Perfect Recipe to Finding Right SugarCRM Development Company

“The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.”

– Bill Gates

Recently SugarCRM blog published a story of a construction and engineering giant, Redglaze Group. The story they published revolves around one of the most innovative and enterprise CRM: SugarCRM. Their aim was to address the discrepancy within their diversified network.

With businesses spread across the globe, the challenges they faced were threefold. The companies were striving to achieve consistent customer interactions across all business units, real time systematic information sharing, and accomplish more by utilizing least resources.

The challenge, they faced was that the software that worked for one company was not compatible with the other one. This increased the complexity and resources used to communicate with the people in different locations.

More than 20 staff hours were wasted per week in something as simple as communication. Solution? They integrated Sugar Professional, customized Sugar modules and specialty portals for subcontractors and internal departments; deployed to nearly 74% of employees in Redglaze Group companies that have implemented Sugar.

Results were astounding. A booming 30% increase in overall efficiency through project management and sales tracking. Tom Hon, their sales representative puts this a better way, “I only get paid on what I sell, and now I’m more productive because I have better information.”

“The impact on an organization can at times be subtle and distributed throughout the enterprise… Cost savings and productivity enhancements can be seen in saving a salesperson 20 minutes per week in writing activity reports, or answering four times the volume of web-based service requests in the same amount of time.”

– Mary Wardley, vice-president of IDC’s CRM applications research.

Global Learnings:

Dispersed communication is not only limited to Redglaze, today, every million-dollar business is facing dispersed communication. This problem, if not dealt at an early stage, can possibly cause major losses simply due to non-productive hours of internal stakeholders.

However, a CRM can prove to be an ideal solution for businesses facing data dispersion. By integrating an efficient CRM, you can maximize user engagement, know your customers better than your competitors, boost productivity of your sales team, streamline your data flow, and increase revenue and profitability.

             “Opting for CRM means gain, retain, and regain customers!”

Nevertheless, choosing a SugarCRM development company is very crucial. Before you outsource your project, you must make sure the company you are dealing with, has immense experience in developing CRM technologies, is reliable, supportive, and collaborative.

Nowadays, finding an ideal SugarCRM development company for your project is hard but not impossible. While there are a lot of other companies out there, we feel proud to present our craftsmanship in delivering robust solutions to businesses seeking for something reliable, sustainable and exceptional. To be honest, our reputation in this industry precedes us. We have been into CRM development since a decade! And you must never underestimate the power of a decade. LOL!

Our well-conceived and perfectly deployed CRM system can help you streamline your marketing and sales process. Using it, you can make better use of leads/contacts data and close more sales from existing contacts.

“The big benefit of CRM is the visibility of everything relating to customers going on in your company. If you want to provide a better service to your customer, you have to be able to manage everything from complaints to sales opportunities.”

                                                      – Roger Cole, CRM Consultant at Reseller CPiO

We have been doing this since ages. And we have a strategic plan for every project. We can help you build robust CRM solutions for your business. We have dedicated SugarCRM developers who have not only implemented a number of SugarCRM instances but they have also developed a wide range of CRM plugins. Not just that… SugarCRM application development is also something that we do exceptionally well.

We understand that the purpose of any business is to create and keep a customer. Hence, we can customize your CRM — exactly the way your business logic demands it. We are a CRM Consultancy for SugarCRM. Our services and dedicated developers are pro for the level of efficiency you desire for the enterprise grade projects. Share your requirements with us and let us display our efficacy through the meticulous documentation and our thorough approach.

Originally Posted Here

4 Essential Elements to Selecting a Successful CRM

 
If you are under the impression that all CRM systems are same and that randomly picking one would do your job as all of them are same, you need to think again. Just like your skin and bone business manager’s qualification, experience, and expertise matters, so is your CRM system based more or less on the same parameters but different functions. And since a CRM system is not something that you can replace repeatedly, given the high cost and efforts it involves, much thought goes into the selection of a successful CRM.

But some of you might be wondering “Where do I start?” We try to answer the most important question in this blog by discussing the 4 essential elements to successful CRM implementation.

It should grow with you, not ahead of you.

The ‘one size fits all’ formula doesn’t work for CRM systems as every business is different in its own way and more importantly, the size of businesses vary greatly. The first thing to make a note of is to decide how many people/employees will be using the CRM in your company? It can be one, ten, or hundreds, and the capability of CRM is to be gauged on that. You need to choose CRM system that answers your business’ requirements or is customizable accordingly.

And how do we do that? Let’s see.

Some of the CRMs are to be chosen on the basis of what they have to offer while others let you choose features that you need for your business functions. The latter one is of course the better and more cost-effective one. A more to the point conclusion is that look for a CRM that is customizable as the business progresses, for a small business won’t always be small. You should be easily able to expand the capability of your CRM by using extensions, themes, plug-ins, templates, etc. But you can already have them right? Well, it might sound a bit surprising but having functions prior to their utility can hinder your business growth rather than assisting it.

Simplicity is the key

If you are looking for a CRM that offers every function that has ever been developed to be performed by a CRM system, you need to stop immediately and change your strategy. That’s a totally unfavorable approach to select a CRM. The logic is that with an over qualified CRM, you will also end up having an over complicated one. Result? You will be spending more time getting used to the system and training your executives to use it.

Moreover, as your company executives change from time to time, you will have to incur significant costs and efforts training every new team formed to utilize the system. Also, your executives will escape using a CRM that is too sophisticated and eats up a fair (read unfair) of their service time.

So, even though the decision is taken with the best of intentions, the outcome ultimately is poor. What’s the solution? The only solution is to be careful while selecting your CRM and focus only on the functions you actually need and can utilize best. The fewer the functions, the better it is done.

However that doesn’t suggest compromising with the eminence of the CRM. SugarCRM, SuiteCRM, Vtiger CRM and Dynamics CRM are few of the best options available which offers you an uncomplicated management system without compromising on the functionality and quality.

Review several, before deciding on ‘the one’.

Deciding upon a CRM system can be difficult given that there are so many of them available and within them, numerous one claim to have the same or similar features that you are looking for. We know how that feels. And hence we know the solution. Check several systems to see what features are on offer and in case you are stuck with a few, decide on how easy the systems are to use in comparison to each other. Trust us with this advice as it’s going to matter most with time, promise!

To start with, you can get in touch with organizations similar to you in functioning and size and get some advice on this. You can also scrutinize the reputation of the systems on your shortlist by checking out reviews in popular and relevant magazines and social networks. Online ratings on technical forums are also helpful to a notable extent.

Consider Professional Support

Even though you know what you want, you will end up being clueless at times because of your lack of expertise in the given area. And since you can’t base your choice of CRM on instincts, it’s best to consider taking help from professionals offering CRM development solutions. A professional help by your side ensures that your needs are being looked after and suggests the right CRM for you, knowing well which can offer what.

Executives generally help you choose the right CRM, provides support during the implementation until a pre-decided service period when the contract ends. You can also ask for training sessions for your employees to understand the functioning of a CRM better.

Conclusion

We understand that your business requires a CRM system soon, but don’t rush into it. It has worked till now, a few days more won’t harm but a wrong decision, and you are stuck with it! Employing a CRM is a costly process and a vital decision that affects your business functions greatly. The time and research you spend on selecting it will pay off once it is implemented. Broadly, you need to take note of three things to get optimal results:

    Carefully review your objectives.
    Note down your exact requirements from the CRM system.
    Plan on how to choose your CRM.

Point 3 is where the above elements come to the picture, and quite justly the most important one. So, are you all buckled up to start the hunt?

Everyone Should Know About Advantages And Disadvantages Of Open Source Crm System

A CRM or customer relationship management system facilitates developing and upholding meaningful relationships with the customer. Every company whether big or small can benefit from a well developed CRM system. But quite often the prohibitive cost of enterprise grade CRM systems (e.g. Salesforce.com) takes them beyond the reach of majority of the organizations as only a handful of companies with deep pockets can afford such advanced, feature rich systems.

But the scenario started changing with the launch of SugarCRM, the first major open source CRM system. SugarCRM democratized the CRM market. Even in its earliest versions Sugar was a decent system with useful features and freely available code. What this meant was you can have your own CRM system with as many users as you want and you can customize the system to suit whatever your organizational requirement was. The software was free, you just had to invest in the server infrastructure. But it was a one time investment and totally worth it considering the business benefits. Eventually Sugar ceased to be an open source software, but what it started was quickly followed by other CRM developers and now after more than a decade we have almost a dozen good open source CRMs to choose from.

But is free software the only reason why you should go for open source CRM software. And what’s the flipside? What compromises you will have to make with open source CRM. Here is a brief overview of the advantages and disadvantages of open source CRM software, so when you do decide to go for one, you take an informed decision.

Advantages of Open Source CRM

Free of Cost

The foremost reason why everyone considers opting for open source CRM is because, generally speaking, its free. Off course not all open software are free, but most CRM systems are. The source code is free which can be modified according to the requirements. New versions are offered time to time that too at no extra cost. The developer might charge some additional money for expert support but you can always save some money by modifying the codes yourself and saving on the license charges. It has been estimated that open source software saves around $60 billion a year for all businesses combined.

Customization

Anything that is customizable according to one’s requirements is a good thing. Especially a CRM software, because CRM deals with managing customers and customer management differs vastly from industry to industry. So it is very difficult to build a one-size-fits-all CRM software, unless you stuff it with all the features all industries will ever need. The power to customize makes open source CRM among the most sought-after software. The source code can be altered to whatever the user needs it to be. They need not have to deal with (and pay for) loads of irrelevant features which they will never use. And if can’t customize yourself you can always hire CRM customization services.

No ‘stuck-up’

Usually when you opt for paid CRMs, not only do you have to pay an initial cost, but need to commit to the license for at least a number of months. Open source CRM does not need that kind of commitment. You can use it till whenever it is suitable to you and drop it if it’s not working any longer.

Easy Management

Open source CRM is easy to manage and can be installed at multiple locations according to your requirements. You don’t need to keep a count or monitor it for license issues. You can keep as many instances of the software as you want without any monetary repercussions.

Continuous Improvements

Another great reason to go for open source CRM is the developer community behind it. Everyone has access to the source code so it is possible for anyone to fix bugs, if any, and add new features using collective experience. As a result the software keeps getting better and better as time passes by.

Resources

You do not need to exploit as much resources for the implementation of the system as is required in the traditional software(s). Your staff can explore the existing codes to understand the product better and can suggest various improvements which might suit your organization best.

So, these were some of the advantages of open source CRM which attracts you to consider it. But that’s not all. Every coin has two sides. Before deciding on anything, you need to be equipped with both its pros and cons. Now talking about disadvantages, let’s see why opting for an open source CRM needs consideration:

Disadvantages of Open Source CRM

Maintenance

Installing open source CRM can be easy, but CRM support and maintenance is not. The proper up keeping of open source CRM requires a lot of technical expertise. Little thought is provided to develop the user interface so they aren’t that user-friendly. You will need consultants and expertise to choose and customize the right CRM for you. The bugs can be resolved but generally take a lot of time for the same.

No central support system

There is no one place where you can go with the issues you are facing regarding your open source CRM. All of your solutions or support is going to be from various forums (community of users) which aren’t always accurate and can take a lot of time to respond to your queries. The other way is to get expert support which again adds to your expenses.

Limited Functionality

Open source CRM can almost cater to all the basic needs of your business, but it might not suit your business if you are looking for full fledged CRM solution. The functionality of open source CRM is limited to an extent and comes with its own shortcomings. However with additional investment you can either hire CRM developers to add new features or get readymade plugins for your unique requirements.

Not entirely free

Though it may seem to be, open source CRM is not entirely free. There are many hidden costs which keep on showing up. The source code is available to all but to alter the code according to your own requirements, you will have to incur developer costs and continuous upkeep costs. To run the CRM system you will need to invest in server and firewall infrastructure which may cost a huge amount of money.

Conclusion

Even with its limitations open source CRM is still preferred by many businesses to enhance their relationship with customers. Most certainly, open source software is one of the major trends in the software industry and it’s not for nothing. In spite of all arguments, to opt for it or not is entirely a decision based on the requirements of a business or entity. Therefore, if you are looking forward to decide on open source CRM for your organization, you must study all its advantages and disadvantages carefully to see if the advantages are more profitable to you or the limitations are bound to bring in more loses.

How Your Employees can Make ERP Successful?

Enterprise Resource Planning system is the primary requirement for every growing business. Without implementing the required systems, sustaining in the market even with the excellent services and promising features is next to impossible. ERP is affordable only by the huge firms is just a myth. The ERP system implemented in the company can develop a win-win situation for both the enterprise and the employees.

It is a fact that role of employees using ERP system is vital. No enterprise would tolerate if their ERP system does not earn them desired ROI. Below mentioned are the methods employees can use the ERP system to get the most out of it.

1.Analyze the Complete ERP Solution

Whenever a company implements a new ERP solution for simplifying business processes, the first thing any employee must do is its analysis. Check it thoroughly, it might be similar to the previous system or might be completely different from the system you were used to. Focus on its feature list and benefits offered. By understanding the features exactly, employees can use the system accurately and can extract the best out of it. The same way, benefits offered can simplify the business processes. Plan your enterprise resources precisely by availing all the benefits offered by the system.

2.Avoid Intolerable Mistakes

Mistakes can back off the business no matter how efficient the implemented system is. Minor mistakes can be tolerated and resolved even, what about the huge mistakes that jeopardize the business success.

a) Poor Planning

When no proper planning is made to use the ERP system, it can obscure the effective business strategies made for better ROI. Prior to making business strategies, focus on planning for the system usage as it takes the front seat.

b) Insufficient Training

Imagine the employees are made to work with the brand new ERP system you have just implemented. If they are not provided sufficient knowledge and training about the system, they will not be able to handle the system.

c) Poor Maintenance

The ERP system implemented in your enterprise require regular health check up too. The system that simplifies complex business activities also requires maintenance service to avoid further complexities. Give your employees a well maintained system for the improved functioning of business as well as ROI.

3.Get a Backup Plan Ready

A successful implementation plan is important for any system implementation but it is equally necessary to have a backup plan ready for the same. Without a backup plan you will not only lose your vital data but it will also cost your efforts and resources. Most importantly you must deliver the right training for such program to your employees as well as they would be a part of this backup program and help implement the backup plan in time.

4.Find the Flaw Rather than Avoid Using

If there are any flaws detected in the ERP system, report about it to the vendor representative handling the maintenance of system rather than stop using it.

Employees being the end users of ERP system, hold great importance. Enterprises seeking excellent solution for simplified business activities implement single ERP system rather implementing multiple systems and managing each of them individually.

ERP VS CRM

Modern businesses can leverage the advantages offered by advanced technology. Businesses can sustain in the tough competition by streamlining challenging processes with real time data. Data analysis techniques present, allows companies to forecast their future plans and strategies. Helpful tools like Customer Resource Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) offers businesses the power to control the market.

Quick Insights

Though similar at a glance, ERP and CRM are distinctively different. To accomplish business goals and success, businesses need to rely on both the platforms (explained below).

CRM

Customer Resource Management (CRM) is a crucial tool, which allows companies to interact with their customers about either sales or services. Companies can improve its ROI by enhancing their products quality and customer services. Even customer acquisition is possible by deploying impactful CRM solution.

It offers myriads of features, which allow businesses to collect customer data, manage and use it to build unbeatable marketing strategies. Big data study trend, helps companies to streamline and simplify major business processes.

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is required to manage business. It integrates all the functions like product planning, development, human resources, sales and marketing. ERP solution helps companies to fulfill goals by managing multiple core operations – accounting, inventory etc. using single software.

It is designed to make business activities highly efficient. Allowing companies to focus on the crucial factor i.e. business data, it helps them managing real time data. It can be upgraded easily whenever updates are available.

Attractive Gains

Both ERP and CRM are feature packed business solutions. But, the features and functionality list varies from version to vendors. Let us have a look how it benefits businesses.

Benefits Offered by CRM

• Desired Sales
• Convenient Use
• Save Time and Money
• Simplified Goal-Setting
• Better Platform Support
• Secured Software Solution
• Satisfactory Customer Service

Benefits Offered by ERP

• Scalability
• Business Analytics
• Better Supply Chain
• Reduced Complexity
• Affordable Operations
• Improved Data Access
• Regulatory Compliance

Final Words

CRM and ERP both are the solutions that are significant for flawless business performance. Let us check which software should your enterprise use?

CRM

CRM solution is used by enterprises seeking effective marketing strategies. They use and manage the customer data collected. Thus, companies that identify business opportunity in retaining their existing customers can avail its benefits and can also acquire new customers.

If you need cost effective software that integrates customer data with other system for profitable outcome, CRM is the solution all sized businesses should implement.

ERP

ERP solution is for the organizations, having coherent workflow that involves each and every department for seamless business functioning and quick completion of processes. They even track inter-departmental activities to ensure its effective completion.

If you are in search of a business solution offering operational efficiency with improved consistency and accuracy, ERP is the perfect software fulfilling your challenging requirements.

Be it CRM or ERP, every business needs additional software solution other than manual activities to perform business processes effectively. Consult us today for best-in-class software –as-a-service (SaaS) with flexible packages with an aim to make your business performance better.