Small business: automate or not?

Two women live on the same street in the neighboring houses. They are not familiar with each other, but they are united by one pleasant thing: both make cakes. Both began trying to cook to order in 2007. One has her own business, does not have time to distribute orders, has opened courses and is looking for a permanent shop, although her cakes are delicious, but rather standard, like an average cafe. The second is preparing something unreal tasty and homemade, but at the same time made only 4 sales in 12 years and as a result cooks only for relatives. It is not about age, conscience and the visits of SES. The fact is that the first one coped with the total automation of production and sales, and the second one did not. This was the deciding factor. True, a simple household example? And it can be scaled to any size: from an advertising agency “for three” to a super corporation. Is automation that solves so much? Let's discuss.



PS: for hardcore readers an alternative entry under the cut :-)





Oh, no. What the hell are you? Not in life!

7 elements in the basis of the life of the company

We have been developing our universal RegionSoft CRM for 13 years, have accumulated a lot of experience and have repeatedly written about various aspects of automation, but never generalized - and what does it give for each process in the company, for groups of employees? That is, what is causing the much-loved advertising “increase in efficiency, productivity and ultimately revenue growth”? And if not, you need to be corrected. We will not delay - first things first.



So, what are the “components” in small and medium-sized companies that are vital to the existence of a company?

1. Employees - the most important element, without which there will be no company itself. They need to be managed, their work needs to be made as easy as possible so that they can redistribute their efforts to tasks related to customers, development, etc., and not wallow in a monotonous routine.
   
   
2. The management is also employees, but with special requirements: it is important for them to see what results their strategy brings, what the dynamics of the indicators are, how effective the employees are (KPI). Management needs a tool that allows you to quickly and capaciously analyze and easily solve problems (for example, to divide leads or listen for problem calls with complaints from customers).
   
   
3. Customers - we deliberately set them higher than production, because no matter how cool and mega your product is, if you have no one to sell it, you will get nothing from it (except for an exceptional pleasure to contemplate the work of your hands / brain, but this particular aesthetics is full) you will not). They need a cool, prompt, and now also personalized service.
   
   
4. Production is the most important process of creating a product, work or service in order to exchange it all for money at the client. It is important to be able to integrate all processes so that production is accurate in time, in accordance with customer requirements.
   
   
5. The data is not just a “new oil”, but a valuable thing that should not lie idle: it is important to collect, process and interpret the necessary and relevant information so as not to shoot the company with sparrows by the company’s efforts, but beat it right on target.
   
   
6. The management model is a system of established relationships and interconnections within the company, if you wish, a web of your business processes. It needs continuous updating and should be transparent and clear.
   
   
7. Assets and resources - all other instruments, means of production and other capital, without which a business cannot exist. These include tangible assets in their economic sense, patents, know-how, software, the Internet and even time. In general, all the environment that is in the company.
   
   

An impressive list of 7 items, each of which is a separate huge system. Nevertheless, all 7 elements are present in any company, even the smallest. They need automation. Consider it on the example of using CRM (here, anticipating comments, we make a reservation that we are talking about CRM from our position, that is, as a universal, integrated product covering the automation tasks of the entire company, and not as a “sales program”).



So to the point.

What helps and how does automation hinder all these people and data?

Employees

What helps?

• Streamlines and speeds up work. Repeatedly read and heard the opinion that to score data in CRM / ERP is an additional job that takes time of the employee. This, of course, pure sophistry. Yes, the employee spends time entering data about the client and his company, but then he continuously saves him: on the creation of CP, TCH, all primary documentation, invoices, search for contacts, dialing numbers, sending letters, etc. And this is a huge savings, here's a simple example: you take a small act + invoice manually, filling out the form, it takes from 10 minutes, and you can create them in RegionSoft CRM - 1-3 minutes depending on the number of items of goods or works. Acceleration occurs literally from the first days of operation of the system.
  
  
• Simplifies communication with customers: all information is at hand, it is easy to view the history, contact the customer by name, even 10 years after the first contact. And what's that? That's right - the marketing word "loyalty", which forms the well-known word "income".
  
  
• It makes every employee a mandatory and punctual person - thanks to planning, alerts and reminders, not a single business, not a single call, will pass by the attention of even the scattered manager. And if suddenly the manager is very stubborn in his laxity, you can catch him, poke his nose on the calendar and ask if he doesn’t receive notifications (do not do so evil).
  
  
• It helps to quickly, clearly and ideally do the most nasty job - to form and prepare documentation for printing. Not in all, of course, but in large CRMs you can easily form the whole primary organization and prepare beautiful and correct print forms in a few clicks based on previously entered data. In even fewer systems, there is the possibility of forming contracts and commercial offers. We in the development of RegionSoft CRM have gone to the end: we can count and form even a TCH (technical and commercial proposal) - a complex, but very necessary document.
  
  
• Helps to distribute the load within the team - thanks to the planning tools. This greatly facilitates the work when you can go to the calendar, see the employment of the entire company or division, and in three clicks assign tasks or schedule a meeting. No calls, rallies and other side communication, really takes time.
  
  

You can list a dozen more functions, but we named the most important ones - those that will be appreciated by even the most ardent opponent of automation.

What hinders?

Any automation prevents employees from working at work, working at work — that is, doing their own business, organizing almost their own independent business: their customers, their transactions, their agreements. The same CRM makes the customer base an asset of the company, and not an asset of individual employees - you must admit, this is fair, considering that the employee receives salaries and bonuses from the company. And it turns out like a joke, where the policeman thought that they had given a gun and turn it around as you wish.

Manual

What helps?

In addition to these points for all employees, there are separate benefits for managers.

• Powerful analytics for decision-making - if you even have a very mediocre software, information is still accumulated that can and should be collected, analyzed and used. Data management is a professional approach; intuitive management is the Middle Ages. Moreover, if your boss has an excellent intuition, most likely he has an analytical system or some kind of secret catalog with signs.
  
  
• You can evaluate employees on the basis of their real work - at least just by looking at the working actions and logs of employees in the system. And we, for example, wrote down a cool KPI designer - and in RegionSoft CRM, you can set up the most complex and intricate system of key indicators for everyone to whom it can be applied.
  
  
• Easy access to any operational information.
  
  
• Knowledge base for quick adaptation and training for beginners.
  
  
• You can easily check the work and assess its quality in the event of complaints or conflict situations.
  
  

What hinders?

Any automation tool interferes with management in exactly one case: if you have to pay for it (or have already been paid once), while it stands idle, is boycotted by employees, or even exists for a tick. Money goes, investment in software or a physical labor automation system does not pay off. From such an asset, of course, you need to get rid of. Well, or understand what you are doing wrong and correct the situation as soon as possible.

Customers

What helps?

The client never thinks whether you have a CRM or not - he just feels it the hard way according to the level of service and on this basis he already decides whether to carry the money to you or to your competitor that is automated to the teeth.

• Automation increases the speed of customer service: he called you at the company, and he didn’t need to tell him that it was Ivan Ivanovich from Vologda, a year ago he bought a combine from you, then he bought a seeder and now he needs a tractor. The manager sees all the background and immediately clarifies, saying that you, Ivan Ivanovich, need to, whether you are satisfied with the combine and seeder. The client is delighted, time is saved, + 1 to the probability of a new transaction.
  
  
• Automating personalizes - thanks to CRM, ERP and even distribution automation systems, you can contact each client based on their specific needs, expenses, history, etc. And if you are personified, you are a friend, and why not buy from friends? A bit exaggerated and oversimplified, but something like this works.
  
  
• The client likes it when everything happens on time: delivery of work, calls, meetings, shipments, etc. By automating workflows in CRM or BPM, you can guarantee more streamlined work.
  
  

What hinders?

Automation interferes with customers only when there is none, or is not fully automated. A simple example: you ordered a pizza on the site, noted that you will pay by card and deliver by 17:00. And when the pizzeria manager called you back, it turned out that they only accept cash, but the manager didn’t see what you indicated the delivery time, since they don’t send this information to the application. The result - the next time you are most likely to order pizza over the Internet in the pizzeria, in which everything works well, if, of course, in the first pizzeria the pizza itself is not so tasty that you can ignore the rest of the little things!

Production and warehouse

What helps?

• Resource control - with well-tuned automation of production and warehouse management, stocks are always replenished on time, and work takes place without downtime.
  
  
• Automation of the warehouse helps to control the movement of goods, write-offs, assortment, assess the relevance of the goods and the demand for it, and thus minimize the two most terrible misfortunes of a company that has a warehouse: theft and overstock.
  
  
• Keeping reference books of suppliers, nomenclature and price lists helps to quickly and correctly calculate the cost and cost of products, to form technical and commercial proposals for customers.
  
  

What hinders?

Sometimes there are conflicts with the integration of classical production management systems and corporate software - in such cases it is sometimes advisable to write connectors and still cross the hedgehog with a snake, but more often it’s better to just use two systems: one as an automated process control system, the other for operational work (orders, documentation, inventory accounting and so on.). However, small business such collisions occur infrequently, in most cases with a head there is enough integrated system for management, production and warehouse type RegionSoft CRM Enterprise .

Data

What helps?

The automatic system must collect data - if it does not, it is something else, with an indecent name.

• The data in CRM, ERP, BPM, as a rule, are unified, cleared from duplicates, and normalized for processing and analysis (conventionally speaking, if the manager earns and scores in the “price” field, instead of 12,900 rubles, 12,900%, the system will curse and prevent make mistake). Thus, time is not wasted on all these crazy sorting and formatting in Excel, for example.
  
  
• Data is stored with a maximum depth and thanks to ready-made reports (of which over a hundred in RegionSoft CRM ) and filters are available for any period and in any section.
  
  
• It is quite difficult to steal or compromise data from software, so software is also an important infrastructure element of information security.
  
  

What hinders?

If the software itself does not have data control methods (for example, input masks or checks using regular expressions), then the data can be rather messy and unsuitable for analysis. You should not expect much benefit from such software.

Management model

What helps?

• If your software can automate processes, consider that you hit the jackpot and it’s one thing for you: sort out the processes, remove all unnecessary things and start gradual automation with the vendor. Then each routine process in the company will have its own responsible, deadlines, milestones, etc. It is very convenient to work - in vain small business is afraid of process designers (for example, we don’t have any notations in RegionSoft CRM - a simple personable native process editor and process wizard).
  
  
• When properly configured, an automation system such as CRM or ERP copies your management model and allows you to exclude all unnecessary, obsolete from the process. Looking at your company from the outside is awesome, even if you only look at your CRM system.
  
  

What hinders?

If you automate the mess, you get an automated mess. This is the sacred spell of all CRM developers.

When do you not need automation?

Yes, there are cases when automation is not needed or should not be done.

• If automation is more expensive than potential income: until you understand how profitable your business is and whether it is ready to invest in automation, you should not take up the implementation.
  
  
• If you have very few clients and business specifics implies a small number of transactions (complex technological industries, state-owned companies with a long operating cycle, etc.).
  
  
• If you are not able to provide effective automation: not just the purchase of licenses, but also the implementation, refinement, training, etc.
  
  
• If your business is preparing for restructuring.
  
  
• If you do not have an understanding of how processes work, established relationships, and everything suits you in this corporate chaos. If you want to change the situation - process automation will be in your favor.
  
  

In general, company automation is always a blessing, but under one condition - you need to work on automation, this is not a magic wand and not the “Make it hurt” button.

How to automate: brief tips

In the basement of the article we give a list of deep and detailed articles on various aspects of the implementation of CRM-systems, in which you can learn a lot of useful information for automation in principle. And here we give a very short check-list of the principles of competent automation. Let there be ten commandments.

1. We need to prepare for automation: review the processes in the company, collect the requirements of employees and departments, create a working group, review the IT infrastructure, select internal experts, and market proposals.
   
   
2. You need to automate in the same team with the vendor - trust the development companies, listen to them: they have a lot of experience and sometimes they can really shrug what you feel like corporate grief.
   
   
3. No need to hurry - automate gradually.
   
   
4. You can not save on training: this is not the most expensive service in the price list of the vendor, and it is difficult to overestimate. Trained employee = fearless and fast working employee.
   
   
5. Do not work without a technical assignment (TZ) - this is a guarantee that you and each vendor correctly understood each other and speak the same language. Carriage of nerves saved - 100%.
   
   
6. Take care of security: check the way the system is delivered, check with the vendor about the methods of protection, check if there is a minimum of minimum - separation of employee access levels to system sections.
   
   
7. Arrange the processes before implementation - you will see how much faster and more transparent the work will become.
   
   
8. Make automation continuous: update the installed software, make all the changes that have occurred in the company, order refinement if you have specific business requirements.
   
   
9. Do not save on matches. If you have started an implementation project, use all the features that you need - a late understanding of needs may cost more.
   
   
10. Make backups. Sometimes it saves the life of the whole company.
    
    

Automation is necessary for any business, especially for small and medium ones - it is not just your internal software, it is a competitive advantage due to strong progress in working with clients. In the end, if the horse with a cart suited everyone, they would hardly have invented a car. Prospects, they are in evolution.

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