Technology

Much of our sales process automation work is made possible by technology.

The technologies with which we work are typically referred to as either contact management, sales force automation or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications.

These applications are designed to provide the following:

• A unified, organisation-wide customer view (including a communications log, a purchase history and other relevant information).

• Sophisticated ‘address book’ capabilities.

• Unified calendaring and task lists.

• Opportunity management (the tools required to manage the sales pipeline — from the identification of a sales opportunity, through to its ultimate closure or abandonment.)

• Mail merge and e-mail capabilities.

• Remote synchronisation (for multiple offices, notebook — and even PDA — users).

• Integration with production and accounting systems.

• Integration with e-commerce and online activities.

These CRM applications are provided by a number of software vendors.

The following table provides a rough guide to these applications:

While these applications are extremely powerful, it’s important to note that their effectiveness is limited by the design of the sales processes in which they are employed.

In our experience, sales process problems tend not to be caused by technology. Accordingly, these problems cannot be solved with technology alone.

Technology delivers the greatest results when it is implemented as a part of a business process reengineering exercise.

Buy it or build it?

As a general rule, it is better to purchase (and then customise) commercially written applications than it is to build your own.

Custom written applications tend to cost significantly more than commercially available applications. Furthermore, they tend not to have the same development cycle, meaning that they quickly become outdated.

Our technology services

Our technology department provides the following services:

• Specification of requirements (typically as part of a Sales Process Optimisation Audit).

• Selection of CRM application (and associated technology).

• Project management of customisation and installation.

• Training.

• Ongoing support.

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