{"id":6870,"date":"2010-12-14T12:27:23","date_gmt":"2010-12-14T17:27:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/analystik.ca\/?p=1948"},"modified":"2017-02-07T17:24:46","modified_gmt":"2017-02-07T22:24:46","slug":"sales-and-productivity-crm-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/language\/en\/sales-and-productivity-crm-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Sales and Productivity &#8211; the case of CRM Solution"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Companies today have many means to use to increase sales and achieve corporate objectives! Moreover, several of these means (strategies, tools, tactics, etc.) are the heart of the managers and executives annual <em>Strategic Plan<\/em>s.<\/p>\n<p>Marketing for example can play within the entire range of tactics and tools, whether traditional marketing with advertising, media placement, direct marketing, promotions, etc., or <strong>Marketing 2.0<\/strong> with a wide assortment of technologies for collaboration and profiles in <strong>Social Media<\/strong>\u2026 this, of course, if you\u2019re an aficionado of <strong>Web 2.0<\/strong> and already have an <strong>Enterprise 2.0<\/strong> footprint \u2013 a digital footprint.<\/p>\n<p><em>Human Resources<\/em> may, for its part, contribute to the achievement of objectives by providing additional or better qualified resources, resource allocation, training, or help with developing and deploying a <strong>Knowledge Management<\/strong> strategy, etc.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>And then there\u2019s IT\u2026.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><!--more-->Of course, there are a multitude of technologies and tools available to help optimize your processes for which the implementation and management fall under the responsibility of IT:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mobility <\/strong>to increase communication efficiency for the <em>Mobile Work Force <\/em>and extend your business reality beyond its walls<\/li>\n<li><strong>CRM Solution\u00a0<\/strong>to improve <em>Customer Relationship Management<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Business Intelligence <\/strong>to assist Managers make more well-informed decisions, any time, all the time<\/li>\n<li><strong>Dashboard<\/strong> for Real-time management of the <strong>Sales Force<\/strong> (<em>Metrics <\/em>and <em>Key Performance Indicators<\/em> (KPIs))<\/li>\n<li>Tools for optimizing <em>Sales Force itineraries<\/em> and <em>Client geo-location<\/em><\/li>\n<li>etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In this article, the first of a new series of posts on <strong>Business Productivity<\/strong>, we want to focus on <strong>CRM <\/strong>and more particularly on selection criteria for a <strong>CRM <\/strong>solution for your business.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Price of a CRM Solution<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Although, in our view, a secondary criteria, you should negotiate right away the issue of Price!<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Off-the-shelf products (<strong>Maximizer<\/strong>, <strong>Salesforce<\/strong>, <strong>Act!<\/strong>, <strong>SugarCRM<\/strong>\u2026) \u2013\u00a0 $200 to $1,000 per user.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Mid-market products (<strong>Salesforce<\/strong>\u2026) \u2013\u00a0 $1,000 to\u00a0 $3,000 per user<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 High-end products (<strong>Dynamics<\/strong>, <strong>Siebel<\/strong>, \u2026) \u2013 over $3,000 per user<\/p>\n<p>What is there to say except that we always have to pay and there are no miracles in life\u2026 well, very rarely in business!<\/p>\n<h3><strong> The CRM Product<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Product<\/em> (own\/buy) vs. Service (SaaS) is the first question to ask. Do you want to pay a license or on a per-use basis\u2026unfortunately, this is not always so obvious.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Number<\/em> of users (How big is your sales force?)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Integration<\/em> required (Just how far will should you go to integrate a CRM with the financial systems in place, or with your IT environment?)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Business Rules<\/em> (Does your company need to apply custom rules to its processes?)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Data<\/em> (Do you need to manipulate data specific to your business, your processes, your industry?)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Features<\/em> (Must you create functions specific to your business?)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Level of Security<\/em> sought\/required (for data access and mobile access)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <em>Optimization of Customer Relationship<\/em> <em>Management<\/em> Process (Do you want to operate with one single agenda for everyone?)<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In light of the criteria listed above, you can quickly determine if:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 An off-the-shelf product meets your needs based simply on desired functionality and price<\/p>\n<p>Or<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A generic commercial CRM solution better meets your expectations<\/p>\n<p>Or perhaps<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You are the special case where your business is so specialized (eg. Banking) that you must deploy a specialized solution that could integrate with your <strong>ERP <\/strong>(for example), provide metrics (numbers, graphics or 3D) unique to your technology environment and\/or your business reality, incorporate \u201coffice\u201d features or mobile services (e.g. obligatory note to complete an activity), account for objectives\/goals other than sales volume (number of activities per month, number of activities\/customers\/territories\/closing ratio\/ visits, etc.).<\/p>\n<p>Have a great week,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong><a href=\"mailto:michel.martel@analystik.ca\"><em>Michel<\/em><\/a><\/strong> <em>&amp; <\/em><strong><a href=\"mailto:denispaulvc@dvcom.ca\"><em>Denis<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Companies today have many means to use to increase sales and achieve corporate objectives! Moreover, several of these means (strategies, tools, tactics, etc.) are the heart of the managers and executives annual Strategic Plans. Marketing for example can play within the entire range of tactics and tools, whether traditional marketing with advertising, media placement, direct&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/language\/en\/sales-and-productivity-crm-solution\/\" title=\"Read Sales and Productivity &#8211; the case of CRM Solution\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Sales and Productivity - the case of a CRM Solution","_seopress_titles_desc":"In this article, the first of a new series of posts on Business Productivity, we want to focus on CRM and on selection criteria for a CRM Solution.","_seopress_robots_index":"","content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3419,3421,3415,3425,3417],"tags":[2972,2857,3056,3096,3012],"better_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6870"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11039,"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6870\/revisions\/11039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analystik.ca\/blogue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}