Integrating
SMBs For A Customer-Centric View
By
Jon Van Duyne, Best Software
As
technology continues to streamline the ways companies do business, customer
expectations continue to rise to dizzying new heights. Accustomed to online
ordering systems devoted to their every preference, consumers today
automatically expect organizations to expertly (and instantly) deliver,
service and support the products they sell. Otherwise they'll go to another
vendor.
For small and medium-sized businesses already challenged to do more with
less in a competitive marketplace, meeting this heightened expectation is a
necessity for survival as well as success. The savviest among them are
integrating customer data information across departmental boundaries ' from
call centers, help desks and field-based sales personnel, to home-based
operations and accounting departments ' and creating a single,
customer-centric view for increased profitability.
Customer-centric data integration not only helps companies manage growth
efficiently, it helps them make insightful business decisions. For
customer-facing employees, this means 24/7 access to customer data,
including invoice, sales and payment histories, which can determine
appropriate cross-sell or upsell opportunities. For back-office staff, the
advantages include greater control over the order entry process and less
time spent re-keying inaccurate or duplicate orders.
While adoption of effective customer relationship management strategies is
perceived as increasingly essential, a recent Gartner report stated that
less than 20 percent of midsize businesses (those with between 100 and 999
employees) have actually adopted CRM solutions. For the other 80 percent,
CRM remains an opportunity waiting to be fulfilled. Additionally, Forrester
Research reports that while 92 percent of surveyed companies believe having
an integrated view of customer data is either 'critical' or 'very
important,' only two percent have actually achieved it, giving the companies
that adopt customer-centric integration a timely competitive edge.
Bridging The Communications Gap
The connection between effective information sharing and business success is
well documented. It's been proven time and again that businesses with good
internal communications enjoy better relationships with their customers.
It's also one of the ironies of conducting business that as companies grow '
gaining more customers as well as profits ' they tend to lose the kind of
easy interoffice communications that helped them prosper in the first place.
What was once mutual knowledge becomes divided by domain, as colleagues who
sat desk-to-desk and informally shared information about client activities
end up segregated by multiple systems and departments that, while
streamlined for internal efficiency, can create potentially damaging gaps in
customer knowledge.
In many cases, it's not uncommon for front-office departments such as sales
and customer service to assume they're sustaining the business, while the
back-office ac-counting section is equally confident it's the group
safeguarding and maintaining the necessary procedures for success.
How often do sales or support people get asked for shipment status
information they don't have? What if they take an order only to find out
that the customer is on credit hold? Unfortunately, poor or infrequent
communication between departments ultimately affects customer satisfaction.
And customer satisfaction is, of course, the ultimate goal of any integrated
front- and back-office solution.
A Cultural Shift
Integrating a company's front- and back-office systems streamlines workflow
and communication and gives employees the ability to view and analyze
complete customer data, respond faster, make more informed business
decisions and provide higher levels of customer service. It also eliminates
the potential for double entries while keeping procedures for checks and
balances in place, along with the native, best-of-breed product
functionality required by each department.
While the customer experience is obviously the most urgent guideline when it
comes to implementing customer data integration, the process involves people
as well as structural analysis and planning; thus, the process is as much a
cultural shift as it is a technological one.
To assure the smoothest possible transition, frequent communication about
the win factor of the proposed new system should be maintained, including
how it will affect day-to-day responsibilities. The sales vice president is
usually the primary sponsor of a CRM front-office initiative, but it's also
critical to obtain executive buy-in for each department that will be
affected, front- and back-office alike.
Equally pivotal is establishing a project 'champion' who will be responsible
for the project ' the go-to person who not only makes the new
customer-centric system a success by demonstrating the benefits of using it,
but who also encourages fellow workers to tweak and perfect it.
It's also essential to establish a timeline for completion that includes the
project's different elements, from data migration and system configuration,
to enabling field-based, remote-user databases. For successful integration
to be accomplished, companies need to be clear about what they want: a
single, central, combined and accurate view of each customer that will allow
sales and other customer-facing departments to interface more effectively
with accounting and operations delivery departments.
The full benefits of CRM are realized when integration technology reaches
throughout the organization, providing each employee who has customer
contact with real-time access to the same information from any location.
Establishing Data Value
Customer data integration may be simple as a concept (and rewarding in
results), but the actual implementation process involves numerous technical
requirements and considerations. The best way to begin is by establishing a
plan that includes an assessment of current systems as well as the overall
project budget. To help ensure that everything goes smoothly, hiring a local
systems integration company to work closely with those involved is
recommended because it will be able to provide essential advice and on-site
technical support, from initial planning through completion.
Once the groundwork for the integration process has been laid, an assessment
of the reliability and accuracy of the pre-existing data contained within
each department's applications should be made. This will help establish the
amount of work that may be needed to cleanse, merge and maintain the
integrity of the data that are to be imported into front- or back-office
systems while still maintaining the streamlined day-to-day functionality of
each.
Because back-office operations data are traditionally the company's system
of record and include accurate customer financial information, this is
usually the data to start with when implementing a new front-office system.
The most valuable and accurate data should be imported first, using the data
import tool of choice, followed by a secondary set of auxiliary data. Once
the two data sets have been validated and consolidated into the front-office
product, the newly integrated system will also need to be cleansed using
de-duplication tools.
The next step is to create a cross-reference link for existing accounts
between the front-office account and back-office equivalent, i.e., an
accounting company code or customer I.D. number. (For new accounts these
links will be created automatically.) Additionally, the values contained
with other auxiliary data lists need to be matched so that, for instance,
salesperson codes and shipping methods will match the back-office order
validation process, otherwise the order or quote can't be processed.
For remote or field-based front-office users, it's important that all
information they receive is manageable and pertains to their specific
accounts. Otherwise they could be overwhelmed by the amount of time it takes
to update their databases. One way to ease the transition is to assign teams
and ownership during the data-import planning stage. It may also be
necessary to designate specific synchronization expectations once the actual
front- and back-office data integration has been accomplished.
Considering Costs
Rather than starting over with new technology, in many cases companies that
adopt CRM solutions are integrating their current systems and adding new
software flexible enough to work with their existing applications and can be
adapted for future growth.
Even before deciding which software to invest in or which architectural
approach to adopt, the IT department and management team should evaluate the
advantages and disadvantages of available software and architectural
approaches, from scalability and flexibility, to out-of-the-box
configurations and advanced configuration possibilities.
For example, how much data and proc-essing does a particular approach
accommodate? Will it allow intelligent and dynamic functionality adjustments
(i.e., Is it simple to maintain from an upgrade perspective?)? Does it
provide ready-to-deploy integration that requires only minimal configuration
or development work? Does it allow for customizations and multi-server,
multi-database configurations? What are the licensing costs and
requirements?
Along with the capabilities of the final solution, other elements to
consider include the number of systems and the type of data consolidation
required, upgrades to existing hardware and operating systems (if existing
hardware and operating systems are not up to spec) and the scope of the
integration itself.
Cost is obviously a major consideration, but when it comes to data
integration systems optimum ease of use, flexibility and customization are
often as important. Still, with contact and relationship management
representing one of the largest growth segments in the software market, most
vendors are pricing products to compete for SMB budgets. Available options
range from modular update systems that take a few days to install and cost a
few hundred dollars, to advanced solutions that may take as long as three
months to complete and cost between $50,000 and $100,000.
Weighed against the financial investment, of course, is the ultimate return
that comes from investing in enhanced customer management, satisfaction and
loyalty.
Investing In Customer Satisfaction
Providing excellent customer care is not only a profitable business
practice, it becomes a matter of course once a truly customer-centric
integrated system is in place. By giving front-office, customer-facing staff
unfettered access to accounting information, including customer invoice,
sales and payment history, the staff can better determine whether particular
customers present appropriate targets for cross-selling or upselling
opportunities.
Another key factor in determining ROI is when the across-the-board savings
and corresponding better use of employee time that results when the usual
double entries ' typically occurring across two or more departments ' are
avoided. No longer will sales reports, for example, need to be modified by
the sales manager or sales vice president, and operations or accounting
department time that was previously spent re-keying orders or answering
sales questions can be used for checking shipment status and other
productive activities.
There may also be instances when it makes sense to give front-office users
direct access to accounting systems so they can run a customer inquiry or
place an order directly into the back-office system. The extended
functionality provided by a more flexible front office includes the ability
to follow through on requests; conduct synchronized mail merges; view top
customers, accounts due and credit-hold lists, as well as unprocessed
orders; and even analyze recent buying trends.
When an actual dollar value is placed on this kind of high-level customer
management, it's easier to calculate the cost savings that will result from
a reduction in customer attrition, whether this is accomplished by
approaching unprofitable customers with new service options or by no longer
servicing them at all.
1 + 1 = 3
There's no doubt that customer-centric integration is a unique opportunity
for small and medium-sized companies or that it will have a lasting impact
on how companies conduct business in the future. What's increasingly clear
is that it also provides a value greater than the sum of its parts.
By automating and aligning front-office sales and CRM tools with back-office
accounting and financial systems, SMBs will not only meet customer needs
better ' fulfilling requests faster and more efficiently ' they'll also be
able to optimize the resources that help them meet and exceed financial
goals.
Because front-office and field-based users have an open view of the order
and invoice process, along with the latest production information, pricing,
discounting and inventory available, they can use purchasing information to
plan future sales and marketing campaigns. Because back-office personnel
spend less time answering questions from sales, re-entering or correcting
data and generating reports, they're able to spend more time maintaining
control over order entries, financial records, product pricing and/or
discounting.
For the organization as a whole, the benefits of a unified solution include
open communications between departments that support key business processes,
resulting in better business practices. Sales and operations costs are
reduced. Orders move to accounting faster. Products are shipped sooner. The
company gets paid faster. Employees are more satisfied with their jobs. And
customers receive the kind of service that keeps them coming back.
Jon Van Duyne joined the Mid-Market CRM Solutions business unit of Best
Software in October 2003. As senior vice president and general manager, he
is responsible for production and logistics for North America and global
SalesLogix research and development. Jon's team consists of sales,
marketing, product management, research and development, finance, human
re-sources, customer support and professional services.
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