how-to backgroundThis ERP covers 100% of Customer Relationship Matters

This ERP covers 100% of Customer Relationship Matters

By Fabien PaupierUpdated: 24 July 2020, first publication: March 2017

“What is your choice of Customer Relationship management tool? Does it interface with your general company management tool? Is it well suited to your function style?”

These are the three fundamental questions you should ask yourself when deciding on the software tools to meet the needs of your company. All of our advice on the usage and challenges of ERPs is available under the relevant heading.

Integrate the CRM into your ERP

ERP and CRM

An ERP solution - Enterprise Resources Planning – is always at the heart of a company’s processes. This is the tool into which your teams enter accounting records, develop quotes, draw up their invoices, and more. The CRM on the other hand – Customer Relationship Management - is naturally more geared towards your sales staff.

Adopt the same tool

The benefit of bridging your CRM with your ERP is to unify your teams’ work tools so that you can avoid a situation where your sales staff are working on one end, and your support services – accounting team, HR (human resources) team, ect. – are working on the other. By polarizing your services in this way, you risk obstructing the spread of information within the organisation and unnecessarily slowing down the running of daily tasks.

Putting collaboration first

From this point forward, different tasks are carried out on a single tool, and information becomes singular and collective. Let’s say, for example, that one of your sales staff learns that a client’s contact person has changed: Mister X has replaced Mister Y. If your sales staff notes this change on their CRM tool but forget to notify the accounting team however, the next invoice might end up being addressed to the wrong person. But if their CRM is integrated with the ERP, the change will be instantly available to the other services, avoiding any chaos and confusion. Information is thus shared and updated continuously, allowing you to avoid any miscommunications and run your organisation in a smooth and cohesive manner.

The operational and strategic benefits

Integrate all of the sales steps

When an ERP software incorporates the CRM, it covers the sales chain from points A to Z - from the pre-sales actions (e.g. prospecting, leads generating, cold calling) to invoicing. On a solution like Fitnet Manager, some of the tasks are automated. You are able to transform a quote into an invoice in just a single click. And the solution, thanks to the integration of client files, will automatically send out the invoices or send out the customer reminders on your behalf.

Monitor your company’s performance

The tool has an obvious operational use, but there’s more; the strategic aspect of activity steering is well supported in this solution. On Fitnet Manager, the reports generated allow you to evaluate the company’s standing, both financially and commercially. So you then get a real-time vision of:

  • value: your treasury, or your sales, for example
  • volume: the number of deals under way in your pipe, or the number of closed sales.

Organisational benefits

Serving project management

From an organisational point of view, linking the ERP and CRM is valuable, especially when it comes to project mode.

On Fitnet Manager, the project management module is integrated into the rest of the solution, to the point where you can steer – from the control panel – both the projects underway and those to come, giving you a useful overview to plan out your projects.

Fluidify your work’s organisation

A direct link is also created with your co-workers’ schedules, so that each project head can clearly see the workloads and availability of each person at any given time. This same information is transmitted via the HR service interface and vice versa, so absences and time off are known directly by the relevant players, so that the project teams can better organise themselves without having to refer to another member of staff.

Simple and professionalising

Choose an adapted tool

Small organisations as well as freelancers, VSEs (Very Small Enterprises) and SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), often settle for tools which are only somewhat - or badly – adapted to their needs. The ERP is generally adopted but companies often stop before taking up a CRM. They tend to settle for Excel, despite its static and non-collaborative characteristics, or they take up a discounted CRM.

Service providers’ services

Fitnet Manager is a business solution which is aimed more specifically at agencies, communication and advertising organisations, but also Design Offices and even consulting firms. By linking the project management approach with the ERP and CRM functions, the publisher positions their software at the core of the issues that these stakeholders face.

The necessity to optimise costs

When it comes to addressing small organisations, it is necessary to adapt the offer accordingly. It would be inconceivable for a company of fifteen co-workers to pay for an expensive software, regardless of how useful it may be. Fitnet Manager responds to this situation by making its acquisition cost accessible: the rates, which are adjusted to the number of users, make the offer attractive to even the smallest of businesses.
The organisations, small and medium, and particularly in services, have unyielding needs - as much in regards to ERP matters as in areas of project management and CRM. A solution like Fitnet Manager couples these three aspects in such a way as to harmonise your internal processes, all while improving the professionalism of your organisation.

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