MODULES IN CRM

What is CRM?
CRM means ''Customer Relationship Management'', i.e. the concept of
a planned and structured means of managing the relations with your
customers. A CRM tool allows a business to manage customer
relationships in a structured and organized way using software that is
normally hosted in-house or on demand, in the cloud, for example,
Zoho CRM.
Application of a well thought out CRM implementation strategy
combined with implementation of the right CRM tool for your business,
helps give insight into your sales and marketing and customer support
processes and improve team efficiency.

In addition, companies that implement a CRM often see substantial improvements in business
processes, Sales team collaboration as well as business profit.
Most normal CRM systems are divided into three (but not restricted to) main modules:

Marketing

Sales

Customer Service
Marketing
The Marketing module allows your marketing team to plan both long and short term Marketing related
activities within your business.
Marketing Planning
Marketing Plans can be entered into the CRM and budgets, targets and campaign related tasks can
be set against the campaigns themselves. Campaigns can be specific to company size, location,
preferred products etc., as all of this information is stored within the CRM.
Campaign Management
Marketing 'campaigns' might take the form of trade shows, TV ads, magazine commercials, and may
target different potential customers, but leads gathered from these campaigns are entered into the
CRM, thus giving you an accurate measurement of the success of each marketing campaign.
Your CRM can be combined with an e-marketing application to target the right customers with the
right products and to analyse their behaviour during an email marketing campaign. Over time, you can
build up an understanding of what attracts customers to your products/services and how they behave
whilst viewing the information in your marketing email and in your website. This provides you with a
very powerful means of reaching your target audience and giving them best information in the best
format.
Lead Management
A key purpose of a CRM Marketing module is to generate leads for Sales to qualify into real sales and
thus revenue for the company. CRM lead management entails managing leads in a structured and
organized way, evaluating whether they are worthy of follow up and grading them accordingly in order
to convert them in to Sales opportunities for the Sales teams to follow up and close as sales deals.
Sales
The CRM Sales module helps your Sales Managers structure their Sales team processes from
presales through to quotations and deal closure. The CRM allows your Sales teams to capture key
customer interactions (calls, meetings, emails etc). Sales Managers can then process this data and
compare sales quotas against actual sales. In addition, the CRM can automatically alert Sales people
with recommended courses of action and provide structured communication templates, decreasing
administration and sales ramp time. This is known as automated workflow and can be customized to
match your company's sales policy.
Opportunity Management
Opportunities are potential sales, potential revenue for the company. The CRM helps the Sales team
by organizing all the relevant opportunity information into one central database and it helps business
managers by giving a real-time window into sales status.
Typically information stored on an opportunity is as follows:

Prospective customer company details etc,

Type of sales opportunity and product interest

Expected sales revenue,

Expected sales closing date,

Key people in the sales opportunity and their roles within the deal/company,

Key sales-related dates and milestones

In most businesses a sales opportunity will have several stages. For example prospecting,
qualification, quotation, negotiation and closed (won) or closed (lost). The opportunity stages can be
customized to match your companys sales process. A CRM system helps improve the efficiency of
your Sales team as well as relations with your customers during each phase by providing functions to
assist the Sales representative in performing suggested sales-related activities and / or using
suggested sales-related communication templates, all of which can be predefined by your company's
sales policy/process or business model. Many of these can be automated by the CRM Administrator
via liaison with the Business Development/Sales Managers, thus structuring the process further,
helping to reduce ramp time and saving on Sales Admin time. Here are a few examples of how you
might use a CRM in your organisation:
Your Sales person has just had an initial meeting with a new prospect he/she can use the CRM to
send a polite thank you email, stored in the CRM, which pulls all relevant information and can be
sent in one or two clicks as opposed to thirty minutes of typing. Sales admin time is greatly reduced
and your customer receives a courteous and personalised follow up.
An large sales deal has been quoted by one of your Sales team. The CRM can be customized to
send automated alerts to the Sales Manager to get involved as well as (for example) an automatic
notification with all relevant details to stock control personnel to prepare for production.
Or, for example, if an Opportunity is lost, the CRM system can automatically notify the Sales person
to enter details of why the deal was lost so your company builds up a Lessons Learned database.
These approaches are known as "Guided Sales Methodology" and this is where companies benefit
from working with a CRM Administrator / Consultant to assist in making suggestion to improve their
business workflow by using the CRM tool.
Quotation and Sales Order Management
Once opportunities reach a Quotation stage, they can be converted to a quotation and, if they are set
to the Closed Won stage, a Sales order. Most CRMs have standard functionality which allow your
Sales team to quickly and easily create Quotation or Sales Order from an opportunity and this is then
stored against the sales deal for easy reference. Most CRMs, especially those such as
Salesforce.com can be integrated to ERP systems if required.
Activity Management
Activities are such things as Sales calls, meetings, discussions, internal notes, emails). Activity
Management allows you to log all of your sales activities in one centralised platform, helping you to
build a 360 degree view of customer communications. Most CRMs will allow you to synchronise these
activities with MS Outlook/Lotus Notes.
Customer Service
A CRM allows you to effectively manage your companys customer support capability. This too can be
customized to suit your business process and help you to provide what is stated in your Warranty
based services, thus avoiding SLA (Service Level Agreement) non conformance issues. In addition,
they can drastically reduce your support team admin time by building a company knowledgebase
which can be used by the support team and even accessed by your customers in a self service
portal. CRMs usually include the following customer support functionality:

SLA/Warranty Management

Resource Planning and Scheduling

Solution Management - answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Call Center Management

Collaborative customer support resource management

A CRM solution can substantially improve your business processes, provide visibility into critical
business intelligence and make your teams more efficient
CRM and ERP Integration
The need for front-office and back-office synchronization
Do your customer service and sales reps struggle to obtain a single view of customers? Does your finance
department strive to recognize revenues on time? Would you like to fulfill orders in a timely manner? It's
time to get a better return on your data by integrating your back-office ERP environment with your CRM.
When CRM and ERP applications are disconnected, employees find themselves trapped in tedious,
manual tasks that are error-prone, slow down processes, and add to operational costs. Integrating CRM
and ERP applications is essential to maximizing your investment in each system, reducing errors in data
exchange, and improving overall organizational efficiency. CRM and ERP integration can also dramatically
improve the return on investment of both applications and increase effectiveness of both tools.
5 Benefits of CRM and ERP Integration:
1: Get a Single View of All Customer Interactions
CRM and ERP applications both have contact and account information from customers. ERP systems
focus more on the back-end financial and fulfillment processes, while CRM applications contain information
about prospective clients and support for sales. Creating a seamless experience between the two
applications requires carefully creating integration workflows that ensure that all relevant pieces of
information make it from one system to another.
2: Fulfill Orders Instantly in Real Time
When an opportunity closes in your CRM system, it should trigger the ordering and fulfillment process
immediately in your ERP. However, this usually doesn't happen, and a lack of real-time, event-based
communication can mean that a crucial order is missed. CRM and ERP integration helps you ensure that
your customers get their products delivered on time.
3: Accelerate Cash Flows
The cash collection process usually kicks off when a sale closes, and invoices and payment terms are to
be reconciled with the customer. Without proper CRM and ERP integration, there are no workflows to
generate automated reminders to customers, or to alert finance personnel that their cash flows are running
lower than normal.
With proper CRM and ERP integration, it is easier for finance to identify delinquent accounts and to
recognize revenue in a timely manner.
4: Quote Correct Prices
CRM and ERP integration helps sales get access to the latest pricing updates from the ERP system. In this
manner, sales reps have access to the latest promotional pricing from marketing campaigns, and can
target their customers better when trying to meet their quotas.
5: Maximize CRM and ERP investments
Your CRM application helps your reps collaborate better and be more productive. But when it is not
synchronized with your back-office ERP, your sales reps stop using it, thereby resulting in lower adoption.
As a result, you stop receiving the full benefit of your investment in not only your CRM system, but also
your ERP application. Through a robust, easy to deploy, and intuitive cloud integration solution, you can
truly reach your full potential with CRM and ERP integration.
CASE STUDY
How can CRM help grow your business?
World class customer experiences begins with your people. By providing
them with the right tools to propel their productivity and amplify their impact,
they can drive your organisation to achieve its goals and generate
maximum return.

Phil Callaghan
This is the value of customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, a truly experienced and proven
way to build lasting growth. However, implementation of any CRM solution must be carefully thought
through, and the support of experienced professionals can pay dividends in the long run. CRM technology,
when placed at the heart of an organisation, can have an almost immediate impact on the top line, helping
organisations to win profitable customers and to better serve existing customers. There are three ways to
harness the power of CRM:
1. Acquire profitable customers
A well implemented CRM application will bring together multiple sources of information to support decision-
making, allowing marketing campaigns to be targeted and managed most effectively.
A sales force is a valuable and possibly one of an organisations most costly resources. With this in mind,
its imperative that sales people spend their time selling, and less time chasing fruitless leads or navigating
administrative hurdles.

The CRM tool should act as a sales forces compass. It should help the organisation understand where it
stands today, and point in the direction it needs to take. It should be an integral part of the sales team at
the start of the sales cycle it should help qualify leads, allowing resources to be directed appropriately.

Automatic triggers can be built into your CRM system to ensure the desired contact programme is fulfilled,
and subsequent win-loss data can be collated and analysed, allowing organisations to continually hone
their strategy for optimum success.
2. Retain and maximise existing customers
Its commonly known that its significantly cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones.
So it makes sense to focus resources that help to build customer loyalty, increase spend and encourage
longevity. CRM allows you to analyse customer spend, joining up your marketing and sales processes.
Additionally, you can build detailed customer profiles all of which aids the reduction of customer churn.

A great customer experience must be balanced with the need to control cost. An effective CRM tool can
help make service improvements whilst reducing costs associated with managing customers, both by
making agents more effective, and by automating data entry processes.

For advisers, the automatic generation of information, complete with pre-populated standard fields means
advisers have the necessary detail available to handle queries most effectively, which can save valuable
time. And because all information about the customer including historic data is held in one place, the
adviser can more quickly handle queries as they have access to contextual information.
3. Gain efficiencies
Processes Improvement: All businesses operate with a series of processes, often built around the most
basic functions of the organisation and almost always repetitive tasks. These processes are vital to an
organisations success they are what drive consistent service levels, fast decision-making and best
practice.

Successful processes are key to all successful organisations. CRM reporting makes it easy to identify the
most effective processes, and to ensure they are established across the organisation.

Help employees to excel: In an age where information is all-important, CRM tools can play an important
role in ensuring employees are able to work effectively, adding maximum value to the business. Customers
want to be helped quickly, and by the first person they speak to. They want quick solutions and correct
answers. CRM means employees have the right information in the right place at the right time, empowering
them to be effective and provide high quality service to customers.

Simplify your IT assets: As organisations grow, IT infrastructure tends to grow too. Soon, a number of
disparate systems are in use, often with overlapping and conflicting data. It can be a time-consuming and
costly exercise to unravel the discrepancies, and produce a less than ideal experience for customers. In
addition, it can be more complex to maintain a number of systems, and adds to training costs too.

Providing one unified system with a single user interface, means employees can access all the necessary
information in one place, without the need to switch from one application to another. This makes it easier
for them to make good decisions, and reduces the risk of wasted time and effort.

A good CRM system will continue to evolve with an organisation, comprising accessible configuration tools
to enable companies to further tailor the user interface. It should also allow companies to further develop
their capabilities.
Conclusion
Companies must keep focused on their strategy and find ways to achieve more with less. Tools which help
companies maximise revenue opportunities and reduce operational costs will strengthen the organisation
and position it well for a secure future. CRM is a powerful tool which, if fully harnessed, can play a vital role
in sales, marketing and service provision.

However, to produce the required impact, it must be implemented with care. Correctly integrated with other
IT applications, and aligned with business processes, a CRM tool can be immensely powerful, helping an
organisation to gain better market positioning beyond an economic downturn. Working with experts
reduces the risk of wasted time, effort and money and means you can reap the full benefit of a CRM
system from the outset.


CHALLENGES FOR SME TO IMPLIMNT CRM-
Stiff competition, narrow price margins...
Sound familiar?
Small and medium-sized enterprises have to overcome their own special challenges, often having to
contend with:
a lot of competition,
comparable prices,
specific customer requirements,
price and product transparency driven by the Internet.
CRM is essential for small and medium-sized enterprises. With countless competitors all offering
similar products at similar prices, the only way to stand out from the crowd is through efficient and
effective customer relationship management. Our CRM solution meets the needs of SMEs The
right implementation of your CRM system is critical for your success. Our professional CRM solution
supports you reliably at all times in all areas of your business. Your software has to be as flexible as
your are. This also applies to your solution provider whose most important task is to understand you.
CAS CRM is the partner of choice for successful CRM implementation.
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Analytical CRM
Definition:
Analytical CRM comprises the analysis and systematic evaluation of customer data using business
intelligence functions. The aim is to filter out the key facts from gathered information and gain
customer knowledge. Analytical CRM allows customer satisfaction to be measured, for example, or
trends among customers to move to other suppliers to be detected. Knowledge of customers'
behavior can also be used specifically for communication and addressing customers in operational
CRM, such as in campaign management.
Example: Customers' buying behavior is analyzed in analytical CRM. This analysis reveals which
customers have not bought anything for a considerable length of time. A mailshot campaign, guided
by operational CRM, will address this target group directly and encourage it to purchase various
products.
STRATEGIC CRM

Successful strategic CRM is a complex set of activities
that together form the basis for a sustainable and hard-
to-imitate competitive advantage
Strategic CRM shapes interactions between companies
and customers to allow the maximization of customers
lifetime value
Recognizes differences between customers with
respect to their economic value to the firm as well as
their expectations from the firm
Marketing and Customer Service[edit]
CRM systems track and measure marketing campaigns over multiple networks. These
systems can track customer analysis by customer clicks and sales. Places where CRM is used
include call centers, heavily used in social media, direct mail, data storage files, banks, and
customer data queries.
TOOLS IN RM PROCESS
Comparing the Tools
"CRM" has become something of a buzzword in the nonprofit technology sector, and is often
appended to specialized databases that don't really fit the definition of a true constituent
relationship management system. This is not to say that these software systems couldn't help
you manage your relationships with your constituents, just that they don't meet the strictest
definition of the tool. Below, we look at the four systems that do meet the definition: flexible,
customizable, all-in-one systems able to integrate with your online communication strategy as
well as your fundraising, case management, event management, and other activities.
Free to Acquire, but Not to Maintain
CiviCRM
CiviCRM is an open-source, web-based CRM system offered for download at no charge.
However, you'll almost certainly need a consulting firm to configure the software to your
nonprofit's specific needs. Luckily, CiviCRM consultants are becoming easier to find, and
there's an active community of nonprofit users who help develop and beta-test new
developments. It's quite strong in helping you keep track of your constituents, households,
and donations, and offers helpful event management and broadcast email functionality as
well.
CiviCRM does have a few drawbacks if your organization requires a CRM with
sophisticated accounting and billing features, you may want to choose another system, as
CiviCRM will require a lot of additional work. The user interface isn't always the most
intuitive, either, although many improvements have been made in the past few years.
With customization, though, it's a system that could help your organization function more
smoothly. Some of the out-of-the-box functionality includes CiviCase, a basic case
management system; CiviSchool, which is meant to manage educational programs; and a new
feature called CiviBox Office, which allows for sophisticated, airline-style seat selection for
ticketed events. Beyond these ready-to-go modules, customization of the software could cost
anywhere between $2,000 and $50,000, based on the complexity of the organization's needs.
A consultant would almost certainly need to manage the customization, and could also
manage the migration from your previous system and any technical support that might be
needed down the line.
Salesforce
Salesforce is a CRM platform used widely in the for-profit world. The company offers up to
10 user licenses of the Enterprise edition, one of the tiers of the system, free of charge to
qualifying organizations. Salesforce also has an implementation called the Nonprofit Starter
Pack that's ready-made to fit the needs of nonprofits. The system is cloud-based and doesn't
require dedicated hardware or a server. Strong in household management, donation
management, and member management, Salesforce is not as strong out of the box in event or
case management.
A defining feature of Salesforce is the App Exchange, a bustling online marketplace where
developers sell applications designed to sit on top of the platform. There are hundreds of apps
for sale, and many have been designed especially for nonprofits. These are usually offered on
a monthly subscription basis, and the cost can add up, but it can also add substantial
capabilities to the system.
For smaller nonprofits, Salesforce is technically free, but to properly configure and support
the system, you'll need the services of someone tech-savvy enough to navigate its substantial
technical intricacies and possibilities. For instance, the apps you'd need to assemble a system
that meets the requirements for most religious organizations could potentially cost you
thousands of dollars per year. Larger nonprofits that need more than 10 user licenses would
need to negotiate a contract with the company.
CRMs with Subscription Costs
SugarCRM
SugarCRM is an open-source, web-based CRM system designed for for-profit businesses.
The system vendors make no bones about their desire to challenge Salesforce for the title of
most widely used CRM for enterprise. Consultants for the tool have also begun to court the
nonprofit sphere.
SugarCRM is a powerful and user-friendly system but doesn't have a widely available
customization for nonprofits like the other tools profiled here, so a consultant would have to
build in donation management, event support, and other basic features. Almost all of the out-
of-the-box language is geared toward the sales process, although the fields and modules can
be modified extensively. Still, many basic features that nonprofits need will require
workarounds, and SugarCRM doesn't have the ability to integrate with a nonprofit's website
as seamlessly as do other CRM products.
An organization looking to implement SugarCRM would need to work closely with a
consultant to tailor the software to the organization, but once the customization process was
completed, SugarCRM might be a helpful relationship management tool. Pricing for
SugarCRM is based on a tiered system there's an open-source implementation called the
Community Edition, which is free. Most nonprofits would want to start at the higher-level
options, which range between $420 and $1,200 per staff user per year. And a consulting
company would charge fees around the $10,000 mark to get the system up and running.
Microsoft Dynamics
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the software giant's answer to an integrated CRM system, and is
designed to be an all-in-one database accommodating all of an organization's needs. The
Nonprofit Template, developed by Microsoft and available at no charge to sit on top of the
CRM, transforms the out-of-the-box sales-centric tool into a nonprofit-centric platform. The
system is pretty user-friendly, especially if you're used to Office products, and is able to
handle donation management, reporting, member management, direct mail correspondence,
and email. Event management and web portal capabilities are available for an extra fee but
require additional configuration and more advanced technical knowledge to implement.
[Editor's note: Microsoft Dynamics CRM is available as a donated product through
TechSoup to qualified nonprofits and charities. TechSoup also offers NetSuite, an integrated,
cloud-based business management software solution.]
Other Options
Other vendors have harnessed the power of CRM and offered managed packages, or products
you can subscribe to that are built on CRM platforms but marketed toward specific segments
of the marketplace, like cultural organizations. These come with most of the features you'd
need already built in, and usually require a monthly or annual subscription.
Conclusion
Whether with volunteers, donors, constituents, lawmakers, or anyone else, your nonprofit
relies on its relationships to do the day-to-day work that effects change in the world and
meets its mission. Managing those relationships is an ongoing challenge, but finding the right
tool makes it easier by eliminating unnecessary obstacles and helping you focus on the
personal aspect of these relationships.
A CRM isn't the solution for every organization, and those with specialized needs or highly
focused interactions may benefit from a more specific system. It's not uncommon for donors
to also be volunteers, or for constituents to donate. By tracking your relationships and making
records quickly and easily accessible, a good CRM facilitates your work by letting you map
the way people truly interact with your organization even when those interactions overlap.






CUSTOMER LIFE CYCLE













In customer relationship management (CRM), customer life cycle is a term used to describe
the progression of steps a customer goes through when considering, purchasing, using, and
maintaining loyalty to a product or service. Marketing analysts Jim Sterne and Matt Cutler
have developed a matrix that breaks the customer life cycle into five distinct steps: reach,
acquisition, conversion, retention, and loyalty. In layman's terms, this means getting a
potential customer's attention, teaching them what you have to offer, turning them into a
paying customer, and then keeping them as a loyal customer whose satisfaction with the
product or service urges other customers to join the cycle. The customer life cycle is often
depicted by an ellipse, representing the fact that customer retention truly is a cycle and the
goal of effective CRM is to get the customer to move through the cycle again and again.





CRM Implementation Process
4 Key Steps in the CRM Implementation Process
1. 1. Identify all areas of your business that touch the Customer or the Prospect.
2. 2. Identify all of the business processes that manage the touch points with the Customer or Prospect.
3. 3. Select the appropriate CRM and Sales Force Automation (SFA) system that will allow the business
processes impacting the Customer or Prospect to be managed in the most efficient and effective
manner.
4. 4. Document those business processes and train the users on the utilization of the CRM system with
a focus on how that system will deliver value to their daily work lives and how it will maximize their
efficiency and effectiveness in managing their relationships with their Customers and Prospects.