CRM Software

Gone are the days when only large conglomerates can serve global markets. The lower barriers for international trade have created opportunities for companies of nearly any size to compete on a global scale.

Unfortunately, many of today's traditional CRM software systems are designed to help expedite the sales process on a local level with a single currency, and only one set of forecasts and quotas. This means that the majority of CRM software systems will falter when an organization is set to take its business overseas, according to a recent white paper authored by NetSuite (News - Alert).

Global organizations need to contend with several sales process issues that domestic companies don't have to take into account. They need to enable their sales representatives in each country control their orders, quota, forecast and commissions in their particular currency.

Furthermore, companies need to manage their global selling partners and enable them to forecast deals in their customers' currency, place deals that support local taxation rules and get paid in their own currency. All of this needs to be done while simultaneously maintaining full visibility in the currency of the corporate headquarters. 

In addition, global organizations need to account for the constantly changing currency exchange rates. Local conversion rates and those used to determine roll-up into corporate currency need to be identified when the order is made and when the sales commission is paid out. These issues, and many others, cannot be handled by most CRM software systems, forcing many companies to do their calculations manually. As one would assume, this process is extremely inefficient and often leads to costly errors.

Fortunately, CRM software providers like NetSuite have developed CRM software that enable companies to manage their business on a domestic, multi-national and internationally level. The company's Global CRM system is set up as an on-demand solution that is capable of managing sales organizations, that operate in many nations with many different currencies.

The software, which is available in a host of different languages, helps individual offices manage their entire sales and forecasting process in their own currency, while automatically converting commissions and quotas into corporate currency. Global CRM also takes exchange rates into account and offers country-specific dashboards for worldwide business intelligence.

"Using Global CRM, executives in corporate headquarters have consolidated sales data on orders, forecasts, quotas and commissions rolled up across all regions and areas, with direct drill-down capability to see details at any level of the organizational hierarchy," noted the authors of the white paper. "With NetSuite Global CRM, there is complete currency conversion at each step so all analytics and reporting are automatically personalized for the individual’s role within the hierarchy."

Click here to read the complete white paper, or head to Netsuite's website for more information.

Beecher Tuttle is a TMCnet contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein