M365: CRM Software- why you probably don't need it.
See also - Other Office 365 Posts
I follow several business forums and frequently I see questions posted that relate to the use of CRM software.
'Do I need a CRM?'
'Which is the best CRM?'
and, too frequently
'Which is the cheapest CRM?'
Customer Relationship Management is a strategic aim, an operational process, or both.
However, the term CRM is often used to describe the software that enables a business to achieve the strategic aim, or run the operational process.
Often a CRM software solution is deployed and the resources to run data capture and categorization are added according to the needs of the software.
This is not the most cost effective approach.
Ideally the strategy and the operational means should exist before any software solution is attempted. In short the business must have a clear idea of what is to be achieved before the CRM software solution is evaluated for cost effectiveness.
What is a CRM Solution
By Bgrigorov - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,Author
Collection
The first thing to consider here is the top row.
The organisation must be equipped with processes that will capture the detail of every customer conversation.
Face to face verbal, telephone verbal, messaging, email, letter, plus any web or social media notes or information, and also news media feeds. Data must be captured and fed into the system. Once the data is captured it will require classification and indexing.
If this is not possible any CRM software deployment will fail for lack of data.
Storage
We then come to row three. Where to store all this data.
This must be in a single place for the entire organisation.
Its no good requiring field sales staff, internal sales staff and administration staff to capture customer contact information if they all store the data in different places.
Field staff are likely to cache data in their mobile phones or tablets, office based sales staff and administrative staff are likely to cache data in Outlook, G-Mail, or other contact lists, and telephone receptionists are likely to email data to whoever they think may be interested.
Non of this is any good at all if the data isn't collated into a single database for consumption by the business.
This means that the database must either be hosted in a cloud resource, or on a network server with a VPN to allow for off site access.
If a cloud hosting solution is chosen it must be both secure and accessible to all mobile devices in use.
Dissemination
Finally we arrive at the bottom two rows of the diagram. These deal with the departments, teams or individuals who consume the data.
In many instances you may want to make data available on a read only basis, in others you may want to allow limited update and you may wish to deploy record change approval.
Frequently consumer departments and teams have little to do with sales, you may wish customer details to be available to finance for invoicing and accounting, you may wish data to be available to purchasing or production so that fulfilment of successful sales are prepared for immediately on receipt of orders.
Off-The-Shelf CRM
There are many software packages available, ranging in price from nothing to over £200 per month per user.
The free offerings are usually limited in scope and often restrict access to a very small number of users. Once the user base is exceeded these often cost more per month than packages which start by charging per user from the outset.
Free and low priced options are also usually limited on the scope of data dissemination. If the end result requires manual or API extraction of data to pass to, say finance for invoicing, or purchasing, or production, the entire scope becomes less efficient than it should be.
Some of the more expensive packages include modules to cover the dissemination needs such as purchase order processing and invoicing, but these will be unique to each organisation and must form part of the business needs analysis before evaluation commences.
Bespoke
A bespoke package will be the best fit as the structure will be designed to fit your business needs, rather than shaping the business around a piece of software.
But, isn't that expensive?
Not if you are a Microsoft 365 user.
Most M365 plans incorporate Teams, which will allow you to create the three lists necessary for a comprehensive CRM. These are -
- Customer or Client list
- Contact List
- Events List.
A basic CRM in SharePoint is described and illustrated here.
Microsoft 365 CRM Advantages
- All data stored in Lists and Libraries is available for secure controlled access, delivering data consumption across every department or team app in the organisation.
- No need to export or import data. Lists and Libraries can be linked.
- Use Power Automate to update and transfer entries between data stores.
- Use Power Apps to allow safe, secure, controlled mobile access to core data.
Don't be afraid to experiment, make Microsoft 365 work for you.
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