As an keen enthusiast and evangelist of Software as a Service (SaaS) based digital Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technologies, please feel free to read my published articles regarding SaaS and Salesforce CRM:
As a SaaS CRM platform, Salesforce are one of the few vendors who are currently conquering the CRM market. Just by looking at the image header for this article, the facts speak for themselves!
Ready to Implement a Cloud Based Software as a Service (SaaS) Solution?
If you need any assistance and require my services to help consult, implement, test and launch your SaaS systems than please contact myself to discuss services for hire further.
Some great examples of enterprise software vendors using the Cloud Based Software as a Service (SaaS) capability are Salesforce, INFOR, Oracle and Netsuite for CRM together with INFOR’s Marketing Resource Management (MRM) and Epiphany solutions.
So, for those of you who are not too familiar with the terms Cloud Computing Based Software as a Service (SaaS), here’s a little guide explaining the benefits of such a model.
As explained in earlier articles, in simple terms, cloud computing, often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources, everything from applications to data centres over the Internet on a subscription pay-for-use basis. Cloud based applications or software as a service (SaaS) run on distant computers “in the cloud” that are owned and operated by others and that connect to users’ computers via the Internet and, usually, a web browser…..The cloud is definitely here to stay!
Software as a service (SaaS) is another method compared to a traditional standard software install within your business environment, the traditional method implying you the user are required to build the server, install all applications and fully configure the setup.
If you have adopted a SaaS model already, planning to or finding out more information, than you may know that using this model, users don’t pay for any software. In simple terms, it works like a hire or rental. You the users accessing systems online have the permissions to use it for a period of time and pay for the software that you are using.
Cloud Computing & Software as as Service (SaaS) Advantages are as follows:
1. The SaaS model offers significant benefits to customers and providers. Because they don’t have to host the software – and it’s updated automatically – customers enjoy on-demand application access with lower upfront and ongoing costs. Different from the traditional model, in SaaS the software (application) is already installed and configured.
2. Implementation is faster and switching costs lower. By giving customers and providers the flexibility to scale usage rapidly, SaaS helps customers become more agile.
3. SaaS providers benefit from a model with shorter release cycles, giving them greater flexibility to respond to customer needs.
4. Competitive pricing, shorter sales cycles and lower barriers to sales make SaaS easier to sell than traditional on-premise software.
5. With all users on the same (current) software release, providers don’t have the expense of supporting legacy software versions. Costs and effort associated with upgrades and new releases are lower than the traditional model.
Ready to Implement a Cloud Based Software as a Service (SaaS) Solution?
If you need any assistance and require my services to help consult, implement, test and launch your SaaS systems than please contact myself to discuss services for hire further.
Some great examples of enterprise software vendors using the Cloud Based Software as a Service (SaaS) capability are Salesforce, INFOR, Oracle and Netsuite for CRM together with INFOR’s Marketing Resource Management (MRM) and Epiphany solutions.
So, for those of you who are not too familiar with the terms Cloud Computing Based Software as a Service (SaaS), here’s a little guide explaining the benefits of such a model.
In simple terms, cloud computing, often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources, everything from applications to data centres over the Internet on a subscription pay-for-use basis. Cloud based applications or software as a service (SaaS) run on distant computers “in the cloud” that are owned and operated by others and that connect to users’ computers via the Internet and, usually, a web browser…..The cloud is definitely here to stay!
Software as a service (SaaS) is another method compared to a traditional standard software install within your business environment, the traditional method implying you the user are required to build the server, install all applications and fully configure the setup.
If you have adopted a SaaS model already, planning to or finding out more information, than you may know that using this model, users don’t pay for any software. In simple terms, it works like a hire or rental. You the users accessing systems online have the permissions to use it for a period of time and pay for the software that you are using.
Cloud Computing & Software as as Service (SaaS) Advantages are as follows:
1. The SaaS model offers significant benefits to customers and providers. Because they don’t have to host the software – and it’s updated automatically – customers enjoy on-demand application access with lower upfront and ongoing costs. Different from the traditional model, in SaaS the software (application) is already installed and configured.
2. Implementation is faster and switching costs lower. By giving customers and providers the flexibility to scale usage rapidly, SaaS helps customers become more agile.
3. SaaS providers benefit from a model with shorter release cycles, giving them greater flexibility to respond to customer needs.
4. Competitive pricing, shorter sales cycles and lower barriers to sales make SaaS easier to sell than traditional on-premise software.
5. With all users on the same (current) software release, providers don’t have the expense of supporting legacy software versions. Costs and effort associated with upgrades and new releases are lower than the traditional model.
Ready to Implement a Cloud Based Software as a Service (SaaS) Solution?
If you need any assistance and require my services to help consult, implement, test and launch your SaaS systems than please contact myself to discuss services for hire further.
Thinking of getting a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System for your organisation? Go Cloud based with Salesforce..
After attending conferences and business networking events during the past few months it is clearly evident that many key business decision makers have no idea of the concept of CRM. Also, that prior to selecting any CRM system, I feel everyone needs to know what CRM actually stands for, together with the benefits CRM can bring to any organisation big or small!
So what does CRM actually mean? What is it?
Customer relationship management (CRM) relates to the strategies, practices and technologies that a company uses to manage, record and evaluate customer engagements to drive sales growth whilst building relationships with their customers and stakeholders.
Additionally, Customer relationship management (CRM) refers to strategies, practices and technologies that a company uses to analyze and review customer engagements, interactions and data during the customer sales and service lifecycle.
The ultimate outcome being to improve relationships with clients, all internal and external stakeholders that in turn helps to assist with long term client retention and driving sales growth.
How this is achieved is for CRM system to data capture and compile information about all clients and stakeholders across a number of different channels and contact points between client/stakeholder and company. For example, Business Information, Website, log of all contact activity i.e. phone, email, chatter, social media etc. For the service industry and customer-facing staff, CRM systems can provide a view of all clients in terms of their personal information, purchase history to date and potential buying preferences! No to forget their issues and concerns logged as cases with the company!
CRM Software
Given the above, quite simply, CRM software consolidates all your customer information together with supporting documents into a single CRM database, providing a ‘Single View of the Customer’ at any one point in time. This enables every business user to be able to easily access and manage it especially when you select a Cloud Based CRM system like Salesforce.
Additional key functions of CRM software also include recording a range of customer interactions be they email, social media, phone and other channels. Also, offering the capabilities of automating various workflow business processes e.g. Emails, Approvals, Tasks, Notifications etc.
Common Features of CRM Software Include:
Marketing automation: CRM tools with marketing automation capabilities can automate repetitive tasks to enhance marketing efforts to customers at different points in the lifecycle. For example, as leads come into the system, the system may automatically assign them to a particular salesperson and or send an email alert to the sales director with the goal of turning a sales lead into a full-fledged qualified opportunity and account as per the Salesforce CRM model.
Sales force automation: Also known as sales force management, sales force automation is meant to prevent duplicate efforts between a salesperson and a customer. A CRM system can help achieve this by automatically tracking all contact and follow-ups between both sides.
Geo-location technology, or location-based services: Some CRM systems have the technology that can create geographic marketing campaigns based on customers’ physical locations, sometimes integrating with popular location-based GPS apps. Geolocation technology can also be used as a networking or contact management tool in order to find sales prospects based on location.
The CRM Technology Market
Congratulations! You now all know the exact meaning of CRM. So I assume you’re asking yourselves which CRM system do I select for my business to succeed?
At present, the four main vendors of CRM systems that are able to provide excellent service and enhanced capabilities as follows: Salesforce.com, Microsoft, SAP and Oracle.
As an individual who is familiar with CRM and has worked with many CRM systems across the globe over a number of years, I can honestly say that both SAP and Oracle are not that intuitive, very un-user friendly, non customer centric and extremely technical in their nature. Microsoft Dynamics CRM was a slow entry and contender to the CRM world.
Whereas Salesforce, clearly have pioneered CRM worldwide in terms of their Cloud Based Offerings. I would strongly recommend Salesforce to any organization as a CRM system.
An annual analysis was undertaken in 2014 of how the best companies use Salesforce. With over 450 Salesforce customers surveyed, it produced the following. Here are some amazing facts and statistics regarding Salesforce and their monumental success to date, reasons why you should invest in them:
Forbes Magazine voted Salesforce in 2014 as the number 1 World’s Most Innovative Company
In 2012, to support new products and new clients, Salesforce hired an additional 2,500 employees alone, a staggering increase of 47%.
Forbes Magazine reported that Salesforce’s revenue stream was up to an estimated $3 billion in 2013 from $1 billion three years ago in 2010!
The Salesforce.com Foundation donates 1% of the company’s resources (defined as profit, equity, and employee time) to support organizations that are working to “make the world a better place
93% of Salesforce customers believe cloud computing is critical to accelerating innovation.
90% of Salesforce customers believe Salesforce is more valuable today than it was one year ago.
47% of Salesforce customers have a comprehensive Salesforce adoption strategy.
Salesforce user adoption and training contributes to 25% increase in Sales Pipeline
Salesforce user adoption and training contributes to 26% increase in Sales Win Rate
Salesforce user adoption and training contributes to 30% increase in Revenue
42% of Salesforce customers pay for employees to get Salesforce certified.
89% provide formal training to their admins and developers.
55% of marketers get Salesforce training
Data cleansing is the 2nd hottest app investment in the Salesforce AppExchange.
69% of Salesforce customers will increase their Salesforce budget.
84% believe customer engagement will overtake productivity as the primary driver of growth.
71% of sales customers want real-time customer information on their mobile device.
Other CRM system providers are less popular among businesses. And, they also tend to offer less capability and functionality. My advice to you all reading this? Go for a CRM system solution that you can grow with and develop over time.
A system that adapts to your business needs and processes. At the same time, providing you with multi channel / device capabilities etc.
Many people I have spoken to have said they don’t want to spend much money on CRM and yet, they always make the wrong choice based on low cost solutions. CRM is all about your business processes and how it can assist your organization in growing and developing. Ensuring all your stakeholders, be they internal / external including all customers are constantly connected 24/7 in order to build great long-term business relationships with your firm.
Salesforce Cloud Based CRM Software
As per the above, Salesforce is a cloud-based CRM system – also known as SaaS (software-as-a-service) or on-demand CRM. I’m sure most of us are now familiar with the Cloud Term.
Your Salesforce data is stored on an external, remote network that employees can access anytime; anywhere there is an Internet connection, sometimes with a third-party service provider overseeing installation and maintenance. The cloud’s quick, relatively easy deployment capabilities appeals to companies with limited technological expertise or resources.
I strongly recommend Salesforce’s cloud-based CRM as a more cost-effective option for your business. They will only charge by the user on a subscription basis and give the option of monthly or yearly payments, dependent on the level of licensing you choose.
Mobile CRM or the CRM applications built for smartphones and tablets is becoming a must-have for sales representatives and marketing professionals who want to access customer information and perform tasks when they are not physically in their offices. Once you implement Salesforce CRM, you have full access to the Salesforce1 mobile app that enables all users and stakeholders to have access to their database allowing real time updates 24/7 sync’d to your database.
Watch the Salesforce1 Video here!
Social CRM refers to businesses engaging with their customers directly through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Social media presents an open forum for customers to share experiences with a brand, whether they’re airing grievances or promoting products. Salesforce Marketing Cloud provides a single location for all your cross-channel content, enabling your brand to speak with one voice across all your digital channels, for a consistent experience throughout the 1:1 customer journey.
Watch the Salesforce Marketing Cloud Video here!
Watch the Salesforce Sales Cloud Video here!
Watch the Salesforce Service Cloud Video here!
Ready to Implement Salesforce?
If you need any assistance and require my services to help consult, implement, test and launch your CRM systems than please contact myself to discuss services for hire further.
Thanks Mike.
About the Author
Michael achieved a Bachelors degree in Business Studies majoring in Marketing combined with a year’s work experience in an IT Hardware / Software environment. He started his experience as a Marketing Communications Executive in the Utilities Sector working with above and below the line marketing techniques.
He further developed his CRM, Internet, digital marketing and technology skill sets with additional consulting and corporate marketing assignments that also incorporated the implementation roll out and use of technology with a number of major CRM systems. This enabled Michael to become Oracle Certified as part of an Oracle Siebel implementation and soon to be Salesforce Certified. To date, he has managed to develop his skill set working with a range of ERP CRM Systems as well as combining this with a love of On-Line Digital Marketing and Media.
Having now moved to a consulting role, this has enabled him to work closely with a range of clients to understand and document their business requirements. In turn, enabling him to assist them in successfully implementing new CRM and Marketing systems. Away from the office, he shares a love of snowboarding together with the great outdoors! Most recently becoming a qualified diver and has already dived in some of the most glorious locations in Asia. Read Michael’s articles on LinkedIn.
Just add Tech – Include Technology into your Learning Strategy – The key trends that everyone is talking about these days are cloud technology, data analytics and mobile technology. There are many factors pushing towards these trends such as availability and accessibility of mobile phones; the increased mobility of workforce; the increased skills and education of the workforce; the move away from spreadsheets; more HR getting into the strategic role; skills shortages; the need for staff retention, engagement and development and so on.
So what do you need to do now in order not fall behind the competition? Where do you even begin to include technology into your learning strategy?
For a start, we need to look at both the present & future states of your organisation. Where is your organisation at now and where does it want to go in the future? What are its future business goals? Your learning strategy should be aligned to it. You will also need to consider the current and future states of the following:
Technology Infrastructure
The first step is to examine your organization’s existing technology infrastructure. To put it plainly, some organizations may not have the technology to offer the most advanced technology. You may know what your organization is capable of, but even if this is the case, you should always get your IT department involved in the planning stages of your learning strategy to avoid any nasty surprises later. For an example in this organisation of about 1,200 employees, it was a rude surprise to find out later after the e-learning programs had been rolled out that Flash updates need to be requested by employees calling into Helpdesk individually! Or you will need to write a business case to have Flash updated for the whole organisation! In another example, training records and e-learning courses need to be sent to the vendor for an initial mass upload but sharing documents through Dropbox or any cloud file hosting service to an external party is against IT policy. In other words, to make your life a little easier, you will need to find out your IT department’s security, infrastructure, IT support levels and availability, business objectives, future directions, etc. that may impact on your learning strategy.
Employees
While you’re looking at the organization’s current technology, take the time to also take a realistic look at your employees. The question you want to answer is not whether your employees are ready for technological advances in learning, but rather what kind of technological advances are they ready for.
Depending on the industry, age and nature of the organization, you may find that your audience is already highly technically savvy and may expect the Learning & Developing (L&D) team to provide them with stimulating technological learning interventions. On the other hand, your employees may be resistant to blogging or watching a training course via a synchronous web conference. Either way, your job is to determine just how far you can go.
Policies & Procedures
You will also need to review your current policies and procedures. Are there anything that needs to be changed? How does your management feel about work-life balance, e-learning and m-learning? How are you going to manage when online training needs to be conducted? Will these be during office hours or after office hours? With all these new technologies and mobile phones as well as with everyone and everything accessible 24/7, how are you going to draw the line? Are you going to be like the French and put a legal ruling in place that says employees are to shut off work devices and avoid work emails after going home for the day?
The L&D team & technology
As part of the L&D role, you need to plan, organise, deliver and evaluate the learning & development activities of the organisation. There are several tools and systems available to assist and streamline your L&D processes – from authoring tools to develop your online courses to the different Learning Management System (LMS) to administer, report and evaluate your online programs.
Considering the different delivery methods of training, be it face-to-face, electronic learning (e-learning) and mobile learning (m-learning), does your L&D team have the capability to develop the materials on your own in-house or do you need to outsource this?
You will also need the right LMS to provide a great way to track and report grades, completions and performance metrics. In fact, if your organization is ready for the latest and greatest, can you have a cloud-based LMS so that your learners as well as your team are not restricted by location? Can your LMS collect the key metrics that you need as well as generate meaningful reports? Can your LMS can be a Social Learning Management System (SLMS) that provides for online interaction and social networking or, if you plan to work on rapid development, will a content management system (LCMS) work better for you? Regardless of your choice, make sure it is the right choice for the direction and technology you want to deploy.
You can also consider including technology in classroom courses. For example, blogs, discussion threads, and social networks can be used as both before and after class exercises. Trainers may be able to gain insight in the learners’ knowledge levels both before and after the intervention, as well as learn how well the training affects behavioural change.
Look for opportunities to create online applications for courses, such as quick reference guides, games, short knowledge based modules, testing, podcasts and videos that can be downloaded and viewed after or before class. Methods like blogs or social networking are also great ways to get learners involved and keep them involved. The question is determining how to begin using these applications.
Overall, as you look for ways to integrate technology into the learning strategy, you will also be able to create a culture that is open to technology and at the same time, help the organisation stay competitive as well as retain and engage with your people.
