CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is an important term in the sales department for many companies. Because to be successful you will have to acquire customers and maintain the relationship with your customers well. Anno 2017, you're not going to do that with pen and paper. You need a good software solution to manage, view and use information about your customers and prospects in your commercial actions. But do you do that with a separate CRM package? That depends on what you mean by CRM.
Information centrally stored
For many companies, the intention when purchasing a CRM system is to have customer information in one central place and to manage your customer information from there. However, this ignores the fact that they already have a wonderful ERP system in place that contains an enormous amount of customer information. If you would additionally use a CRM system, you would have to maintain this information in two systems or create an interface between these two systems. And that is not practical. In addition, ERP packages in particular focus on central data management and this is not where the power of CRM packages lies.
What is CRM to you?
Ask yourself what CRM means for your organization. Do you want a database of customer, prospect and suspect data that you use to effectively target your audience with your organization's range of products and services? Then try to accommodate CRM within your ERP environment. The ERP system offers an enormous amount of information about your (potential) customers from which your marketing and sales staff can benefit in their daily work. Are you looking for an advanced marketing tool to market your products or services effectively and efficiently with links to social media and websites, for example, where the information in your ERP system is less relevant? Then an external CRM application such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a good tool.
Get advice
There is no single definition of CRM. Because there are different perceptions of what CRM is, there are also different solution approaches. Where one organization needs more support for the sales department, another is looking for an innovative marketing tool. Therefore, get sound advice from experts in CRM (& ERP) software. What we can conclude in any case is that the term "Customer Relationship Management" rarely covers the load. CRM is also about mapping the market, segmentation and approaching prospects and suspects. Maintaining the customer relationship is only a fraction of what companies want to achieve with CRM software.
Teun Arts is Service Manager at Dysel and ensures that customers make optimal use of the software's capabilities, now and in the future.
