How to choose a CRM. Step-by-step instructions

In this article I would like to talk about the process of choosing a CRM-system for your enterprise. This is an important question, in some ways requiring special training and for a person encountering this problem for the first time is quite complicated. How to choose the right system for your enterprise? Do you choose to solve current problems or "to grow? Do you choose for the sales department or for yourself? What are the functions that must be? And what supplier to choose? This is just a small part of a huge number of very diverse questions that you will have to find answers to. Also you may need software for moving companies. 

The situation is further complicated by the fact that there is no generally accepted definition of the functionality of a CRM-system: under this acronym can hide both trivial free applications for managing only contacts, and huge systems that allow even multinational companies to improve the quality of their work. Obviously, the spread of prices for such solutions corresponds to the spread of functionality. There are at least a hundred very good solutions on the market at the moment, both in terms of price and quality. Let's try to determine together what features you need the system and how to use it, namely whether to buy or rent it. In addition, in Russia there may be one purely "Russian" requirement for a CRM-system - the ability to work with "primary", which is extremely complex and highly regulated. 

So where to start? First, you should determine the main ultimate goal of implementing a CRM-system. In general, there are two such goals: 

Objective 1: Get a tool to control sales staff 

Objective 2. Obtain a means to increase the number of company products used by one target customer of that company. 

Note that Goal #2 includes Goal #1. The important thing here is the following - if the main goal of choosing and implementing a CRM system for you is only goal #1, then you do not need a CRM system at all! As a means to monitor and improve the processes of ONLY the sales department is a completely different class of systems called SFA. Such systems are usually present in the lines of all manufacturers and are entry level systems, for example: 

• Terrasoft Sales
• Asoft CRM Lite
• 1C:CRM Standard
• BIT:CRM 8

The second important question that should be answered before you start looking for a system is the way products are sold to the customer, in other words, the process of preparing the primary documents. In case your company's shipping documents are handled by the same sales department, the CRM system in trade should allow you: 

• Prepare primary documents for shipment and invoices
• Documents must comply with OKUD requirements
• The supplier should guarantee you that the system will be updated in case the requirements for document forms change.

The main problem here is that to fill the "primary" often requires data from accounting systems, which do not and cannot be in the CRM. Such documents in the distribution or wholesale trade may be GTE, or other series-forming documents. In case this question is relevant for you, then the best way to solve the problem in trade is the integration of CRM or SFA-systems in the existing accounting base. Since the main type of accounting systems in Russia are 1C products, respectively, and CRM or SFA-system must be either implemented on the platform 1C:Enterprise, for example: 

• BIT:CRM 8
• 1C:CRM (Prof or Corp)

or is already implemented in the application solution. For example, in the 11th edition of 1C "Trade Management" such functionality is contained initially. Once again, please note that these requirements for CRM are relevant if your main activity is related to the shipment of goods or materials (trade). Naturally, this issue will not be relevant if your company is engaged in the provision of professional (eg, consulting) or financial services (banking services). 

The next important aspect in choosing a system is the availability of a process designer or business rules. I am often asked about this functionality, but the answer is not straightforward. The recommendations are simple - if your company has a de-facto process approach, i.e. the main business operations are described in the form of internal rules and procedures and these rules are related to the scheme of staff motivation and applied in practice - then yes this functionality is relevant for you. Otherwise keep in mind that the process of creating such procedures and rules is rather labor-intensive and lengthy, and you need to control the work today, so it's better to limit the system to the ability to plan key indicators, and only the process logic of work will come later either by itself or under the influence of the market. So, if a company doesn't have any established regulations and rules, the presence of a system designer of these rules is likely to have a negative effect.  

On the other hand, if you plan to transfer the company to process management, for example by implementing a quality system, then of course "growing up" this functionality will not be superfluous. When discussing business process management functionality, also pay attention to the following factors: 

• Ability to create your own processes without programming. This will significantly save on the development of the system
• It is possible to create any processes, not only those related to sales. As an example I can mention preparation of marketing impacts, document approvals or processing of complaints
• The presence of the system to monitor the processes. It's kind of analog of the control panel to identify "stuck" or overdue processes.

Examples of systems with good process designers are: 

• Terrasoft CRM
• Terrasoft XRM
• Oracle Siebel CRM
• Microsoft CRM
• ASoft CRM (sales only)

Not a bad designer of business processes exists in 1C:CRM, but its use to adapt existing processes or create new ones will inevitably require the involvement of the developer. 

An important aspect in selecting a system is the mechanism for integrating it with the software already used in your company. The main systems that I would pay attention to are: 

• Mail systems (to eliminate double entry when sending emails and registering incoming messages)
• Office applications (to use templates for business letters, documents or to upload an existing client base)
• Accounting applications (for financial and document management)
• Web-sites (for transferring customer requests received via internet directly into the system)
• Software PBX

The last thing I would like to talk about is the principles of using the system. Of course, in the current situation in our country, the most common is to purchase software products and deploy them within the corporate network. There are many reasons for this, among which we can highlight the main ones: the fear of theft of commercial information, dependence on the Internet service provider, the prospects of litigation against third parties if anything happens. But let's talk about the pros of leasing CRM-systems: no problems with ensuring efficiency, with updates as well no worries, it is easy to add another user, and the prospects for access to information is exceptional - there are no restrictions on either types of devices or access channels. As for the possibility of information theft, as my practice shows, the degree of data security in enterprises, especially small and medium-sized businesses, is much lower than that of hosting providers.  

This method is at first glance more expensive - here you have to pay constantly instead of a one-time payment for licenses in the classical delivery. But the cost of delivery is not everything: the system needs to be maintained, for its operation needs computing power, which also needs to be monitored. Thus, for small businesses or companies with an extensive network of branches or sales representatives, I would strongly recommend thinking about this option of using the system. 

The above-mentioned aspects of CRM and SFA systems are fundamental to their selection. Other parameters, such as the ability to use alerts or reminders, receive data on the sales funnel or create mailings or product matrices are also important, but these are nuances inherent in any system and can be discussed as part of a specific implementation. 

In order to make it easier for you to choose a system, I can recommend answering a few questions 

• Type of activity of your company
• The main purpose of system implementation
• Departments, where implementation is planned
• Existence of formalized business rules and procedures
• Their list
• Whether it is necessary to have a visual constructor of business rules in the system
• Presence of KPI system in your company
• Linkage of KPI indicators with employee motivation scheme
• The primary accounting system of your company
• Primary documents in your company are prepared by
• The forms of primary documents used in your company
• Do these documents need to be prepared in the CRM/SFA system
• Do we need to integrate with the accounting system
• Does it require integration with a web-site
• Is integration with office applications required
• Is integration with email systems required?
• The variant of using the system (purchase or lease)

and send the answers to several vendors to evaluate the prospects of the project. Well, and based on the results of a comparison of several systems to make a final decision. 

And do not forget - CRM/SFA-system is only a tool for solving your problems. The introduction (installation) of this system can't change your business by itself, only you can do it. But these products will definitely help you to make it faster, more efficient and profitable!