A QUICK RECAP:
CRM or Customer Relationship Management softwares are those softwares that help any size business’ manage and maintain interactions and relationships with their customers. With the help of these live chat softwares, business’ can store every information about their customer, which can be accessed in real time from anywhere by their employees. For a detailed analysis and information guide on what customer relationship management is all about, please read part 1 of this segment.
Now that I have given you all a quick recap on what Part 1 of this guide was about, let’s move on to Part 2, that will include the characteristics, security aspects and customizability of a CRM software
CHARCTERISTICS OF A CRM SOFTWARE
‘Salesforce.com – Success. Not Software’
‘Zoho CRM – Close More Deals in Less Time’
‘Microsoft Dynamics CRM – Deliver amazing customer experiences’
…..
Almost all CRM softwares boast of being the best in the industry. Though Salesforce is more or less considered the industry leader, all the other customer relationship management softwares too try snatching the title by highlighting their best feature. But what is it that differentiates the best from the others. What makes Salesforce the industry leader, when there are hundereds of other CRM softwares in the industry? Here are some of the most important characteristics or features for any good CRM software.
1. EASE OF USE
Every employee has enough and more tensions and worries as a part of their job. Now, they wouldn’t want to start their day worrying about handling a CRM software would they? The main distinguishing characteristic of a good CRM software from a bad one, and for that matter any device, is its ease of use. How easy is it to use? How easily can you integrate your customer relationship management software with your system? How easily can employees access information from a CRM software? These are just some of the doubts companies have before buying a CRM software. It is very important for a CRM software to be not just simple but also should easily integrate with the everyday routine of a company.
2. SELF-GROWTH ALONG WITH THE COMPANY
This is another major characteristic for any good customer relationship management software. As the company grows, it is mandatory that the CRM software also grows. Business’ employees wouldn’t want to handle an outdated customer relationship management software as the company grows. Neither would employees want to manually update their CRM software. The CRM software should be able to self-adapt to the growing demands of any growing company. In brief, every good customer relationship management software should possess easily customizable features that can be easily modified as and when required.
3. REDUCE SALES PROCESS TENSIONS
The primary function of any customer relationship management software is to be able to store information about customers. The next main function is that employees should be able to access this information with maximum ease and speed. If these functions are not fulfilled, there is absolutely no use of a CRM software. Any CRM software should help in increasing the profit of a business. This can be done only if employees can access necessary information with accuracy and required speed. Hence, it is not just necessary for a CRM software to have customizable features, it should perform its basic function at its best.
4. MOBILE AND OS AGNOSTIC
Business’, especially large sized business’, would not have just one branch. They would have several branches spread across the world. And it is compulsory for any good CRM software to provide ample information to every employee spread across the various branches. In short, a CRM software should be remote accessible and OS agnostic so that data can be entered from any location and so that data can be accessed from anywhere. It is also mandatory that a customer relationship management software should be mobile accessible, that is, it should be accessed via mobile. This is extremely important for field sales employees who require access to electronic materials like websites and PDF files.
These are just some of the important characteristics for a good customer relationship management software. To get a more detailed analysis of the seven important characteristics of any CRM software, go through this article.
HOW SECURE IS A CRM SOFTWARE
Business’ could have their doubts on the security aspect of a cloud based customer relationship management software. Though there are several big telecommunications and financial service companies that have data center operations, it is an accepted fact that not all businesses have the resources and capability to maintain the levels of security provided by a large-scale cloud-based CRM software. These resources to maintain security of data is provided using the information security personnel headcounts. This is provided using their applications of the latest security tools and technology.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM software, is based on the vastly tested and trusted SQL server technology. Microsoft has turned its main obstacle into its winning feature. Microsoft being one of the largest software providers in the world, it has often been a prime target for hackers. As a result, Microsoft was aware of all the insights into creating a secure and maintainable CRM software. Dynamics CRM, apart from hack resistant, also uses multiple data centres where data is stored in different regional data centres. Hence any problem on one centre does not create downtime or loss of data in the other centres. These data centres and the policies running them are certified by ISO 27001, the Cloud Security Alliance and the Cloud Computing Matrix. Dynamics CRM also ensures user security by using a multi-layered and tiered approach. Every employee is given access to only those centres that they must absolutely use. This prevents any unnecessary user encryption or user errors. This CRM also provides proactive monitoring for unusual behaviours.
Salesforce, just like Microsoft, uses more or less the same factors for security purposes making it ISO-27001 certified. Like Dynamics CRM, it too uses data centres. However, in salesforce, these datacenters are reflected with another global datacenter. Hence there is always a real time reflection and backup of all the information stored on the servers. Also, connection to the CRM software requires a 128-bit VeriSign SSL certification and a 2048-bit RSA public key. This ensures a secured connection and prevents any intervention and interpretation of communications between the CRM software and its users.
Zoho CRM, on the other hand, provides an enterprise-grade role-based security. This helps control the access rights of users working with the data and modules stored in the CRM software. This security includes profiles, roles, data sharing rules, field-level security and groups. These are just some of the examples of a secured CRM software. But it is not just enough to build a well-customizable and self-adapting CRM software. If the data stored in the CRM software is not secured, no CRM software is worth spending money on.
PRIVACY POLICIES OF A CRM SOFTWARE
Just like any other software, a customer relationship management software too has some privacy policies that it should abide by. Any violation of these policies can lead to strict action against the company as well as the CRM software. Apart from the ISO-27001 certification, the Cloud Security Alliance and the Cloud Computing Matrix, there are other policies as well that ensure the data stored is safe and secured.
For example, Insightly CRM software complies with the US-EU Safe Harbor framework as well as the US-Swiss Safe Harbor framework. These frameworks are set by the US Department of Commerce and looks into the collection, use and retention of personal data from the European Union member countries and Switzerland. Similarly, FurtureSimple Inc. too follows the US-EU and Us-Swiss Safe Harbor frameworks. On the other hand, Vtiger CRM uses a third party company called Stratus5. This company administers and monitors the servers used to store data on Vtiger CRM. This third party company also performs billing.
CUSTOMIZABILITY OF A CRM SOFTWARE
Every website desires to customize its CRM software based on its colour palette and fonts. This possible only if the CRM software itself is customizable and flexible. This customizability should be done in a simple and straightforward way and business’ should be able to bring out this customizability throughout its website, i.e, this change should be portrayed on every page of the website. Basically, any good customer relationship management software should be able to support an organization’s process to bring out the complete value of the product
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