Still looking for deals on Crm software ?
Find our amazing Crm software offers at our top source site today where we have compared Crm software for you.
ask.com

About Crm Software

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broad term that covers concepts used by [companies] to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information.

Aspects There are three aspects of CRM which can each be implemented in isolation from each other:

Operational - automation or support of customer processes that include a company’s sales or service representative
Collaborative - direct communication with customers that does not include a company’s sales or service representative ([self service])
Analytical - analysis of customer data for a broad range of purposes

META Group (acquired by Gartner in April 2005) developed this conceptual architecture in the late 1990s, and dubbed it the CRM Ecosystem.

Operational Operational CRM provides support to "[front office]" business processes, including sales, [marketing] and service. Each interaction with a customer is generally added to a customer's contact history, and staff can retrieve information on customers from the database when necessary.

One of the main benefits of this contact history is that customers can interact with different people or different contact channels in a company over time without having to describe the history of their interaction each time.

Consequently, many [call centre]s use some kind of CRM software to support their call center agents.

Collaborative Collaborative CRM covers the direct interaction with customers, for a variety of different purposes, including feedback and issue-reporting. Interaction can be through a variety of channels, such as web pages, email, automated phone (Automated Voice Response AVR) or SMS.

The objectives of collaborative CRM can be broad, including cost reduction and service improvements.

Analytical Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes:

Design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimise [marketing effectiveness]
Design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, [cross-selling], [up-selling], [retention]
Analysis of customer behavior to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development etc.)
Management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis
Prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn).

Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of [predictive analytics].

Strategy Several commercial CRM software packages are available which vary in their approach to CRM. However, CRM is not just a technology, but rather a comprehensive approach to an organization's philosophy in dealing with its customers. This includes policies and processes, front-of-house [customer] service, employee training, marketing, systems and information management. Hence, it is important that any CRM implementation considerations stretch beyond technology, towards the broader organizational requirements.

The objectives of a CRM strategy must consider a company’s specific situation and its customers needs and expectations.

Technology considerations The technology requirements of a CRM strategy can be complex and far reaching.

The basic building blocks:

A [database] to store customer information. This can be a CRM specific database or an enterprise [data warehouse].
Operational CRM requires customer agent support software.
Collaborative CRM requires customer interaction systems, e.g. an interactive website, automated phone systems etc.
Analytical CRM requires statistical analysis software as well as software that manages any specific marketing campaigns.

Each of these can be implemented in a basic manner or in a high end complex installation.

Key functionalities A typical CRM system is subdivided into three basic sub modules:

Marketing

Sales

Service

Marketing Marketing sub module primarily deals with providing functionalities of Long-term planning and Short-term execution of Marketing related Activities within an organization. Planning Long-term Market Plans can be made and Quantitative as well as Qualitative measures (targets) can be set for a defined period and for different product groups, geographies etc. These are then monitored based on the actual performance throughout the defined period.

Campaign management Short-Term execution includes running Marketing campaigns via different communication channels targeting a predefined group of potential buyers with a specific message referring to a product or a group of products.

Lead management One key objective of the Marketing function is to generate sales related leads, which finally get converted into Sales Revenues for the company. Marketing campaigns with the specific objective of generating leads (Prospective customers who may be interested in a product). Lead management deals with processing these Leads, carrying out a sanity check, evaluating the genuineness of the information (Since, there is a lot of information that is gathered during Marketing Campaigns it becomes necessary to screen these leads), and finally converting them to Hot Leads or Cold Leads.

Sales Sales functionalities are focused on helping the Sales team to execute and manage the presales process better and in an organized manner. Sales team is responsible for regularly capturing key customer interactions, any leads or opportunities they are working on etc, in CRM system. The system helps by processing this data, monitoring against the targets and proactively alerting the sales person with recommended further actions based on company's sales policy.

Opportunity management Opportunities help the sales team by organizing all the relevant data regarding a prospective deal into one place. It is characterized by the details such as Prospective customer, expected budget, total spending, products interested in, expected closing date, key players in the deal and their key characteristics, important dates and milestones, etc.

The opportunity has several phases, e.g. initiation, identification, qualification, RFP received, quotation sent, final stage, won or lost. Of course these phases can be defined based on individual company needs.

A CRM system helps in each phase by "guiding" the sales representative to carry out certain suggested activities as defined by the company's sales policy. It creates reminders and planned activities within the system. For example, if the opportunity has reached "RFP received" stage, and the deal size is more than, say, US$50,000, the system can prompt the representative to hold a review discussion with a senior manager. This is often referred as Guided Sales Methodology.

Opportunities can be directly converted into quotations or sales orders.

Quotation and sales order management Opportunities, if they reach a quotation phase, can be converted to a quotation, and, if won gets converted to a Sales order. Standard features of creating a "linked" Quotation or sales order from opportunities are provided. These Sales orders then flow to the Back-End (ERP) system for further execution and Delivery.

Activity management Activities represent various Sales or Service related interactions with the customer (meetings, discussions, telephone calls, emails). Activity management provides a platform to consolidate all the interactions with customer into a single platform, helping to build a 360 degree view of customer.

Activities can be synchronized to [Microsoft Outlook]/[Lotus Notes] Calendar items (Meetings and Tasks).

Service Service related functionalities are focused on effectively managing the customer service (Planned or Unplanned), avoid "leakage" of Warranty based services, avoid "Penalties" arising due to Non conformity of SLA (Service Level Agreements), and provide first and Second Level support to Customers.

Several functionalities are:

Service Order Management

Service Contract Management

Planned Services management

Warranty Management

Installed Base (Equipment) Management

SLA Management

Resource Planning and Scheduling

Knowledge Management (FAQs, How to guides)

Call Center Support

Resource Planning and Workforce Management

Channels of communication It is also important to mention here that a CRM system is capable of executing all the three sub modules via multiple communication Channels. These channels can be:

Direct

Online (Internet)

Call Center (via Phone/FAX/Email etc)

All the three CRM Sub Modules (Marketing, Sales and Service) can be executed across these Communication channels. Based on these criteria, CRM offerings can be further sub divided into following:

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto"! Communication Channel/ CRM Module! Direct! Internet! Call Center|-| Marketing| Online Marketing| Web Marketing| Tele Marketing|-| Sales| Web Shop| Tele Sales|-| Service| Online Service| Customer Self Service Portal| Tele Service|-|}

Successes While there are numerous reports of "failed" implementations of various types of CRM projects, these are often the result of unrealistic high expectations and exaggerated claims by CRM vendors.

Privacy and data security The data gathered as part of CRM must consider [customer privacy] and [data security]. Customers want the assurance that their data is not shared with third parties without their consent and not accessed illegally by third parties.

Customers also want their data used by companies to provide a benefit for them. For instance, an increase in unsolicited telemarketing calls is generally resented by customers while a small number of relevant offers is generally appreciated by customers.

Market structure Given below is a list of top CRM software vendors in 2005 with figures in millions of United States Dollars published in a [Gartner] study.{] || style="text-align: right" | 1,475|-| [Siebel Systems] || style="text-align: right" | 966|-| [Oracle Corporation] || style="text-align: right" | 368|-| [Salesforce.com] ] || style="text-align: right" | 276|-| Others || style="text-align: right" | 2,333|-| Total || style="text-align: right" | 5,698|}

See also

[Enterprise relationship management] (ERM), method beyond CRM
[Business intelligence]
[Customers]
[Customer Intelligence]
[Customer service]
[Database marketing]
[Mystery shopping]
[Predictive analytics]
[Sales force management system]
[Web management system]

References

Information Reference: Wikipedia.org

Crm software

Questions and Answers

In the UK, do we make any software - I mean enterprise applications such as ERP CRM EIP?

A) I develop an enterprise application that is used around the world by 5000 people. It's a manufacturing scheduling product, and is used by some of the world's top companies. I'm not going to give the name out (as I'm not looking to advertise), but you'd be suprised at the amount of top software that is developed in the UK - you don't normally get to hear about them because we all operate in markets that home users have no interest in.

I was using Outlook 2003 as a CRM tool, then tried using ACT,?

Q) I am now trying GoldMine 6.5 as it integrates with Outlook 2003 better, can anyone give me there thoughts as to the best CRM software and why you think so?

A) My company just recently started using SugarCRM, we had been using the Open Source version but just started using their professional. We had been using ACT for a very long time but found that many of the tools we wanted were not included. Our IT department had us start using the open source version of Sugar and found that it worked great. We used it for several months and decided we were getting so much more work done because it cut down on double entry of work. We had a company called Austin Software Architects do some customizations for us and have been very happy with the results. In my opinion SugarCRM has been easily implemented into my company and is extremely user friendly. The open source is free so there is nothing to lose financially. Hope this helps

Seeking a CRM Software Recommendation?

Q) I'm looking for a recommendation for CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) software. I have a small consulting business of about 75 clients. I want to keep address data, notes about their hardware, a work history, and if possible maps of their locations to conveniently print for travel. I currently use Quickbooks Customer Manager 2.0 but would consider an alternative as long as it's not too extremely expensive. I would like to avoid Outlook integration and find something either open source or not so locked in proprietary data file formats.

A) Look into SugarCRM: http://www.sugarcrm.com/ The Open Source edition is free, works with MySQL (which is also free), runs on either Linux/Apache or Windows/IIS. If you already have Microsoft SQL Server, SugarCRM will work with it as well...

How much does a CRM Software generally cost?

Q) I am eager to know the general price of a CRM software package.

A) Anywhere from free to thousands. What features do you want? ///

What is the simplest way to add a web-interface to an existing stand-alone CRM software app?

Q) NOW: Company A already has a stand-alone CRM software app., which it sells to its clients: X, Y and Z. The present CRM app. interacts with an "Interbase" DB (Borland), installed "in-house" @ each client X, Y, Z. NEEDED: Co. A wants to implement a web-based interface to this DB, so that its clients X, Y, Z can choose to install either: a) the stand-alone software app, -or- b) the web-interface to the DB The Question(s): --------------------- Q1) What is the best/simplest tech approach to generate this web interface? (language, OS?) Q2) Could the web-interface interact with the DB, using/via the present CRM software app? (so that the same business logic does not need to be replicated + maintained in 2 places: the present software app AND the new web-interface...). Oh...and Co.A says the web-interface should be an OS-independent solution (not Win or Linux-specific). Clients X, Y and Z may have Linux or Win web servers... Any ideas/suggestions/pointers? Thanks!

A) You should be able to build a web based solution that talks directly to the DB that the CRM app talks to. Try building it using standard web languages such as Perl, PHP, or ASP, and it should run on most web servers and be correctly displayed on most browers.

Maps from CRM/Sales Software Package?

Q) Is there a software product/plug-in that lets me map multiple addresses from my CRM? I want to visit clients on the fly...if I am leaving a client or going to be in the neighborhood, I often think "Who is close by that I can visit since I am here?" Thanks for the help....

A) Yes, but nothing free

I am prsently learning SIEBEL CRM software, after getting trained in 3months, How much can I earn perannum min

Q) for a person who learns SIEBEL Customer relationship management software and getting in to the clients site working on customer projects for a span of 4-6 months. I would like to know the Job market offer on date.How much minimum salary per annum one can earn

A) Siebel is amazing... you have choosen a good field, I shoul say. Untill the BPO dries off you ll have enough openings I beleive. I my self has been working on this s/w for the last 2 years. The only issue I have found with Siebel is that it drags a bit... You can bag a handsome £3500 a month...

Recommend a non-internet based CRM software that is not Goldmine or ACT.?

Q) My company wants to be able to purchase software that we can load on our network, so we do not have to pay a monthly fee for each user. A competitor to Goldmine/ACT. All I need to do is download a "comma-delimited" file of the customer leads, call on them & set appointments. Then it needs to have a calendar function to schedule appointments for the sales team.

A) Do you have experience with MS Access? You can manipulate data easily and create your own forms and reports. You also might look into SalesLogix

In plain english, can someone tell me what exactly is CRM software and what exactly does it do ?

Q) What would you expect of a CRM tool to do for your business? How exactly such a tool help you? Is there any site with a plain english explanation of what CRM is from the point of view of a mid-size business?

A) It is Customer Relationship Software. My best guess would be that this software would be a platform upon which to service your customers - ie. create a work order, perhaps invoice for services rendered and tasks related to that. cheers

Could CRM software assist this firm in managing accounts receivables?

Q) if possible could you please be a little specific

A)

best crm software?

A) Microsoft Dynamics SAP

good crm software for small business?

A) If you're looking for open sourced ones.. check out Compiere. Other than that, I highly recommend TechExcel CRM. They have really good customer support and proven technology with lots of customers. Additional CRM software, check out http://www.wareprise.com/crm