Adapted from The CRM Connect Magazine.
Original article by Ralph Garthe – German Distributor for CRM Together Products
Everyone needs CRM, Companies, Users, Manufacturers, and Sellers. But when we investigate what the experience is with CRM, the feedback is often mixed.
Some say :
- The expected benefit is not in proportion to the investment
- The concrete benefit for the customer is not recognisable
- The expected start-up takes too long or never gets quite completed
- CRM customers report that they now have an additional “workload” due to an additional tool that is either not or only poorly integrated with existing solutions
- Technical challenges (e.g., filing e-mails) and the associated low user acceptance
- Poor quality of the existing data is highlighted making CRM seem valueless, thus the original visions for CRM use such as marketing campaigns, sales and service seem out of reach
It doesn’t have to be this disheartening!
With a clear understanding of a core business, CRM can offer a powerful solution, the trick is to start small and develop over time
Let’s assume that our potential Sage CRM Users already use ERP!
This means there is already a very important solution to consider, with existing data and processes that a CRM solution must deal with.
Furthermore, in every company a significant part of the workload is spent on processing e-mails, which is the usual way of communication today, both internally and externally.
Neither point above are a surprise but ignore at your peril when implementing a CRM solution at the outset. To ignore the user requirements will result in disproportionate implementation costs in adaptations and integrations. Not every SME has a dedicated CRM project group with a supporting implementation budget.
Enter the holy grail, CRM in 5 days….
Out of the box, Sage customers receive an unprecedented deep and comprehensive bidirectional integration with their Sage ERP system. Right from the start, the integration includes the necessary process logic for continuous business processes, synchronises master and transaction data and provides extensive real time data views of the required ERP data. All CRM screens and functions are optimised for use with ERP data. A multitude of ready-made CRM reports, evaluations and groups with typical ERP data are supplied immediately.
On top of this, we deliver a ready-made high-performance Outlook integration with optimized screens and functions, including ERP data to get started immediately.
The “trick” is, not to waste time with discussions about elaborate individual adjustments or ideas that are not feasible at the outset. The focus remains on maximum short-term success, achieving all the basics, whilst noting all the ‘nice to have’ features for when the system is bedded down and development can then be scaled in a sensible and proactive fashion.
Achievements with “CRM in 5 days”?
- A clear common goal
- A reasonable budget and a very short implementation
- Immediate improvements in efficiency, teamwork and productivity
- Positive user experience from the get-go
- Necessary basics for an extended CRM use, such as marketing, service and sales
- Integration of communication management into the business process.
- Efficient and comprehensive contact management
- Significant improvement of data quality
- Mobility, Microsoft 365 Integrations and location-independent working
The good news is that this methodology of starting with a realistic approach can also help bring a failing CRM Project back on track by peeling back to the basic requirements and phasing in development once CRM is adopted at user level and has gained active champions within the organisation.