Improving productivity

Internal efficiency tools: customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning

Customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resources planning (ERP) software provides powerful tools to automate and synchronise business processes.  More specifically, CRM allows businesses to better understand their customers, supporters or donors and develop powerful actionable insights for future organisational goods, services or strategies.

There is a range of relatively easy to use and affordable CRM and ERP software packages designed for organisations of all sizes, even independent contractors or small volunteer organisations.

It is not essential that you use CRM and ERP to get started in the digital economy, but it is worth gaining a quick understanding of these concepts so you can make an informed decision about whether they are appropriate for you. Most popular CRM and ERP applications are scalable, which means you can start out using a basic package and add extra features as you need them.

CRM–customer relationship management

The purpose of a CRM tool is to manage your customers, supporters or donors and the products you offer them. It allows you to profile individual customer interests—to see what services they are signed up to, what they are paying, the status of provisioning and all other details which relate to the life cycle of the business-customer relationship.

CRM software consists of a graphical user interface that you use to populate a database with information about previous, current and potential clients, including interactions between them and your organisation. Having a good CRM system and using it well can dramatically increase the effectiveness of your e-commerce and online marketing efforts.

With a CRM software application up and running and a set of guidelines on its effective use, the information entered into it will start to generate valuable insights. You can also import data in bulk from existing spreadsheets, or set up your website or email marketing campaigns to automatically populate your CRM database with information. The right choice of CRM package and degree of integration with your other marketing and sales systems can deliver tangible benefits to you and your customers, supporters or donors.

• From your client’s point of view, they can receive higher quality more personalised service and product information. For example, you could use CRM software to customise the display of items in your online store according to earlier purchases made from you. This is similar to how a site such as Amazon.com recommends books to users that are similar or complementary to books they have previously purchased.
• Your front line sales or fundraising staff can use a CRM system to keep track of past and planned interactions with individuals to help them better understand your clients’ needs. For example, a community services organisation can use a CRM system to provide better case management, meaning clients do not need to tell the organisation the full backgrounds to their situations each time they make contact with it.
• Your organisation can benefit from the powerful insights a CRM system can provide into the overall operations of your organisation. CRM software can generate reports that with further analysis can help you understand the current state of your business, emerging trends or opportunities for the future. For example, an online retailer could generate a report that compares the average spend per customer for the current and previous financial years.

CRM can provide you with a centralised and standardised way of achieving a number of outcomes, including:

• A unified overview of important information—most CRM systems are based on a central database where you can centrally store, organise and share all your sales or donation-related information such as contacts, quotes, sales meeting notes, emails, calendar.
• Collaborative process—sharing the above information allows users to easily organise meetings, contribute to each other’s activities, or automatically transfer knowledge on specific projects.
• Organising and automating processes—CRM optimises the allocation of time and resources, and can reduce effort wasted on likely inefficient leads.
• Marketing campaigns—most CRM programs are capable of building marketing campaigns (email, posted mail) to a specific list of contacts selected from the database.
• Mobility, web integration and remote access—CRM software now offers mobile platforms for remote access by users on the road, with full access to company resources (such as contacts, calendar and activities) anywhere, anytime.
• Reporting—CRM software can automatically detail reports on business activities, such as opportunity, review, sales and revenue analysis, marketing actions or project planning. Reports generally use standard formats that can be integrated with other software applications such as spreadsheets and word processors.

ERP–enterprise resources planning

While CRM systems are designed to support client relationships, ERP systems integrate an organisation’s operational activities such as manufacturing, logistics and accounting with customer support (note that ERP often includes a CRM module).

ERP can help your organisation to improve its operational performance by enabling you to:

• improve methods, streamline processes and workflows
• synchronise all parts of the organisation (engineering, manufacturing, administration, accounting, sales, management, etc.) and improve collaboration
• centralise information and reduce data loss
• optimise document control and organisation
• increase granularity of information and business intelligence
• contribute to carbon footprint reduction (paper, stock, process).

There is a range of applications for ERP. Common uses in small and medium businesses or community organisations include keeping track of employee or volunteer human resource issues such as time sheets, pay and entitlements, or keeping track of an organisation’s assets, finances and supplier information.

While CRM and ERP applications can be installed on your computer, they are increasingly available as web-based applications accessible through any computer or mobile device with an internet connection and web browser.

CRM and ERP are powerful applications that can help you transform and grow your organisation and they are becoming increasingly easy to use. If you are familiar with sending emails, doing data entry or using a word processor, it is likely that you could learn to use an entry-level CRM program reasonably quickly. Professional CRM advisers can help you deploy more sophisticated CRM solutions if needed, such as helping you transfer data from your record-keeping systems (spreadsheets or databases) into a web-based CRM system that can deliver greater insights.

ERP deployments typically require intensive planning and can disrupt day-to-day business during the installation period. It is important to assess your organisation’s requirements before implementing an ERP system, and you should take care to evaluate the ERP systems that appear most suitable. It may help you to visit other organisations that have installed the same systems you are considering.

It is wise to engage a professional adviser if you are considering deploying an ERP system within your organisation or if you want a fully-fledged CRM package tailored to your organisation. The adviser will help assess your requirements and, depending on the needs of your organisation, oversee specifications and planning, help implement the system with its vendors, test it and organise staff training.

For further information on CRM, try some of the links below:

• Goldmine
• Maximizer
• Microsoft Dynamics
• NetSuite
• Open CRM
• SalesForce (SaaS)
• SugarCRM
• TechnologyOne
• Xero

For further information on ERP, try some of these links:

• ABAS
• Activant Solutions
• Epicor
• Infor
• Microsoft Dynamics
• NetSuite
• OpenERP
• Oracle (PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards)
• Pronto
• SAP
• Sage
• Syspro
• TechnologyOne
• Xero