Today we will talk about CRM and ERP systems. CRM and ERP systems are designed to automate business processes in a company. The systems are similar in concept, but their tasks are different. We will tell you more below.
CRM is the main assistant in working with clients, stands for Customer Relationship Management, or «customer relationship management.»
What CRM can do:
- Collect applications from the site, notify the manager, remind to call the client;
- Store information about customers and transactions;
- Automate the work of managers, set tasks, send sms;
- Help to generate documents according to the template;
- Generate visual charts and reports on business indicators.
Why does a business need a CRM system?
- First, customer retention. The manager has before his eyes the whole history of the relationship between the client, so he can offer him exactly what is needed. In addition, the company is insured against the loss of information in the event of the dismissal of the manager, since the entire history is saved.
- Second, analyze the results and keep statistics. In the CRM system, you can see statistics at each stage in the sales funnel: the number of applications received, commercial offers sent, contracts signed, and so on. With this information, you can understand where the bottleneck in the business is and expand the flow.
- Third, save time. In fact, any automation is time saving. The program automates many routine processes: invoicing, reporting, organizing calls and mailings.
The main goal of CRM is to help customers sell more, faster and more often.
ERP is about the internal processes of the entire company, stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, or «enterprise resource planning.» The system processes and maintains a single database of the company, and also synchronizes the activities of all departments: the order department, production workshops, warehouse, logistics department, accounting department, advertising department. ERP — collects all the processes of the company in one interface and is intended for the internal processes of the company
What ERP can do:
- Control sales plans and production;
- Maintain accounting and tax reports, monitor the implementation of the financial plan;
- Keep records of trade turnover, determine the timing and volume of product deliveries;
- Lead and supervise the production of the product from its design to implementation.
- Maintain personnel records and calculate payroll.
What does a business get from implementing an ERP system?
- Opportunity to get information about what is happening at the enterprise for a selected period of time;
- Automation of routine tasks, which leads to saving time and reducing the human factor;
- Improving the quality of planning the company’s activities;
- Decreased inventory.
The goal of an ERP system is to keep resources under control and turn individual parts of the company into a single mechanism.
In conclusion: ERP and CRM systems are not products that compete with each other, but complement each other.