CRM systems exist - we prove

Have you read Ivan 's article "CRM systems don't exist?" , cried throughout the office: somewhere from laughter, but more from despair and incredible melancholy. That is, you have been in automation for 19 years, you have been sawing and implementing your CRM for 14 years, you write almost one and a half hundred articles on Habr, and they tell you that CRM does not exist. Ugliness! It is impossible not to answer this completely fair and well-reasoned attack of a competent and corrosive IT specialist - and since we are the leaders of the CRM hub on Habré, we must answer. The weekend did not rest, they made up the answer - so if something is wrong in some places, we ask you to excuse our emotions and our professional indignation.



So, we declare with full responsibility: CRM exists . 

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Definition of a CRM system

The definition of CRM from Wikipedia corresponds to the classical understanding of a CRM system. This type of software was once conceived by Thomas Siebel. CRM-systems have actually "grown" from the SFA (Sales Force Automation) category - sales force automation systems. Initially, CRM systems were sharpened exclusively for sales, then marketing and support joined them quite quickly, since this is all part of the CRM concept (not as a system, but as an approach) - customer relationship management. That is, in short, a CRM system is a program for customer relationship management, including sales, marketing and support. Let's put a breakpoint here for now and move on. 



Now let's look at a few questions. They will be useful to us. 

How do new features and capabilities appear in CRM?

There are two ways of getting this or that opportunity into the CRM system as a program:

1. the head of the development or the development company decides that he lacks the PornHub widget or the green elephants in the interface in the CRM, a task appears in the backlog, an overbearing "chip" gets into the interface and on the lips of the marketer - if we are talking about a so-so CRM and a weak model work with backlog and requirements;
2. if we are talking about normal CRM (like those listed in Ivan's post and most of the offers on the market), then developers, sales people and marketing study the markets, analyze customer requests, questions addressed to support and requests for revision, build a backlog and implement exactly those features that somehow came from the client. Because the software exists specifically for the client. 

Accordingly, frequently encountered customer requirements are already significantly expanding the functionality of the CRM system: this is how RegionSoft CRM now has a constructor-calculator mechanism, a business process editor, a complex and multifactorial KPI calculation mechanism, etc. And in the same way, the new release will contain the most popular pieces on the day of release (and the unclaimed ones will be cut out, because not dragging legacy code and legacy functions behind you is another sign of good modern software). So, the client forms the CRM .

Why does proprietary software exist, flourish and win in the CRM world along with excellent open source software?

There are many open source CRMs in the world - some of them are decent, functional solutions that, with the direct hands and intelligent brains of your programmer or implementor, can look very good. The question is, why do we and a bunch of other companies develop paid proprietary solutions? It's simple: firstly, open source is difficult to deploy, and secondly, the implementation of such a system is hardly cheaper than buying or renting licenses, since support, programmer work, training, improvements - all this is done for money. Alas, in the world of enterprise software, open source solutions are more about marketing than the very philosophy of free software. 



Since CRM systems are more often acquired not by IT companies, but by representatives of other spheres of activity, it is difficult for them to have a relationship with open source: it is long, expensive, complicated, and a muddy interface. By purchasing a proprietary solution, a company can start working in CRM from the first minute after installation, and then continues the implementation process (if the standard functionality was not enough). In addition, open source often lacks the most relevant functions, and this is also a problem. 

Why are some companies leaving CRM in their names?

Indeed, there are many systems on the market that position themselves as CRM, look like CRM, but at the same time are called only by the brand name (conventionally RegionSoft, not RegionSoft CRM). Of course, this is a deliberate departure from the "narrow" market in favor of demonstrating the versatility of the solution and the desire to make your name a household name. On the other hand, some solutions, on the contrary, focus on the name, which includes the abbreviation CRM - a direct indication of the software functionality. However, neither one nor the other fact makes the program a CRM-system or non-CRM-system, these are just marketing games, you should not get hung up on them. 



 Now back to our breakpoint... So, we settled on that a CRM system is a program for customer relationship management, including sales, marketing and support. It was. Now the client is in the center of interests of every commercial company, because a) the client is money; b) the client's awareness is maximum, and the information itself is extremely accessible (see, the same author of the post, Ivan, tests our RegionSoft CRM along with at least five systems and each vendor gave him a bunch of information, and there is also Habr, Facebook and a lot of other services); c) there are almost no low-competitive industries left; d) d it is d - in the conditions of the Russian economy, companies are ready to fight for each client, because now there is a crisis, now a covid, then something else hurts, but you always want to eat. Such a struggle for the client took him beyond just sales, just marketing,just support: companies use everything from blogs and social media to bigdata and machine learning to ship concrete blocks, bricks, glass or household chemicals to Romashka LLC. Because it's money.



So, the aspects of customer relationships are expanding, this includes analytics, telephony, efficient logistics, and a well-managed warehouse ( and then suddenly you don't have a decorative brick and Romashka LLC, after googling for exactly 40 seconds, will call your competitor , and at the same time he will also buy fittings from him), and, of course, business processes (everything should be as fine-tuned and precise as possible). Those companies that are ready not only to get involved in competition, but to impose their own struggle, their own rules of the game on the market, choose automation - for storing data, quickly transferring cases and managing staff. And they need not just a system with a customer card and transactions, they need a serious business harvester, a program that covers most of the tasks of operational work and a little more. Often companies do not realize what they are looking for (at the very beginning it was Ivan's case - remember how he started with the price?), But their requirements and wishes for revision accurately reflect all the "wishes" and it is immediately clear whether the business is reactive or proactive in front of you.  



Accordingly, since the CRM strategy itself has changed, then its automation (CRM systems) must change with the same vector. If this does not happen for some CRM developer, he lags behind the market and disappears from it even if his development is built better, the code is cleaner, Agile is the most agile in the world, and the site is new and beautiful. No. Only compliance with customer expectations works and preferably out of the box as much as possible.  

Universal CRM is a real business harvester

Universal, functional CRM systems are very cool. This is not what I say to you as a developer, but as a user. And the existence of such systems not only departs from the CRM concept, but on the contrary corresponds to its most advanced points of development. Let's take a look at the principles of the concept of CRM and CRM software using the example of RegionSoft CRM Professional Plus (this is, as it is fashionable to say, cutting edge among the line of CRM products, then ERP).





And this is only a small, basic part of what a company does with a client today. Which of the following can be removed from the customer relationship management system? Nothing. This means that everything that automates these requests should be in the CRM system, as in the system for automating all relations with the client, and not just sales as an abstract concept.



What is the logical substitution of the original post, which we oppose? The fact that Ivan has a company of one type (we know which one, but he will tell himself, we hope), and Sergey has another, Ilya has a third, and Irina has a B2C beauty salon. And each of them has its own strategy for customer relationship management with a different set of requirements, which means that CRM has its own. That is why serious vendors have several tariffs with a different set of functional capabilities, so that Irina with a salon does not overpay for the TCH and warehouse module she doesn’t need, and Ilya or Ivan would not stagnate without a warehouse, KPI and business processes - after all, this is key requirements. 



We also have such a division - you can see it in the table . Accordingly, RegionSoft CRM Standard- basic CRM for sales and operational work, but RegionSoft CRM Enterprise Plus is actually RegionSoft ERP. 

Business processes: far from points above i

Business processes are perhaps the most overlooked functionality in modern CRM systems. And everything is very difficult with them:

• any company has business processes, but often they are not formalized or refactored;
• small and medium-sized businesses rarely give priority to business processes when choosing a CRM system;
• in the IT environment, business processes are the first thing they talk about when choosing a CRM;
• companies are wary of approaching business processes during implementation.

At the moment, business processes underlie a good CRM system, so the problem of business processes in CRM raised by Ivan is not accidental. However, the presence of a mechanism for business processes in CRM does not turn it into a BPM system; it provides an effective tool for managing customers and employees, and all operational work in general. And, as absolutely rightly noted in the comments to the original article, business processes can be automated only if they are put in order, systemic and have such parameters as stages, deadlines, responsible persons and triggers (a set of automatic actions that are generated when certain goals). By the way, it is not so difficult to describe and put the processes in order: it is worth working hard so that the CRM system is implemented not just as a tool for recording customer information,but as a super machine for effective operational management. Although, it seems that one or two articles to understand the idea of ​​automating business processes cannot be enough, therefore ...

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CRM: ?

What kind of CRM should be in order to meet the requirements of most companies? This is practically the main question of philosophy from the world of CRM, because, as we said above, it is impossible to meet the expectations of everyone at once, because, firstly, each business is unique, and secondly, most companies have certain specifics, which it is for them that CRM should be implemented, and other companies do not need it at all. Therefore, the delivery of a product in a typical configuration has a huge block of basic functionality that suits the vast majority of enterprises, no matter what type of activity they conduct, and for the implementation of narrow-industry and individual tasks there is the possibility of revision and advanced customization of this typical functionality by the developer or advanced user. 



Again, the level of functionality may depend on the edition or tariff (who's called it). Consider again using the example of our RegionSoft CRM (not because advertising, but because we know our software very well and are ready to be responsible for every word - however, well-known CRMs on the market also have different levels of opportunities for different money). The basic CRM system is accounting and customer management, event registration, task scheduler and sales funnel. And an advanced CRM system, which is close to ERP or in fact it is, gives additional complex tools, such as warehouse management, accounting of projects, business processes, mechanisms for processing customer requests and requests, order processing, work with suppliers, price lists , production automation, KPI-based motivation schemes and much more. Those. CRM,as a product line, it is based on the availability of advanced and sometimes very complex mechanisms of operational accounting, and in ERP, in addition to having the full scope of CRM capabilities, resource management mechanisms are also added.



Another factor is when there is one, unified, advanced system that provides automation of most tasks, it simplifies operational work and makes it really effective.



When different tasks are carried out in different systems, for example, clients in CRM, planners in a google calendar, a warehouse in 1C, mailing is done through a special program for mailings, mail in a mail program is a zoo that needs to be integrated with each other, and any integration requires both large investments at the beginning of the implementation process, as well as its constant maintenance in a working condition. Plus, there is often a need to duplicate the work of a manager in two or even more systems. Well, for dessert - each of the zoo programs costs separate money, which in total is impressive.



Therefore, it is better not to try to manage the zoo, but to use a single, functional application. This is especially true for non-tech companies that will also have to pay for the work of specialists in setting up and maintaining the entire software park.

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To be very pedantic and boring, then calling a computer program "CRM" is generally categorically wrong, it is correct "CRM-system", but this is already some kind of wild snobbery. 



Approaches to clients are changing, software is changing. Yesterday it was cool if the manager picked up the phone and greeted the client by name (it was a WOW effect), but today business processes, complex funnels and continuous personification are already commonplace. And software that automates customer service 360 ​​degrees will always have the right to be called a CRM system.