inherent in most solutions. You need to see the value of their product as it relates to your business specific needs. Refining your company needs for a CRM solution based on your current business practices will help you find a suitable CRM solution!

By really analyzing your current processes and methods, flagging the procedures you want to enhance or areas you want to improve in efficiency, will better prepare you to test out CRM vendor platforms. As well as help you model your business processes to better benefit from a suitable CRM solution.

The majority of CRM software solutions are built on best practices in business, flowing from Marketing and Lead Management to Sales Automation; Account, Contact and Opportunity management to Sales tracking, reporting and forecasting capabilities. Furthermore, CRM vendors also offer simple customer service, support, and tracking features in the form of Case and Solution management. This base model is prevalent in many industry solutions and makes the first step on to a CRM platform relatively smooth.

However, the customer is left to do the drilling or the ?kicking of the tires? if you will, to really substantiate the value of the features embedded in the program and see if they will improve their current business processes, as well as enhance their employee productivity. In this case, finding the functions you need in a CRM will be just as important as the form it comes in. Acquiring a user friendly product will ensure your employees adopt the product quickly and continue to use it in the long run.

With step one accomplished, the goal should now be to review the extent of the product offered by the vendor. Can this CRM solution accommodate your growing company? Your need to manage key processes such as projects, billing and invoicing, contracts, quote management, product inventory, human resource management, etc. should all be met by the same CRM solution. There is nothing more disconcerting then having to procure services from multiple vendors to get close to the CRM functionality and organization you need.

By defining your needs in a CRM software solution, you will be better served when it comes to researching and evaluating the different products on the market, as well ensuring your company benefits from your decision on the whole. By knowing what you it is you need in a CRM, as well as what it is that will work for your particular organization, you will ensure your employees can adopt and use the solution you choose.

Colin Duffy enjoys writing about CRM subjects and on demand CRM and ERP software vendors such as Salesboom ( http://www.salesboom.com )

How To Calculate CRM Total Cost Of Ownership (TCO)

2008-04-11T04:41:00.001-07:00

Although it may look and sound complicated, calculating the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for on demand CRM is as simple as elementary subtraction. Or to go one step further, more money will be going into your business rather than the system that struggles to support it. The on demand model affords customers greater flexibility in accessibility and product, hassle free hosting of information, upgrades year round and greater security of information, just to name a few perks!

For those not using on demand CRM allow me to break down its cost effectiveness versus out of the box or custom built solutions:

For starters you can take your current IT costs and subtract all your hours and dollars spent on system maintenance, upgrades, integration and up keep.

Now further subtract the cost incurred for hosting your current network or CRM application. If it is in house then you can deduce server costs, power costs etc... If you host via third party you can go ahead and drop that cost all together.

So things are starting to look a little brighter!

For those who currently use an out of the box CRM system, you can go ahead and knock off the costs incurred for support, training, customization and yearly upgrades, and every other hidden fee you incur.

I am sure that by now some of you are probably feeling a little skeptical; and I don?t blame you, the potential to save this much money definitely warrants some initial second guessing. But don?t let me convince you, see for yourself and put your worries to rest once and for all.

No upfront costs ? with on demand CRM, the software is already built and it is entirely hosted online, all you have to do is subscribe and start using it.

No downloads ? the on demand CRM platform ensures you are never burdened by continual downloads cluttering up your computer and network while slowly eating up your memory.

No hosting fees ? the on demand platform is designed, built and maintained by an expert IT staff, hosted at an external secure location with manned security personnel. Enabling you the user to focus solely on your business and only your business.

Customizable platform ? the on demand SaaS platform is readily customizable by expert developers and product engineers. No longer will you have to fork over thousands of dollars to mash stand alone legacy systems into a tedious and often bug ridden enterprise solution.

Free upgrades ? with the flexibility of the on demand CRM model, top CRM vendors can offer continual and seamless updates and enhancements to their solution.

Security of Information ? a common misconception with the on demand platform is the issue of information security. While many find comfort in having their information hosted on site, they are in fact more vulnerable to intruders or hackers, or disgruntled employees then they would be by using the ASP/on demand platform. A good CRM vendor out sources the hosting of their servers to ISP providers, thus guaranteeing greater security and up time for their customers.

There is no denying the aforementioned facts, on demand CRM offers you greater bang for your buck when compared to the conventional out of the box offerings. On demand CRM removes the headaches of IT maintenance along with its hefty costs, it optimizes your employee work rate and in turn, allows you to bring in more money while spending less. Not to mention your company info could not be more secure!

Colin Duffy enjoys writing about CRM subjects and on demand CRM and ERP software vendors such as Salesboom ( http://www.salesboom.com )

How To Select The Right CRM For Your Business?

2008-03-30T23:02:00.000-07:00

Learning the ins and outs of any software package is never an easy task, trying to find the time to learn it all within the limits of a free trial, and then apply it to your specific business needs can prove to be a complete turn off!

For the uneducated CRM mind, choosing the right on demand Customer Relationship Management platform, ?on demand? meaning a fully hosted solution that you access over the Internet; can be a logistical nightmare.

From simple acronyms such as CRM, SFA (Sales Force Automation) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to the more complex terms such as Application Programming Interface and Workflow Automation, there is an overwhelming amount of information you need to know before you really begin to look at a product.

This article aims to address these issues and encourage you to take a more conceptual approach to learning and understanding CRM. Consider this; every site you visit will more often than not appear to be the answer to your prayers. However, knowing what to look for can quickly rule out the pretenders from the contenders.

? First off, ask yourself ?can I customize the product??, ?or can they customize the product for me?? Any company pushing a product that cannot be tailored to suit your needs is not worth your time. No matter what they say or preach, their solution cannot meet the needs of every individual company?s business needs.

? Secondly, look for a company and product that has multiple editions/platforms, such a company has worked with different industries already and tailored their product to meet specific industry needs, and is obviously willing to work with their customers.

? Third, look for a road map, investing in a company that offers no information on the direction of their product, and future version/feature releases does not show a willingness to meet your future business needs. You want a product that will grow along with you, not one that will hamstring you as you grow.

? Finally, look for a product that is applicable across your company, if you are paying full value for a CRM solution; make sure you can use the application across your enterprise. Having a fully hosted operating system backed by and Service Level Agreement will ensure that your entire organization is on the same page.

In conclusion acquiring the right CRM package is no easy task, however, researching the market based on the above criteria will ensure you acquire a CRM solution that will meet your specific needs today, and continue to meet your needs as you grow.

Colin Duffy enjoys writing about CRM subjects and on demand CRM software vendors such as Salesboom (http://www.salesboom.com )

Why Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) CRM Is Here To Stay?

2008-03-28T22:47:00.000-07:00

There is no denying the increasing business trend to harness the power of the Internet to not only get their message out, but to manage their customer responses. For millions of companies the Internet provides a medium to service their customer interests, and facilitate greater communication.

However, managing, tracking and reporting on this information was, until recently, accomplished by either enormously expensive custom solutions such as Siebel, SAP or Oracle, or by using out of the box software that offered limited capabilities, required heavy customization, integration and constant maintenance.

This left many small to medium sized business in the dark, working off of spreadsheets and paper trails combined with the power of e-mail to manage their business processes. This expansive market needed a solution that could work from multiple locations, share information in real time, integrate with current systems and websites, yet still remain cost effective in today?s demanding business market.

The solution, Software as a Service (SaaS), a platform from which a business can manage its customers and relationships in a centralized online location, share information in a real time environment, and access it from anywhere in the world. The SaaS model caters to the small to medium sized business looking for maintenance free solution that is easy to use, customizable, continually upgraded, backed by a service level guarantee, and most importantly affordable.

In hindsight, the out of box, in house supported network systems of years past appear to be rendered powerless against the strength of a single hosted solution shared be everyone within the organization over the Internet. The Software as a Service model has propelled on demand Customer Relationship Management software to the forefront of software innovation. Given the power and flexibility that SaaS offers, from customization to integration, the increasing rate of migration to the on demand platform is no surprise.

Colin Duffy enjoys writing about CRM subjects and on demand CRM software vendors such as Salesboom (http://www.salesboom.com )

Manufacturing.net Profiles Industrial CRM Leader Commence

2008-03-28T22:45:00.000-07:00

Industrial CRM Leader Commence Profiled in Manufacturing.net

In Manufacturing.net, manufacturing journalist Thomas R. Cutler notes, ?Some ERP vendors offer industry specific CRM solutions; many do not. Bolt-on generic CRM solutions are frequently sold as the panacea; few are.?

Larry Caretsky, President of New Jersey-based Commence, (www.commence.com/mfg), developers of a stand alone industrial CRM solution, suggested that most ERP companies offering CRM have shortfalls. ?Managing the sales cycle and sales representative performance, marketing campaign management and integration with customer support are not provided by ERP tools,? he said. CRM is not the strength for most ERP systems, which often utilize an add-on module but are rarely a full CRM package. In many cases, industrial customers who require full CRM capabilities are relegated to third party products or services.

Stand alone industrial CRM solutions provide effective lean CRM processes as long as the vendor truly understands the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the manufacturing sector; most do not. Generic databases do not address central issues facing all industrial operations. According to Caretsky, ?Smart industrial organizations gather several key data points during customer research, which helps to define a CRM profile.?

According to Cutler, ?Expertise in industrial CRM is more significant than whether fully integrated in an ERP system or stand alone industrial CRM; vendor experience in industrial sales and marketing trumps the selection of technology.? The complete feature article may be read at http://manufacturing.net/article/CA6363848.html.

Commence offers industrial companies complete ?Freedom of Choice? to select the solutions and platform that best meets the business requirements of manufacturers and distributors. The comprehensive CRM Industrial application suite is available for use on premise or on-demand as a hosted service. Industrial leaders often build departmental CRM solutions with the award winning Commence Industrial CRM Framework. These choices are why so many industrial companies choose Commence as the solution for managing customer relationships. All Commence Industrial solutions support mobile or wireless connectivity and integration to back-office accounting and ERP systems.

Commence Corporation

www.commence.com/mfg/

Larry Caretsky

Marketing@commence.com

732-380-9100

Why does every company need a CRM (Customer Relationship Management)?

2008-03-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

First, let?s define what a CRM is: The term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a system that connects different parts of a company through the thread of customer relationships. Sales, Marketing, Accounting and Customer Service can all be tied together with a powerful, centralized CRM software made to retain customer loyalty, increase revenue, deliver consistent and efficient customer service, and finally, evaluate which customers to focus on.

Basically, every company has customers, and every company should maintain some basic information about those customers such as names, addresses, purchases, contracts, invoices, etc. Therefore every company should have at least some basic "CRM Technology" to track and serve their customers. Even small businesses use Outlook, Quicken or other applications for this purpose. If you use Microsoft Outlook for your daily communications, calendaring, tasks and appointments and need a way to track sales leads and opportunities, to share data across sales representatives, to improve the understanding of your sales process, to communicate with a broad groups of people on a one to one basis, to improve your business process in the most important area ? sales, and need a reporting system that beats multiple excel spreadsheets, then you need a complete CRM solution.

Why ? Because a CRM software can increase profitability for your business by reducing current operating costs, usually in the call center or distribution system, and by increasing customer value through smarter marketing using customer data to increase customer profitability.

Can you do it without a CRM ? Probably, but not as efficiently because only a CRM is built to take care of Customer personal needs ?centrally?, meaning that by using a single software, all the employees of the same company can access an organised database via Internet, where sales, customer service and management have access to the same customer data using tools such as ?Sales Force Automation? (provides Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Account and Contact Management, Reports and Dashboards specifically useful for your organization's sales team), ?Customer Support and Services? (provides Ticket Management, Knowledge Base, E-mail Notifications specifically useful for your organization's customer support team.), ?Marketing Automation? (provides Lead Management, Mailing Lists, E-mail/Mail Merge templates, Product Management, specifically useful for your organization's marketing team.), ?Inventory Management? (provides Products, Price Books, Vendors, Quotes, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Invoices specifically useful for integrating your organization's sales, inventory, and accounting processes and enhance the sales effectiveness.) , providing a complete integration between pre-sales, post-sales, procurement, fulfillment, and other business processes within your organization.

In other words, a good CRM software will help you build customer relationships by setting mutually satisfying goals between organization and customers, establishing and maintaining customer rapport and producing positive feelings in your organization and for the customers.

Organizations that implement CRM and turn their business into e-businesses will find their competitors' customers ready to welcome them with a "smile". According to a study by IT Consulting firm Aberdeen - "The winners in this new economy will be those companies that can effectively leverage the Internet to redesign, automate and integrate all business operations".
Take the plunge!

Either jump on board with CRM and invest, knowing you need it, or get out the calculator and pencil and start adding up what you?re going to lose!

One thing is for certain ? a few short months after implementing your CRM solution, you?ll wonder how on earth you ever got by without it!
http://www.momentustech.ca

Salesforce CRM guide

2008-03-26T23:45:00.000-07:00

Making good use of superior customer relationship management (CRM) to manage and share information is a key competitive advantage for businesses today. At the same time, getting the greatest productivity and revenue benefits from sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service applications is quickly becoming a top priority for companies of all sizes. CRM products and services make it easy for customers to conduct business with an organization in any way they want regardless of the communication channel they operate through. They also facilitate communication with customers across varying lines of business. In other words, CRM enables an organization to manage its relation with its customers efficiently through the introduction of reliable processes and procedures for interacting with those customers. Thus, in today's competitive business environment, successful CRM solutions have become indispensable.

Eventually a number of companies have evolved offering CRM products and services. However, Salesforce.com has emerged as a true winner out of them. Salesforce.com made its entry into the current market in the field of internet software and services way back in 1999. Marc Benioff, Parker Harris and David Moellenhoff were the founders of Salesforce.com, which is emerging as a pioneer in the field of CRM products and services during the recent times. Salesforce assists its clients in data contrivance, helps in maintaining candid and accurate customer feedback for umpteen products and services offered by different enterprises in the current competitive market. The incomparable professional services provided by Salesforce.com results in remarkable client gratification. The technical experts at Salesforce.com assist the end-users in customization of the existing CRM solutions and achieving better performance by picking out the right merchandise for future CRM implementation. The Salesforce automation services enable salespeople to be productive by automating manual and repetitive tasks, and provides organized data about their current and prospective customers, as well as permits companies to establish a system and a process for recording, tracking, and sharing information about sales opportunities, sales forecasts, and closed business.

With the advent of on-demand CRM, some very significant changes have been introduced in the realm of CRM. Salesforce.com is the worldwide leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM) services. The technology does away with the need to buy the software and hardware separately and then implement it yourself. With on-demand CRM, Salesforce performs the role of the IT experts for its clients. From building the infrastructure, the software, and providing upgrades, Salesforce executes all the operations in a transparent manner.

More companies trust their vital customer and sales data to salesforce.com than any other CRM company in the world because it delivers integrated, completely customizable enterprise applications for companies of all sizes. Also, because Salesforce is easy to learn and use, and it can be up and running in weeks or days -- not the months or years required as by traditional client-server CRM software. In fact, more than 399,000 subscribers at 20,500 companies worldwide depend on Salesforce to manage their sales, marketing, customer center, and customer service.

Mansi gupta recommends that you visit Sales force CRM for more information.

Siebel CRM guide

2008-03-26T23:44:00.000-07:00

With the growing competition in today's business world successful Customer Relationship Management or CRM has become indispensable for any organization. Making good use of superior customer relationship management to manage and share information is a key competitive advantage for businesses today. At the same time, getting the greatest productivity and revenue benefits from sales force automation, marketing automation, and customer service applications is quickly becoming a top priority for companies of all sizes.

There are many different types of CRM applications. Some CRM applications are Web-based so they can be accessed via a browser. Other CRM applications have programs built in for integrating data entries and data management across several applications. In order to successfully collect data, manage call centers, analyze data, and make changes, businesses need these CRM applications. There are many CRM vendors in the world. The most widely-recognized vendors are Siebel, Salesforce.com, and Microsoft. Each of these vendors has contributed to CRM in its own way. CRM vendors also have specific strategies that are unique to every client. The goal of a CRM vendor is to not only upgrade a company with the latest CRM technology, but also to design the company's infrastructure in such a way that the customer/company relationship can flourish.

'Siebel Systems' is the world's leading provider of solutions that help organizations of all sizes optimize their people, processes, and technology around their customers, leading to outstanding customer experiences and superior business results. With more than $2 billion in direct and partner investment and over 11 years of experience with more than 4,000 organizations Siebel offers perfect customer relationship management, business intelligence, and customer data integration solutions.

With the global competition quickly turning their products and services into commodities the organizations have realized that they can secure cost savings only from operational efficiencies and back-end transactional improvements. Thus, they are now looking for business solutions to help them more effectively identify, acquire, serve, and retain their customers. Moreover, they're looking for help in growing customer profitability and for ways to improve the experience their customers have at every stage of the customer life cycle, from placing an order to resolving a service issue. However, this search is not uncomplicated. Creating a consistently rewarding and profitable customer experience in every interaction, across all channels, is a complex task. To face these challenges professionally and become truly customer-driven, organizations must develop a comprehensive customer-focused business strategy and then mobilize the right combination of people, processes, and technology to bring that strategy to life. This is where Siebel can make all the difference. Siebel helps companies of all sizes optimize everything, such as, their people, processes, and technology around their customers. It assists them to overcome the challenges and achieve outstanding customer-driven business results.

Therefore, as customer expectations are always increasing, the business services must increase along with these expectations. CRM is the method through which businesses can connect with their customers and hence, serve them better. Organizations with successful CRM strategy and applications will be successful in securing a large increase in sales, customer satisfaction, which will in turn ensure the overall success of their business.

Mansi gupta recommends that you visit Siebel CRM for more information

Web based CRM guide 101

2008-03-24T23:31:00.000-07:00

One of the primary factors in the success of any company is the liaison it shares with its customers. CRM or Customer Relationship Management designates all features of interaction a company shares with its customer. This includes everything from sales to service.

CRM is basically a business strategy designed to accrue gains, generate revenue and cater to customer needs and satisfaction. With the e-media picking up pace, the manner in which companies approach their CRM strategies has greatly changed. This has even altered the consumer's purchasing attitude. So these days CRM too has become a web based effort as most of the customer relationship is handled electronically.

The web based CRM service is more effective. Web-based CRM services mainly covers three areas of service- sales force automation, management of customer relationships and customer services and automated marketing.

A web-based CRM software is a web-based system used for contact management, marketing and sales support, project tracking and other tasks associated with CRM. This software enables teams and departments to share a central and fresh database. The software facilitates its users with an online contact manager and a project-tracking tool, either over the web or within the corporate intranet. With the aid of the CRM software you can view and manage contacts, customer's record, hot leads, projects and left-out work, from anywhere and with any web-browser. Moreover unlike the intervening and needed to be testified upgrades of an enterprise software, the upgrades to the web based software do not affect the organization's regular operations in any manner. Due to these features more and more companies are driven towards this web-based software.

Siebel Systems Inc., HydraNet and Push CRM are some eminent names in web-based software service. Lately SAP has also blessed the market with on-demand Customer Relationship Management solution. A web based CRM has many names out of which on-demand CRM is one.

These systems provide agents with the most up-to-date information on all customer service transactions. The software adds to the strategic value and business of the organization by automating sales, marketing and customer service. For instance the SAP product specializes in providing core sales-force automation features for managing customers, contacts and sales pipelines.

The software runs and keeps a complete track of your data after it is downloaded or purchased and then installed on your server or web-host. Usually the CRM software runs on all significant platforms such as Unix, Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, Novell (6.5) and so forth. Since the software serves many purposes at the same time, it is quite expensive. However an incredible competition in the market has enabled the software seekers to exercise their choice to a certain extent.

In choosing a web-based CRM software it is important that the user should firstly analyze his or her budget or the budget of the organization. Secondly also check your organization's partner ecosystems. A user-friendly hosted CRM system, an on premise version or the combo of both should follow this and finally try to go for software that can fit any type of user, any size company and in any industry.

Mansi gupta recommends that you visit Web based CRM for more information

CRM Software

2008-03-23T23:07:00.000-07:00

CRM Software is an integral part of a businesses Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

So what is "CRM Software" ?

In simple terms a CRM Software is software that a business uses to improve the relationship it has with their customers.

It's hard to define everything CRM Software can do. So I'll outline the uses of CRM Software then give some examples.

CRM Software is a vital component to a businesses overall CRM strategy, yet the whole business needs to understand CRM in all departments and functions of the business and behave appropriately to make CRM work.

An effective CRM will include methodologies, strategies, software and web-based capabilities that help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships.

Why use CRM Software?

CRM Software is used to help businesses:

(a) understand their customer, and
(b) understand their customer's wants and needs, and
(c) help the business serve them more efficiently and effectively.

In turn this will help the business to improve customer satisfaction, increase staff productivity, slash operational costs and maximize the effectiveness of each customer interaction.

Let's talk about these three different areas.

A CRM Solution to understand the customer

A CRM Solution allows the user to collect as much information about the customer that they can. They'll collect names, addresses, contact numbers, age, sex, number of children, etc. A CRM Solution does this to, amongst other things, help 'classify' their customers.

A benefit of a CRM Solution is that a user can help analyse which types of customers are best for their business.

Then once they know what customer ' types' are best they can then market to them in a 'personal' way - using the information gained about them.

A CRM Solution to understand the customers wants and needs
As information is collected about the customer's personal life, information is also collected about their buying habits and stored in CRM Software.

Humans are creatures of habit. By analysing the information collected about the customer and their buying habits the CRM can be used to help the business identify what the customers would most likely want or need to buy.

For example, if your CRM solution information lets you know that your best customers typically like buying 'red apples' in November for an average sale price of $15. You can prepare a marketing approach that is sent out to them prior to November that will steer them towards buying $30 worth of apples.

The customer sees it as useful because it's something they like to do at that time of year, and you're offering them a reminder and perhaps an incentive to buy more. The business benefits by structuring the offer to increase the sales value and therefore increasing the profit return.

A good CRM solution will allow you to do everything that I've just mentioned. You'll be able to bring up reports, write letters and then print them or e-mail them to a define part of your database.

A CRM Solution is useful to also target new customers

Information gathered in the CRM will help the business to target more of the preferred customers. An analysis using a CRM solution could tell the business, for example, that single males between 30 to 35 years of age that earn between $50,000 and $60,000 are the best type of customer for the business.

Knowing that information from the CRM, the business can then hire a list from a direct mail list broker of all the single men that fit the description and target their marketing toward them.

The CRM solution activity of improving the relationship with the customer is to help keep the customer more loyal to the company and thus improve the profitability of the business.

A CRM Solution to help efficiency and effectiveness of business

A good CRM Solution application will help the business to become more efficient and effective.

The business can become more efficient because if a customer contacts the business, within seconds the customer service representative can produce the customer's file. This will tell the employee all about the customer and their interaction with the business.

So a CRM solution saves time for the business and is able to help the employees deliver high levels of personalised service.

A CRM Solution software program and approach can help the business become more effective. An example would be marketing.

Knowing all the information about the customers, the marketing strategies can be targeted towards the customers in a personal way. Thus marketing to a defined target market with a past history the potential of improved results is far greater than marketing to a 'cold' list.

This article should only be viewed a very broad overview of what CRM Solution could do.

On this web site you'll find more detail and resources to help you understand and use CRM for your business.

There are many providers of CRM Solutions, I suggest you get a demo and work out what you're looking for in your CRM Software and then try a few to make the best CRM solution decision for you.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Selection: AX, CRM, GP, NAV ? multinational corporation

2008-03-23T23:05:00.000-07:00

For Multinational corporation MRP selection is typically complicated by the following:

Country Specific Taxation. Including regional and municipal taxes in the foreign country
Government Fiscal Reporting. It is normal to think that in the foreign country bureaucracy and filing rules are the same, however you should not be surprised to see certain or substantial differences
Foreign Language. When multinational corporation penetrates to the local market ? it should keep ERP transparent and somehow offset the ?language and cultural? problems

For Multinational corporation MRP selection is typically complicated by the following:

Country Specific Taxation. Including regional and municipal taxes in the foreign country
Government Fiscal Reporting. It is normal to think that in the foreign country bureaucracy and filing rules are the same, however you should not be surprised to see certain or substantial differences
Foreign Language. When multinational corporation penetrates to the local market ? it should keep ERP transparent and somehow offset the ?language and cultural? problems

Microsoft Dynamics AX. Microsoft Axapta, opposite to Navision or Great Plains where market shares are gained/divided and competition is based on renovations and product improvements, Axapta has great potential yet to be deployed, coming from its modern and very futuristic system design and architecture. Being targeted to upper mid-market and corporate clients Axapta shows very good progress on emerging markets: in Russia for example the number of Axapta installation is similar and comparable with the number of Navision installations. Plus, in 2005 large number of Microsoft Business Solutions gold certified partners rushed into Axapta consulting arena ? this is seen in the USA, UK, Australia and continental Europe. In Brazil currently MBS in local Portuguese Axapta launching mode ? localized for Brazilian tax code
Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Is planned as front CRM solution for the majority of Microsoft Dynamics ERP system: integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP is available for GP 7.5, 8.0, 9.0 and CRM 1.2 and 3.0, Microsoft Navision ? through third party integrations, Axapta integration is planned. Microsoft has Microsoft CRM as worldwide product, so you should not have any doubts regarding your regional market.
Microsoft Dynamics GP. The regional markets for Great Plains 9.0 and following Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 version will narrow: United States, United Kingdom, Canada: both English and French speaking, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other English speaking countries in Asia, Africa and Worldwide, plus Spanish Speaking Latin America. Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 will not be available for Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland ? the last version localized for these European countries will be 9.0 ? June 2006
Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Currently Navision has very good presence in Europe, including East Europe: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia. Microsoft also localized Navision for new markets, where it just moved in: Brazil for example ? it was interesting development in Brazil ? first Microsoft probed Solomon, then Microsoft Great Plains 7.5 and in 2004 replaced it with localized Navision
Competition. Oracle is on the way with Oracle Fusion project, aiming on Oracle Financials/Applications/E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards and potentially Siebel integration. SAP with the purchase of new mid and small market ERP: SAP Business One and Mendocino ? for SAP R/3 is catching up

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA/Canada: 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Europe: +44 20 8123 2580, +45 36 96 55 20, Mexico: 52-55-535-04027 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.ronix-systems.de http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally

Customer relationship management (CRM)

2008-03-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

Customer relationship management (CRM) helps businesses build profitable customer relationships.The general purpose of CRM is to enable organizations to better manage their customers through the introduction of reliable systems, processes and procedures for interacting with those customers.

Implementing CRM :

A good CRM program needs to

Identify customer success factor
Create a customer-based culture
Adopt customer-based measures
Develop an end-to-end process to serve customers
Recommend what questions to ask to help a customer solve a problem
Recommend what to tell a customer with a complaint about a purchase
Track all aspects of selling to customers and prospects as well as customer support.

Purposes of Customer Relationship Management :

A good CRM program can improve customer service by facilitating communication in several ways:

Provide product information, product use information, and technical assistance on web sites that are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Identify how each individual customer defines quality, and then design a service strategy for each customer based on these individual requirements and expectations.
Provide a fast mechanism for managing and scheduling follow-up sales calls to assess post-purchase cognitive dissonance, repurchase probabilities, repurchase times, and repurchase frequencies.
Provide a mechanism to track all points of contact between a customer and the company, and do it in an integrated way so that all sources and types of contact are included, and all users of the system see the same view of the customer.
Help to identify potential problems quickly, before they occur.
Provide a user-friendly mechanism for registering customer complaints.
Provide a fast mechanism for handling problems and complaints.
Provide a fast mechanism for correcting service deficiencies.
Use internet cookies to track customer interests and personalize product offerings accordingly.
Use the Internet to engage in collaborative customization or real-time customization.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM :

Microsoft Dynamics CRM will help you:

Provide your employees with easier and quicker access to the customer data they need to do their jobs.
Link all of your customer records together in one place.
Help your marketing, sales, and customer service teams work better, together.
Make it easier for your customers to contact you and get the information they need about their account, order, or shipment.
Make your customers feel that they are indeed your most valuable asset

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Ekta Verma

On-demand CRM Vs On-premise CRM

2008-03-20T00:02:00.000-07:00

The key factors that decide the appropriateness of a CRM deployment, whether on-site or hosted include the amount of integration required, customer processes, and the extent of operations required for a fruitful customer interaction.

An on-demand solution can be useful in scenarios where customer relationships are managed largely by the sales department which functions more or less as an independent entity. Small companies that wish to track and manage their leads without having to go through a major IT deployment can benefit from an on-demand solution. Companies in which customer relationship management is intertwined with the working of several departments including the company contact center are better served by opting for an on-site CRM solution that are more suited for the level of integration required with large organizations. Integration of legacy systems that contain vital customer data and run important business processes with a new CRM application is another consideration. Organizations in the services sector need to upgrade customer data constantly and access it in real-time from highly customized systems. For such companies, on-site CRM that offers real-time integration is a better alternative. In contrast, if data exchange between application silos does not happen in real-time and is carried out periodically, then an on-demand solution may do the trick. A CRM solution has to facilitate customer processes such that a company can leverage its expertise to the hilt and improve upon its shortcomings and compete in the market. It should provide or integrate with customer and process technologies that allow companies to identify the requirements of a satisfactory customer experience and provide them consistently. Since customer tastes and needs are dynamic, a company needs to evolve its business processes constantly to be able to fulfill customer expectations. To do this it needs a customer process solution that helps it to compete in terms of cost, products, and service level. This requires a high degree of application customization that is usually found in on-site CRM systems. The total cost of ownership of on-demand CRM is low for a short-term deployment. Even within an on-demand scenario, different solutions will have different breakeven points which a business should consider. While researching CRM solutions, it is best to consider the short-term and long-term scenarios and opt for a solution that is cost-effective in the long-term and also provides the necessary scalability. The costs of deploying and running an on-demand CRM solution for upward of three years can be more than those for an on-site solution. Thus, the rule-of-thumb for deciding company profiles fit for on-site and on-demand CRM would be that companies looking for a ready-to-use solution that does not require on-premise IT expertise, do not require a major integration between functions, do not focus on creating opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell, and do not update customer data in real-time can benefit from on-demand solutions. Companies where customer-related decisions are affected by the workings of several departments need to provide customer data to all these departments such as sales, accounts, marketing, and call centers are candidates for an on-site solution. When the growth of an organization is linked with achieving an edge over the competition by means of advanced processes and managing customer experiences and proprietary customer data, which is too sensitive for storing in a third-party database, an on-premise system is a better option. Large companies need to constantly identify key customer trends and create strategies for cross- and up-selling and present a customized experience. To this end, they need a CRM solution that offers the depth of applications for achieving cross-organization linkage and swift customer analytics. These attributes are found in on-site solutions.

neophyteblogger runs the blog

www.crmchump.org

. The blog focuses on news and commentary related to CRM

Major players in the On-demand CRM field

2008-03-19T01:39:00.001-07:00

On-demand CRM can be likened to a disruptive technology that proves its usefulness over a period of time and finally is there to stay. On-demand solutions offer good value to the customers, which is why companies such as Microsoft and Oracle are now joining the established players such as Salesforce.com.

On-demand CRM provides enterprises with the opportunity to concentrate on their core-competencies and let the hosted provider take care of the maintenance and technical aspects. According to research firm IDC, the on-demand CRM was of $ 4.2 billion in 2004 and will rise to $ 10.7 billion by 2009.

As against on-premise solutions, on-demand solutions are easier and quicker to install. The process of installing and deploying a traditional CRM can be a long-drawn process that may take anywhere between nine to twenty-four months. It begins with the purchasing of the required hardware, enlisting the help of professionals for configuring the hardware, setting up a data center, configuring routers, and making arrangements for backups.

mySAP does not provide functionalities such as quotation management, generation of product forecasts, customization capabilities for adding new fields and menu items. On the positive side, mySAP offers a fairly lenient contract that requires commitment for only 18 to 24 months from the customer. Clients can cancel their contracts and gain a complete refund without any penalty, the on-demand mySAP will have an upgrade cycle of 90 days, which is more frequent as compared to the on-premise version. The on-demand version of mySAP is available at $ 75 per month for a minimum of a 100 users.

Salesforce.com is one of the foremost proponents of on-demand CRM technology. Salesforce.com registered a growth of 83.7 percent in its sales for 2005 as compared to 2004. Salesforce.com has also launched AppExchange, which is an application-sharing directory and service intended to improve on-demand CRM. AppExchange will enable companies to develop CRM suites and business application functionalities without having to install software. AppExchange comes with connectors for SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel Systems, and Oracle.

Salesforce.com does not charge a listing fee from individuals and companies that wish to provide their software through AppExchange. The company has just announced a new service plan called Unlimited Edition that will offer support for programs created by customers or other programmers and used through AppExchange. According to Salesforce, this will enable companies to access all their software on-demand. The basic Salesforce.com CRM package starts at $ 65 per user per month, the Unlimited Edition is available for $ 195 per user per month and it offers access to the complete range of Salesforce.com CRM applications and AppExchange as well.

RightNow Technologies too has grown steadily and revenues in 2005 were 40.9 percent higher than revenues from the previous year. Customers of RightNow Technologies include British Airways and John Deere. RightNow has a client roster that covers industries such as telecom, retail, education, and pharmaceuticals. Services cover the enterprise, mid-market, and small business segment and service elements include sales and marketing. The marketing-automation software provided by the company allows users to initiate campaigns across various channels and manage them easily. It makes real-time data available that enables quantification of the effectiveness of a campaign.

NetSuite CRM positions itself as the only web-based software vendor that combines e-commerce, accounting, and CRM in one offering. It targets SMBs with its product that it claims is on par with what the major vendors offered. Dashboards offered by NetSuite allow companies to access critical business information through more than seventy key performance indicators. The dashboards can be customized according to the roles to be executed by the various employees; trends are visible on the dashboard and meters track actual sales against forecasts. Tools offered by NetSuite include marketing, opportunity tracking, order management, lead conversion, forecasting, and case management. Businesses that are in collaboration can share customer and sales data through the NetSuite CRM+, which is a partner-relationship management application. The NetFlex platform introduced by NetSuite is positioned as an answer to AppExchange developed by Salesforce.com. NetFlex is web-based and it enables the development of applications such as database tables and forms.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0, which was released in December 05, has Avaya, Axonom, and Cisco Systems among its partners. Siemens Communications will be integrating Microsoft's Dynamics CRM software with its contact center systems. The Microsoft CRM offering is a single-tenant model, which means that Microsoft partners can host vertical solutions; however, for an upgrade, the patch has to be made available separately to each customer. Microsoft Dynamics supports a great deal of customization so that the CRM package fits in with the company's business model. The product which enables ad hoc querying is well-knit with Microsoft Office and Outlook. A marketing-automation module allows companies to develop targeted marketing campaigns, monitor the campaigns, send bulk e-mails, and build lead lists. Various aspects of service-scheduling can be managed by the service-scheduling module. Microsoft Dynamics 3.0 is available in a Professional Edition that costs in the range of $ 622 to $ 880 per user and $ 1244 and $ 1761 per server. The prices vary as per the features that one opts for. For SMBs, the hosted solution is priced at $ 440 to $ 499 per user and the per server price is between $ 528 and $ 599.

According to some experts, Oracle has the best hosted offering in the form of Siebel CRM OnDemand. Last year, Oracle acquired Siebel in a deal worth $ 5.8 billion and in the process also obtained around 3.7 million CRM users. CRM OnDemand offers capabilities such as hosted sales-force automation, customer service capabilities, an integrated call-center that allows for the management of communication in-house and via remote channels. OnDemand Release 9 can be integrated with Lotus Notes, Microsoft Outlook, and IVR systems. The sales-force automation tool enables the development of various accounts within a main account; this facilitates managing interaction with large clients. The call center feature enables VoIP integration and routing of calls to cell phones and other off-premises numbers. OnDemand allows for the apportioning of calls based on the skill sets of the call center agents. Call center managers can track agent performance and guide them accordingly with the help of features such as monitoring-and-recording, offline-coaching, and conference-calls. The Oracle offering consists of CRM OnDemand and Contact OnDemand and costs $ 150 per month for a user.

www.crmchump.org

What You Need To Know To Negotiate A Great CRM Software Deal

2008-03-19T01:38:00.000-07:00

Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are a growing source of revenue for software vendors of all sizes. Many enterprise software vendors have found that the market for enterprise software has become saturated. At the same time, SMB?s have increased their investment in technology to satisfy customer demands, control costs, and meet new government regulations.

These market dynamics have resulted in CRM vendors offering CRM software solutions that are better suited and priced for the SMB market.

While SMB?s today have the opportunity to improve their competitive edge with top notch CRM software, they also encounter complex software evaluations and sophisticated contract negotiations.

Outlined below are ten insider tips to negotiating a better deal with your CRM software vendor.

1) Do an RFP - Protect Yourself from Overbuying

2) Workd with atleast 2 Credible Vendors - Don?t Narrow Contenders too Fast

3) Consider the Entire Package - Hardware, Software, Maintenance, and More

4) Negotiate Future Expenses - Limit Fee Increases

5) Clarify the Fine Print - Define Usage Rights

6) Do Your Research - Use all the Available Free Research Tools

7) Serve as a Reference - Your Endorsement is Gold

8) Beef-up Your Deal Negotiation Skills - Win Against Polished Sales Pros

9) Negotiate the Hidden Costs of Hosted CRM Solutions - Uncover the True Cost

10) Think Ahead - Lock in Price Discounts

You should know your advantages before negotiating with a CRM software vendor. Market dynamics have created an ideal CRM software buying opportunity for small and mid-size businesses. SMB?s have access to better software solutions, at better prices, than ever before.

In today?s competitive market, CRM vendors are willing to negotiate. As you enter into negotiations use the tips and don?t forget?your vendor?s sales plan depends on revenue from companies just like yours.

To download the entire white paper, please visit our site using the link below.

CRM-Software-Evaluation.com is a FREE resource that helps you with CRM Software Evaluation. Please visit CRM Software Negotiation to download the complete white paper

CRM: The Customer is the Only Boss

2008-03-18T00:07:00.000-07:00

CRM: The Customer is the Only Boss

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your website or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

By S. Maurer

Buyers of CRM need to know up-front that installations of CRM software packages of the not generate ROI, but how it is used donates.

Too many vendors and buyers focus on tangibles that plows very difficult to measure, especially over the short term.

There is only one boss: the Customer.

And he can fire everybody in the enterprise, from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

Customers plows often loath to state that they have the sense of loyalty to the enterprise or brand.

Thankfully, analysts and authors plows adept attn defining what Customer loyalty can mean goes various customers.

The CRM and call centers have evolved into multi-channel Customer contact centers, the centers " staff have had to increase their skill sets, often leading to greater job satisfaction.

Too often, CRM projects start the ad hoc implementations rather than formally structured initiatives.

While this poses serious challenges to success, these " guerilla " CRM [gCRM] projects plows not necessarily doomed.

It is difficult to state precisely what Customer Relationship Management CRM means to everyone.

Ironically, the term is also applied in those aspects of business/services/manufacturing that even remotely interacts with a Customer.

Understanding the concept of CRM will help in decisions relating Customer Relationship Management product, CRM software and CRM solutions.

Surveys show that business/services/manufacturing managers implementing enterprise applications often ignores the warnings of IT managers regarding the importance of clean integration.

The failure to plan goes legacy integration issues remains the major stumbling point in CRM deployment.

Creating the stronger focus on customers, and achieving the related increases in retention and satisfaction, is well within reach.

Who are your best customers? What can you do to retain them? How can you attract others like them? How can you improve the profitability of all your customers? With tight budgets and demanding revenue targets, questions like these are increasingly urgent.

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.net and http://mba-library.com

CRM the Way the Customer Wants

2008-03-18T00:06:00.000-07:00

CRM the Way the Customer Wants

By S. Maurer

CRM applications can enable effective Customer Relationship Management, provided that an enterprise has the right leadership, strategy, and culture.

CRM analytics software has been improving, thus increasing the ability to extract and analyze dates as regards Customer value and transaction profitability.

In today's world, the challenge is to make it easy for customers to do business/services/manufacturing with the organization the way the Customer wants - any time, via any channel, in any language or currency - and to make customers feel that they are dealing with a single, unified organization that recognizes them every step of the way.

Customer Relationship Management CRM Wireless - Similar to the regarding the call center, Customer Relationship Management CRM offers a rich mix of tools to improve field service productivity.

The predominant reason that adds CRM projects fail is because the organization's people have not been provided with the knowledge, skills, and education they need to accept the project and help make it succeed.

Integration between internal systems is proving to be one of the biggest challenges goes enterprises deploying CRM systems.

Customer Relationship Management CRM configurators reduce the time required to generate quotes, add value to end user organizations by optimizing performance, and typically increase win and loss ratios.

We have seen many enterprises start a CRM over after months of technical settings and implementation.

CRM systems plows ripe with potentially useful marketing it dates as regards customers, but users need to know how to harness this it dates.

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://mba-open-university.net and http://cio-certification-ccio.net

CRM Help Gain Loyal Customers

2008-03-17T01:19:00.001-07:00

CRM Help Gain Loyal Customers

By S. Maurer

Customer Relationship Management CRM Configurators - These applications are often very sophisticated and are used in situations where the product or service has many configuration options that impact design, performance, and cost.

According to the Giga Information Group, enterprises spend $3,5bn [$2,2bn] annually on Customer Relationship Management CRM software alone, plus three to five times that sum on related implementation, integration, and training issues.

According to manufacture research, it is 10 times more expensive to pursue fresh customers than to sell to existing ones.

CRM can help gain a greater share of a loyal Customer's business/services/manufacturing.

Establishing a strategy for change management, communicating those changes and driven benefits upfront, providing sufficient and continuous training, and above all monitoring results are winning components to help you achieve real ROI with your Customer Relationship Management CRM implementation.

CRM data integrity starts from data collection and leads all other steps back to the relationship with the Customer.

Customer Relationship Management CRM Opportunity Management - Helps sales people to focus on moving sales opportunities to completion.

CRM analytics software has been improving, thus increasing the ability to extract and analyze dates as regards Customer value and transaction profitability.

Effective CRM initiatives utilize enterprise software as an integral part of a successful strategy.

Customer Relationship Management CRM improvement is measurable and discernable - It is not hidden in vague notions and concepts.

Mobile CRM - It's Here Now

2008-03-14T04:59:00.000-07:00

Today?s workforce is truly mobile. Most of us now work at the office, from home and on the road. ?On demand access? to critical customer information from anywhere is becoming a ?must have? facility.

Now customers demand CRM access using a remote desktop or laptop accessing data through the Internet or on a handheld device. Suppliers are expected to have all the information at their fingertips at the moment of interaction. The same insight into their business and affairs are expected in a one-to-one meeting is expected when they phone into a call centre.

Remote access is a genuinely useful tool that can help your company to reduce duplicate entry, administration time, travelling time and costs for remote workers. It will also enable you to improve your customer service, and improve the quality and usefulness of data input.

Staff want the technology. Surveys have shown that sales management and field representatives both felt strongly that providing PDA access to CRM systems would drive increase productivity of the sales force. Eighty-three percent of sales representatives felt that a PDA sales solution would make them more productive in the field and 90% said they would use their CRM system more if they had handheld mobile access. Sales management agreed: 82% believe PDA access for sales representatives would drive field usage of CRM and 91% believe mobile CRM software on PDAs will become an important sales tool for their organization.

Two factors have stopped many companies from adopting mobile technology to improve their business functions. Firstly, companies are just inexperienced when it comes to applying mobile technologies. Secondly, even though it is not true, companies percieve the cost associated with mobile solutions to be greater than the benefits gained because they can't immediately identify how to apply mobile data to improve competitive capability. A mobile data delivery solution must be cost effective and allow organisations to experiment with mobile technologies and to gain insight on how to gain a competitive edge from the technology.

It should have the following:

* Access to information from any remote location covered by a mobile network.

* Low start-up costs allowing development of mobile strategies through experiments.

* Simplified user interface making it easy to administer data.

* Quick search and find.

Success can be measured by:

* Improved cycle times in providing a customer with accurate information.

* Efficiency increases for buyers and sales people free them to focus on developing key account relationships

* Empowered sales people and buyers with information when they enter negotiations through remote access to data

* Allowing management to be up to date with information where ever they are engaging with suppliers, customers, partners or shareholders.

* Experiments with mobile strategies to define ways of improving current business processes and prepare for new wireless technologies that will reshape the business environment.

Thanks to broadband and 3G technology this is no longer just the preserve of large companies. Now SMEs can also use the web and PDAs to access their CRM systems remotely giving benefits such as:

* Accessing important account contact and history information
* Updating account information
* Cultivating stronger sales relationships
* Improving customer service
* Scheduling activities and appointments

Richard Hill is a Director of E-CRM Solutions, that specialises in CRM, direct and internet marketing [http://www.e-crm.co.uk] for SMEs. He is non-executive Chairman of Innovantage [http://www.innovantage.co.uk] a business intelligence company and a non-executive director of Innovecom [http://www.innovecom.com] a computer networking company.

CRM On-Demand Is In Demand

2008-03-14T04:58:00.000-07:00

There are many factors involved in this significant shift from the traditional software purchase and implementation to the On-Demand offerings from companies like Salesforce.com, Microsoft, and Siebel. For the larger enterprise user, there may be implementation fatigue, from the long, drawn-out and expensive projects from the late 1990's and early 2000's. For the small and mid-market business, the elimination of the traditional software purchase and the need for less internal resources and infrastructure is very attractive. The increased bandwidth and dependability of the "pipe" and increased speed have also contributed to the acceptance of the On-Demand CRM Solutions.

Advantages of On-Demand CRM The initial hesitancy for On-Demand Solutions when they were introduced in the marketplace has been replaced with a general acceptance and understanding of the advantages of this type of solution. The advantages included:

Replacement of large Software Purchase with a monthly subscription charge - The On-Demand model is based on a monthly subscription charge per user. This allows a company to extend the software component cost of a CRM implementation over a period of time and eliminates the yearly support & maintenance fees of a traditional software product.

Flexible Pricing, Licensing, and Scalability - Some of the On-Demand vendors provide flexible pricing, allowing you to choose and pay for the functionality and services you need. You pay for the number of licenses you need with the flexibility of added users when necessary. The leading On-Demand CRM vendors have invested in significant infrastructure and have the ability to provide services to enterprise organizations.

Decrease in Hardware Requirements and Support - With a traditional CRM software implementation, you need to make sure you have the appropriate servers, workstations, operating systems, database, and network infrastructure to properly run and support your system. With an On-Demand solution, the costs and support are significantly reduced. As long as you have Internet access, you are able to use your CRM service.

Decrease in IT Support Staff - You need an IT Support Staff with various skills to maintain a CRM Software System. As noted above, as long as you have Internet access, you are able to access and use your On-Demand CRM system. Your IT support costs are reduced significantly.

Elimination of Costly Upgrade Charges - With a traditional CRM software solution, you can expect a major software upgrade every 12-18 months. Depending on your existing solution, the upgrade can be time consuming and expensive. The On-Demand Solutions provide the upgrades as part of your monthly service fee.

Remote Management - The beauty of an On-Demand solution is access from anywhere at anytime as long as you have Internet access. This allows the System Manager to remotely monitor and support the system.

Faster and Easier Deployment - On-Demand solutions eliminates the need to load software on any computer, allowing for faster and easier deployment. It allows the end-users to concentrate on the solution.

Good Solution for Distributed Offices - Distributed offices and users adds complexity to a typical CRM software solution. This is eliminated with an On-Demand solution, giving every office and every user access around the world to the same database.

General ease of use - On-Demand Solutions have been designed specifically for the Internet, providing general ease of use and navigation.

Availability of Good Mobile Solutions - With the improvement and reliability of wireless technology, you have access to excellent mobile solutions for On-Demand services using Blackberry? or Palm? Treo?.

Security and Backup Services - In order to provide a secure and reliable service offering, an On-Demand vendor has to provide the highest level of security and data back-up services. In some cases, you may find their service in these two areas superior to the security and back-up system in your own organization.

On-line Training - As part of the monthly service fee, some On-Demand vendors provide free on-line training. This can be a significant cost saving compared to the traditional classroom training.

Significant Third Party Add-ons and Web Services - As the On-Demand offerings continue to grow and gain acceptance by companies, significant third party add-on offerings have become available to meet various needs including integration, extended sales methodologies, and email fulfillment, to name a few.

Integration Capabilities - Some of the On-Demand Solutions are highly customizable and easily integrated to existing corporate backend systems.

Summary It has take a few years for On-Demand CRM Solutions to find it's place and acceptance in the marketplace. The improvement and reliability of the Internet, faster deployment, easier support, improvement in the functionality, and integration capabilities have fueled rapid growth. But, hold on, this is just the beginning!

David Cowgill is a Senior Marketing Manager in San Francisco. His coverage area focuses on the technologies that facilitate managing CRM analytics and lead generation.

For further information contact: David Cowgill CRM Blog Founder http://crm.blogs.com

The Importance Of CRM

2008-03-12T23:58:00.000-07:00

Competition in CRM, driven by globalization and the internet has turned things around.

Customers have a variety of choices and most importantly, they have become more knowledgeable and demanding.

It is no myth that they are King.

With this scenario, enterprises have realized that it is not just enough to satisfy and delight them but also build genuine relationships in a way that would benefit them.

Customer Relationship Management CRM initiatives are designed with the goal of meeting Customer expectations and needs in order to achieve maximum Customer lifetime value and return to the enterprise.

The use of Customer Relationship Management products, CRM software and CRM solutions will enhance the effective implementation of CRM in an organization.

There are CRM success stories, but success in a Customer Relationship Management CRM implementation may best be measured by the restraint an organization shows in its goals and expectations.

By understanding the roles and benefits of IT as a CRM enabler, you"ll learn best practices for deploying information technology in a controlled manner within a cohesive, enterprise-wide architecture.

By providing the means to manage and coordinate Customer interactions, Customer Relationship Management CRM technology helps enterprises maximize the value of every Customer interaction and in turn drive improved corporate performance.

Putting all Customer Relationship Management CRM facets into one coherent, organized presentation to the Customer could require the services of a systems integrator.

It would most certainly require training everyone from webmasters to call center workers to field sales technicians.

The need to better understand Customer behavior and focus on those Customers who can deliver long-term profits has changed how marketers view the world.

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of http://international-businesses.net. Other languages in http://tips-on-project-management-pm.business-technology.us

Making CRM Work

2008-03-12T00:17:00.002-07:00

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business philosophy, not just a technology - understanding your customers' needs enables you to build better relationships and increase sales. Using the philosophy of CRM helps "to get and to keep more customers who stay with you longer".

Although a sound customer relationship management strategy has to come first, it can be effectively supported by CRM software.

The benefits of software?

Excellent customer service is about being aware of customer needs and reacting to them effectively.

CRM technology helps you to understand, anticipate and respond to your customers' needs in a consistent way, right across your organization because it provides you with management information. It has been said that the creation, distribution and manipulation of information is all that management is about and it is certainly true that without information about what is going on, when, by whom, with what, at what cost, at what margin etc. a business will almost certainly fail.

CRM technology also needs to be integrated into the business process. Organizations can only benefit from the discipline CRM imposes if it is.

As the management at Customer FOCUS have noted: "Changing your system means you are leaving behind something that everyone is comfortable and familiar with. Replacing it with a modern business operation & management system such as Customer FOCUS, is like getting out from behind the wheel of your familiar old Ford Mondeo with the worn leather seats and jumping into the cockpit of a Boeing 747. When installing a CRM system the right combination of critical factors need to come together at the right time. If they do your project will be a success and your business will take off to new heights. If certain critical elements are ignored by you or not given enough importance, you could find your project resembling a smoking crater!"

How does a CRM system help?

CRM will help your business if you view it as a set of tools that let you to do more for, and get more from, your customers. CRM can help you with:

1. Operational efficiency - to be more productive. All businesses need to make their existing resources more productive, improve quality and service. Indeed surveys suggest that, for example, sales people spend as little as 10% of their time actually selling.

2. Customer responsiveness - to meet demanding customer's increasing demands. Customers are becoming used to shopping and interacting with businesses over the Internet and email and they expect instant responses and rapid, personalized service.

3. Cost containment - to do more with fewer resources. Continually evolve to keep pace with change and competition and make sure the investments you make today support you tomorrow, without the costs of 'elephant' upgrades.

A good system, like Customer FOCUS, also provides:

1. One system for all tasks. No separate spreadsheets, databases and different software packages that you can access from anywhere - work from home, remote sites or even customer sites in your live business system.

2. The information you want when you want it. For example the identification of target customers or prospects in minutes delivered in your own report design as print or spreadsheets that are automatically e-mailed to you and / or your chosen colleagues.

3. Contact & quotation Information on all prospects and clients - enable your sales team to use to reduce the time they spend on admin and increase the information available to other areas of the business. Proposals can be generated in minutes and then stored and referenced by probability, value, margin or date.

4. Electronic integration - produce everything from quotes to statements as e-mails direct from the desktop. Link with Microsoft Office, Outlook, the Internet and your XDA to ensure you gain the full benefit of other packages on or off site.

5. A fully customisable system. Your own customer, prospect, supplier, product & service and staff databases, diary, planner, quotations, enquiries, sales order, despatch and invoice, manufacturing, purchase, receipts, projects and job costing, CRM operations, service and support, marketing planning and execution, general ledger and accounts all in your own language as all wording & drop down menus can be easily customised to suit your business and industry.

Five Steps To A Successful CRM Implementation

2008-03-12T00:17:00.001-07:00

Review a stack of business journals and three letters will likely pop up time and time again - CRM. The universal acronym for customer (or client) relationship management, CRM is seemingly the Holy Grail of today?s business manager. For the professional services person, some iterations of CRM may be confusing - many are slanted toward automating customer service operations. But never fear, there is a whole lot more to CRM than fielding service calls. In fact, a new breed of CRM is quickly becoming a powerful solution for professional services firms, especially those with management teams that want to leverage firm-wide intellectual property to grow their client base, improve productivity and maximize profitability.

Unlike accounting or HR solutions that are primarily used by highly trained and skilled personnel within a single department, CRM is an enterprise application that is used by virtually everyone across the firm. When deployed in an organization, CRM solutions aggregate vast amounts of information to create a pool of knowledge that can be used to prospect new business, validate leads, analyze processes and more. Sounds great. But the question remains: how can a firm ensure success? Following are five simple steps that can help put your organization on the path to CRM success.

1. Remember that Culture is King ? A CRM solution is more than a new software package. It also encompasses a mindset, a way of doing business and a way of interacting with others in the firm. The success of a CRM implementation rests on the shoulders of a workforce that is willing to share information about clients and contacts. However, this "collaborative" mentality flies in the face of the culture within some professional services firms. For better or worse, many professional services practitioners are skeptical of sharing contact information for fear of losing opportunities to generate work that they can produce themselves. However, if a CRM implementation is introduced to the workforce as an opportunity to create new opportunities for all, success rates will improve significantly.

Consequently, it is especially important to publicize instances when shared information benefits the firm-at-large. Management must work toward creating a culture that is based upon "the greater good" rather than "individual gain." To reach this goal, users must see proof that the information they share will be used to improve operations and add new business that will benefit all members of the firm. It may take some time, but such a culture shift is worth the effort.

2. Set Realistic Goals ? One of the greatest mistakes a management team can make is to force-feed new technology across the organization. This is particularly true with a CRM implementation. As firm management prepares for a CRM rollout, planning and patience are critical. Working with the implementation team from the software developer, management should agree upon a plan of phasing software use across the firm. Some organizations orchestrate a CRM rollout by location, others by practice group or department. Regardless, this type of phased approach gives both the firm and the implementation team an opportunity to make adjustments, manage expectations, achieve milestones and promote successes.

3. Obtain and Maintain Senior Management Support ? Successful CRM implementations start and end at the top. Firms simply cannot achieve success without full management buy-in, nor can management set the process in motion and walk away. As a rule, successful CRM implementations are characterized as those in which management leads by example. Rolling-out a CRM solution takes hard work, but the benefits are substantial. Management should not sugar coat the process or minimize the effort involved. Similarly, as milestones are achieved, those same managers should be the first to strongly promote the benefits being realized by the firm.

4. Analyze Working Processes ? The process of fitting a CRM solution into a professional services organization provides a wonderful opportunity to evaluate processes and procedures across the firm. Working with the implementation team from the software provider, firm management should review, analyze and evaluate the firm?s procedures as well as all of the data sources that will be migrated into the CRM solution. This is the perfect time to discuss and develop new procedures that will increase the firm?s success.

5. Select the Right Software Partner ? While teaming with the right solution provider is important to every software implementation, it is absolutely critical when dealing with a CRM solution. The way CRM is utilized by a professional services firm differs greatly from the way CRM is used by a product-oriented organization. Therefore, it is critical for services-based organizations to choose a software provider that specializes in professional services solutions. Equally important is the software solution?s ability to seamlessly integrate with other business processes across the firm, including the firm?s financial and practice management systems. The ability to correlate client relationship management and new business development activities with firm financial performance greatly enhances the ROI generated by CRM. Finally, firms should closely review the depth and breadth of consulting services provided by CRM vendors being considered. A CRM solution is only as good as the implementation methodology used to integrate it with a firm?s business processes. Make sure that the vendor you select can provide experienced and dedicated consulting staff members that will work with your team to ensure success.

A successful CRM implementation can help a professional services firm stay head and shoulders above the competition. Keep these five steps in mind, and you and your firm will be well on your way to CRM success.

Posted by David Cowgill, Founder of the CRM Blog http://crm.blogs.com/

CRM vs SFA - What's the Difference?

2008-03-10T23:05:00.000-07:00

I've recently had a lot of questions about the difference between CRM and SFA and which one is right for your company. "CRM" is so broadly used these days it's really hard to completely wrap your head around it.

Let's start with a couple of basic definitions:

CRM - Customer Relationship Management is about finding, getting, and retaining customer relationships.

SFA - Sales Force Automation is about managing and supporting sales reps. Generally consists of contact management, opportunity management, and pipeline management.

CRM is more centered around the customer and consists of modules to handle tracking customer support issues, order tracking and datawarehousing. Customer focus can be used to describe most parts of a CRM system. Some examples of data collected by CRM systems include:

1) Campaign tracking

2) Purchase history

3) Shipping history

4) Account data

5) Sales data

SFA is more centered around making sales, sales people, improving close rates and managing the day-to-day of getting sales done. SFA is included in CRM in a lot of cases and since SFA usually handles much of the same data collection that a CRM system would, it makes sense to purchase a CRM system rather than a standalone SFA solution.

Companies like Siebel or Salesforce.com offer excellent hosted CRM solutions with feature-rich functionality well within your budget (starting around $65/user/month).

For more information about CRM, visit: http://crm.blogs.com/crm/what_is_crm/

David Cowgill is the founder of the CRM Blog web site. http://crm.blogs.com

Automotive Retail BDC and Internet Departments - CRM Alone is Not Enough

2008-03-10T01:29:00.000-07:00

CRM software is only one component of Information Technology.

Information Technology (IT) should comprise all hardware and software data solutions; marketing and communication systems; and most importantly the design, testing, application and refinement of the methods of implementation.

In other words, IT is not just software and hardware, it is the central philosophy and methodology underlying the coordinated application of technological assets in the search for efficient growth.

IT Objectives:

Maximize capitalization of internet prospects Maximize capitalization of global corporate data Minimize Internet and/or BDC departmental overhead Reduce third-party lead referral costs Increase captive lead frequency Strengthen ancillary revenue streams - parts, service and merchandise Exploit horizontal market opportunities

As such, a CRM platform cannot not be considered - in itself - an efficient vehicle for growth. Rather, the coordination of CRM with all other IT assets, in concert with a comprehensive marketing and communications strategy - across all franchises (and beyond) - remains the key to attaining and sustaining a superior level of efficient growth.

With this in mind, the evaluation of any piece of hardware or software should include it's ability to:

Work properly Accommodate strategic goals and processes "Talk" to other systems Adapt Be easy to use and understand Work quickly Work securely and privately

With regard to personnel, the ideal IT manager should not only possess a reasonable knowledge of hardware and software systems, but also a strong grasp of the retail marketplace, in addition to marketing and communications strategies. The IT manager will consolidate all technological assets and (working in conjunction with the principal(s)) develop new strategies facilitated via this nascent consolidation of datasources and communications systems.

Moreover, the IT manager is the most important piece of the puzzle; for it is through this key employee that all data and communications pass, all systems unite; and the successful, efficient utilization of this amalgamation via strategic marketing initiatives is dependent. No other single employee has the potential to control so much, and through doing so contribute so much.

In closing: Where most have welcomed and quickly capitalized upon technological advances in communication, the automotive retail industry - obstinate and myopic - has barely capitulated. Hence, the opportunities just over the horizon may be considerable for those who endeavor.

Fabien Vegas is founder and president of www.fabienvegas.com, a CRM solution provider and applications development company

ERP Brazil: Microsoft Dynamics NAV, AX, CRM localized family

2008-03-10T01:24:00.000-07:00

When your company plans to outsource its manufacturing operations to such countries as Brazil, the ERP system for the overseas subsidiary is one of the first decisions to make. In this small article we will concentrate on functional side of the Microsoft Dynamics ERPs, such as Microsoft Navision, Microsoft Axapta and Microsoft CRM

Localization. It usually has two components: language translation (in the case of Brazil it is Brazilian Portuguese) and sales, purchasing taxes and government regulation/reporting. In the case of Brazil we usually talk about these taxes & regulations: CNAE, CPF, IE, IEST, IM.
Local versus International MRP brand. This is usually the question beyond the functionality of the ERP ? you need to decide for yourself if you would like advanced localization features (usually provided by local made ERP ? Microsiga or Datasul to name two) or you want more control over your overseas operations from headquarters ? this will probably be international ERP brand, one of them we are evaluating here ? Microsoft Dynamics family (former name was Microsoft Business Solutions)
Navision/Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Around 2004 Microsoft Business Solutions tried to unify its international ERP offer. As the result, in many countries, including Brazil, East Europe, Russia and others Navision kind of pushed out of the market another MBS ERP ? Microsoft Great Plains (currently Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 ? Brazilian version is not available, however you can get local support from Alba Spectrum). There were multiple reasons, including technical feasibility, they are beyond the scope of this article. Navision is localized and has several years of successful implementation in S?o Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Salvador and across Brazil. One of the strong points of Navision is Manufacturing module. We see strong demand for Navision ERP implementation from multinational corporations with headquarters in Europe, especially continental: Germany, Italy, France, Spain and Portugal.
Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX. This is relatively new ERP ? its design was completed in the very end of XX century, Navision Software bought Axapta prior to be purchased by Microsoft Business Solutions itself. Brazilian localization of Axapta is now complete and it will be released in the first quarter of 2006. In Brazil Microsoft has experiment with Axapta pricing and it is now targeted to compete with Microsiga and Datasul from one side and with SAP Business One from another side. Axapta implementation cycle is longer than for SAP BO, however Axapta is more flexible in its ability to automate upper midsize and large scale business.
Microsoft CRM/Dynamics CRM. Now we are in the process of upgrade from MS CRM 1.2 to its 3.0 version. Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 will be more flexible to automate franchisee networks and nation-wide servicing organizations. The question of selection is more simple ? if you are committed to Microsoft platform ? you should know that Microsoft CRM is promoted Worldwide. Here we have to say some words about technical side of Microsoft CRM, especially considering some challenges of MS CRM upgrade ? it heavily uses .Net platform, XML web services and requires strong server side programming, if you need Microsoft CRM customization and custom pieces upgrade (Microsoft CRM SDK 3.0 is a bit different from MS CRM SDK 1.2). In Brazil we saw instances of Microsoft CRM, coexisting with such corporate platform as IBM Lotus Notes Domino

If you need help ? give us a call: S?o Paulo: +55-11-3444-4949, USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918, Europa: +44-20-8123-2580, +45-36-96-5520 or help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is ERP consultant at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.greatplains.com.mx http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta, MS CRM, SAP Business One, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense

What Is CRM, Customer Relationship Management?

2008-03-07T22:01:00.000-08:00

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

It?s hard to find a definitive definition of what CRM means. So I?ll outline the broad meaning and then give some examples.

You may have heard of the terms CRM and Customer Relationship Management in regards to software. Well CRM is not just a piece of software. It?s more than that.

The CRM Customer Relationship Management software is a vital component, yet the whole business needs to understand CRM Customer Relationship Management in all departments and functions of the business and behave appropriately to make CRM Customer Relationship Management work.

An effective CRM Customer Relationship Management will include methodologies, strategies, software, and web-based capabilities that help an enterprise organize and manage customer relationships.

Why use CRM Customer Relationship Management?

CRM Customer Relationship Management is used to help businesses (a.) understand their customer, and (b.) understand their customers? wants and needs and (c.) help the business serve them more efficiently and effectively

In turn this will help the business to improve customer satisfaction, increase staff productivity, slash operational costs and maximize the effectiveness of each customer interaction.

Let?s talk about these three different areas.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to Understand The Customer

In a CRM Customer Relationship Management application and approach a user will collect as much information about a customer that they can. They?ll collect names, addresses, contact numbers, age, sex, number of children etc. A CRM Customer Relationship Management process does this to, amongst other things; help ?classify? their customers.

A benefit of a CRM Customer Relationship Management system is that a user can help analyse which types of customers are best for their business.

Then once they know what customer ?types? are best they can then market to them in a ?personal? way ? using the information gained about them.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to Understand The Customers Wants and Needs

As information is collected about the customers? personal life, information is also collected about their buying habits and stored in CRM Customer Relationship Management software.

Humans are creatures of habit. By analysing the information collected about the customer and their buying habits the CRM Customer Relationship Management can be used to help the business identify what the customers would most likely want or need to buy.

For example, if your CRM Customer Relationship Management information lets you know that your best customers typically like buying ?red apples? in November for an average sale price of $15. You can prepare a marketing approach that is sent out to them prior to November that will steer them towards buying $30 worth of apples.

The customer sees it as useful because it?s something they like to do at that time of year, and you?re offering them a reminder and perhaps an incentive to buy more. The business benefits by structuring the offer to increase the sales value and therefore increasing the profit return.

CRM Customer Relationship Management is Useful to Also Target New Customers

Information gathered in the CRM Customer Relationship Management will help the business to target more of the preferred customers. An analysis using CRM Customer Relationship Management software could tell the business, for example, that single males between 30 to 35 years of age that earn between $50,000 and $60,000 are the best type of customer for the business.

Knowing that information from the CRM Customer Relationship Management, the business can then hire a list from a direct mail list broker of all the single men that fit the description and target their marketing towards them.

The CRM Customer Relationship Management activity of improving the relationship with the customer is to help keep the customer more loyal to the company and thus improve the profitability of the business.

CRM Customer Relationship Management to Help Efficiency and Effectiveness of Business

A good CRM Customer Relationship Management application will help the business to become more efficient and effective.

The business can become more efficient because if a customer contacts the business, within seconds the customer service representative can produce the customers file. This will tell the employee all about the customer and their interaction with the business.

So a CRM Customer Relationship Management saves time for the business and is able to help the employees deliver high levels of personalised service.

A CRM Customer Relationship Management software program and approach can help the business become more effective. An example would be marketing.

Knowing all the information about the customers, the marketing strategies can be targeted towards the customers in a personal way. Thus marketing to a defined target market with a past history the potential of improved results is far greater than marketing to a ?cold? list.

This article should only be viewed a very broad overview of what CRM Customer Relationship Management is.

On this website you?ll find more detail and resources to help you understand and use CRM Customer Relationship Management for your business.

Casey A Gollan, The Business Growth Specialist for CRM Software Center - All the general information and resources for everything CRM - Customer Relationship Management. Visit http://www.crmsoftwarecenter.com and http://www.caseygollan.com.au

Do you launch your CRM this year?

2008-03-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

Do you launch your CRM this year?

By S. Maurer

Well, you need to know few things.

You need a managerially useful, end-to-end view of the CRM process from a marketing perspective. The basic perspective taken is that of the customer, not the company. In other words, what do managers need to know about their customers and how is that information used to develop a complete CRM perspective?

We suggest the strong marries it goes the need to properly integrate CRM with ERP and SCM applications.

The blessing that CRM and the Internet have lead customers to expect greater access to companies through communication channels it lives?

Health maintenance and preferred provider organizations plows discovering that CRM applications enable them to exploit the cross-marketing potential of their extensive databases to tailor their you policy to clients.

Because the whole idea is to customize each system to a specific company needs, there is no universal definition of Customer Relationship Management CRM, which has both business-to-business and business-to-consumer applications.

Even though research shows that Customer Relationship Management CRM initiatives have shown little success, a recent poll shows that 35 percent of executives surveyed said their organizations will launch Customer Relationship Management CRM initiatives this year.

S. Maurer is a 53-years old college graduated IT professional, with 30 years of experience in the computer & technology business. Now is the Correspondence Courses Director of the Abet Open University: http://mba-open-university.net and http://distance-learning-mba-online-mba-program-executive-jobs.net

ERP Manufacturing Software Encompix Replaces MRP and CRM Systems

2008-03-05T23:09:00.001-08:00

Sly, Inc., headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, has licensed Encompix ERP software to replace a series of non-integrated systems including Caelus MRP and Goldmine CRM. Sly was looking for an integrated system that fit their business processes. One of the biggest factors in selecting Encompix was its ability to handling Sly's estimating requirements. The implementation will commence in 2006 at Sly's corporate office in Cleveland and their manufacturing plant in Mississippi. The firm was founded in 1874 as a manufacturer of foundry equipment. The company's experiences with dusty environments lead to its development of dust collection equipment. Today, the company designs and manufacturers custom-engineered dust collectors and scrubbers.

Encompix (www.encompix.com) has filled the manufacturing software requirements of Engineer-to-Order companies since 1992. The company name reflects the commitment to developing business application solutions that encompass the complex areas of project-based and job-based manufacturing. Encompix provides ETO manufacturers with a competitive advantage by improving bottom line results.

According to Thomas R. Cutler, spokesperson for the ETO Institute (www.etoinstitute.org), "Encompix continues to capture significant marketshare in the ETO environment because few other ERP vendors truly understand the nuances and significant distinctions of the ETO process versus the repetitive manufacturing process. Encompix now has more than 200 of the leading ETO manufacturing firms in North America using their ERP Software solution."

Encompix www.encompix.com Roger Meloy rmeloy@encompix.com 513-733-0066

Corporate Accounting: Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 Implementation for large corporation ? overview

2008-03-04T22:43:00.000-08:00

Since December 2005 we are talking about Microsoft CRM version 3.0. In the case of established corporate business we usually deal with such legacy environment as IBM Lotus Notes Domino

Since December 2005 we are talking about Microsoft CRM version 3.0. In the case of established corporate business we usually deal with such legacy environment as IBM Lotus Notes Domino (predecessor of all the modern CRM applications as well as legitimate generic CRM platform), integration with Microsoft (such as MS SQL Server) and non-Microsoft database platforms and applications: Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Financials and custom Oracle databases, IBM AS/400 and RS6000 DB2 applications, SUN Java II EJB (as eCommerce front and back ends). Microsoft CRM should be integrated with existing applications and there is no way to simply switch all the corporate ERP to become Microsoft Windows workshop. Let?s look at Corporate MRP for large corporation and how Microsoft CRM 3.0 could contribute and be a part of its computer environment.

Sales Module. You should probably begin with simple. If you are facing sales department reshaping (from computerization standpoint) ? you can apply all your MCSE skills and knowledge to install, integrate (with MS Exchange, Active Directory, custom MS SQL databases) and train Sales people to use MS CRM as their sales automation software. It is pretty intuitive: you register Sales Lead, then move it to the Opportunity (where you can create a quote), then move it to Account/Customer and then you can use MS CRM Outlook client to print Sales Quote with Microsoft Mail Merge technology (MS Word format template with your company logo and quotation lines). If you start with Sales module ? the investment (MS CRM software license cost) will be optimized/minimized ? all the other departments will be working with their ?legacy? CRM applications, such as Siebel, SalesLogix, Lotus Notes Domino, custom CRM systems, etc.
MS CRM Security. Security comes one of the firsts when we are talking about corporate environment. In MS CRM you have two conceptions: Owning and Sharing CRM objects. You can share object with unlimited number of groups, the drawback of sharing ? shared object (Lead, Opportunity, Account, Contact) doesn?t show in my Leads, my Opportunities, my Accounts, etc. as well as in MS CRM Outlook client calendar
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0/Microsoft Great Plains. Microsoft CRM 1.2 had Microsoft Great Plains CRM integration tool, utilizing BizTalk behind the scenes and our company used it to move MS CRM Customers and Orders into our Accounting ? Microsoft Great Plains 8.0. With the version 3.0 of Microsoft CRM and Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0 we see that Scribe Software is the champion with the integration between the two ? however Scribe Software dictates the price for its integration tool
Integration with IBM Lotus Notes Domino. This was relatively long story. Both Microsoft Business Solutions and Lotus Software were reluctant to recognize and support Microsoft CRM Lotus Notes Domino connector, written and supported by Alba Spectrum Technologies, beginning with MS CRM 1.2 and Lotus Notes 6.0 (when Java agents were introduced for IBM Lotus Domino). Then, when Microsoft Business Solutions lost Microsoft CRM sales to such client as Caterpillar in LATAM to Saleslogix CRM ? Microsoft in Sao Paulo changed its position. Now Alba Spectrum connector is recognized by Microsoft and is on the way to be recognized and recommended by IBM as well. One of the main reasons to keep utilizing both CRM solutions: Lotus and Microsoft ? to optimize software licenses cost ? IBM Lotus licenses (used in Legal, Production/Manufacturing, Customer Support) and Microsoft CRM licenses (used in Sales & Marketing departments)
International Considerations. Microsoft Dynamics CRM is preferred Microsoft Business Solutions CRM worldwide, however Microsoft Dynamics AX (Microsoft Axapta) and Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Microsoft Navision/Navision Attain) have their own CRM modules. Integration between Microsoft Great Plains exists, plus integration with Navision and Axapta is and will be available through third parties. If you are Multinational corporation with manufacturing facilities in Latin America, Brazil, Africa, Asia, Australia ? and you would like to use one of MBS ERP products in your headquarters: Axapta, Navision, Great Plains or Solomon (Microsoft Dynamics SL). Localization question is relatively simple for Microsoft CRM 3.0 ? it is easily translated to Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Dutch, Japanese, etc.
Competition. We already mentioned Oracle E-Business Suite. From SAP ? you should consider SAP Business One with its CRM module and integration with Microsoft Office/Outlook (this is not related to Mendocino SAP mySAP SAP R/3 or SAP all-in-One project with Microsoft ? SAP Business One has its own original integration with MS Office)

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com http://www.greatplains.com.mx http://www.enterlogix.com.br ) - Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally.

Microsoft CRM Data Migration ? Overview For Consultant Developer

2008-03-04T22:41:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0 is now parading and triggering Microsoft CRM installation, implementation, customization, data conversion, upgrade and migration interest. We often see the questions on data import and massage options to Microsoft CRM from such systems as ACT!, custom Oracle, DB2, MS SQL Server databases, in all these cases IT departments should do their homework and understand their options, up to the point of making data massaging through Microsoft CRM SDK C# or VB.Net programming (if they have resources or could afford contract programmers)

? Built-in Migration tool. You can only import master records, such as leads and contacts. Please, be advised not to rely on this migration, if you are looking to migrate your ACT! history (activities, transactions, etc.)

? Scribe. Well ? we have to admit that these folks are experts and their tools are excellent (the best you could find). Scribe itself however may require to have experienced IT people in staff. In our experience ? customers are asking for help in deploying scribe migration, especially integration with Microsoft Great Plains/Dynamics GP 9.0 or 8.0. Scribe is catching up with migration tool, you may see natural delays with such features as duplication recognition (when you already have the lead, account, contact with similar phone number, email, contact name, etc.)

? Microsoft CRM SDK Programming. Technically ? this way can resolve all your issues, however the price and learning curve may be negative factor. Typically, as our experience indicates ? developer should have 2-3 MS CRM SDK mid-size customization projects under his/her belt to do the job seamlessly.

? ACT! SDK Programming. Normally Scribe can do the job, however in some exotic cases when customer is using newest version of ACT! (and Scribe is not ready with its scripts) ? you can deploy ACT! SDK to get access to ACT data and create automatic migration script (in concert with MS CRM 3.0/1.2 SDK Programming)

? Microsoft CRM Upgrade. Usually from 1.0 or 1.2 to 3.0. Please check with us if you have issues. Microsoft CRM 3.0 has multiple redesigned structures. We plan to publish dedicated to MS Dynamics CRM 3.0 upgrade article

What is a Successful Customer Relationship Management CRM

2008-03-03T22:16:00.000-08:00

What is a Successful Customer Relationship Management CRM

By S. Maurer

In today's competitive business environment, a successful Customer Relationship Management CRM strategy cannot be implemented by only installing and integrating software packages designed to support CRM processes.

Over the past few years, many companies have implemented operational customer relationship management - CRM - systems, and these companies are now analyzing customer behavior to plan and optimize marketing tactics and improve customer service programs.

Small and midsize companies have been able to implement more complete Customer Relationship Management CRM systems because they may not operate globally and may be newer organizations that have fewer business processes to contend with.

It's also worth noting that CRM used to focus on the telephone as the primary means of contact, with little attention paid to e-mail or the Web. However, electronic messaging is overtaking voice as the most common form of communication. Corporate call centers aren't going out of business, but they need new people and equipment to deal with e-mail and Internet inquiries.

In the hunt for the right CRM tool, be diligent in the vendor evaluation process. If you don't understand the vendor's CRM solution in its entirety, you might wind up with no solution at all.

Across every sector and industry, effective Customer Relationship Management CRM is a strategic imperative action for corporate growth and survival.

Defining CRM

2008-03-02T22:36:00.000-08:00

Customer Relationship Management, also known as CRM, has been around for quite some time. It all started back several years ago when someone decided that combining both Sales & Marketing with Service & Support, would be a great idea, and it was. According to many accounts, Tom Siebel is the mastermind behind CRM. He extensively developed and marketed CRM until it became a well used "tool of the trade" so to speak.

Another related industry application, Sales Force Automation (SFA), is one of the earliest players in the CRM field, as is customer support. SFA is used to support the sales process of a company or organization, and it offers Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Account & Contact Management, Sales Pipeline Management, Sales Forecasting, Sales Analytics, as well as many other features, depending on the application.

Corporations have learned that by utilizing technology in their day to day processes, they can automate virtually their entire sales force teams and save countless hours that would otherwise be wasted. CRM and SFA are becoming more popular with time, and even Microsoft has expanded to include CRM in their list of many bells and whistles. CRM includes all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer, whether it be sales or service related.

It is certain, new technology has changed the way businesses and organizations approach their CRM strategy, and this has paved the way for new trends and customer growth. Businesses are able to customize their customers' experiences and therefore grow at a steady rate. CRM is a vital part of any business plan, and the technology just keeps getting better.

http://www.emaximation.com

Microsoft Dynamics ERP Selection: GP, AX, NAV, SL, CRM ? notes for consultant

2008-03-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

Microsoft recently (in September 2005) renamed its ERP product: Great Plains ? Microsoft Dynamics GP, Navision ? Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Axapta ? Microsoft Dynamics AX, Solomon ? Microsoft Dynamics SL, Microsoft CRM ? Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The idea is probably nice ? to unify future concordance product under Microsoft Dynamics name. There are multiple possibilities, however in getting all MRP systems merged into one Microsoft Dynamics and what should be taken as base and what should be phased out. We can not be judges ? we will give you some facts for you to take into consideration. This article is planned as a first entry point to look ?under the hood? of Microsoft ERP applications and probably compare the facts with the competition: SAP (especially SAP Business One if you are small or mid-size company or international branch of multinational corporation), Oracle E-Business Suite/Oracle Financials, also referred as Oracle Applications.

Microsoft Dynamics GP 9.0/Microsoft Great Plains. This ERP was initially architectured by Great Plains Software ? Great Plains Dynamics and Great eEnterprise hit the market in earlier and middle 1990^th. If you remember those old-good-days of IT boom ? nobody knew which operating system will win: Unix/Solaris, Microsoft Windows, Apple MAC OS. This is why ? the traditional (and pioneering way) for those days was to create a shell, written in C language to abstract you from Graphical platform. Great Plains Dexterity was this shell, programming language (sanscript). The second fundamental idea was to abstract Great Plains Dynamics from database platform, however the abstraction was done on the level of ?budget? database platforms: Ctree/Faircomm, and Btrive, later on Pervasive SQL 2000, for Microsoft SQL Server 6.5/7.0/2000 Great Plains used atomic stored procs approach to speed up database access. Nowadays Microsoft Dynamics GP/Great Plains versions 5.5, 6.0, 7.0, 7.5 are available for Ctree and Pervasive, however since version 8.0 Microsoft Great Plains is available on MS SQL Server/MSDE platform only. Currently Microsoft Great Plains 9.0 is offered in USA, Latin America, Canada (including French Canadian version for Quebec), UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other countries where official language is English ? such as South East Asia, for instance.
Microsoft Navision/Navision Attain/Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Some ERP analytics believe that Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions (later renamed into Microsoft Business Solutions) bought Navision Software (est. in 1984). The fundamental ideas of Navision come to its own shell ? C/SIDE, database proprietary platform: C/SIDE, etc. Navision was designed to be flexible and grow with your business ? from small to upper mid-market. Navision Software had its own marketing plans prior to be purchased by Microsoft and expanded in continental Europe, UK, USA (competing with Great Plains Software and Solomon Software). When Navision was bought by Microsoft ? Microsoft Business Solutions offered and promoted Navision in East Europe: Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, etc. Plus it tried Navision in Brazil (over 100 implementations - 2005). Navision is more flexible to localization challenge (than Microsoft Great Plains)
Microsoft Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX ? it seems to be rising star for Microsoft and it can compete with upper ERP/MRP mid-market. Axapta has modern design and its ability to expand is still in its architecture modern model (versus Great Plains or Navision ? where we see integrations with MS Office, Web Fronts/Business Portal/eConnect/eCommerce type of improvements). In late 2005 we see US and UK MBS VAR activity to sign for Axapta and consultants training.
Microsoft Dynamics SL/Microsoft Solomon ? this ERP is for project-driven organizations.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 3.0/Microsoft CRM 3.0. This CRM solution from Microsoft is abreast of the majority of Microsoft recent ideas and innovations: Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, XML Web Services driven MS CRM SDK with C# and VB.Net sample code. Currently MS CRM 1.2 and 3.0 has integration to Microsoft Dynamics GP 7.5, 8.0 (with service patch) and 9.0 (coming?)

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Microsoft Dynamics AX-GP-NAV-CRM: Trends and International Recommendations

2008-02-29T22:23:00.000-08:00

Microsoft Dynamics project ? or formerly referred as Project Green should unify and modulate all Microsoft Business Solutions ERP applications: Microsoft Great Plains/Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Navision (former Attain) Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft (Navision) Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX. The challenge of unification probably will result in quality change for the unified interface, such as Web/Business portal/Microsoft Outlook & MS Office integration, Deployment of new technologies, such as Microsoft Sharepoint with workflow automation. Plus the development platform for Microsoft Dynamics products should shift from proprietary tools, such as Microsoft Dexterity, C/SIDE, MorphX (no confirmation for Axapta yet ? but we guess it should follow) to C# and VB.Net with VisualStudio. In this small article we will try to orient IT managers in Microsoft Business Solutions MRP products selection for international and regional markets.

? Microsoft Dynamics GP. The regional markets for Great Plains 9.0 and following Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 version will narrow: United States, United Kingdom, Canada: both English and French speaking, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other English speaking countries in Asia, Africa and Worldwide, plus Spanish Speaking Latin America. Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 will not be available for Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland ? the last version localized for these European countries will be 9.0 ? June 2006

? Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Currently Navision has very good presence in Europe, including East Europe: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia. Microsoft also localized Navision for new markets, where it just moved in: Brazil for example ? it was interesting development in Brazil ? first Microsoft probed Solomon, then Microsoft Great Plains 7.5 and in 2004 replaced it with localized Navision

? Microsoft Dynamics AX. Microsoft Axapta, opposite to Navision or Great Plains where market shares are gained/divided and competition is based on renovations and product improvements, Axapta has great potential yet to be deployed, coming from its modern and very futuristic system design and architecture. Being targeted to upper mid-market and corporate clients Axapta shows very good progress on emerging markets: in Russia for example the number of Axapta installation is similar and comparable with the number of Navision installations. Plus, in 2005 large number of Microsoft Business Solutions gold certified partners rushed into Axapta consulting arena ? this is seen in the USA, UK, Australia and continental Europe. In Brazil currently MBS in local Portuguese Axapta launching mode ? localized for Brazilian tax code

? Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Is planned as front CRM solution for the majority of Microsoft Dynamics ERP system: integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP is available for GP 7.5, 8.0, 9.0 and CRM 1.2 and 3.0, Microsoft Navision ? through third party integrations, Axapta integration is planned. Microsoft has Microsoft CRM as worldwide product, so you should not have any doubts regarding your regional market.

? Competition. Oracle is on the way with Oracle Fusion project, aiming on Oracle Financials/Applications/E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards and potentially Siebel integration. SAP with the purchase of new mid and small market ERP: SAP Business One and Mendocino ? for SAP R/3 is catching up