The post Pega launches new program to free companies from vendor lock-in appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>Gartner predicts that “by 2020, 90 percent of organizations will adopt hybrid infrastructure management capabilities.” With the new program, clients get a software solution fully architected for this next generation of cloud.
“It’s difficult for organizations to blaze their own digital transformation trail when software vendors force their clients into proprietary cloud platforms – effectively taking any cloud choice out of their hands,” said Frank Guerrera, Chief Technical Systems Officer, Pegasystems.
“Pega believes clients need maximum flexibility to adapt as markets continue to shift at an extraordinary pace. The Pega Cloud Choice Guarantee program frees companies from vendor lock-in so they can do what’s right for their business – and not just what’s convenient for the software vendor,” Guerrera added.
For clients running Pega on supported third-party cloud platforms, the company goes beyond ‘permission to play’ to provide ongoing support for its products on a growing number of cloud providers – including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry.
Now through the Cloud Choice Guarantee program, clients can derive the following benefits:
Users will receive new incentives such as no-cost platform upgrades and tuning for future versions of Pega Platform and customer engagement applications. The customers will be able to receive these flexible upgrades on the schedule they select. In addition, all Pega Cloud subscription customers can take advantage of recent enhancements to the technology and operations, including expanded AI diagnostic capabilities via the company’s Predictive Diagnostic Cloud; a new self-service portal; a new Network Operation Center (NOC) in Krakow, Poland; and new geographic support in Germany, Japan, Canada, Brazil and the UK.
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]]>The post How CRM can help Manufacturing industry enhance their processes appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>Generally the most ignored component in any manufacturing industry is the Sales and Marketing process. So obviously the need to automate and transform Sales and Marketing function also comes down in the list of priorities. That is the reason generally manufacturing units don’t focus much on implementing a CRM system for their Sales and Marketing team.
However CRM not only can help Sales team to perform better but its positive effects can be seen over the entire organisation. It’s not only the Sales team that will benefit. We need to deep dive into the topic to understand it better.
CRM is a must for any manufacturing Industry in order to get a 360 degree image of their business as well as the customer behaviour. We have seen many success stories where our clients have not only seen remarkable growth in their Sales figures by using our CRM solution, but have also achieved a higher efficiency in their overall processes, due to synchronised reporting provided by CRM. Recently large scale adoption of Mobile CRM has changed the dynamics to a drastic level. It has almost eradicated data entry or simplified it to a great level and improved real-time reporting and notifications to Sales executives and managers. Mobile CRM is the need of current times, not only for Manufacturing Industry but for any kind of business.
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]]>The post Business benefits of using Mobile CRM appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>Also, considering that CRM is primarily for Sales & Service (or support), the Mobile CRM is more convenient. Because, most of the time, salespeople, and service staffs are on the move rather on the desk.
Most importantly sales representatives see Mobile CRM as more of an enabler and force multiplier than just a reporting tool. That makes CRM adoption much easier and faster.
Mobility features like Geo-Tagging or auto call/SMS logging which is loved by Sales Executives as well as Sales Managers.
1. Convenient than PC
Of course, Mobile is much more convenient to use as compared to PC. Longer battery life, handy, always with you. Particularly with the advent of inexpensive and powerful smartphones, there is a paradigm shift in how we consume information and do businesses.
2. Relevant information, anytime, anywhere
Mobile CRM is never like Web/PC CRM. Because there is the scarcity of screen space, the information is much more relevant. It is as personal as possible at the same time as much as it is business and enterprise ready. Real-time notifications, add that extra flare to the usage of CRM and increase its effectiveness to a significant level.
3. Mobile Dashboards
Dashboards on mobile give that crucial insight on what needs attention. Urgent and important things are presented much easily on mobile CRM dashboard. Things like upcoming meetings, sales funnel, and overdue accounts make the life of a sales person very easy.
4. Auto Call/SMS Logging
Mobile CRM software provides automatic call/SMS logging. It eliminates the need for data entry and updating the CRM for every activity that is done by Sales Executives. These Mobile CRM Apps don’t log all the Calls/SMS, but when you call somebody for the first time, it asks you whether you want to register it – “Always, Yes, No, Never.” It makes sure that CRM does not log personal calls.
5. Improve data Quality
Since the user doesn’t have to wait till reaching the desk for updating the CRM data, data quality gets improved instantly. Example: Wrong phone numbers or email IDs or even addresses can be corrected on the go, immediately.
6. Single Click Meeting Entries
Making records of a meeting or Minutes of Meeting is one of the most hated task, which is required to be done by Sales Representatives. Mobile CRM makes it incredibly easy by allowing single click meetings, which will log Geographical Locations and time automatically. It also allows attaching audio and image files as Minutes of Meetings.
7. Geo Tagging and coordination
Geo tagging can drastically increase the efficiency of the field force as well as the back office coordination staff also. Example: lead from the website can be assigned to nearest Sales representative immediately, and Mobile CRM notifies Sales Rep by email / Mobile Notification. Thus the lead can be followed up immediately, resulting in more closures.
8. Improves CRM adoption
Mobile CRM naturally increases CRM adoption because of easier operations and simple user interfaces. Also since reporting of activities can be done immediately from anywhere, Sales reps love Mobile CRM.
9. Nearby, Geo Search
Geo tagging allows Sales reps to search people near them. Example: Sales rep can figure out all the Companies/Persons with upcoming deals located near him. It can be a great time saver tool.
10. Audio / Image Notes
Mobile CRM allows attaching audio and images as notes to meetings, contacts, deals or any other module. It serves a great purpose, as it is incredibly easy to dictate a note as compared to writing something. Of course attaching a picture will be worth typing one thousand words.
Don’t imagine contemporary CRM without a Mobile App, it is useless.
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]]>The post Freshsales to take on larger CRM players with Intelligent Workflows appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>Freshsales CRM has features like AI-based lead scoring, built-in phone and email, visual sales pipeline, activity capture to help businesses scale and optimize their sales processes. The company claims that the addition of Intelligent Workflows update will help the CRM solution to take on larger, established incumbents in the sales CRM space.
According to the company, Intelligent Workflows will follow up on leads, send emails, raise invoices, which are considered as repetitive tasks that a salesperson needs to do everyday and are prone to errors. Intelligent Workflows in Freshsales are like simple “if-then” rules. Once a user creates a workflow, the rule scans for user-defined triggers, such as a new lead being created, or a deal status being updated to “Closed/Won”.
Once a trigger has been detected, a user-defined action such as creating a follow-up task, sending a personalized welcome email, modifying a record, or even using webhooks to send instant notifications is carried out.
“With the launch of this feature, sales teams can now create seamless workflow automations for even the most complex processes in a matter of minutes” said Srivatsan Venkatesan, Head of Product, Freshsales.
“Repetitive tasks can be automated which in turn helps sales teams focus on tasks that need their attention, thereby helping them be more productive.”
Apart from automated workflow management, the new feature can also track user behavior on the customer’s website or app and leverage these insights for smarter conversations. By automating emails and tasks, Intelligent Workflows in Freshsales ensures all leads and deals are managed efficiently. The flow-on effect of this means absolutely no leads or deals are mismanaged, thus making the team more productive leading to an increase in sales.
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]]>The post Is CRM truly costly to implement? appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>So, is Customer Relationship Management really expensive? Not exactly, in fact, Customer Relationship Management reduces overall operating costs drastically. Customer Relationship Management makes sure that no enquiries are missed or skipped, which automatically increases sales. Customer Relationship Management helps decreasing stress between the sales team and sales managers, by giving more clarity about the activities and not just focusing on the results. It’s much easier to sell more to existing customers, rather than sell to more customers. Customer Relationship Management provides detailed analysis and insights on consumer categories and behaviour patterns, which can result in more sale per customer.
With mobile Customer Relationship Management, coming in along with lots of new technological innovations, Customer Relationship Management has become an almost indispensable tool for businesses today. Customer Relationship Management increases customer experience, decreases stress, improves sales and profitability. Above all, it brings stability into organisation against changes in team members, since now the business related information is stored by a system and not by people individually.
Then why do people think that CRM is costly?
Is there any misunderstandings? If we dig down deeper, there is a serious problem in the way people see Customer Relationship Management. Companies are not getting the value for their investment in Customer Relationship Management is due to some hurdles that are faced along the way.
Many times companies think of Customer Relationship Management as a software just like MS Excel or Outlook. They think that they can just install it and then start using it. What eventually happens is that the team is not able to get any tangible business benefits out of the same and then frustration sets in. Such a scenario leads the people into thinking that the Customer Relationship Management solution is costly as they are not getting the expected returns.
There are two kinds of challenges here (A) No training at all, thinking that the users will figure out how to use the software themselves (B) Training only a few members of the team and believe that these people will train others. Both these scenarios give very nightmarish results. There is a mass refusal or reluctance amongst team members regarding the use of Customer Relationship Management. Untrained staff results in its minimal utilisation, which prompts the thought that is is costly.
Business processes when automated will be drastically different (and easy) as compared to doing it manually. Companies don’t plan to figure out changes in their procedures. Many times they don’t even have written (even understood uniform) process available. So everybody thinks of Customer Relationship Management system in their ways and plans in own individual ways to take this ahead. Improper planning is the reason there are no improvements in business after Customer Relationship Management, and then we feel that Customer Relationship Management is costly.
There are lots of companies which fail miserably while trying free Customer Relationship Management because either that was not the right choice for them or their team did not have the technological capability to implement the same. Instead, consulting an expert would have been a better idea before choosing Customer Relationship Management platform.
Generally online portals selling Customer Relationship Management are suitable for DIY (Do it Yourself) kind of people, who have enough technical and managerial skills to implement entire Customer Relationship Management on their own. There is a huge difference between implementing something by reading documents and getting some consultant (or Vendor) who provides tips and tricks and best practices. Without a proper consultant to help implementation, companies remain unaware of the true potential of Customer Relationship Management with respect to their business. Thus not getting the required returns.
When people buy Customer Relationship Management, it is with the excitement over the possibilities in Customer Relationship Management. These possibilities can be actualized only by the proper collaboration and coordination of the vendor and the customer. The vendor/ Customer Relationship Management cannot fulfil the expectations alone, the support and enthusiasm of the user is must. The efforts taken to monitor and implement Customer Relationship Management with respect to the company’s demands are not recognised by the buyer, thus causing a problem. The Customer Relationship Management platform has tremendous capabilities but companies fail to utilise them just because they don’t put enough efforts to implement things correctly.
Before deploying Customer Relationship Management, plan for selecting a technology, select processes to be automated, who should be involved, what will be the technical and personnel requirements. It is a good idea to get an expert’s guidance. But if it is your first Customer Relationship Management implementation, always go for a Consultant or a Customer Relationship Management vendor who will provide consultancy also. Do not buy online Customer Relationship Management without calculating implementation efforts required from your end.
Most of the time management team does not give required importance to this. Customer Relationship Management is a cultural change, and it has to be driven from the top. Failure in steering the Customer Relationship Management project by the top management leads to poor adoption and ultimate failure of implementation.
Implementation of Customer Relationship Management is one of the best ideas for SMEs and start-ups. Implementing in phases makes sure that over investment is not done. Phase wise implementation also means lesser and smaller changes which are easy to bring to an organisation. The phased implementation also allows the entire processes to be monitored closely. It will also help measure the ROI of total exercise.’
Hence Customer Relationship Management is not costly if used appropriately and thoroughly. But failure to utilise Customer Relationship Management for business benefits leads to the thought that Customer Relationship Management is expensive. Also, companies don’t perceive Customer Relationship Management as highest priority for businesses. Maybe, that is the reason it seems to be costly.
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]]>The post Why startup and SME business needs mobile CRM strategy appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>In this competitive era, no business or organization can thrive without proper Customer Relationship Management systems. Advent of SAAS technology has made it possible for SMEs and Startups to go for CRM systems, which otherwise was available only to large enterprises with deep pockets. Frantic growth and scalability are the two things that symbolize startups and SMEs, that’s the reason they need to, have a proper mobile CRM strategy more than anybody else.
Mobile market is growing at a much faster rate as compared to PCs. This obviously means that more people will use mobile for doing their business as compared to people using PCs. That is the reason startups and SMEs prefer to deploy tools which are mobile based.
Nowadays, everybody carries a smart phone with them. Having all the information about customer and all interactions with customers in mobile is a huge force multiplier. The sales person on the field can know about history of the customer they are going to meet.
Traditionally salespeople had to do calls and meetings entire day and then in the evening or at the end of the week used to make reports for their managers. Lets accept it, no one enjoys data entry. Mobile CRM eradicates this entirely.
Calls/SMS/Emails get logged automatically and meetings can get logged with three clicks. Mobile CRM virtually automates the data entry process. Even notes or minutes of the meetings can be photographed and attached to mobile CRM.
Imagine taking photographs of notes of discussion during a meeting and attaching to the CRM as minutes of meeting or finding clients and prospects near your location, or tracking your sales executive’s location so that better coordination is possible. These all are mobile specific features which are great efficiency booster, but are not available without mobile technology.
Right information is great only when it is received at the right time. Mobile CRM enables this in a very efficient and effective manner. A real time notification of assignments or escalations provides very effective edge to the people on the field.
This can be the biggest benefit of mobile CRM. Though one cannot get as detailed analysis as a desktop or web app can give, but still mobile CRM always provides relevant and strategic information in time. Also, it saves a lot of time by eliminating or simplifying data capturing.
Mobile CRM eases life of employees to a great extent by relieving them from the burden of data entry. One of the biggest advantages is reduction of stress between managers and executive staff because of transparent and clear reporting possible with Mobile CRM.
None of today’s businesses can imagine their processes without a proper mobile CRM strategy. It just becomes too much of a hassle. Mobile CRM is possibly the best weapon in the hands of sales executives and sales managers of SMEs and startups.
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]]>The post Qualpay makes room for customized APIs with new Developer Portal appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>“We believe in building true partnerships with our customers, and pride ourselves in going above and beyond to deliver options and guide choices to help our customer find the right solution for their needs,” said Craig Gass, CEO, Qualpay.
“Our goal is to provide payment solutions that not only meet the requirements of a Developer’s project, but extend beyond the initial engagement to offer continued support and build a long-lasting relationship with the Developer, Merchant and Reseller Partner,” Gass added.
Qualpay’s integrated payments platform enables developers to build applications to support one-time, repeat and recurring payments, as well as invoice and aggregated payments. The payments platform accommodates a variety of solutions, from marketplaces, shopping carts, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, to invoicing and accounting solutions.
The company aims at offering a personalized experience, working closely with developers to create solutions that address their unique needs. During the implementation process, developers have the option to integrate directly with modern REST APIs or take advantage of a wide variety of SDKs. After signing up for a Sandbox Account, developers are able to run integration tests with Qualpay APIs and validate the results from within Qualpay Manager.
As a full-service payments platform, including Reporting and Boarding APIs, Qualpay works in partnership to ensure all needs are met from the developer integrating the payment processing system to the merchant managing the process or the reseller repackaging an offering.
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]]>The post SalesInbox: The new email plugin from Zoho for Salesforce appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>SalesInbox uses customer data in Salesforce Sales Cloud to automatically prioritize customer conversations.
“Zoho is driven to provide salespeople with the tools they need to sell at their best. This integration gives every salesperson using Salesforce Sales Cloud access to one of our best innovations that will help them sell better,” said Raju Vegesna, chief evangelist at Zoho.
“We have seen this innovation benefit the users of Zoho CRM to a great extent, and wanted salespeople to have the benefits of using it, irrespective of the CRM they use. So we’re making it available to Salesforce users.”
SalesInbox turns the concept of the traditional mailbox around. Instead of emails being ordered by the time they were received, emails are organized in separate columns according to their status in the sales pipeline, allowing for easier follow-ups on messages that matter the most. Specific folders and labels allow further organization of emails, and advanced filters let salespeople prioritize their actions related to prospects.
SalesInbox associates the appropriate CRM record, as well as the various activities in the past six months like notes added, calls made, tasks created to the emails.
A salesperson can create a lead record inside the CRM, and also convert the leads to opportunities, by simply dragging the emails and dropping them across the columns of SalesInbox and filling in the necessary details. The process of creating leads can also be automated by setting up triggers inside SalesInbox.
Also Read: Zoho brings its 35+ business apps under the Zoho One umbrella
With SalesInbox, follow-up actions like calls, tasks and events can be added straight from the inbox. Instant alerts are sent whenever an important prospect doesn’t respond for a specified time, so reps can try following up again and close deals faster.
Salespeople know instantly when customers have engaged with their content through open and click rates for the emails they’ve sent. SalesInbox allows reps to use this data to create different versions of templates and find out which versions performed the best. In addition, sales managers get key insights on their team’s performance and activities through analytics.
Zoho SalesInbox for Salesforce will be available to Professional, Enterprise, Unlimited and Developer edition users of Salesforce CRM, priced at $20 per user/month, along with a 90-day free trial.
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]]>The post Growth of CRM in the Indian market appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>This has been possible because of the advent of newer technologies and concepts like SAAS and Social Media integrations. Also, now the scope of CRM has increased from a mere customer database to a 360 degree view of customer interactions from various channels, including, but not limited to; telephony, chat, emails, customer portals and mobile apps.
Initially, CRM was used as a customer database and an extension of any larger ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) implementation. These were large database applications which had essential enquiry management features. The primary purpose of these CRM systems was to give MIS (Management Information System) reports. These were more of reporting tools than day to day productivity tools as the CRM is today. The MIS reports were merely used by marketing division to understand customer segments and target marketing efforts accordingly.
When email became the primary tool of business communications, people started to realize the importance of email automation in their CRM strategy. Slowly the line between marketing and sales began to disappear in case of CRM definitions. Email marketing started to become the part of CRM.
Apart from the marketing and sales department, inside sales team began to get in shape. Inside Sales is more relevant to B2B as compared to B2C. The primary role of inside sales team was to generate direct leads for sales team or do prospecting of the leads generated by marketing teams.
The integration of Telephony and CRM has led to the popularity of Call Centre or better known as Contact Centers. Initially this was accomplished by On Premise Telephony Servers. These are now being replaced by Cloud Telephony Solutions. It has become crucial for businesses to use telephony solutions to engage with their customers. Hence, integration of Telephony with CRM is the need of the hour.
The latest buzzword in CRM space is Social CRM. Consumers and buyers are relying on social media to a great extent for their buying decisions. So sellers are using CRM with social media capabilities to monitor and influence buying patterns of buyers. With the advent of online E-commerce, the importance of social media in CRM has increased many folds.
Initially, CRM was affordable only to Enterprises, because of its enormous cost. This was because of costly software and expensive infrastructure required to implement CRM. But SAAS changed everything. Now, the expensive CRM software became available as a service, affordable to almost everyone. The biggest challenge in the adoption of SAAS as the mainstream solution was internet access.
With wide spread usage of internet across the country and broadband becoming cheaper, CRM is accessible to almost everyone and everywhere in India. Mobile internet revolution in India is also changing the CRM landscape in India to an extreme level.
Cheap smart phones with more affordable mobile internet plans helped to take Mobile CRM to the next level. Mobile CRM has completely changed the way CRM is thought and used in India. Now it has become one of the biggest productivity tools for sales and service teams.
CRM in India has made considerable progress to its present situation and is far to proceed. Considering the huge and diverse market that India has, arrangements intended for the western countries cannot be deployed here. Hence, it is of great significance for the Indian market to have a CRM streamlined on the basis of Indian management principles and practices. What could be better than we doing it for ourselves, hence following the statement ‘Of the Indians, by the Indians, for the Indians’.
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]]>The post 80% organizations spend $1,000 annually per sales rep on tech tools: Report appeared first on TECHSEEN.
]]>In order to explore what tools are most important for optimizing the consumer experience, 400 sales executives in the United States and United Kingdom were surveyed to define what the technology stack for a modern sales team looks like.
The survey threw hardware and software in the mix, from smart phones to collaboration tools, and asked organizations about the tools that are used to increase the effectiveness of the sales team. According to the survey 69% said that a CRM system is the most used and valuable tool whether used on smartphones or laptops.
Considering the top reason for choosing a CRM system, the 62% of respondents say its improving the customer experience and 38% believe its for improving the effectiveness of the team. This is especially true among those in a C-Level/President position which amounts to 69% ad compared to VP-level which amounts to 46% or director-level at 56%.
28% respondents feel that data enrichment service is the tool that they would like to use but is not being currently set up in organizations. 75% feel that lead development applications, electronic signature and digital transaction tools, and online meeting scheduler applications are important technology tools that organizations should look into.
“In today’s digital age, technology is a crucial asset which increases the effectiveness and productivity of sales teams,” said Larry Augustin, CEO, SugarCRM.
“However, these survey results indicate the challenges organizations are face when it comes to innovating and evolving the way their sales teams work. It’s clear there is still work to be done when it comes to overcoming obstacles and reframing how we think about technology in the workplace.”
But deploying all these tools does not come without anxiety. 69% of businesses are concerned about the need for training staff, while 63% are worried about keeping pace with innovation and keeping systems up to date. Apart from cost, when it comes to deploying new technology, 36% are concerned about security, 34% about product complexity, 30% employees’ resistance to change, and 20% lack of skills in using the tools.
The results indicates a modernization of sales culture where using tools to gather, analyze and share data is much more important than wining and dining potential clients. Organizations are willing to spend money, but many are in the experimental phase. Other than CRM, organizations are investing in a variety of other tools in a trial-and-error phase to determine what is absolutely critical for sales people to be more effective.
The survey also highlighted that Salesforce is the most used CRM tool that is being used in the US and Oracle as well as Salesforce is used in the UK. Less than 5% of respondents stated that they use Zoho, Hubspot and Infusionsoft as CRM tools.
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