As promised; the solution to the problems I presented previously. You can find my last post here: http://bit.ly/cBgwUy. But if you’re too lazy to read, to summarize, I noted common problems that result from having multiple different applications for managing a business – as well as the solution to these problems. I’ll go into further detail; when a business first realizes the power of business management software, it usually does so as a result of having some form of CRM or project management application. It is likely the business needs to manage other areas of itself as well, meaning billing and project management or CRM (depending on which area of business management they dove into first). When a business is going down this path of finding out new software to manage areas of it, owners will often pick up a few different applications. As a result of this, the company will end up with multiple different applications that don’t integrate and also a hefty monthly bill. What does this mean? More training for every member of staff (think temp guys), doing extra work to get simple tasks done (jumping between applications to look someone’s name up), and paying a huge chunk of money – all while lacking a proper workflow. The point here folks, is that business management software is supposed to make things easier for employees and help speed up certain processes. When you have an assorted list of applications and add-ons that don’t integrate, you’re making things harder and you’re ultimately (and ironically) losing out on the main aspect of having business management software: efficiency.
Now that we’re brought up to speed, let me get straight to the point. If you want to avoid going down the problematic path of having a mess of applications, then I suggest you combine. That’s right; use an all in one application. It comes down to logic: if you sell a product or service, you need to not only handle customers, but also your tasks and billing as well. So why wouldn’t you have all of these aspects of business management in one application that blends together? Most likely because you assume the market doesn’t offer it. Many software developers intentionally create apps in multiple different areas of business management, and intentionally don’t have these combined into one simpler software. Why? I’ll give you a hint: it’s really obvious. I’m sure you guessed it: money. It always comes down to money, and that’s why developers make multiple different applications for separate processes: if a customer likes software for one aspect of their business, they’re going to like it for another (as I said earlier…) and since they’re already using software from Company X, it makes sense to them to just buy the similar product from company X as well. What’s unfortunate about this is its obvious all over the business management software market and yet people are constantly suckered into paying much more than they need to. Developers blatantly promote separate applications for separate aspects of business management as if their motive wasn’t money, but rather function. Yet if you go to any of their support forums, users are making desperate cries for better integration between the two applications they use (not naming any names).
Just because you haven’t seen any all in one business management applications doesn’t mean they don’t exist. There are quite a few out there, and I’m not just referring to really well integrating applications. I’m referring to literally all-in-one systems that put aspects of CRM and project management together to create a workflow like no other. I’ll go into detail about finding products like these as well as making sure they fit your company in another post perhaps.
Back to how all in one software can fix the problems of a traumatized business management software user. You may be up to your neck in bills while your employees are either ignoring your applications altogether or constantly bothering you about them (ok, I’m exaggerating a bit here) but don’t fear. Let us cover how all in one will put you back into a well working business with true levels of efficiency.
The first problem we encountered was integration. With all in one software, integration isn’t even a concept you need to worry about. This depends on the software, but most combine different areas of business management so well you don’t need to worry about picking up other third party add-ons. Think of going from your project management features to your CRM features without having to even exit what you’re doing or minimizing a window. What’s more is the workflow capabilities present in all in one application. Think of having your secured sales leads automatically converted into projects, quotes, or invoices.
The second problem we encountered was costs. Having multiple different software applications can be very costly. Many companies can’t even afford some of the industry’s top CRM and project management tools, let alone combine them with other applications making the bill even higher. If you get the right all in one application, you are dealing with a price that is likely less than the price of many popular CRM or project management tools by themselves. That’s right; the cost can be less for a complete business management system than an application that only covers one area of business management, i.e. only CRM.
The third problem mentioned was having staff use multiple different software applications and how it affects them as well as your business. Not only is your staff discouraged when having to put in extra time to do simple tasks, but also you will be teaching your staff multiple applications, which can be very lengthy in time depending on the complexity of the software. With all in one you not only are training your staff much less, but also helping to motivate them. When they can get things done faster and with less effort, it is proven that they will be more motivated to do more.
While these problems are very basic, this is merely the tip of the iceberg. The comparison of all in one software to multiple separate applications is foolish. Simply put you’re going to see better results when you don’t set any unnecessary limitations to your business, and with multiple separate applications you’re setting unnecessary limitations. I have not yet mentioned any true benefits of all in one systems – I’ve only really described how it fixes certain problems. In my next post I’d like to go into more detail about the specific benefits of all in one software and how they compare to a mix of applications.
Feel free to share your thoughts.
If the CRM is imposed by management and is solely used to control and manage the sales team and salesmen then the CRM is doomed to fail.
The Sales teamand Salesmen need to have a benefit for using the CRM. If a CRM means more work in the form of data entry then why should the Salesman waste his time as he could be cold calling or visiting leads and prospects.
A CRM needs to serve the sales team and Salesmen.
In order not to be a burden the CRM should at least have a dropbox email address for collecting the contacts from the emails send and to file the emails by company.
There has to be a benefit for all parties involved, not just management that gets another tool to drive and control the Salesmen.
CRM solutions allow companies to automate sales processes, gain better control over sales opportunities and centralize contact information at a single location. CRM on the other hand are process workflow driven solutions, have multiple modules including customer service management module.