ERP Enterprise

ERP Enterprise Resource Planning and CRM Solution Benefits

ERP enterprise resource planning and enterprise CRM solution benefits are widely known at organizations and businesses across the globe. Companies understand the importance of their customers and how critical keeping customer satisfaction high and keeping expectations satisfied are vital to the short and long term success of the company. ERP enterprise applications and enterprise CRM solutions available in the marketplace today have blossomed over the last 10 years. At the same time, enterprise CRM software improvements with respect to functionality, application delivery, reporting and impact to businesses have been significant. However, the full benefits and ROI on enterprise CRM implementations have not achieved anywhere close to its maximum potential for many organizations.

Only a fraction of companies surveyed achieved the results they expected from their CRM and ERP enterprise investments and some questioned whether the application improved their productivity at all. The reasons for the market shortfall that the CRM software delivered to companies is that the CRM software itself is only one component necessary for a successful CRM implementation. The human factor and the organization’s current business processes are 2 other key factors that must be taken into consideration as well.

Enterprise CRM Challenges

The main reason for CRM and ERP enterprise software implementations falling short of expectation and ROI is because of the human factor. What is comes down to is the users of the newly implemented enterprise CRM solution are just not using the application, or at minimum are not using the software the way it was designed to be used. User training and change management programs are critical initiatives to address before an enterprise CRM implementation process starts as user habits and routines are difficult to change. Users of the CRM application are the key to a successful implementation and deployment. Assuming that users will embrace new technologies, tools and business processed is a big mistake.

Another key factor for and enterprise CRM implementation failure is that companies are not able to defining what a successful implementation is because they have not established any benchmarks and success metrics to measure against prior to the implementation. Company mangers should layout the success criteria targets before a CRM solution is implemented which is also critical in determining the software capital expenditure return on investment.

Many times CRM software implementations don’t meet expectations because they lack the support and ongoing commitment from the top managers of the organization. Despite the high energy at the beginning of a CRM implementation many times the enterprise application ends up being just a management reporting tool rather than a strategic business initiative that will change the way the company operates an interacts with its valuable customer resources to drive sales, service levels, customer satisfaction and ultimately market position. CRM solutions should be welcomed and imbedded in the performance goals of every manager and department as opposed to just ending up under the management of the IT staff as a reporting tool.

Lastly, CRM solutions are developed to streamline business processes and automate processes that are low value, time consuming tasks so valuable resources can be focused on higher value, higher touch activities. CRM applications are not designed to fix broken business processes and broken operational strategies. Before an enterprise CRM implementation even gets close to starting, business processes must be assessed, documented, aligned and streamlined before implementation starts to help source out the right CRM vendor for you company and highlight the pain points that the enterprise CRM solution will address.

Written by :

aniseo