Archive for April, 2011

The Secret To A Successful CRM Implementation

Thursday, April 14th, 2011
One of the recurring questions I get from customers and prospects all over the world is, what is the secret to a successful CRM implementation?  My answer resonates with companies large and small, here in North America, in Europe and in Asia.  The secret to a successful CRM implementation is process, process, process. A CRM system is not a stand-alone solution that magically gives you a better insight into your customers and delivers customer loyalty. CRM should be the fourth step in an up-front business planning process that first addresses business goals, processes, and people. A business must establish clear goals and objectives, identify the processes that need to be in place to achieve those goals, and implement the communication and training required for employees to act in support of the desired objectives. Completing these tasks—which are potentially challenging and time-consuming—is a key success factor to ensure a successful CRM implementation. Once business goals, processes, and people are in place, companies need to ensure that they select the right technology to enable their people to support the desired business processes. A company should not have to change business processes to accommodate technology, but should instead select a flexible, intuitive, and open CRM solution that supports both current and future business processes.
The Secret To CRM Success 
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Understanding Your CRM Users And Their Needs It is important to understand that there are two very different groups of CRM users in a company. The first group consists of customer-facing employees who use the CRM system to manage their daily customer interactions. The second group is the management team, who use the CRM system to report on past and future company performance. Customer-facing employees should spend their time with customers, not entering data into the CRM system. For the front-line staff, flexibility and ease of use are critical. A flexible CRM system allows each employee to tailor the interface to work they way they work. An intuitive CRM system reduces barriers to adoption. A CRM system should simplify and automate repetitive tasks for employees, but many CRM implementations fail because they actually add complexity. Management needs to be able to get business metrics from the CRM system, so flexibility and openness are critical requirements. Can the CRM system adapt to the unique processes of the company? Can the CRM system integrate with other software applications such as billing and order management systems? So this leads us back to the process companies should go through before selecting a CRM system. Business goals, internal processes, and employee training need to be considered prior to CRM design and implementation. A good understanding of sales, marketing, and customer support processes will allow the company to configure the CRM user interface so that employees can focus on customers and not get lost in a data maze. A good understanding of overall business goals during the design and implementation process will ensure that management can measure, track, and report on the key metrics they need to understand past and future company performance, allowing them to make the right decisions to grow the company. Employees should be aware of company goals and be trained on the necessary procedures to meet these goals. The CRM system should mirror these procedures so that system training becomes reinforcement of established processes, not technical training on a CRM system. A great way to introduce CRM in any company, large or small, is to involve key employees from the earliest  planning stages. When employees understand the capabilities of the system, how it follows existing processes, how they will interact with it and how it automates and simplifies repetitive tasks, they can not only socialize the implementation with their teams, but they can make valuable contributions regarding the processes and desired functionality of the CRM system. So here it is…The Secret To YOUR Success.

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Keep the Cloud and SaaS Knowledge Coming

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

Look at Cloud and SaaSIt is exciting to me to see the momentum of the Cloud marketplace. With every study I see, every analysts I hear, every piece of research I read, all are saying the same thing…Cloud is growing! But it is also interesting to me that even though there is growth, there are many in the marketplace who still seem very confused about what Cloud actually is, and its benefits.

What is Cloud?

An example of this would be the recent debate on Focus.com, where a question was given to the visitors of their site, simply asking “Is Facebook a Cloud?” The fact that there was even a debate highly indicates to me that there is confusion over Cloud terms, one-way-or-the-other. As I believe most readers of this Blog know, the Cloud is on-demand computing resources that are available on a consumption basis. The Cloud is enabled by virtualization technology providing hardware and operating system efficiencies, making it easier and less expensive to deliver on-demand computing resources. SaaS, on the other hand, in its most basic form is a delivery model allowing a business (or someone) to access applications on the Cloud infrastructure. This is what Facebook is doing, providing their application to millions of people. SaaS uses Cloud, not SaaS is a Cloud. The Facebook application is written for the Cloud and could be considered a Cloud-based application, but it is not “the Cloud”.

Utilizing Cloud in SaaS ERP

Another example is a company I know about who is currently living with the fact that their well-entrenched, on-premise ERP system was acquired by another software provider, and now, their maintenance has tripled, their support is nowhere to be seen, and they truly believe their product is now a product without future direction (ouch!). Even though it seems like this company would be doing anything it can to abandon their current situation, they are not. The reason, as I understand it, is rooted around the fear of the unknown (alternative solutions), the disruption of a bringing in a new system and the cost that it would take to convert to something new.

So the question is why this company has not considered the SaaS-based direction as a way to escape their current situation. It is simple; they still are not aware of the many benefits of SaaS. This company, like many companies, has not been exposed enough to SaaS and Cloud computing already in order to see it as a viable option. To me, SaaS and Cloud computing would be an excellent alternative solution for this company, and others in the same situation. The benefits of SaaS and Cloud computing, including the speed of implementation and low cost of entry naturally makes it the perfect option (shortest possible route) to something new. With SaaS and Cloud computing they would have new, innovative technology that would lower their current internal IT resources and maintenance costs, and could provide the product support they deserve.

Continuing Cloud Knowledge Building

Though these examples may seem different, they are similar in the fact that they are part of the marketplace that lacks an understanding of Cloud and its benefits. Whether it is the company who doesn’t realize how SaaS can help them, or it is people debating whether something is a Cloud or not, says to me that we still have a ways to go.

Though SaaS and Cloud computing is growing, one of the biggest challenges today is the continued education of these technologies in the marketplace. It is my belief that the recognition of SaaS and the Cloud is typical of any new technology direction however. And like other new technologies before it, it too will come to a point where it becomes a natural option in each case for businesses as their needs change. But for right now, it is important for the marketplace vendors (and even users) to take their part in expanding SaaS and Cloud computing knowledge, not only from their product’s perspective, but from what the technology can provide as overall benefits to every business. With understanding comes even more wide-spread acceptance, so important to not only software providers selling SaaS and Cloud products and services, but to the marketplace in general with particular needs that are best supported by this kind of technology

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Do your customers trust you?

Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
We are here at SugarCon 2011 (#scon11) learning more about how to build a social business with SugarCRM.  The social business is the next step in how we as globally interconnected society do business together.  A vibrant, energized social business is one that interacts with its customers everyday across every possible channel of communication.  From store fronts to telephones to Twitter, your customers want to know what you can do for them and they will engage in that dialogue in ways we couldn’t even envision just two years ago. But why should your customers and prospects look to you instead of your competitor who is just one Google search away?  It’s simple.  Your customers need/want/demand to have a relationship with you.  They will collaborate with you (or about you) in every way possible.  And once they identify with your solutions to their business problems, your vision for making them successful, you will gain their loyalty. But how do you build that loyalty?  By building a relationship with your customers based on communication and trust.  The first step in creating a social business is to engage in a completely interconnected, actively engaged, “always on” dialogue around your business.  But once you connect, how do you build loyalty?  By building trust.  You must become an open business by embracing  transparency in how you interact with your customers, how you build your products, how you create an ecosystem around your business. Customers want to know why you make the pricing decisions you make, how you are going to educate them on new products, what process you are using for creating and delivering your products and services.  Today’s “always on” customer has a world of data at their fingertips, but what they truly want is to buy from somebody truly knows their needs and gives them maximum value for the investment. Here is a simple formula for creating a loyal customer base in this new age of the social business.  (Hint: it’s nothing you didn’t already know.) Openness drives accountability.  Accountability builds trust. Trust is the foundation of a relationship. An open, accountable and trusting relationship creates loyalty. Because you are now communicating with your customers on a global stage with every word recorded, blogged, posted and retweeted around the world, you must approach your customers with openness and transparency.  By embracing openness and transparency in this “always on” dialogue between your customers and your employees, you will create a successful social business.    Because never doubt with Twitter one mouse-click away, your prospects, your customers and even your employees will drive force that openness whether you are prepared or not.

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The Future of Business is Social

Monday, April 4th, 2011
SugarCon 2011 (#scon11) is here and it is the place to be.  If you couldn’t make the annual pilgrimage to San Francisco, I’d like to share with you the ideas and direction the Sugar team is discussing this week with our fantastic community of users, customers and partners.  This series of blog posts over the week of SugarCon will give you insight into the ideas shaping our product roadmap, community focus and the direction we are taking the SugarCRM business. If there is one thing that has become abundantly clear past year, getting business done as we know it today is going through a transformational, “once in a generation” shift.  Powered by open source software and brought to the forefront of our daily lives by social collaboration tools like Twitter and Facebook, we are living through, right now, profound changes in the way companies and customers interact with each other. We call this the social business, an “always on” dialogue taking place with and around a company using every social collaboration tool imaginable from social network providers like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Yelp, IBM LotusLive and more.  This social dialogue about your business covers every topic possible.  Your new customers are comparing notes with other customers.  Your prospects are asking existing customers why they should buy from you and not your competitor.  Your employees are discussing with customers on how to improve your business.  And of course, your customers are letting you know in no uncertain terms what they think of you and your business. Paul Greenberg, a luminary in the world of customer relationship management and the author of CRM At the Speed of Light, describes the impact of this very public and very transparent dialogue as putting the customer finally in full control of their relationship with you, their vendor of choice.  Remember, you no longer control the customer experience.  Your customers control the customer experience.  The Internet is their stage and everybody is their audience.  Social collaboration tools make social business happen. With the evolution of the social business, we at SugarCRM clearly see a massive opportunity in front of us to put the focus of the social business on building productive, meaningful relationships that help your customers solve their business problems.  Communication and trust are the foundation of a relationship. Social collaboration tools deliver the communication part of that foundation.  But how do you build that trust?  That will be the focus of the next article in this blog series.

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