User manual SAGE CRM RULES OF ROAD

[. . . ] Rules of the road for CRM Contact and Customer Relationship Management 17 Rules of the Road for Contact and Customer Relationship Management When it comes to choosing the right Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system for your business, it's important to understand all the benefits of a CRM system before beginning your selection process. When you launch a CRM implementation, your choices can impact nearly everyone in your company. That's why this booklet has been created. These 17 "Rules of the Road" for CRM were collected from executives, managers, employees and consultants who shared their experiences with Sage. The goal is to provide you with useful information as you choose a new CRM system. [. . . ] If the vendor or reseller cannot immediately address any issues raised, make sure they do so in a reasonable time frame. Responsiveness is often a key differentiator in the vendor selection process, so some planned tough questions may be critical to making a selection you can live with long into the future. 7. Implement relevant technology When you choose a CRM system, make sure it's based on current technology. Don't let a salesperson talk you into product vaporware based on future promises. Insist on seeing a current version of the product as it can be deployed today. Equally important, don't accept old technology that's past its peak performance curve. Look at what is in the product roadmap, planned enhancements and other features that reassure you that this is a product being invested in by the vendor for the long term. Take a view on its integration capabilities and plans and the relevance to your back office systems. Decide whether the interface and usability is suited to your user type - i. e. for a power user keyboard short cuts might be better, for ease of use a web-based interface might be more appropriate. A good business consultancy will be able to help you make the right decision. 8. CRM is not a single department solution CRM solutions should provide company-wide benefits. But many products that claim to be CRM applications only address a single functional area such as marketing, sales force automation or customer support. True, these role-specific solutions may be adequate for their specific intended purpose. If you implement a dedicated sales force automation solution, for instance, and down the road realise that you also need to automate your marketing efforts, you have to start from scratch, looking for vendors, trying products - and wasting time. Plus, you'll be faced with two separate products, two separate vendors and no single point of contact for support and problem resolution. Even worse, with multiple point solutions, how will you share information across your company?Will information captured by the sales force automation solution be leveraged in new marketing campaigns?Will marketing campaign data find its way to the customer support centre where cross-selling opportunities could be made, or lost?While it is true that custom code can be written to integrate products, a true CRM solution provides the functionality of any single function solution, as well as a cost-free, seamless way to add features and capabilities whenever you need them. So, if your needs require it, don't settle for anything less than a comprehensive solution that delivers on the true promise of CRM: Marketing campaign management Sales force automation Customer care Contact management Task management/scheduling 9. Integration with back-office systems can speed Return On Investment One area many companies overlook when evaluating CRM solutions is the fact that accounts payable and accounts receivable data can form an integral part of CRM. [. . . ] Test, or crash and burn Don't overlook the importance of testing the software implementation before rolling it out. A test that involves mock customer data can be invaluable in determining how well the system receives and processes information. Better to find a glitch pre-roll-out than to get stuck on one when talking to a customer. As part of this testing process be sure that all back-office integration is working properly. [. . . ]