CRM UK - the official blog of the CRM specialists at TSG

New Concentrix Whitepaper on AccountingWEB

AccountingWEB.co.uk is the one of the UK's main online information sources and community for accountants in business and practice.

This week, Concentrix customers that subscribe to AccountingWEB's IT newsletter may have noticed that one of the latest whitepapers from Concentrix, "Improving effectivenes with integrated Finance and CRM software" is available for download from AccountingWEB.co.uk.

Whether or not you're a subscriber to AccountingWEB's weekly e-bulletins (which are free), you can download the whitepaper from their website here. Alternatively, email [email protected].

New Features of GoldMine Premium 8.5

Following on from the recent Concentrix GoldMine seminar, we’ve put details of the main features of GoldMine Premium Edition 8.5, the latest version of the software, on the Concentrix website.

Remember that it’s a really good time to upgrade to GoldMine Premium 8.5 and take advantage of the new features of the software - if you're a Concentrix customer already using GoldMine Premium Edition and you've kept up annual maintenance, the cost to upgrade to version 8.5 is free. Even if you're using a different version of GoldMine, purchased the software from somewhere else or you're unsure about where you stand with maintenance, please get in touch - we can still help with upgrades. And if you do need to buy the software, we’ll quickly give you licensing and price details (Concentrix offers highly competitive prices for all versions of GoldMine software!).

During the seminar there was interest in all the new features covered. Some of the features that generated most interest included Goldmine Premium Edition 8.5 support of Microsoft Server 2008, SQL 2008, as well as 64-bit Server O.S, plus the email centre and user interface enhancements and the preview panes and extra details field. However, probably the new feature that impressed people most was the universal search; it immediately demonstrates real benefits to GoldMine Premium Edition users.

If you have any questions about GoldMine Premium Edition 8.5, the new features, or need further information, please don’t hesitate to contact Concentrix.

Concentrix listed on the UK IT Directory

The UKIT Directory lists leading software providers for businesses in the UK.  These providers include Concentrix Ltd. Concentrix is listed on the site because we provide a wide range of business software including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software such as Microsoft CRM, Sage CRM, GoldMine, and well as the popular business management software Sage 200 and the data visualisation and analytics programme Tableau.  The UKIT Directory is a popular site which allows you to search for the right software for your IT project in line with your budget, so if you have a moment, please take a look at Concentrix listing by clicking here.

And on the subject of directory listings, if you use the Yahoo directory, you may have thought Concentrix was conspicuous by its absence. But Concentrix now has a listing in the Yahoo directory here.

BDE Group, Sage Business Partner, news

This week, Sage Business Partner BDE International (also known as the BDE Group) unfortunately went into administration.  The circumstances behind this are still unclear, but in the current economic climate this is obviously bad news for BDE staff, suppliers, customers and stakeholders. We realise this news is also likely to be of great concern to clients and businesses that have previously worked with BDE.

If you’ve previously relied on BDE for Sage support, products or training and are looking for a new  Sage Business Partner to keep your software, systems and IT up and running, please don’t hesitate to contact Concentrix.

Concentrix has been a fully accredited Sage business partner since 2004, and we’ve developed a close working relationship with the company. As well as being a key supplier of Sage software offering the full range of mid-market Sage products, our  Sage Business Partner status means we also pass on a wide range of benefits to our customers. These include:

- Expert operational support of Sage software

- High levels of training and education in Sage products

- Access to the latest product information and development news

- A dedicated account management team

Concentrix is much more than a just a Sage software reseller - we also offer Sage Software Development services producing bespoke and complementary applications for Sage products, plus a system implementation, configuration, training, project management, business analysis, upgrades, IT infrastructure and a whole raft of other services.   

So, if you’re a BDE customer concerned about keeping you’re software supported, running and up to date, think about making Concentrix your new Sage Business Partner. We’ll put your mind at rest!

Contact Concentrix on:

E: [email protected]

T: 01509 410 500

W: www.concentrix.co.uk

GoldMine Premium Edition 8.5 Seminar

Thank you to all those who attended our GoldMine Premium Edition 8.5 Seminar yesterday.  The feedback we received was excellent and there’s a great deal of interest in the new features. We hope you found the event informative.

If you have any questions about GoldMine Premium Edition 8.5, need further information, or require a demonstration of the software, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01509 410500.

To download any of the presentations from yesterday, please click on the following links and enter the password which you will have been sent via email:

Download GMPE presentation

Download GM Mobile

Download GM roadmap

 

 

Thank you to all those who attended our GoldMine Premium Edition 8.5 Seminar yesterday.  The feedback we received was excellent and there’s a great deal of interest in the new features. We hope you found the event informative.

If you have any questions about GoldMine Premium Edition 8.5, need further information, or require a demonstration of the software, please don’t hesitate to contact us on 01509 410500.

To download any of the presentations from yesterday, please click on the following links and enter the password which you will have been sent via email:

Download GMPE presentation

Download GM Mobile

Download GM roadmap

Survival of the Smartest? Part 2: Focus on Your Products

It’s not just a recession, it’s an opportunity. There is a lot to be said for being in the right place at the right time and having the right product. But how much do you know about your product, who buys it and even who sells it?

For the purpose of this blog where I say “product” read “product / service / membership type / subscription” - whatever you sell.

A decent Customer Relationship Management system will provide you with the tools to track and manage sales leads and opportunities from a customer and sales person-centric point of view. By carefully configuring the CRM you should also be able to take a product-centric view of your business, reporting and forecasting by product.

This might not sound terribly exciting, but ask yourself how well you can analyse why you win and why you lose sales for your product – do you know?

• If you are winning every deal with Product X and people are saying it is down to price then could you make it £1 more expensive? What impact would that have had on lasts year’s sales figures?

• If you are losing a lot of deals for Product Z then why? You might get some answers you don’t like, but loss analysis (and taking positive steps to combat reasons for losses) can make a massive difference to most sales-led organisations. There’s obviously a link here to competitor analysis, which we’ll talk about some other time.

• Are some salespeople only selling one or two products when they could or should be selling a wider range? Perhaps they need some training, or shouting at? Despite being “product agnostic” at Concentrix I think it’s fair to say some of us have our favourites. Our CRM system certainly shows trends in the products I sell and the type of organisations I sell them too...

How about cross selling? It’s so obvious, but many companies overlook it:

• How many people who bought Product X also bought Product Z in the last twelve months?

• How many didn’t? Who are they? Shall I send them an email marketing campaign about Product Z, assign them to the telesales team or invite them to a showcase event?

• How many Product Z#1 customers would benefit from an upgrade to the all new Z2009-Super+ ?

None of this is rocket science, but neither is it possible unless you have a reliable, company-wide system in which you record the information in a standardised form where it is easy to keep up to date and interrogate.

CRM can help

None of these concepts are ground-breaking, but if they are not things your business is used to doing it can be a big step to put them in place.

A well-thought-out, properly designed Customer Relationship Management system can help you with this, putting processes in place and giving you the tools to explore and exploit your data.

Which CRM is right for you and how much it will cost is hard to say without talking to you about it, but if you would like to find out more please contact me and I will be happy to help.

More?

I’ll be blogging shortly on other tips and ideas I pick up on my travels. In the meantime, check out Survival of the Smartest? Part 1: Focus on Customer Retention

You can also see if you can answer a couple of question about Counting the Cost of Sales Leads.

John Odell - CRM Consultant

New Sage 200 whitepaper - useful reading for Sage Line 100 and Sage 50 users

The latest Sage 200 whitepaper from Concentrix called “Integrated Finance and CRM Software: How Sage 200 Improves Business Efficiency by combining Finance and CRM Solutions” is now available for free download via the Concentrix website.

The whitepaper will be of interest particularly to Sage 100 accounting software (also known as Sage Line 100) users. Because Sage Line 100 is now obsolete, Sage 200 makes the ideal replacement for it (being much more powerful, stable, with a greatly improved design and with many, many more features than Sage 100 could ever achieve!)

Sage 200 is also the natural progression for many companies that use Sage 50 but find it is becoming limited – for example you have too many users for Sage 50 to cope with or are finding that it does not have the power, features or flexibility of Sage 200.

The Sage 200 whitepaper discusses why businesses use accounts software and CRM software, the differences between front-office and back-office systems and some of the reasons why Sage 200 integrates CRM and accounting modules. It also discusses levels of linking and integration. And, as well as looking at the key Sage 200 modules (Sage 200 CRM and Sage 200 Financials), the whitepaper also provides an overview of the all the other modules within the Sage 200 Business Management Suite.

If your business uses Sage Line 100, Sage 50, or you are considering Sage 200 software, the tips, information and guidelines within the whitepaper make interesting and useful reading.

Download the Sage 200 whitepaper

Hosted Microsoft CRM

If the time and costs associated with implementing on-premise CRM software give you cause for concern, you may be interested to find out more about Hosted CRM.

Concentrix Hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 is available in addition to our existing product portfolio of on-premise CRM solutions including Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Sage CRM and FrontRange's GoldMine. The hosted solution provides a new element to our services and builds on our extensive experience of supplying and implementing CRM solutions. We have made the decision to provide hosted solutions as the hosted model is more suitable for some small to medium sized organisations and what’s more we have received an increase in demand for them.

At Concentrix we can provide a one to one demonstration of hosted Microsoft CRM, and are also currently offering a free 30 day trail. The trial is fully interactive and allows you to experience all the functionality of the software. To arrange your free trial of hosted Microsoft CRM, please contact us.

Implementing a CRM system does not have to cost a fortune and done properly it can bring significant benefits to an organisation. Hosted CRM from Concentrix can be implemented almost immediately and this means that you can begin to feel the benefits almost instantly. What’s more hosted CRM does not have substantial costs associated with it. Hosted CRM is based on the internet; this means that you can access your system anywhere in the world providing you have an internet connection. What’s more the system will be based on our servers which means all the associated responsibility for security of data and maintenance of the system are ours.

Hosted Microsoft CRM 4.0 is a fully integrated system which gives companies full visibility of all of their customers’ right from the initial point of contact, resulting in greater employee knowledge. What’s more because Microsoft Office applications are so popular among businesses, if you choose Microsoft Dynamics as your CRM system you are much more likely to have a higher user adoption due to the familiarity of the applications, resulting in a quicker return on investment.

To find out more about hosted CRM, on-premise CRM or for more information about the free Microsoft Dynamics CRM trial or free demonstration please call Concentrix on 01509 410500 or email [email protected].

Why use an integrated CRM and Accounts Solution?

It’s becoming less and less common to find organisations that still perform bookkeeping manually. Hand-written bookkeeping is time consuming, labour intensive, prone to error and tedious. So, most businesses use some form of software to record financial transactions, update ledgers, produce invoices and financial reports and generally manage their business.

Similarly, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems have moved from being ‘nice to have’ applications to essential components of many successful organisations. Properly implemented, modern CRM software delivers significant benefits to virtually all areas of a business, and in particular the ‘front-office’ functions including marketing, sales and customer service.

Linking or integrating finance and CRM systems, and therefore linking the key software applications for the front and back-office, streamlines internal processes and enables accounts, senior management, sales, marketing and customer service staff to take a more comprehensive, informed and strategic view of the business and its customers. This in turn delivers significant benefits throughout the organisation.

Concentrix has developed a whitepaper which discusses why businesses use finance and CRM software, the differences between front-office and back-office systems and some of the reasons for linking the software within them. It also looks at levels of linking and integration, provides an overview of the Sage 200 Business Management Suite, and gives some guidelines on Sage 200 implementation projects, including some of the pitfalls to watch out for during deployment. To request your copy of the whitepaper please contact Concentrix on 01509 410500 or email [email protected].