Why It’s Time for CRM to Evolve

In today’s digital world customer engagement is no longer just about the product or service a company delivers but delivering it in a trustworthy and personalized way. Companies must differentiate themselves through customer experience – from in-store, mobile, social, web presence, and more.

Organizations must align their customer relationship management (CRM) delivery to today’s customer and business demands; starting with a CRM strategy with defined objectives for how organizations want to engage with customers across multiple platforms and how they can set themselves apart in a unique way.

Evolved CRM should achieve these objectives:

  • Connect customers to the people who can get things done
  • Manage the complexity of the enterprise
  • Anticipate what’s right for customers, in real time, on every channel
  • Evolve as fast as customers do

To satisfy today’s consumer, businesses need to take a more holistic approach to their CRM, which will keep their customers happy and coming back for more.

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Infor surges on healthcare with CRM & analytics investment

Infor has begun a healthcare drive and plans to release Infor CloudSuite Clinical in the fall, which seeks to integrate clinical and business data in a single platform. VP at Infor Healthcare Mike Poling states, “More healthcare organizations are choosing Infor as their partner because our team understands their specialised needs, and our company keeps investing in and building out our portfolio of healthcare-specific solutions… We are able to offer a deep and wide set of healthcare-specific administrative, business and clinical operational solutions to meet the needs of the even the most specialised institution.” Infor will also continually invest in its existing Healthcare Relationship Management product, a customer relationship management (CRM) suite customised for the needs of medical centers and their patients, as they see the future of Healthcare information technology to continually grow.

 

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Infor improves supply chain collaboration

Infor’s improved Supply Chain Management suite will provide better collaboration between customers and partners. Advanced Scheduling will allow managers to coordinate schedules and create appointments through an integrated dashboard. John Bermudez, VP of product management at Infor, states, “Infor Advanced Scheduling is designed to achieve tight synchronisation of all operations across the production lines, helping process manufacturers overcome scheduling challenges by shortening planning time and decreasing production pauses. This solution delivers a more accurate and efficient production schedule, which streamlines the overall production process.” This feature is readily available for customers and tailored to specific industries who heavily rely on scheduling, such as hospitality.

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Is the Cloud shaking up ERP?

While traditional Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suites aren’t completely dated, we should expect to see see hybrid deployments that blend cloud apps and connected services with modular on-premises applications start to predominate. Companies that want to stay in the mix have no choice but to modernize their systems to compete with cloud computing.

There are 4 ways the cloud could change the ERP landscape:

  1. Cost –ERP isn’t cheap. You pay good money to keep your hardware infrastructure, integration, customization, implementation and support up to date. With the cloud, you turn the cost of the application into one low monthly fee, which includes the “whole package”.
  2. Speed to market – the cloud is quick and easy to configure for the needs of your business, meaning the implementation phase can be relatively shorter, opening up your time to work on process improvements.
  3. Agility and scalability – ERP systems are not as flexible as the cloud, and if your business changes in size, scope or focus, you might need to rip everything out and start all over again.
  4. Mobility and connectedness – The cloud makes it simple to give people secure access to business systems wherever they are, with a frictionless user experience.

 

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Are ERP and CRM one and the same?

Customer Relationship Management, or CRM, is a system for managing a company’s interactions with current and future customers; and technology is used to organize, automate and synchronize sales, marketing, customer service and technical support.

Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, is a business management software that allows a company to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business, and automate back office functions related to finance, manufacturing, budgeting and forecasting, professional services and human resources to name but a few.

To make business decisions, an attempt is made to position for one or the other, as the most effective business application in that role. But as companies and technology are ever-changing, it seems that the line between ERP and CRM are blurred, the need to compare them becoming almost moot.

These days we see ERP and CRM as complementary to one another in a sense that they enable not only the automation of many business processes, but also add controls into a business. They enable and empower people and work together to ensure that nothing slips from their site.

Understanding that there is a natural overlap, or complimentary service between ERP and CRM, and how best to leverage this, will deliver more efficient, and in some instances more cost-effective solutions. Companies can experience maximum benefit from the complimentary and overlapping roles of ERP and CRM.

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Has Cloud ERP Reached a Tipping Point?

For years there has been talk in the IT world that most server workloads will eventually move to the cloud because of the economies of scale advantages. The centralized Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) suite has resisted until now, showing signs that ERP is finally succumbing to cloud computing.

“We have reached a tipping point with cloud ERP,” says Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of research for Nucleus. “A lot of companies are getting to the point where their next ERP upgrade is almost a re-implementation, so they’re looking at their other options.”

According to Wettemann, cloud options are available in almost all ERP packages. “All of them have options for some version of hosting, certainly,” Wettemann says. “But I think we’ll see more and more” adopt the cloud delivery model going forward.

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Why is Social Collaboration Important in ERP for Any Business?

Businesses these days could benefit greatly from social collaboration within enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. Today’s ERP systems should engage employees, customers, partners, suppliers and constituents within a business. It’s about a company becoming more responsive, reacting to challenges quicker, and leveraging all the information you’ve gathered in the past to avoid future problems in order to stay competitive in today’s business environment. ERP collaboration is even simpler these days since these platforms have social collaboration tools integrated. Users of the ERP systems can participate across every department, bringing employees together to share their expertise and increase productivity. Collaboration is a competitive advantage that is essential for the future prosperity of any company.

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Infor lures supply chain to the cloud

Working in partnership with Amazon Web Services, Infor is targeting suppliers and warehouse operators with the release of Supply Chain Execution (SCE) to the cloud.  The product will allow customers to manage their warehouses, workers, third-party logistics billing and transport in a cloud program.

“Infor SCE has taken this next major step forward creating a reliable cloud solution that is both an affordable and flexible tool for creating efficiency within the supply chain,” says John Bermudez, VP of product management at Infor.

SCE will also grant users access to Infor’s collaboration tool Ming.le, and the company’s Intelligent Open Network (ION), which helps integrate applications from different vendors.

 

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ERP Tools Are Meant for Ensuring Customer Satisfaction

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is more than a platform that makes it easier to handle data pertaining relevant information to purchases, sales, accounting, manufacturing, and more. It ultimately serves as a tool for ensuring customer satisfaction.

ERP software helps to ensure customer satisfaction by making business operations more relevant. The data obtained creates for better analysis and presentation of the company’s actual customer behavior, so a business is able to provide better services or offer better products to customers.

ERP provides customer satisfaction through:

  • Integration of Best Practices
  • Inventory Control and Availability Tracking
  • Improving Customer Handling
  • Improved Efficiency Through Automation
  • Improved Visibility

Better handling of business data to make it useful in business operations will result in better products or services and improved handling of customer concerns. It’s about using the data gathered to make impactful decisions.

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Infor announces cloud-based asset management solution

Infor has announced the Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) version 11.1 to help improve asset management during the entire lifespan of business-critical assets and equipment. This update provides a wide range of capabilities to quickly and economically manage assets via cloud, on-premise, or hybrid deployment. Infor EAM 11.1 also enables greater accessibility for users to connect to the enterprise on the go, using their mobile devices and tablets.

“Infor Enterprise Asset Management has been an integral part of many different business applications since its development,” said Scott Bannon, president of the User Advisory Board. “Through continuous improvements and investments, Infor EAM 11.1 allows for more connectivity and visibility throughout all touch points of the operation. The new program allows companies to make better use of time and resources, providing an all-around solution to many daily problems.”

 

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