421301 howtochooseacrm leaflet
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This document provides guidance on how to choose a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. It discusses understanding what CRM is and its benefits. It also provides tips for getting started with the selection process, such as building a business case, forming a project team, and examining current processes. The document outlines important factors to consider, such as evaluating vendors, ensuring the system is user-friendly, and planning implementation and training.
421301 howtochooseacrm leaflet
- 1. How to Choose a CRM System When it comes to Customer Relationship Management (CRM) it’s important to understand all the benefits of an integrated system before beginning your selection process. That’s why we created this guide – to provide you with the essential information you need to make the best decision possible. This guide is designed to help you build a business case for a CRM system, form an effective project team, ask the right questions, identify the challenges involved and much more. You may be wondering,“Why would a software company like Sage distribute a booklet that doesn’t promote its own products?” We know how important it is to have good information before making smart decisions. What’s more, we’re confident that the more you know about CRM systems the more likely your are to seriously consider - and ultimately choose – Sage’s CRM software solutions. In other words, our software stands up to the most stringent selection criteria. We at Sage look forward to helping you succeed in choosing the CRM solution that’s best for your organisation.
- 2. How to Choose a CRM System Understanding CRM CRM can contribute many benefits to your organisation including: CRM is more than just software or a set of processes – it’s a business culture solidly focused on winning and New sales opportunities keeping the right customers. A good CRM solution A good CRM system will classify your prospects and help builds value for your business by opening up vital identify your best customers. With detailed information on communication channels and creating a common your customers you can accurately project and respond client–focused knowledge-base to better serve your to their buying needs throughout the sales cycle. A good clients. CRM system can help you automate routine sales tasks – allowing you to spend more time focusing CRM is about understanding the buying habits and on strategic sales issues. preferences of your customers and prospects so you can: Improved customer service The right CRM system allows your team to take • Build and strengthen customer relationships to keep a pro-active approach to customer service. With them coming back up-to-date and complete customer information at their • Provide value-added services that are difficult for fingertips, your employees can resolve customer issues competitors to duplicate more quickly and successfully create cross or up-sell opportunities. • Improve your product development and service delivery processes Better decision making • Increase your staff’s awareness of customer needs CRM systems provide a single view of the customer across all touch points and channels, as well as • Reduce customer frustration by not asking the same delivering comprehensive reports of customer questions over and over. behaviours, marketing campaign results and sales activity. Each of these elements are necessary for smart By effectively integrating your marketing, sales and decision making and long term strategic planning. customer service functions, a good CRM system makes it easier for everyone inside your company to work Greater efficiency together and share critical information. With an integrated CRM system, you can gain immediate access to your organisation’s critical customer An effective CRM system empowers your customers information. A good CRM solution also increases internal and prospects to do business with you – the way efficiencies by automating workflow processes, reducing they choose! Imagine connecting your customers human error, decreasing process time and providing to your employees and business partners across consistency throughout the entire organisation. any department, through any process and via any communication device - phone, fax, email, Internet.
- 3. How to Choose a CRM System Getting Started Understanding the Core Most companies require that you justify the need for Components of CRM a new system before you make a purchase. Building CRM helps to increase productivity across your a case for CRM provides the necessary background marketing, sales and support functions. By information to help you define the need, justify the understanding the ways CRM can improve your cost and demonstrate the value of the investment. company’s effectiveness, you can better communicate Elect a core team those benefits to key decision makers. Establish a core group of individuals dedicated to driving Marketing Automation the CRM project to completion. Before planning your strategy and implementation make sure your team • Develop, target and implement campaigns includes a project leader and project managers to • Manage and analyse marketing budgets oversee the functional divisions of your organisation – such as marketing, sales, customer service and technical • Maintain lists and track responses departments. • Analyse campaign results Set your goals Sales Force Automation (SFA) Your team should have a shared understanding of your CRM goals. To achieve this, the core group • Perform analysis to ensure time and should identify your organisations objectives, focus on energy are spent on the deals most likely to close processes that require re-engineering and discuss the • Improve lead distribution and tracking appropriate courses of action. • Effectively process quotes and orders Examine your current processes Analyse your existing business processes from many • Provide remote sales staff with instant access to viewpoints, to find out how they impact both your corporate information organisation and your customers. By evaluating your Customer Service and Support processes now, you can identify what’s working and what’s not and prepare to implement a new CRM system • Capture and track every interaction with every that emulates the most effective strategies for achieving customer regardless of touch-point success. • View and measure call turn around time and understand what is taking longer to resolve and why • Maintain a complete case history with instant access to all previous issues and customer interactions • Automatically escalate cases if not closed within certain time frame
- 4. How to Choose a CRM System Involve the Right People Narrow the Field The decision to choose a specific CRM solution should Look for a CRM system that integrates your back be delegated to a core team of individuals to serve and office accounting software and other business represent the functional needs of various departments. systems so customer information can be updated in This requires full cooperation and collaboration amongst real-time, while being shared and employed effectively System Users, System Managers, System Integrators, across the entire organisation. Be sure that your System Customers and System Signoffs. solutions are robust and versatile enough to: • Be accessed from any location – from headquarters Choose a Consultant to remote locations and mobile workers Consultants offer specialised expertise in evaluating • Seamlessly integrate with your back office accounting and implementing CRM solutions. These experts can system help your organisation in three important ways. • Integrate with a wide range of third party software or • Evaluate your needs and suggest the best CRM other internal systems solution for your specific situation Increase communication channels • Save your company time and money during system The ideal CRM solution will integrate your multiple install and training business channels and provide your users with seamless • Help you get the most out of your CRM remote access to up-to-date customer information. Think implementation, based on your organisation’s about the different interaction points your customers requirements are currently using – and likely to use in the future to communicate with your organisation. A good CRM Some of the best CRM consultants are software system will allow you to retrieve real-time information at resellers. Many resellers offer a range of services, any time and from anywhere. Choose one that will fit the including strategy development, business process functional needs of your system users. management, technology implementation and training. Keep a global perspective For larger CRM systems resellers often have the additional consulting support of their software supplier The ability to support a global reach, even if not to help manage the complexities of the implementation. essential now, is a vital investment in your company’s future. When viewing CRM features find out if: • The company sells and supports products in the countries in which you do business • The software provides multi-currency support • The software is available concurrently in languages other than English
- 5. How to Choose a CRM System Consider implementation time • Timeframe for implementation The less upfront customisation your system requires • Annual support and maintenance costs the more quickly the implementation process can • Training methodology and training costs be completed. Ask your reseller how long the implementation will take and what factors may increase • A plan for integrating your back office-systems as or decrease the amount of time needed required Insist on user friendly software Select a System That’s Right for You If your system is not user friendly, your staff wont Now that you’ve evaluated a number of possible be able to maximise the full benefits. Make sure you solutions, its time to make a decision. Consider select a solution that’s logical and easy to use. the following when selecting a software vendor: Ask the reseller these questions: Interview the resellers before the demo • How easy to use is the software interface? Familiarise yourself with the various CRM solutions available on the market so you can be confident about • Can the interface be modified to more closely match your top picks when you short list the best options for the needs of my organisation? your company. By interviewing as many software resellers • How easy is it to navigate between modules of the as possible in advance you can avoid time wasted by software? sitting through lengthy, irrelevant demonstrations. • What type of software documentation and training will Pick the best three systems and ask each be provided? reseller to provide the following information: • Estimated licence cost for your implementation • Estimated build-out costs to adapt the system to your requirements Top 10 features to look for in a CRM system 1. Sales cycle analysis. 2. Integration to your back office accounting system. 3. Open, industry-standard technology. 4. Seamless flow of information between corporate systems and remote employees. 5. Real-time reporting and analysis. 6. Automated workflow. 7. Contact and campaign management. 8. Multiple language and multi-currency capabilities. 9. Ability to easily customise your solution to fit your business needs. 10. Scalability to accommodate future business growth.
- 6. How to Choose a CRM System Evaluate their technical support Ensure options for growth A good software company invests heavily in engineering You may need to rely on the software vendor’s and develops new product features and enhancements technical support team, here are some questions regularly. The opportunity to move to a similar but more to ask regarding the vendors support team: powerful product can give your company flexibility as it • How quickly do they take calls from customers? grows. • What are their hours of operation? Does it fit your budget? • What options are available for after hours queries? If your first choice costs more than you can afford, reprioritise your list of requirements and compare them • What charges or service plans are involved? with the features of applications that do fall within your budget range. Then determine which features or modules Inquire about their customer service department are essential for the success of the project. Look for a company that is dedicated to regularly providing high qualityservice to customers and has the Justify the investment resources to deal with product questions, customer Once you have decided which product you wish to feedback, order tracking and software registration. purchase it may be helpful to create a document or presentation to explain your choice. This document Get flexible reporting needs to clearly detail the features of the system, Look for a solution that has the capability to produce the the direct fiscal benefits of these features and reports your organisation requires. Find out if customised the resulting long term benefit to the company. reports can be created with a minimum of time and It should also outline the total cost for initial effort. See if the system will allow you to manipulate the implementation, training and ongoing maintenance. data any way you choose. Ask about customisability Does the software allow you to modify all aspects of the system? Do you have the ability to create and modify fields, screens, tables, views, scripts and security settings on the fly?
- 7. How to Choose a CRM System Implementing Your System Provide good training Good training is essential and provides the information, What is the best way to make the implementation practice and involvement needed for your staff to get the process a smooth and successful one? most out of the software. Consider the following guidelines: Test before launch Create a blueprint When it comes to something as valuable as your To smooth the implementation process create a customer data, you will want to beta test every system ‘blueprint’ of your CRM related business processes with component and make certain its functioning properly your consultant or software reseller. This document gives before taking the system live. Enter mock customer data the team a pre-determined plan and a set of guidelines to and see how well the system receives and processes the reach your CRM goals. information. Prepare for modifications Plan for ongoing evaluation One of the most common mistakes companies make Keep in mind that your CRM system will always be is trying too hard to limit modifications to the selected evolving. As a result implementation never completely packaged software. If you need software that can meet stops. Ongoing evaluation of your business processes the unique requirements of your business be prepared will help you maximise the benefits CRM can bring to to make modifications after installing the “out of the box” your organisation. solution. 8 Helpful Hints for Promoting CRM as a Business Culture 1. uild a case for change. Think about the impact of CRM strategy B on people – the benefits and consequences of changing or not changing. 2. old regular meetings across all departments to communicate H project progress. 3. Keep employees in the loop by providing information and clarity about what is happening. 4. Encourage employees to speak up about changes and listen to what they have to say. 5. Give employees time to make the transition and adjust to the new approach. 6. Support the managers who are leading the CRM march. 7. Understand that effective implementation of CRM is a cultural process; it will take time for everyone to adjust to new ways of doing business. 8. Inform customers about the company’s vision for a customer centric organisation.
- 8. About Sage and CRM Sage provides CRM solutions to mid sized enterprises. With 16 years experience in the development of products that provide businesses with the ability to manage and report on all customer centred activity. There are over four million users of our CRM solutions, which can either stand alone or be fully integrated into existing systems, to give a single view of all customer and contact activity. ACT! by Sage 2009 Sage SalesLogix A simple but powerful contact management system, Sage SalesLogix is the Customer Relationship ACT! by Sage 2009 centralises your contact information, Management solution that enables small to organises your diary, and tracks sales leads. Easy to medium-sized businesses to cultivate profitable set up and use it has all the features needed to get your customer relationships by increasing sales and sales and marketing in order - organising you, your marketing performance and maximising customer contacts and your business. satisfaction and loyalty. Designed to meet the distinct needs of small to medium-sized businesses, Sage Sage CRM SalesLogix delivers integrated Sales, Marketing, Customer Service and Support automation solutions Sage CRM is an easy to use, fast to deploy, feature that adapt to your unique customer acquisition, rich, low cost of ownership CRM solution designed retention and development processes. Sage SalesLogix to introduce the real benefits of CRM from small to provides a complete CRM solution with low cost of medium-sized companies. Offering a choice of ownership, rapid time to productivity and high return on deployment, either on your premise or on demand investment. Flexible and easy to use, Sage SalesLogix (SageCRM.com), to meet your infrastructure needs. readily accommodates growth and changing business Sage CRM aggregates individual and group efforts requirements. SalesLogix, the SMB CRM leader with across sales, marketing and support teams making more than 8,00 customers worldwide, is part of the Sage people and companies more efficient allowing you to family of integrated business management solutions. get ahead of the competition. Sage CRM delivers the tools entirely through a browser to take advantage of the huge efficiencies that the Internet offers in delivering business applications. Sage CRM is also available as the CRM module in two of our business management suites, Sage 200 and Sage 1000, for true end-to-end business processes maximizing your investment in CRM. To talk to us about how Sage CRM Solutions might help your company, call us on the dedicated CRM number 0845 111 99 88 or for ACT! call 0845 245 0276 Sage CRM Sage House Wharfedale Road Winnersh Wokingham Berkshire RG41 5RD Telephone: 0845 111 9988 Email: [email protected] © Sage (UK) Limited 2008 registered in England No. 1045967 11/08 4194R