CRM

What to choose between implementing a CRM system and a Customer Service in terms of development and investment priority? And why should we choose, is not your CRM software the foundation on which Customer Service is based?

And for what purpose do we implement a CRM? To serve Sales and support the growth of the business or to serve the Customer and improve the quality of the Customer Experience? Or to inform Marketing to guide them in the development of new products that meet the new needs of customers and allow the company to increase its turnover?

For all this, right? So, “foundation” is perhaps the key word here!

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According to Harvard Business Review, before thinking about AI and Big Data, companies should think Data Strategy because cross-sectoral studies show that, on average, less than half of an organization’s structured data is actively used to make decisions and less than 1% of its unstructured data is analyzed or used.

More than 70% of employees have access to data that they should not, 80% of the time of analysts is devoted to the discovery and preparation of data. Data breaches are common, unreliable datasets are spreading in silos, and enterprise data technology often does not live up to demand.

Having a Chief Data Officer (CDO) and a data management function is excellent but not necessarily possible in all organizations. On the other hand, each organization should, at its level, define a coherent strategy for the governance, analysis and deployment of information assets (data).

In short, a Data Strategy!

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According to a recent New Vantage Partners study, many large firms are still lagging behind and not making the most out of the 3 sources of actionable data for the benefit of their company. However, everyone is gargling Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in recent years; amazing, no?

Even more, according to another Forrester study, 73% of enterprise data is not used!

The good news is that all companies can still do well with the implementation of a Data Strategy. Especially since the main obstacle to implementing such a Data Strategy is the “People”, according to New Vantage Partners.

Towards a data-driven enterprise culture

Indeed, the same study reveals that for nearly 50% of companies, Personnel is the main source of resistance to change towards a data-driven enterprise culture.

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Many clients from medium and large enterprises that we meet have migrated their CRM in the Cloud or are seriously thinking about it. On the other, and as surprising as it may look, we have also met others who have set a Cloud CRM and are on the verge… of coming down from their cloud!!!  In fact, just recently, while attending the CFO Summit in the USA, we were quite surprised to find out that many enterprises were not that satisfied with a well-known Cloud CRM solution and are seriously looking to a tailor-made CRM solution!

This is the story for this post; why should you migrate to a Cloud CRM and why should you look into a more traditional, some would say a more, personalized solution?

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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 marketing, promotions, etc., or Marketing 2.0 with a wide assortment of technologies for collaboration and profiles in Social Media… this, of course, if you’re an aficionado of Web 2.0 and already have an Enterprise 2.0 footprint – a digital footprint.

Human Resources 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 Knowledge Management strategy, etc.

And then there’s IT….

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Amazingly, 25 years ago, the only people who spoke of Databases (DB) were the IT folks. They were perceived within large enterprises, not just as geeks but as business gurus. They held the secret formulas, some sort of modern day sorcerers.

Over time, the variety of databases available has diversified. Databases infiltrated the universe of many different departments of businesses; be it the Sales Force with its CRM, Human Resources (HR) with a homemade Access application, the Finance department with their multitude of Excel sheets (even if strictly speaking, they’re not really databases, it must be pointed out that Excel still manages the largest amount of data stored globally), Production and Purchasing with their ERP, etc. And that’s without counting the best years of Visual FoxPro,  which has been replaced by SQL, Oracle and many others…

Since that time, we have bandied about the term across levels of business, for example: “I think we have that into our Database”

Good evening, tonight on Discovery: The Adventures of Databases…

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It seems that everyone has been in CRM mode since the beginnnig of the New Millennium; CRM 1.0, CRM 2.0, Social CRM, CRM-in-the-Cloud, etc., it’s the Buzz word of the moment. Surprisingly, we forget that the 90’s was the Golden Age of Database; at the time every business invested heavily in a Database. Who doesn’t recall VisualFoxPro. But that was another time…

The fact is that it’s all well and good to put into place a sophisticated CRM with advanced management functions, with or without plug-ins for Social Media; it will never compensate for the deficiencies or the absence of a Database that properly reflects the reality of your business situation. Equally, you are no further ahead if your CRM system database needs to interface with other IT systems used to run your business.

When it comes to choosing between a CRM and a Database, one must evaluate needs that vary depending on the size, industry sector, and above all the size of the Sales Force/ Customer Service and customer base of your company.

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