 Customer relationship management (CRM) allows you to manage your relationships with customers, by helping you collect, store and analyze customer information. CRM systems allow you to capture each interaction with a customer, retrieve and update the information, to determine how a customer is handled, identify products purchased and profitability. Armed with this information you can proactively create opportunities to increase sales.
Operational CRM provides support to "front office" business processes / teams, including sales, marketing and service.
Collaborative CRM covers the direct interaction with customers. This can include a variety of channels, such as the Internet, whether through a website or e-mail, or automated telephone systems. It can generally be equated with “self service”. One of the latest trends in collaborative CRM is behavioral emarketing which is focused on building an ongoing relationship with customers through online mediums (emails, RSS Feeds, XML, Vlogs, Blogs, etc.). The objectives of Collaborative CRM can be broad, including cost reduction and service improvements.
Analytical CRM analyzes customer data for a variety of purposes, including: design and execution of targeted marketing campaigns to optimize marketing effectiveness design and execution of specific customer campaigns, including customer acquisition, cross-selling, up-selling, retention analysis of customer behavior to aid product and service decision making (e.g. pricing, new product development, etc) management decisions, e.g. financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis prediction of the probability of customer defection (churn). Analytical CRM generally makes heavy use of Predictive analytics.
 In May 2006, CNP began researching the best available CRM technologies to use for our small business. We considered tools that were affordable yet powerful enough that we could gain the same benefits of larger companies. We needed all of the functionality traditionally in ERP (Enterprise Resource Management) SFA (Sales Force Automation) and PM (Project Management) systems and needed it to be affordable, stable and secure. Our criteria included:
- minimal burden of process overhead
- easy to use
- it could improve our efficiency
- gain easier access to our information
- no productivity loss by adding additional processes in our workflow
The features we required included:
- remote access to our information via mobile phones
- an intuitive web based user interface
- built in role based business processes and workflow
- integration with our:
- accounting system
- sales force automation and forecasting
- document and knowledge management
- project management and tasking tools
- customer support tools
- individual user dashboards
After careful research, we identified an open source project called SugarCRM which is a powerful application with a mature code base and virtually free. SugarCRM fell a little short of a fully integrated system, however another application which leverages the solid open source code base of SugarCRM, and added many innovations, is Info At Hand. After a trial period of SugarCRM, and a migration to InfoAtHand we have all of the tools we need to effectively connect our Sales, Marketing, Accounting, Support and Project Management teams through a fully integrated system. Info At Hand is compatible and integrates with our Joomla CSM portal solutions. It is the best technology platform for us and our customers with similar needs. Info At Hand is a powerful customer relationship and business management tool. Its focus is to put an organization's core business information in the hands of those authorized to have it - anytime, anywhere. An integrated web-based application, this comprehensive customer centric business management system will revolutionize information access throughout your business, and deliver these key business benefits:
- Increased Sales Effectiveness: The most productive lead sources and sales staff are clearly identified on graphical charts.
- Greater Sales Reach: Use the email marketing capabilities to execute and measure new promotional campaigns.
- Reduced Administrative Costs: Information is only typed in once - CRM, product catalog, proposals, invoicing, customer service, project and resource management - all share the same data.
- Improved Efficiency: Everyone in the business knows right away where to find information, without wasting time looking for it.
- Happier Customers (and better customer retention!): Dealing with employees who now know more about them and what’s going on in their account.
- Better Management: Sales pipelines that are much better understood provide clear visibility of any business upturn or downturn well before it represents an opportunity or risk for the business.
 Because Info At Hand is web based, all its benefits are available to every company employee (subject to access permissions you control) whether they are in the office, at home, or on the road. Info At Hand supports both full-sized PC browsers, and handheld devices such as BlackBerry, Palm or Windows Mobile, and Internet security may be handled either via VPN, or SSL.
While many young companies are not yet ISO and quality oriented, the bottom line is that a high quality, customer oriented approach has proven to be a winner time after time. Info At Hand provides the necessary tools to start a young company on the right road. It also creates enormous gains in efficiency and organization in a more mature business.
 Affordable by businesses of any size, accessible in English, French and Spanish (with other languages being added rapidly), and designed to grow with your business, Info At Hand gives your organization instant access to its vital corporate information, via desktop or mobile devices.
Info At Hand is available 'On Premise' as an application software package to load on your own server, with a one-time license fee (we have not followed the recent trend to annual license fees). Alternatively, use Info At Hand as an 'On Demand' service, and leave all the work of server management to us. Or even combine the two approaches, and run 'On Premise', but have us manage your server remotely.
CNP Integrations Group offers Info At Hand, together with installation, configuration, customization, training and support services. Let us help you today! Try a live online demo now, or register for a FREE 30-day trial.
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InfoAtHand CRBM
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