We have heard this question for 11 years from business owners, employees, developers, people idly wandering around the site. And here he was again asked us here, on Habré. We changed the habit of responding to all comments and ignored the
jt3k question in order to answer it as fully as possible. It turned out not so easy. Do you know what CRM is?
We are trying to formulate a definition.
There is no single canonical definition - and this comes from the logic of the type of software itself - the CRM system. The fact is that initially CRM is a concept of customer relationship management, and each company has its own. So, the definition of CRM as software for all also has its own, which we, as vendors, do in full and get at the entrance. Here is an incomplete list of how the system is called: “program”, “soft”, “sales program”, “ERP”, “Gantt chart”, “glider”, “contact manager”. Meanwhile, almost any CRM combines all these naming conventions (except for ERP, this is a more confusing story).
Therefore, we will start by answering the
jt3k question - what is CRM, in order to explain this to the programmer.
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Roughly speaking, this is something like Jira for a commercial service: salespeople and marketers lead users (clients) in the system, initiate incidents (transactions), prescribe business processes (as we do in the framework of ITSM), then build reports and count the money. And if you talk professionally, the CRM system is a central repository of information about customers, transactions and other influences, which has a user interface with a set of functions. Accordingly, CRM performs the most familiar work: it accumulates data, stores data, exchanges it, automates processes and logs actions.
If we talk from the point of view of the head of the company, the CRM-system is a tool for managing clients and related information, as well as a way to speed up and streamline all business processes. Notice, not a word about control! The whole controlling function of CRM is the monthly reports, analytics and KPI (if they are implemented in the company). CRM does not monitor employees, does not control traffic, does not burn pirated programs, does not detect employee inaction - there is another type of software for this.
But most of all
we like the definition that we read from colleagues at Salesforce: CRM is the company's nervous system.
Where does such a diversity come from?
It appeared not so long ago - already in the early 2000s, when the market was overwhelmed with solutions of all types, which the developers preferred to call CRM. In fact, everything is CRM, only they are of different types and different possibilities.
The main classification that you can meet is the separation of all CRM systems into three types
Operational CRM - systems in which operational work is conducted, sales and marketing processes are automated, transactions and documents from which mailings are sent, etc. are saved. Reporting in such systems is related, but not leading functionality.
Analytical CRM - systems in which analytics prevails. These can be systems with flexible reports and report designers, they can include BI and OLAP modules. As a rule, these are expensive solutions that are suitable for complex integration, for example, with the billing of a cellular operator or the payment system of an online store. It happens that analytical CRM does not contain some of the functions of sales management, marketing and processes, and serves for the purposes of segmentation, assortment management, etc.
Collaboration (this is tracing paper), strategic CRM - systems, sharpened for communication, collaboration, including with customers and partners. In such CRM systems, a client’s personal account, an internal social network, a corporate portal can be provided. In strategic CRM a set of opportunities for managing projects and tasks is developed.
If it is just about sales management (clients + deals + analytics), then this was previously called SFA (sales force automation). Now it is difficult to find software belonging to this class, and in Russia it is so simply impossible. And to anything.
Until now, there are separate CRMs stating that they are operational or analytical, but in general, all three types have long penetrated each other and the world of business software is ruled by large and small universal solutions, in which all work: from telemarketers and salespeople to technical support and even developers (we in RegionSoft, for example, do not have any bug trackers and project management systems - we sharpened our own
RegionSoft CRM for this ).
According to the degree of readiness for implementation
Ready solutions - you get ready components, put them as is and adapt the business model to the installed software. This option is relatively budget-friendly and is suitable for small companies with standard processes or companies wishing to automate one or two aspects of work (for example, to lead clients of transactions and make calls). Although today most of the solutions have the ability to customize the system by the client and even tools for independent improvement (for example, in
RegionSoft CRM it is the report designer, document templates, business process designer, in some CRM it has its own development platform or API).
Ready-made solutions with revision - you get ready-made components and ask the vendor to modify the system to suit your business, in accordance with the technical specifications. In fact, this is the most common purchase option, and each vendor is ready to provide services for refinement. The main task of the client is to correctly assemble the requirements and state them to the developer.
Fully custom development is a long, thorny and expensive way to implement CRM in a company. You collect the requirements, describe the necessary processes and functionality, the vendor (or a custom development company) creates a detailed specification and develops a CRM system for you. In this case, it may turn out that you in vain insisted on this situation, and could well have managed to refine the basic solution. With all the attractiveness of custom software "just for the company", it has a tangible disadvantage - in the event of a change in business or requirements in the future, every software change will also be a custom development - a long and expensive one.
Assembly solutions (constructors) - software that is gaining popularity, existing in two variations: in the first you choose the modules you need and at any time you can buy the rest, in the second you use some basic solution, and mail, telephony, analytics, instant messengers and t .d purchased from a third party and integrated with the main software (as a rule, these are widgets, plug-ins and add-ons from the marketplace of the supplier of the basic solution).
On licensing
SaaS - solutions whose licenses you rent and pay for them monthly, as for the Internet or telephone. This is a profitable vendor and a not very profitable scheme for a company: as long as you have a CRM, you pay for it - a year, two, five ... The price of ownership is just cosmic. So, for example, if you have only 10 employees and pay only 990 rubles per employee per month, the price of ownership for 5 years will be 594,000 rubles. In general, consider. The calculation, basically, goes to the fact that modern users are accustomed to the monthly fee in everything and find this option convenient. Although you, of course, will be told about scaling and flexibility. By the way, we also have a rent of our CRM-system, but it is not so enslaving - just for those who desperately need a CRM, but there is no money to pay for the entire purchase at once.
Software on-premise - you acquire licenses for software in the property and pay once. In this case, you are insured against any negative events in the business of the vendor. In the future, you can only pay for major updates, if you decide to purchase them.
Free software (open source) - the most interesting form of existence of a CRM system. You can be a hardcore IT company, fork a well-known project, gash your features and take money from others for technical support (and she will have to work, money is not small). You can buy a ready-made fork and pay for technical support using “free software”. You can fork, hire a programmer and make an ideal CRM system for yourself - it is expensive and difficult, but it can be effective. The main thing is always carefully look at what license is distributed free software and for which stack you have to pay the programmer.
By the inclusion of the vendor
Vendor solutions - the CRM system is sold and implemented by the developer company itself (almost all of the Russian systems are). This is an ideal option - you do not overpay anyone and work directly with the one who created the software and is ready to answer for it, train, modify, support, etc.
Partner Solutions - a CRM system is sold by a system integrator or a certified partner. Actually, mainly for foreign CRM-systems and 1C products. Partners can simply act as an intermediary, or they can refine systems, make complex implementations, develop connectors, plug-ins, etc. Good, if you have a difficult implementation, remote installation and modification is impossible, and there is no vendor in the city. In general, this is more a story for large companies.
Solutions “under the wing of a strong company” are ultra-current events of the CRM market. First, Beeline released its CRM (with scandal, vague functionality and strange promotion), Sberbank reported about the CRM system the other day (in fact, this is a beautiful redesigned decision of one of the players in the Russian CRM market). Compared with Beeline, the Sberbank system is quite digestible, but the promotion for free is, of course, just a marketing ploy. This type of system is bad for a number of reasons: firstly, it’s not the core business of the company, secondly, it’s not CRM for the good of the business, but a way to keep its customers with them, giving them another tool that will tie them to the company, Thirdly, this is the need of companies for your data (it is quite possible that they will be analyzed and used to create products and services - we will wait and see, this is just our guess).
Homemade products are simple CRMs that are created by internal programmers or freelancers. As a rule, this is something like a simple contact manager. However, one should not underestimate such decisions - sometimes they are successful.
RegionSoft CRM also once was a system for internal use, and in 11 years it grew to a complex ERP in its maximum edition of Enterprise Plus. Here, in general, how lucky.
By the principle of deployment
Desktop - CRM is put on the server of the company (maybe just a modern PC), and users are set up working applications. Terminal remote access is possible from any device with an Internet connection. Contrary to popular myth, desktop software has no limitations for the company's branch or holding structure. This is the safest way to deploy.
Cloud - users work through the web interface or from a mobile, and all information is stored in the cloud (in fact, on foreign physical servers in a remote data center). It is believed that this is the most convenient option from the point of view of administration (not really, but this is not about that now). Indeed, you do not need to worry about the state of the server, data storage, etc. However, you pay for it, among other things, with security - data in any cloud can be compromised, there would be a desire. By the way, when buying a cloud-based CRM system, do not forget to clarify whether additional fees are charged for backups, how they are made, how much is stored, what uptime the server has. Most likely, you will discover new financial nuances.
Server with a web interface - all data is stored in your office cloud (on your servers), and users log in through a familiar web interface. This is a more secure solution than the cloud, but also more vulnerable than the desktop.
Business Software Zoo
Another problem that does not allow to precisely define CRM as a type of software is the software solutions surrounding the zoo business. And some of them, intentionally or unknowingly, are also called CRM systems. Let's review, literally a couple of lines, go over the main types of software that is most often found in business and intersects with CRM. By the way, we
wrote about these and other types
in detail .
Project management systems are software solutions that allow you to manage projects, that is, plan the employment of team members and resources, set priorities, determine the order of work, set deadlines. As a rule, the client is not at the center of such systems, but the project is internal or external.
Task management systems - a light version of the previous type. In fact, a collective planner with tasks, deadlines, statuses, responsible and reminders. Again, the client in such systems acts only as an attribute of the task.
Office packages are a text editor, spreadsheet editor and presentation editor familiar to us. Has no relation to CRM, but often acts as a repository of the client base (there was already a holivar on this topic).
Accounting and financial programs and accounting systems - an eternal rival of CRM-systems, their own headache. On the one hand, in the center of accounting systems are finance and cash flow, on the other hand, they are trying to adapt it by hook or by crook to customers. With the third - with this all you need to integrate, if the business makes such requirements for CRM. The main problem is that system administrators, salespeople and accountants have completely different entities and objects with which they work. Therefore, mutual understanding is rarely achieved.
ERP is a huge complex enterprise resource planning system. Used in companies with multiple financial flows, in production corporations, in factories, etc. From CRM they differ in that they put in the center not the client, but the resources and production processes of the company. However, nothing prevents to combine the capabilities of CRM and ERP in one system.
CMS - content management system of the site and / or blog. Has no relation to CRM, confused in consonance.
BPM systems are systems for designing and modeling business processes of a company. Allow to automate literally everything: from small routine to large production processes. In its pure form, only large specialized companies need it. At the heart of such systems are the company's internal business processes, their debugging and flawless functioning. As a CRM module - a very interesting and necessary thing, even for small firms. Be sure to customize business processes, it is useful to review and automate them.
Virtual PBXs and integrated VoIP are the type of software that they are told “there will be enough dialers for us”. Indeed, many IP telephony operators have their own contact managers and even minimal CRM. As a rule, the functionality begins to be quickly missed, so it is better to take a well-developed CRM and integrate it with telephony and virtual PBX. It turns out well. And most importantly, it is in demand by almost all clients - so much so that, for example, we have developed our own SIP-background, and our own
VoIP-connector for telephony routing.
Billing systems are systems in which customer payments are taken into account (not to be confused with processing payment systems). If necessary, integrate with the CRM-system.
Analytical systems - found mainly in large companies. These are processing systems for incoming data from customers. can be vendor, and can samopisnymi. The simplest option is that all data is accumulated in the DBMS, and programmers prepare customized uploads for employees: a SQL query is written, an array is unloaded, transferred to an interested manager. The most difficult is expensive SAP import solutions.
ECM-systems (they are also SED) are electronic document management systems with the formation, storage, coordination and archiving of documents. Usually used on their own, rarely integrated with CRM or included in its composition.
Corporate portals and corporate social networks - were previously aimed solely at communicating employees within the company and maintaining the corporate knowledge base, today they acquired the capabilities of CRM and came close to them. The big minus is a lot of distractions while working in the interface and the limitations of CRM functionality. Plus - all in one, the employee does not need to switch between programs.
So, introducing corporate software, the main thing is not to confuse and choose the right solutions based on the size and needs of the business.
So what about the definition? We do not pretend to be the ultimate truth, so we just offer our own version. A CRM system is software that serves as a tool for the accumulation, storage and development of a customer base, as well as the design and automation of business processes in a company. Although, we repeat, for each company, the goals of their implementation and, as a result, the definition is also different. Therefore, we will give an informal, but global definition: CRM is a business-critical program that will speed up processes, help you bypass competitors, and preserve your valuable asset — the customer base. Of course, if you yourself want it. Well, or give your definition in the comments - if we think of something collectively, we will update the article.
If you love IT and you are interested in getting a job at RegonSoft, we will be happy to consider your candidacy, regardless of the availability of vacancies.
We are interested in specialists in the development of IT-solutions and technical support with a wide stack of technologies, as well as experienced sales people. Call +7 (499) 709-81-41 (Moscow), +7 (831) 233-13-03 (N.Novgorod) or send a resume to personal@regionsoft.ru mail