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The last decade was busy. Companies have taken significant advantage of the long
period of economic growth to build their businesses, expand, add new staff, and
in many cases expand into new markets. Often, companies have simply been too
busy to take a serious look at their own operations, an affliction known as the
"shoemaker's syndrome", whereby - while the shoemaker served his customers well,
and made sure they had nice, comfortable shoes to wear, his own children ran
around barefoot. Today's business slowdown presents your organization with a
significant opportunity to address that situation, and ensure that when the
business climate improves, your organization not only has the best shoes - but
has planned ahead for all of your needs for the coming years.
Implementing a CRM solution can help you streamline your internal operations,
improve the efficiency of your staff, and provide you with capabilities you may
have never had before. On average, companies that properly implement a CRM
solution can expect a 20% increase in administrative productivity, improved
sales, improved customer satisfaction, and are able to operate much more
efficiently, both within and across geographical locations.
There are four major reasons to implement a CRM system:
- Extend customer breadth and depth of relationship (Grow Business)
- Minimize transaction barriers and reduce costs (Save Money)
- Use and enhance brand equity
- Focus on customer value and satisfaction
Most managers and business owners would be thrilled if only one of these
areas could be addressed. A CRM System implemented with the assistance of a
qualified, experienced implementer can achieve significant gains in all of these
areas. Its not all about software - you may already have some components of a
CRM system implemented in your organization - its about integration,
simplification, automation, and control. It is possible to transfer a
significant amount of the knowledge currently known to your people, and
incorporate that knowledge into the system. The result of this can be immense - each individual can do more, more effectively. Employees can be trained and
become efficient far faster, and their errors are significantly reduced. Your
organization can do more with the same resources you have today - generally with
a full return on your investment in one year (12 months) or less.
How you choose to take advantage of those improvements is up to you. Many
organizations will put the additional resources directly into new client
acquisition. Some use it to improve customer service. Others launch new products
or services to further expand their businesses, or simply take the cost savings
to the bank. In all cases, companies that effectively implement a CRM solution,
perform better, faster, and at a lower cost than their competitors.
By taking steps today to prepare your organization for the business climate of
tomorrow, you can gain significant advantage over your competitors, and
significantly improve your service to your existing customers. Today, less than
20% of organizations have implemented a CRM Solution, but of organizations that
do not, 75% are looking at implementing a solution in the next two years. There
has not been as good a time to consider a CRM implementation in the last decade.
Use this opportunity to its full potential, and your organization will continue
to see benefits for years to come.
The above question may seem an odd one in a business e-mail. Perhaps a bit too
cerebral for a workday morning: the juxtaposition of work and it's relevance in
the universe. But I believe in these times and this industry the subject becomes
very relevant.
I work for a company that sells CRM solutions including accounting software.
This is not considered a sexy job. I don't risk my neck like a Policeman,
Fireman or Soldier. I don't get to sit with the elite of the moment discussing
the business of the day, nor do I get to pontificate in Wired about the future
of SQL.
So why, pray tell, am I passionate about in my work with CRM?
It may not be interesting on the surface, but designing a proper CRM solution
while working with the users to build and implement this system is very
fulfilling job. I find when I do my small part to help a business to be more
efficient and effective I know this business will now prosper a great deal more.
People will find their jobs less stressful and grow as employees.
The business will grow: their people, market and the economy will benefit as a
whole. Helping one business can have a multiplier effect over many other
businesses. It's incredible the impact working with a company's accounting and
customer relationship management system can have on an organization. It matters
to them, and it matters to me. I help to make a difference.
If your passionate about what you do, you'll find a similar story to mine. If
you're unsure, look at what you do and how it impacts others and you may find
your influence has more impact than you ever believed.
New business is generated by identifying qualified prospects and executing a
sales process. However once identified, many qualified opportunities are
mishandled or ignored. CRM systems help to capture lead data, identify the best
opportunities, and then automate the sales process to make sure nothing slips
between the cracks.
As shown above, most businesses today still pass leads to sales people in the
form of spreadsheets, emails or hard copy. The sales person then attempts to
manually key the lead data into some sort of prospect database, normally
Microsoft Outlook or a personal contact manager such as ACT! or Goldmine or
worse. It is extremely difficult for the sales person to effectively identify
the highest value opportunities.
So many good leads slip between the cracks and are never even contacted.
When CRM is utilized, all lead data is captured automatically and high value
opportunities are immediately identified. The sales person simply periodically
checks their queue of leads in CRM which are automatically entered into the
system in real time, and which can easily be sorted by any criteria such as
company size, line of business and geographical location for example. Once
lead data is present in the CRM system it becomes infinitely easier for sales
people to manage and track all contact with the prospect including
communications, email, phone calls, meetings, proposals and stages of the sales
process. And this must lead to greater sales.
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In today's chaotic & challenging world, your enterprise is being buffeted on
many fronts and the final frontier is for organizations to link all of its disparate
information in a seamless fashion so that on an instantaneous basis management /
ownership can get a true pulse on where it is headed.
Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly reports will NO longer
suffice. Instead would it not make sense to have reports available on an as needed basis
and on a "whenever / wherever" basis? |
CRM Systems has specialized in implementing change to achieve measurable and
sustainable performance improvements in client companies. CRM Systems works with
people at all levels of an organization so as to design and install Sage CRM and
Accpac ERP and improve bottom-line financial results.
A "Global Productivity Report" for 2008, looked at eight (8) sectors: |
| Automotive |
Energy |
Food & Beverage |
Mining |
| Communications |
Financial Services |
Manufacturing |
Retail |
And determined that were a commonality of reasons for their lack of
productivity, one which is "internal communication problems". Sage CRM
can alleviate this problem.
We are a business consulting company that specializes in technology. We use technology to help our business partners to make better use of their people, processes and existing technologies, in that order of importance, by providing the tools necessary to
"tie everything together", and get the right information, to the right people, at the right time.
This has a two fold effect
- the organization becomes much more efficient internally - which in and of itself has significant financial returns, and as a result of being more efficient can provide better service to its clients, or spend more time finding new ones.
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Interestingly, what we do applies almost equally well to any industry. There is a strong temptation in each industry to believe that only software written specifically for that industry can work. That was true 10 years ago, and to a certain extent, even 5 years ago – but it is not true anymore. Working with our company, CRM Systems, a properly implemented CRM system can be purchased, customized and implemented in almost any industry for less than the initial investment in an industry vertical software application.
We are not a management consulting company, and we are not a
"computer" company. We use the term "Business Technologists" internally to describe ourselves
- it basically points to the fact that we see technology as a tool that is used to achieve business objectives and increase productivity. Most companies don't quite get that. Management consultants often look at technology as little more than a way to speed things up, and most technology consultants have their hands full getting the technology to work. We combine the best of both of these things.
We are a certified Sage Accpac and Sage CRM accredited reseller 
Over the past 8 years, we've completed over 150 projects ranging from simple CRM installations, to complex development for companies ranging in size from 5 employees to over 250.
And, lastly, the strongest aspect of CRM Systems is its experience! We have worked with more than 200 organizations, worldwide, specifically on CRM implementation. This makes us possibly the most experienced CRM implementation experts in North America
- located right here in Winnipeg.
To learn more about us and what we do, please visit
www.21crmsystems.com to learn more... |
