Archive for July 22, 2011

Customer Relationship Management (Crm) – Your Key Business Strategy

admin / July 22, 2011 / No comments

At its core Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a business strategy and underlying that strategy is a number of CRM software applications, including marketing and customer service. Companies use these applications to make their customer management more efficient, more customer centric to satisfy their customers’ service requirements. What form the business strategy takes can be different depending on the type of organization and the objectives to be achieved. Generally, CRM is used extensively by sales, marketing and customer service teams.

 

Historically, CRM started as a contact management application, a repository to hold customer details and some activities such as telephone calls, meeting times and a rudimentary record of notes. Linking people within companies was also an important step in the evolution of CRM. Sales force automation however realized the value of putting actual sales information into the database to establish sales management activities such as sales pipelines and forecasting opportunities.

Today, CRM has migrated itself to being a relationship management tool. It is very different to what was the traditional use of CRM with access to customer details through a customer database. In fact, Microsoft now refers to CRM as xRM – “anything relationship management” with corporate processes automated through workflow management. Microsoft CRM software, like most CRM now has become more specialised, more vertical by addressing real niche areas.

 

There are many examples of CRM extending its value in niche areas:

CRM is used by event management companies to manage event registrations, manage bookings and to market regularly with people who sign up for regular contact. It is used by superannuation (pension) fund companies for their membership. These companies manage the communication with fund members, send out marketing information, manage email communications, manage direct marketing campaigns, manage regulatory and compliance information against each of the super fund members such as tax compliance. Importantly, each communication to each member is recorded so that the superannuation company has a record of its obligations to its members and regulatory obligations. Relationships on a mine site can be managed. There might be a need to manage the process around the environmental management of that mine site. Certain processes may need to be followed, monitored and recorded to ensure compliancy around occupational health and safety issues for staff and suppliers.

To maximise your investment in your CRM system, your business must be clear in its objectives as to why such a system will be deployed. Is it just for sales automation? Will it be used by marketing to communicate with clients or as a lead generation tool? What requirements does customer service have with each client?

Mapping your business processes is a key goal, understanding the primary interactions that each division of your company has with clients. Having this knowledge will enable workflow to be developed and processes to be automated as much as possible. By doing this you will understand how to integrate each of sales, marketing and customer service to get real value from CRM.

Whether you choose a web based or an in-house CRM software solution will depend on your requirements. If you are a small company with limited budget, starting out with a web based, pay per user solution will give you a great start in managing your relationships. Larger companies can justify the cost of specific configurations and customisation that can be gained from an in-house solution.

Regardless of the solution you choose you will need to understand your business strategy and how better managing your relationships will give you a return on investment. The real benefit out of any CRM software solution is meeting the goals and objectives defined before you start.

Category: business management / Tags: ,

Improving Business Results Through Process Management

admin / July 22, 2011 / No comments

Business processes constitute a significant portion of an organization’s operating costs. And the more bureaucratic an organization is – the greater the potential to reduce operating costs. Management silos (hierarchical structure) can be devastating to an organization’s performance and cost structure. Walls need to be torn down, and the internal customer/supplier model embraced.

Unfortunately, line and staff departments have become too myopic or insular. Process management is imperative in order to manage and improve cross-functional business processes. And the more process-centric an organization is – the more performance-driven it will be. If you think you can be customer-centric, without being process-centric – think again. Processes must put the customer first.

Process Management Introduction

The stark reality is that processes (especially cross-functional processes) are usually not documented, not systematically and continually improved, and not managed. So why improve and manage processes? Simply, processes are the fundamental building blocks for achieving business results, and streamlined processes are critical to building and maintaining a competitive edge.

When I ask a client to give us a snapshot of their business, the discussion usually starts off with their history, an overview of products and services, core capabilities, and even their customer base. Along the way, an organization chart is typically thrown into the fray. But, perhaps the most revealing snapshot of all is an “organizational map” that shows the interrelationship of company-wide key business processes.

An organizational map is a top-level blueprint of the fundamental structure for an enterprise. This macro-level flowchart shows the interrelationship of business processes at a twenty-thousand foot elevation. It is the foundation from which to build an agile, competitive organization. Yet, alarmingly few organizations have taken the time to construct this “capstone” document.

Process Management begins the process of visualizing the organization as a whole – determining how one aspect of the system affects another. Leaders need to extend their vision beyond the project or function – beyond their department – to see the organization through a new set of glasses. They must focus on those key business processes that affect business objectives and critical success factors. Leaders must be visionary, and they must see the world anew.

Process Management Focus Areas & Tools

There are three general focus areas. These are: (1) making business processes effective – producing the desired results; (2) making processes efficient – minimizing the resources needed; and (3) making processes adaptable – being able to adapt to changing stakeholder and customer business needs.

An integrated holistic approach is essential to process management. Process mapping and flowcharting (down to the task level) are central to this effort. You can use a combination of several process flowcharting techniques – process maps, block diagrams, standard flowcharts, functional flowcharts, and geographic flowcharts. But remember, the journey starts with an “organization map – a macro-level flowchart.”

Process maps provide a composite overview of the business process, from an organizational context. Block diagrams provide a quick overview of a business process. Flowcharts are used to analyze the detailed interrelationships of a business process, and geographic flowcharts illustrate the process flow among locations.

Process Management Roadmap

A systematic approach (roadmap) is needed to improve business performance. There are proven strategies, methods, and tools to create a streamlined organization with a significantly lower cost structure. An integrated process management approach should link the organization’s mission, culture, business objectives, and key processes.

Our methodology consists of ten integrated tools and/or steps:

Bureaucracy elimination – remove unnecessary administrative tasks, approvals, and paperwork. Duplication elimination – remove identical activities that are performed at different parts of the business process. Value-added assessment – evaluate every activity in the business process to determine its contribution to meeting stakeholder/customer requirements. Task elimination/simplification – reduce the overall complexity of the process. Process cycle time reduction – determine ways to compress cycle time to meet or exceed stakeholder/customer expectations, with fewer resources. Error proofing – make it difficult to do the activity incorrectly, while standardizing the activity at the same time. Problem definition/solving – utilize a problem solving methodology (roadmap) that focuses on identifying and eliminating root causes. Technology/automation considerations – apply technology platforms and enterprise/legacy applications in innovative ways. Business process reengineering – use a radical approach to change the process, when the previous streamlining methods have not provided the desired results. Performance measurement – identify appropriate performance measures that will paint a composite picture of the business process performance.

Process Management Absolutes

There are a dozen process management absolutes that must be considered when you embark on a process management journey. You might also view these as “best practices.” Either way, these are critical to success:

Ensure management commitment upfront Create an environment where departments are partners, not competitors Reward cross-functional collaboration Take a disciplined, integrated approach to process improvement Allocate resources based on process needs Link process improvement initiatives to your strategic plan Identify critical business issues to drive improvement Ensure that product and service processes are customer-driven Put comprehensive and reliable process metrics in place Define and implement strategies to keep each process measure in control Measure levels of internal/external customer satisfaction for each process Reward individuals for their contributions to process improvement

 

For more information on Process Management, visit the Business Process Management Institute website, a peer to peer exchange for business process management professionals, at www.bpminstitute.org.

Category: business management / Tags: ,

Global Trade

admin / July 22, 2011 / No comments

Trading involves exchange of goods and services between two or more groups of either one nation or more than one nation. The trade which involves two nations is the bilateral trade and the trade associating more than two nations is the multi-lateral trade. The multi lateral trade between two different nations is called global trade. In Global trade various barriers have to be confronted, especially in export import trade of products. There are definite limits that are posed on the global trade by the nation itself such as the limit in the quantity of imported products, increased custom taxes and duty, and drop of the imports to the nation which makes the local markets able to compete with the foreign commodities. However, there are a range of advantages of these barriers in the terms of rise in the monetary and currency gains of the nation. These barriers also assist to produce more profits for a nation as the import of goods is limited to explicit amount and currency.

Global trade involves a range of activities of export and import of goods, which have a prominent affect on the worldwide economy. Global trade permits the customers to search for those products that they are not able to find in their nation. Global trade, in India, is very well-liked due to a variety of benefits it provides for the competence of the trade. The labor in India is very inexpensive and hard working. Moreover, India has a large quantity of raw materials that are essential to produce products. So, India is capable to produce the products at a large scale in reasonably less time, thereby growing the supply of that product in the global market. Global trade is very supportive in raising the financial system of India, providing it a competitive edge over other participating companies in the global trade. There are two basic approaches followed in global trade – free trade, referring to liberty of judgment in business, and protectionism, referring to the rules forced on the global trade.

A large number of business companies are entering into new partnerships with each other in global trade. However, the most important motive behind the growing global partnership is liberalization. On account of liberalization the global trade is mounting very fast and is also making available new areas of progress. Globalization has affected the progress of global trade in India. Globalization has amplified the access of multinational corporations to global trade and technology and now these firms can effortlessly get to know about latest changes in technology and apply it for their own profit. Business process outsourcing is also the result of liberalized trade policies followed all over the world. With the growing level of exchange of technologies between Indian companies and other multinational companies, the business process has become simple now. In current years global trade and business in India has become so urbanized that almost all business companies want to enter into business contacts with India. The major aim of multinational companies is to reside in major part of global trade and markets throughout the world.

Category: global business / Tags: ,
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