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Suitable And Simple Software / CRM Technolgies For Beginner SME
GCCRM Advisors Reply To Our Member's Question
Paul Greenberg , President, The 56 Group
www.g-cem.org
Question : What kind of software / CRM technolgies that is suitable and simple enough for beginner SME (Small-Medium Size Entyerprises)? In this case, the SME is still using traditional method for every operation.
Paul Greenberg , President, The 56 Group
Luckily there are a number of choices in the small and medium business "category" for CRM. I'm going to suggest a few different softwares, but keep in mind, my suggestions are generic since I don't know the nature of your company or how you actually conduct business, or your size, or your objectives, or your industry, or your...well, you understand the point. That said, there are some truly excellent applications for the CRM SMB market.
Microsoft - MSCRM - this is Microsoft's new product and one they have invested heavily in. If you use Outlook, you'll be familar with the interface and the ease of use will astonish you. It is aimed at simplicity with a powerful workflow. The only drawback is the heavy server requirements. If you can handle that, then this could be one of the best choices. It is just SO easy. Right now they have Sales and Support modules with Marketing coming later.
Best Software - SalesLogix - a very powerful application suite aimed at the middle of the market and it is also a great application. It is a very robust multi-suite with sales, support, and marketing applications aimed at the middle of the SMB market. It is a little bit clumsy and has a higher learning curve than MSCRM but is worth the effort. It is owned by the owners of ACT which is of course the premier contact management application out there
Onyx & Pivotal - these are two applications that are aimed at the upper end of the SMB market users. They are portal based and very straightforward to use. They have an intense learning curve and are a bit pricey but both will do the trick if you have a lot of users and sit in the US $400 million range as a company.
I hope this helps. There are dozens of other choices that could be equally appropriate. I didn't even take into account the call center world, or, if it turns out you need contact management and not CRM which is sometimes the case. If it is, I would recommend ACT first and foremost for contact management, with a look at Maximizer and Goldmine or even Outlook if that's all you need.
S.Premkumar, Founder & CEO, FUGEN Information Technology Limited
It would be inappropriate to define a Specific Technology that could be used by all SME's.
Information on Industry , Customer Profile , Customer Touch Points and key Customer expectations would be some basic information that would be required to even attempt a recommendation.
For a Start : Given the background provided , if I have to suggest the first step towards a CRM Practice in the company , it would be "Build your Customer Database". This could be done even manually ( Using IT Helps though). Start with bringing all customer information in one place and get to a position to have a unique identifier for each customer and use this identifier in all interactions with the customer. Once this is done. You are ready to get to the next step. You would notice that for many customers you do not have some base information. Identify and get it. Now you would be ready for the next step. Define the desired additional information about the customer ( Keep it simple to start) and get it. At this stage , it could be said that you have moved towards the Practice of CRM.
I am suggesting this with the assumption that " Traditional Method" means " No Authentic Customer Data Exists".
Thanks for giving us an opportunity to bring you close to CRM.
Ron Ho, President, 3C Method Research Institute
Your question: Which category of CRM software/technology is more suitable for medium and small-scale enterprises' (I have merged the terms you used, "real simple" into "suitable" because I consider "simple" should be the basic characteristic of medium and small-scale enterprise).
You did not mention which geographical region you are referring to (locally in China or another part of the world). Besides that, it was not clear whether your question was regarding a particular vendor or functionality. Hence, my explanation here will give an overview of the main vendors who play in both Chinese / Western markets whom target SMEs(Small Medium Enterprises) in particular.
Foreign vendors that target the small and medium-scale enterprises include SalesLogix, Salesforce.com (works on a pay-as-you-go Application Service Provider model), Goldmine Front Office, Onyx, and Siebel's SME version. Domestically SME products are coming from companies such as: TurboCRM, MyCRM, SellWell, SalesLogix (Chinese edition), CareCRM and HuashenCRM etc. For a more detailed reference, please refer to the "Chinese CRM action guide" of G-CEM or my book "CRM principle, Design and practice").
With regards to functionality, the crucial determining factor is the nature of the enterprise. That being said, the medium and small-scale enterprise is generally focused on implementing operational CRM applications such as for Sales, Customer Service and Marketing. Next in priority for SMEs is the call center - which is important when intensive customer interaction is required.
On a final note, the ultimate answer to your question is not which vendor or functionality you need to consider. Software / vendor selection is the last link of the CRM implementation project activity for an enterprise. Typically due to budget constraints, , the medium and small-scale enterprise is more concerned about the problems of usability and results. However, if you want to be specific on what kind of software/module is relevant for which phases in an enterprise's development, the analysis and reviews you should walk through has nothing to do with the size of an enterprise.
On that last point, the practice methodology of Chinese Customer Care (3C) CRM we have introduced to the Chinese market recently, is to help the enterprise to distinguish and to upgrade the customer relationship and also to provide a set of CRM best practices to to ignite the Chinese enterprise in general, so that the people, the process, the technology and the financing of these core resources can be optimized and improved. Please refer to the website for related contents and the latest research information.The web site address is: www.3CMethod.org.
Thank you.
Jay Curry, Chairman, The Customer Marketing Institute BV
I suggest you go to www.crm4sme.com to check out software, also you will get a "Software Evaluator" and can order a special report "How to Select a CRM Solution for Small and Medium-size Enterprises."
Mr. Ye Kai, Chief, GCCRM Research Institute
Regarding the CRM application of small and medium-sized enterprise, we needs to look at the attribute, like formation and etc of this enterprise specifically. For instance, some of the small and medium-sized enterprise may need process and business standard, small scope of BPI and so on during the growing stage; whereas some of the matured small and medium-sized enterprise possibly needs the business automation to enhance the working efficiency.
The requirements of small and medium-sized enterprise with difference in formation, stages, and industry are different. Therefore to provide a platform that can be customer customized is the most important and the soft CRM consultation of optimization and definition of business process and so on is an important essentially too.
As for those small and medium-sized enterprises that operate with more traditional mode, merely automation is insufficient. This is because the process and the thinking are closely connected. Thus, the best way is to carry out simple process definition and optimization and then materialize the automation gradually.
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