It is relatively easy to identify when a company is ready for a centralized data solution. Often times the inefficiency of a company without a centralized data solution is felt by all employees at all levels but just as often management struggles with how to solve this kind of a problem. Inefficiency manifests itself in all areas causing all sorts of specific problems and usually management tries to solve each problem individually instead of looking at the entire business as one system with many integrated parts. These problems can be incorrect orders, shipments going to the wrong address or lost revenue due to incomplete information.
The indicators listed below may help you decide if your organization is ready for a centralized database solution.
1. Customer or vendor contact info is updated in multiple applications by multiple employees.
Customer and vendor contact information change and get added to frequently. Ensuring that your customer and vendor information is updated at a single source and then shared out to your entire staff is critical to being organized and meeting your customer’s expectations in a timely manner.
2. Customers and vendors know their history with your firm better than you do.
As your staff grows the need to have access to all the latest customer and vendor history is vital. A centralized solution provides a way for any staff member to see the latest correspondence, notes, estimates, invoices, purchase orders and more, giving them the power to do their jobs efficiently without fumbling to find the data.
3. Sales & tasks expectations grow.
With fewer employees and more demands, the old ways of keeping track of contacts, appointments and notes just won’t scale. Not centralizing some of the basic tasks of scheduling, contact management and activity tracking will leave employees to develop their own methods to accomplish their jobs and often times leave management with the task of managing each employee’s activities individually with very little visibility to see what the team or department is doing as a whole.
4. Managers can’t organize data quickly.
Without a way of quickly aggregating data, managers spend most of their timecompiling reports rather than taking action. A centralized solution can access various applications such as Excel, the Web, QuickBooks, Outlook, Entourage, etc. providing the ability to assemble reports faster. Having the power to pull data from various sources quickly makes it possible for them to examine data in more ways then ever before. This insight can make managers more agile in reacting to business challenges relating to sales, production or services.
5. Can’t access critical data from the road.
The ability to see pertinent information while away from the office is critical in today’s business environment. Choosing a solution that works with the various mobile devices your managers use will provide them with the information they need to make decisions from just about anywhere.
If any of the indicators above sound familiar, then your organization is ready for a centralized database solution or Customer Relationship Manager (CRM).
For more information on how Productive Computing, Inc. and it’s Core2 CRM solution can help you solve these issues, go to http://www.productivecomputing.com.