The world renowned leadership and management expert and co-author of The One Minute Manager, Dr Ken Blanchard, recently stated that he believes that there are two main reasons why new businesses fail:
- Because they are bad at financial management: In business you have to sell more than you spend. This sounds simple but a lot of people get so involved with the company that they keep spending money but they have a fundamental problem – they have no customers!
- Because they are bad at managing people – both their own employees and their customers.
However, help is at hand, providing a company is prepared to invest in an accounts and CRM solution:
- Accounts and Business Management Software will help you manage your finances
- CRM software will help you manage your customers and staff
Both CRM and Accounts solutions will bring significant advantages to an organisation as all their key data will be held in one place. Subsequently there will be no duplication of effort in terms of inputting information. Also because all information is stored in one place there will be no conflicting records. In addition because all customer information is stored in one place all staff will be able to access it and as result staff will be empowered with knowledge and the customer experience will be improved. What’s more, a happy customer is much more likely to become loyal, therefore providing the company with long term profit making potential. However, it is important to remember that simply implementing a solution and leaving it will have no impact, a complete cultural shift is needed, if a solution is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of an organisation.
The alternative to investing in two separate systems is to invest in an integrated solution such as Microsoft Dynamics NAV or the Sage 200 Suite. With a fully integrated solution, you can manage your whole organisation using one piece of software. And, because fully integrated solutions work throughout a business, they will provide information from any area in the company to anyone else who needs it.
So what is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management is a way of improving business efficiency. It is all about building and strengthening customer relationships to keep them coming back, while helping businesses gain new customers.
Essentially, a CRM system will help an organisation manage its relationships with its customers and employees and this will help to overcome one of the major issues which Dr Ken Blanchard mentions as being a key cause of businesses failing. Properly implemented, a CRM system will streamline internal business processes and by effectively integrating your marketing, sales and customer service functions, a CRM system will make it easier for everyone inside your company to work together and share critical information – irrespective of company size.
Customer Relationship Management will bring significant advantages to an organisation including:
- Business Management becomes more proficient as data in the CRM system is inherently well organised.
- More customers return for repeat business because staff deal with their queries efficiently and effectively
- Sales bring in more revenue by keeping a solid grasp on potential sales opportunities
(If you need more information on this there's a full article "What is CRM" is the Concentrix website knowledge base)
Accounts Solutions
The majority of organisations have some sort of accounting system in place as they are seen as a must have for the day-to-day operation of a business. However, Dr Ken Blanchard says that bad financial management is a cause of businesses failing. It is therefore imperative to ensure that your solution is fit for purpose.
An accounting solution should help you to keep a firm grasp of your finances and enable you to overt any problems from arising, by ensuring that you get paid and pay your suppliers on time, subsequently maintaining a healthy cash flow.
Integrated Solutions
Essentially an integrated solution magnifies the benefits of those felt from the stand alone accounts/CRM system.
By implementing an integrated solution, all information relating to contacts would be stored centrally and will therefore improve knowledge, productivity and ultimately profitability. The central source of information will empower staff to deliver excellent customer service and therefore the customer experience will be improved. Integrated solution will also help organisations prevent different departments working in silos and will therefore enable companies to use their knowledge to create a competitive advantage.
About Concentrix
Concentrix is a leading Business Management Software, Customer Relationship Management Software and IT Solutions provider, based in the heart of the Midlands in Leicestershire.
As CRM specialists Concentrix provides the best in breed CRM solutions including Microsoft CRM, Sage CRM and FrontRange’ GoldMine. The Concentrix Product Portfolio also includes the full range of Sage accounting, Sage finance and Sage Enterprise Products. These include Sage 50, Sage line 100 and Sage 200.
Concentrix also provides both Microsoft Dynamics NAV and Sage 200 which are fully integrated solutions.
How to find out more
Concentrix takes a product agnostic approach to supplying both CRM and ERP solutions and this enables us to ensure that you get a solution which matches your requirements.
For help, advice or more information about any of our CRM, Accounts or Fully integrated solutions, please contact us on 01509 410500 or email [email protected]
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