Before 10 years or so, the last thing a small business owner may opt for his business will be a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. At that time, the CRM industry was ruled by licensed (we now call them ‘on-premise’) software providers. The purchasing price and installation costs were too high. Worst thing is that companies may require a technical team to configure the software and maintain the system.

The scenario has changed drastically, small businesses now implement cutting-edge CRM systems at very low costs; an advantage which small businesses receive by ‘being small’. CRM software has become a basic requirement for all businesses.

Introduction of web based CRM (we call them ‘on-demand’) solutions has founded a new era in small business management. They eliminated the need of spreadsheets and costly communication and data sharing tools. Web based CRM software offered more advantages to small businesses including no cost of purchase, low cost of implementation, no cost for maintenance and updates, minimum technical knowledge, any-time any-where accessibility, increased business collaboration, better customer contacts and lead management, in-depth analysis and reports, and lots more.

There are several factors which contributed to today’s on-demand CRM boom. The first is the improvement in internet speed and availability of internet in a variety of devices. Second is the invention of powerful database driven web-based systems, and development of modern scripting languages like AJAX and ASP. Third is the easiness to construct or hire a centralized database at lowest ever costs. Other factors include advancement in mobile technology, websites turning out to be a major business place, increased availability of open-source products, and also the limitations of licensed CRM systems.

Now a small business can implement effective Customer Relationship Management software with no money in hand. The only cost involved is the monthly fee, which is usually calculated on per user basis. The lesser the number of employees (software users), the lesser you pay monthly. The web based interface (dashboard) is also simple to interact, just like your dashboard in a social site. All data are stored, sorted and updated in a remote database; so businesses never have to worry about that.

But still there are many things to be consider before going for small business CRM solutions. These include data security, data integration, data ownership and pricing plans. Going through the data security and data ownership declaration is very important when choosing a CRM vendor. Data integration, once was a big problem, can be effectively analyzed by using the CRM free trails. Many vendors have complex multi-tier pricing plans, which may complicate your business growth and monthly software costs.

By: Praveen Ortec

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Business Performance Management (BPM) is gaining currency all over the world as an important segment of ecommerce and web business enterprises. Business performance management is what today helps companies to gauge their business performance through a a set of processes. Business performance management is considered as a quality tool for business intelligence. BPM is focused on business processes such as planning and forecasting. It helps businesses discover efficient use of their business units, financial, human and material resources.

Business Performance Management relies on the following steps:

o collecting data
o discerning patterns and meaning in the data (generating information)
o responding to the resultant information

These information or intelligence are then analysed and performance parameters arrived at.
Today business volumes have increased several fold. Collecting and analysing data has become tedious and cumbersome. However Data Management technologies have today resolved the issue of large volume of data. Improved Enterprise Application Integration tools have increased the speedy collecting of data. Reporting technologies have allowed faster generation of new reports which analyze the data. Business intelligence has now become the art of filtering through large amounts of data, extracting information and turning that information into action.
BPM involves consolidation of data from various sources, querying, and analysis of the data, and putting the results into practice.

BPM enhances processes by creating better feedbacks. Continuous reviews help to identify and eliminate problems before they grow. BPM’s forecasting abilities help organisations to take corrective action in time to meet earnings projections. Forecasting is characterized by a high degree of predictability which is put into good use to answer all possible scenarios. BPM is especially useful in risk analysis and predicting outcomes of merger and acquisition cases.
BPM provides key performance indicators (KPI) that help companies monitor efficiency of projects and employees against operational targets. BPM often uses Key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the present condition of business and to set up a course of corrective action. More and more organizations have started to make data available more promptly. Business Performance Management simply means use of several key performance indicators to assess the present state of business and to prescribe course of action.

Typically the data collected by a business enterprise could reveal new customers acquired, status of existing customers and level of satisfaction of customers. Data relating to turnovers generated by different segments of customers ,the gap between projection and achievment etc could be gathered so that the yawning gap between customer expectations and products/services quality could be effectively bridged.

Importantly though, the following should be ensured:

1. Key Performance Indicatiors should be consistent and correct.
2. Timely availability of KPI-related data.
3. Easy interpretation of data
4. Patterns and trends should be easily observed.

BPM integrates the company’s processes with CRM or ERP. Companies become able to gauge customer satisfaction control customer trends and influence shareholder value.Technology tools like Online Analytical Processing or OLAP, Data Warehouses, Data Mining, Executive Information Systems, Decision Support Systems and Management Information systems are set up and effectively utilised for optimised Business Performance Management. Developers involved in business intelligence have developed these tools that ease the work, especially when the intelligence task involves gathering and analyzing large amounts of unstructured data.
The first step in Business Performance Management is determining is the performance segments identification and determining the goals of the organisation. Current data collection technologies have to be upgraded and optimised. The cost implications of such a large scale business intelligence methodology must be viewed with scrupulous concentration. The targeted beneficiary of the BPM should be clearly identified. These information requirements must be operationalized into clearly defined parameters. The BPM programme should be monitored to ensure that objectives are being met. The programme should be tested for accuracy, reliability and validity.

The success of business performance management in the correct identification of performance optimisation areas, correct collection of important data and the correct devolution of benefits to the targeted segment. With improved data collection and analysis technologies available, there is no need for any organisation to shy away from the Business Performance Management or Business intelligence initiative. BPM is in reality a friend of the business enterprise rather than being a cumbersome procedure. Today it is an essential exercise for any company worth its’ name and would help to trim excess fat and improve bottom lines.Training and exposure in Business Performance Management must be imparted to important key persons in the administrative hierarchy. This would become a nice long term investment for the company concerned.

By: Pkp Iyer

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