I attended a very interesting talk given by Steve Burrows on Enterprise Class CRM solutions last week, held at a local BCS meeting.
What struck me was the inference (intentionally or otherwise) that CRM for a big company was different to CRM for smaller companies. The talk was very informative, however, whilst the case study being presented had undoubtedly achieved the business objectives, it struck me as odd that you might approach a small business implementation differently.
In the enterprise space, a lot is made of a product’s scalability and the level of integration that can be achieved. Whilst sometimes relevant - far more important is a thorough understanding of the problems you are trying to address.
Statistics show that more than 80% of CRM projects fail. I personally believe this is due more to insufficient knowledge (of the business processes) than a poor choice of software.
The concept that an Enterprise Class CRM solution is somehow different to a small business CRM solution conveniently ignores the simple reality that; the most scalable, expensive and complex software package will deliver little business benefit if you don’t have a clear understanding of what you need it to do. Conversely, if you have a thorough and detailed understanding of how your business works and what you need to do to make it more efficient, the simplest and least expensive of solutions MAY be all you require.
The magic ingredient is KNOWLEDGE, knowledge of your business; how it works; how to make it work better; faster; more profitably and effectively. Ironically, CRM systems were originally sold as Knowledge Management systems, maybe that drew too much attention to the fact you actually need KNOWLEDGE in order to achieve success.
Charles Response BCS, CRM, Steve Burrows
We made a conscious decision about 3 years ago to re-focus on productivity solutions based around our own CRM software. Over the past 18 months or so we have also found ourselves developing bespoke solutions that operate standalone (i.e. do not require our CRM software to function). These solutions range from automating manual processes, through to the complete re-write of legacy systems based on Excel spreadsheets or Access databases.
Events over the past year have highlighted how important innovation is to the health of the major economies. It will be interesting to see how many businesses take the oportunity to replace or even review their business processes in 2010. With worries about inflation surfacing and the associated pressure on wage settlements those that do will invariably be in a stronger position to capitalise on any upturn in business confidence later this year.
Charles Articles
Happy New Year! I know February is approaching quickly, however, it is often the thought that counts.
Now that 2010 is upon us, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) and bankers bonuses are re-appearing, and there is talk of ‘growth’, does that mean that we can cast aside the lessons of yesterday and throw caution to the wind?… I suspect not. Business will continue to be hard won, service will continue to be of paramount importance, and clients will continue to seek value for money.
Optimism is returning, over the past few months we have noticed that larger projects are returning to the table, but the same projects need to be cost justified.
The internet continues to play an important part, the more people search for value, the more you need to be extolling the value of your products and services. Like it or not, the web is the preferred research mechanism for many. Social media, whilst I personally avoid it, is gaining ground, with the ‘youth’ market and many businesses adopting it wholesale. Like most technology there is both an upside and downside, however, it is undoubtedly a technology that is here for a while yet.
If you haven’t already done so, I suggest it is worth reviewing your web site content, keeping contact information up to date, review the services offered and make sure you have a recent news item (or blog posting) to impress upon visitors that you are still here!
Charles Articles
We calculated recently that in recent years, based on the number of licensed MIGTurbo users (divided by 4 multiplied by 5 days per week - less holidays and bank holidays, on the basis of 3 hours use per working day); MIGTurbo has exceeded 1.5 Million hours of real world user testing. If we play with the figures slightly it quickly approaches 10+ million, but we have always been a tad conservative!
It’s quite ‘gob smacking’ when you work out the figures just how extensively our MIGTurbo CRM software is used. We were so proud of the fact that many of the current features have either been requested or suggested by our user base - we considered starting a marketing campaign based upon the notion that our clients ‘invented that’ - unfortunately another software company appears to have recently used that idea!
I think the answer to my question is there can never be enough testing just insufficient time!
Charles Uncategorized
The reason for the title is the number of diaries people seem to use. In our office, the main diary is MIGTurbo, however, colleagues also use Google, various Mobile phone diaries and even Outlook! Absolutely mind blowing when you consider how difficult it is keeping just a single calendar in sync with birthdays etc.
Personally, I have never used the Outlook Diary, nor a diary in my mobile phone, personal organiser or any one of the many web based freebies! I used to use an A4 diary, until I tired of replicating information into my primary electronic diary - the one within MIGTurbo that is. Fortunately I can access this from any mobile phone or browser with an internet connection so I am usually always where I should be when I should.
Fortunately, there is a technology that enables you to synchronise all your different diaries within in a single diary of your choice. iCalendar is a file-format that allows calendar items to be sent/received and used between different calendar programmes that support files with a .ics suffix .
So, now you know, if you’re ever asked how many diaries you need, your answer should be - only one!
Charles MIGTurbo Diary, MIGTurbo 1.9, Outlook
They always come in three’s, why is that?
The week started with a power outage, Monday morning was not good for many businesses.
Tuesday I had mobile phone issues, darn thing kept switching itself off, and if that wasn’t bad enough, disabling the answer service in the process. Anyway, nice lady in the phone shop exchanged it. Following day I took it back, the replacement kept switching itself off. Nice lady in the phone shop replaced it for a different model, really, really good customer service, although, I suspect it may have been a case of just getting me out of the shop ! lol.
Yesterday we had a problem with our internal system, running extremely sloooowly in IE 8. Anyway, after isolating and discounting every step in the chain between server and workstation(s) we concluded the network card had been zapped during Mondays power outage. 9 pm Thursday evening after restoring back up arrays and replacing network cards we concluded the DNS must have become corrupt. In a last ditch attempt to find an alternative cause we discovered that an Anti Virus update to the browser plugin was the culprit… extremely annoying since we had (we thought) disabled the AV in the earliest stage of our diagnosis.
Friday I received an updated preview on our new MIGTurbo 2.0 Rich Internet Application interface (RIA), and the clouds parted and all was good with the world once more. Ahh! isn’t it good to end the week on a high note!
Charles Uncategorized
Following on from my last post (aka rant), I have been upsetting people internally by translating many of the superb new developments in the MIGTurbo 2.0 security profile into real world application.
I kept finding myself being hit by statements such as ‘client groups do not define security policy’ and ‘once assigned a role becomes a policy’, to which I usually retort,’ I am a user, why do I care!’. Whilst churlish, it does help frame matters from a users perspective – does it matter!, so what if you can lock access down to 3 decimal places if the system becomes unusable.
It is so easy to lose sight of usability in a mêlée of functions and features. I am pleased therefore to report, both security and usability appear to be capably accommodated in my first preview of the all new MIGTurbo 2.0 development.
Charles Uncategorized
Whilst I should not be surprised, I am! Who drives ‘innovation’ in today’s software products! To me, the latest version of Microsoft Office is unrecogniseable compared to 2003, everything I want from the menu system has moved or worse, simply does not exist any more. How does a company become so arrogant or out of touch with its users! Functions that I have used everyday for years no longer exist. My latest realisation is that I cannot save documents to my C:\ drive, apparently it is a security threat. I can copy the file to my desktop and then to my c:\ drive but not to my c:\ drive directly. It’s a bit like saying you cannot buy cigarettes because you are too young, however we will sell you tobacco and cigarette paper separately.
I must be getting old, I used to revel in technology, eagerly awaiting each new release and often feeling let down because the raft of new functions were superficial and of no real significance. Now I feel let down because each function is wrapped in so much ‘cotton wool’ by the time I have managed to get to the function, I have forgotten what I wanted to do in the first place.
Charles Uncategorized Office 2007, Office 2010
Apparently, The Department of Trade & Industry have “been working on a project for some time to develop an e-commerce solution for local independent retailers with a leading UK service provider called Venda. This solution is {apparently} beyond what is currently available on Island and will not only have a significant impact on our local retail sector but will also generate a considerable amount of work for supporting service provider companies, specifically in the areas of web and branding design, web services, online marketing, copywriting and photography.”
It is incredible that a local government body can seek and obtain approval to spend significant revenue with an off island supplier, and in doing so deprive local businesses of a valuable revenue stream when there are clearly service providers on the island who have both the infrastructure and the necessary skills to provide these services. Far worse - to my mind, is to claim “There are no credible e-business providers on the Isle of Man”. When you consider the level of investment in infrastructure - Domicilium, Manx, Wi-Manx etc., service provision such as isleofman.com, e-business service providers such as ourselves. - Freedom to Flourish!.. actions, speak louder than words.
Charles Response Department of Trade and Industry, e-Commerce, Isle of Man Government
What a sunny place Brighton is. I had the good fortune to attend a conference there last week, glorious sunshine and very clean. What I learnt however, was nothing to do with the resort itself, it was more about records management and the challenges organisations face trying to keep on top of the Freedom of Information Act.
Basically, there appears to be a lot of systems out there that enable you to track and manage documents held, however, cracks appear where you have an organisation with multiple systems. This is compounded by different systems’ use of different references to identify the individual about whom the stored documentation refers.
I have a solution: CRM. By managing all this information in a client/customer centric manner, we can provide a mechanism that enables businesses/organisations to keep information on their client/customer; maintaining security/integrity of data (where necessary) between departments/divisions etc., and still enabling a single point of reference so the records manager can swiftly identify which systems contain information relating to the which client/customer.
No more rainy days for me!
Charles MIGTurbo CRM, Document Management, Freedom of Information
