Types of CRM-systems: how to choose the right solution

What is a CRM system? Is it one program or several? If several, which ones, and what are they responsible for? Is it possible to solve all problems with a single software product? To these and some other questions we will try to answer in this article.
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What is a CRM-system

To correctly answer this question, you must first define the term CRM.
CRM - a business management strategy aimed at developing and strengthening relationships with carefully selected customers, increasing the benefits for these customers and thereby achieving the planned indicators of profitability and status in society. You may need reliable movers software.
On the basis of this definition, the following definition would be quite logical
CRM-systems - hardware and software complex, in the logic of the functioning of which is embedded support processes related to CRM.
The structure of CRM processes is presented and described in detail by Adrian Payne in his book "The CRM Handbook. The Path to Customer Management Excellence".
Is it possible to provide support for all CRM processes with one information system? Probably yes, because there are no unsolvable engineering problems. But in practice, the larger the organization and more complex structure of CRM processes, the more complicated the structure of CRM-system and the number of its constituent software solutions. Therefore, complex CRM-system often consists of several software products from different manufacturers.

Varieties of CRM-technologies

There are several fundamentally different in their logic of construction and purpose of the types of information systems that belong to a class of CRM-systems:
  • CIF-systems (Customer Information File) - systems for collecting reference information about customers from heterogeneous sources and providing this information to users and other information systems on request.
  • SFA-systems (Sales Force Automation) - systems that automate operational processes of sales and marketing.
  • Service Desk - systems that provide support for operational processes of customer service.
  • Contact-centre - systems of processing contacts with actual and potential customers in order to sell and serve via any electronic interaction channels (voice, IVR - interactive voice menus, web-site, e-mail, fax).
  • Analytical CRM - systems based on data warehouses designed for accumulation, storage, aggregation and intelligent processing of chronological indicators collected on the basis of transactional systems data.
Purpose of CRM-systems
Let's try to understand what different types of CRM-systems are used for and how they can be useful.

SFA system

This class of systems is the most widespread and often these systems are now called a generic name "CRM-system". The main purpose of systems of this class:
  • Automation of sales and marketing processes.
  • Creating a customer reference base (CIF) and ensuring the integration of sales channels. In large organizations with a developed IT landscape, the functions of the CIF system and SFA system are often separated, as it is most often caused by the requirements of the speed of response of each system when performing specific operations.
  • Providing the front office with information about customers, which is accumulated by other departments and information systems.
  • Gathering of the information on real and potential clients, necessary for acceptance of the administrative decisions.
The main users of these systems are sales and marketing departments responsible for direct contact with potential or actual customers in order to sell products and services. As a rule, SFA-systems are integrated with information systems belonging to ERP class and analytical warehouse. Very often on the basis of SFA-systems made the development of special functionality, which allows to make this system a core to support all frontal processes of business.

Service Desk System

The main purpose of systems of this class:
  • Support for service processes.
  • Determination of customer service priorities.
  • Maintaining the knowledge base of the service department.
  • Providing information about customers, which is accumulated by other information systems.
The main users of these systems are service centers, contact centers and other departments that provide customer service. These systems rarely exist on their own and are most often found in combination with an SFA-system or Contact-centre.

Contact-centre

These systems are the most popular in organizations with a large retail business component, because when properly implemented, they allow you to significantly reduce operating costs for attracting and servicing customers. The main purpose of systems of this class:
  • Information and consulting support for potential and existing clients. In this case, the system is completed with the so-called knowledge base, which allows operators to quickly find relevant answers to questions.
  • Reception and processing of orders by phone. Assumes that the contact-centre system is integrated with the SFA-system.
  • Receiving and processing of complaints. In this case, the system is integrated with the information system Service Desk.
  • Support of direct marketing processes. It assumes all kinds of telemarketing campaigns, newsletters. Most often involves integration with the SFA-system.
To increase the efficiency of contact centers use additional technology:
  • IVR - interactive voice functions are used to reduce the cost of a telephone contact by reducing the number of operators.

    CTI - telephony integration technologies are used for intelligent call queue management in the Call Center based on data stored in the SFA system or any external system. For example: customer status data can be used to move the call to the call queue waiting for an operator or redirect the call to the cell phone of a personal manager.

Analytical CRM

The main purpose of systems of this class:
  • Performance analysis (of processes, products, segments, etc.)
  • Support for strategy development
  • Risk analysis
  • Providing ratings totals to other information systems
The main users of these systems are managers of all levels and ranks, marketing managers. Despite the obvious usefulness of this class of systems, it is less represented in real life than others, because the normal operation of analytical CRM requires the availability of quality data for a fairly long period of time. For some techniques to determine the value of customers need data for 24 months or more. The main difficulty lies in the fact that these data are supplied by operational systems (SFA, Service Desk, Contact center), but the essence and requirements for the data determine the methods laid directly in the analytic solutions. So, in order to provide the analytical system with quality data, you have to make changes to the operating systems and then still wait to get the results.

Сonclusion

Undoubtedly, the requirements for a CRM-system for a small company are very different from the requirements for a CRM-system for a large company. There is a huge range of software products in each class of CRM-systems and to pick up the best software products and competently design a CRM-system must take into account many factors: the maturity and stability of processes, staff skills, the current state of IT-infrastructure, tactical and strategic objectives which the company sets before the top management and owners.
Despite the fact that it all seems complicated, there are tried and tested methods for selecting and designing CRM-systems that help in a short time to understand the main factors affecting and design a CRM-system in accordance with business requirements, budget constraints and technology.