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Effective Employee Collaboration Platforms

July 27th, 2010 by Bharath Lanka

In today’s business climate, many companies have employees scattered across many states and time zones. Keeping employees informed and engaged even though they are geographically distant can bring increased employee performance and innovation to your company.

Businesses can implement effective employee collaboration platforms with the many online tools available. Some examples are internal blogs, software that encourages real-time status updates for specific departments, knowledge management documents, podcasts, RSS feeds, communication facilitation and professional networking opportunities.

Recruiting, training and retaining quality employees entails development of an effective employee “lifecycle” which spans the entirety of an employee’s time with your business.

Oftentimes, finding new employees can be accomplished through the networking ability and referral of contacts from current employees. Using these resources can cut the time and cost of finding new talent that may better match your current corporate culture.

“Onboarding” is a relatively new term that defines the process for incorporating new hires into the company quickly and effectively. A successful onboarding program can help to reduce employee turnover and increase new hire success. Onboarding includes automated information routing, new hire information, new employee development plans, effective communication of company goals and expectations, and onboarding process tracking.

Employee networking is an important benefit for the company and for the employees. Although companies spend a large part of their training budget on formal training programs, the greatest amount of information sharing is usually much more informal between employees. Companies will realize a greater return on their training dollars when they help to facilitate ways for employees to network internally and exchange ideas.

Developing employee profiles help to foster a sense of community among your employees, whether they share a physical location or are separated by wide geographical distances. This workplace community in turn fosters increased communication, a sense of shared corporate memory, and a way to form partnerships through internal social networks.

One of the most valuable assets a company possesses is its human capital: its employees. The success of a business depends on the success of its employees, and businesses are increasing realizing the value of “talent management”. Successful businesses implement platforms that tie their training programs to the goals of their organizations and design ways for their business units to meet their performance goals. Human resource departments realize that they should address the issues of their Generation Y employees as well as those employees who are nearing retirement. Employees value being offered effective career development plans; businesses benefit by identifying those employees who can be positioned for future leadership roles.

With today’s online hosted conferencing solutions and communications platforms, companies can provide all of the benefits of personalized training and seminars while simultaneously reducing travel time and expenses. Real-time training sessions and business unit collaboration meetings can be supplied to specified groups of users based on employee position, department location or communication needs. These same sessions can be recorded for access at any time with permission-based applications.

With effective and ongoing employee collaboration practices, business performance can be tracked and enhanced throughout all areas of a company in a time-efficient and cost-effective manner. Employee collaboration service providers design and implement unique approaches that are flexible and match your companies current workflow and business process and practices.

Posted in Applications, Business Processes, Hosting, Outsourcing, SaaS | No Comments »

Benefits of Customer Relationship Management

July 22nd, 2010 by Nitin Bidi

The most valuable assets of any business are its customers, without which there would be no business. Customer relationship management (CRM) business practices help companies retain their best customers and attract new customers effectively through sales, marketing and support interactions.

CRM applications are used by companies to focus on productive sales activities such as planning and forecasting, contacts, opportunities, product and service configurations, pricing, contracts, procurement, and orders.

Marketing activities are more effective when paired with intelligent business decisions. The data gathered through CRM applications enable companies to analyze, develop and implement the processes that will maximize customer interaction.

Customer retention depends on customer satisfaction and support in the areas of contract management, logistics, installation and maintenance, return and repair maintenance, call center operations, and multi-channel delivery options.

Effective CRM applications also help companies reach new customers and enhance relationships with current customers through sales, marketing and services activities provided through the Internet. ERP (enterprise resource planning) applications can be deployed directly integrated with CRM functionality to increase e-marketing, e-commerce, e-service and customer analytics.

Communication processes with current and prospective customers can be improved with effective business communications management and CRM integration and implementation. Today’s customers expect to be able to contact your company by phone, text, chat, email, and fax, and CRM applications can facilitate the routing of all types of communication to the right person in your company whether that person works locally or remotely.

Customer relationship management is an integral component of your company’s total business operations; increasing your return on investment for your sales, marketing, and service and support departments.

Posted in Applications, Hosting, Outsourcing, SaaS | 2 Comments »

Systems Integration Solutions

July 20th, 2010 by Bharath Lanka

Systems integration is a critical solution for the business management sector, bringing together the various components of other subsystems in a company’s information technology system to function as one unit. Each subsystem has its own interface that must be integrated and interlocked so that the capability of the entire system adds value to the combination of the parts. The task of bringing together the disparate subsystems falls to a system integration engineer who has a wide range of skills including hardware and software engineering, knowledge of interface protocols, and problem-solving . There are three main types of systems integration, each with its own function.

Vertical integration involves integrating subsystems by their function into specific entities. Vertical integration is usually a quick and relatively inexpensive method of initial integration. The overall cost of ownership for a vertical integration implementation could be higher because each scaling of the system involves a new integration.

Horizontal integration is also known by the name Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and involves dedicating a specialized subsystem that facilitates communication between other subsystems. When the ESB translates the interface connection from one subsystem, the costs of the integration decreases while the flexibility of the system increases. Horizontal integration can completely replace one subsystem with another similarly functional subsystem while transparently exporting different interfaces.

Star integration entails interconnecting subsystems. This method is also called spaghetti integration because of how the system integration appears in a diagram. Although more flexible than vertical integration, star integration is more expensive to design and implement, especially if the exported systems contain proprietary interfaces. The addition of each subsequent subsystem increases the cost, but also the flexibility of the overall system integration.

Systems integration is a complex undertaking and is comprised of several layers of expertise including initial conception, implementation, delivery, upgrades and ongoing project management. Experienced systems integrators will work with you and your company to complete your integration project based on clearly defined specifications for time period, cost projections, and performance benchmarks.

The work of system integration engineers begins before the actual development and implementation of an integration project. There are many consultations and discussions with the stakeholders of the company to ensure that any and all conflicting issues and requirements are addressed. The resulting project plan will results in a systems integration that works with all the present and subsequent components and development processes.

Development and implementation of a turnkey systems integration project involves risks, but throughout the process, the quality and quantity of the support services offered by the service provider can reduce the risks for your company. Ongoing and rigorous testing of each of the individual components of the new or upgraded system will assess how each part works with the other parts and with the system as a whole.

Systems integrators for IT work to successfully combine a company’s various systems used to input and process data. IT solutions also may include integrating inventory tracking systems, document management systems, unified messaging systems, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and data storage systems. The goal is to create an overall effective IT solution for the customer.

Posted in Outsourcing, SaaS, Systems Integration | No Comments »

Business Process Outsourcing

July 5th, 2010 by Bharath Lanka

Outsourcing for enterprise organizations comes in many forms. Many people first think of outsourcing in terms of IT third-party service providers, but another type of outsourcing is becoming more and more common.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) entails hiring another company to handle specific types of business activities for your company. BPO can consist of payroll services, employee benefits management, call center services, customer services activities, human resources, accounting, and other “non-core” functions.

Depending on the strategic business plan and the size of the company, BPO contracts can run for multiple years and cost millions of dollars. But companies utilizing BPO also can realize savings in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars over the life of the contract through savings over implementing the outsourced activities in-house.

The typical traditional corporate structure in the last half of the twentieth century was to build companies as large as possible with all business functions kept within the company. The bigger, the better. Today, however, “lean and mean” is more of the norm, and taking advantage of service providers that specialize in certain business functions often makes better sense for many corporations; helping companies of all sizes stay more competitive in the present business environment. When deciding whether or not outsourcing is right for your company, however, means taking the time necessary to ask the right questions and putting the right internal processes in place first.

Michael Motonen, a vice-president at the Gartner Consulting Sourcing Team, and the BPO lead principal, offers several tips:

Develop an outsourcing life-cycle model and strategy first. Garter has four phases.

1. The sourcing strategy phase considers questions such as: “What are the risks for our company?” “Why are we considering outsourcing?” “What kind of relationship are we looking for with our service provider?” “Will the resulting partnership be enhancing our current processes, or will it be transformative–helping our company change by driving cost savings or increasing revenue?”

2. Selection phase: Evaluate several prospective companies and make the final selection.

3. Contract phase: Develop and finalize the contract.

4. Sourcing Management phase: Included here is the service level agreement (SLA) for milestone benchmarks and other mutual assessment tools.

Take into consideration all aspects of contract duration. BPO contracts are often long-term for a reason. Strategic changes in business functions and relationships with BPO providers take time. A balance is needed between the short-term assessment of results and long enough to meet the stated goals. Most BPO contracts last for three to five years or more. Montonen recommends shorter contracts that allow for periodic reviews and renewals rather than tying yourself into long-term contracts with ten year time frames. It is also recommended that you include in the contract policies and procedures for bringing the business activities back in-house if necessary.

Identify, assess and evaluate any potential risks.

1. Ensure that your vendor is actually able to provide the services within your contract and SLA, and

2. Retain a certain amount of control and internal oversight for the entire process and project.

Ensure that compliance procedures are stipulated in the contract. Your service provider should be able to prove that what compliance regulations apply to your company can be applied to the entire project.

Keep the lines of communication open. On-going and open communication is important for the success of the BPO relationship; not only with your vendor, but also internally with everyone concerned in your own company. Outside vendors often make employees nervous. Proper management of all types of external and internal changes is critical to the overall success of the project and overall company morale.

Posted in Business Processes, Outsourcing, SaaS | No Comments »

Application Hosting Options

June 30th, 2010 by Bharath Lanka

Application Hosting. According to several business dictionaries, the definition of application hosting is “…the rental or outsourcing of business applications from an applications service provider, rather than installing the software internally…”

Many enterprise businesses have traditionally hosted and maintained their own proprietary software applications on their own servers. Today however, many of those same businesses are looking into the benefits of outsourcing some or all of their enterprise-application software to third-party services providers. Companies are finding out that in addition to freeing up time and monetary resources, they realize additional benefits such as department-level or company-wide training, secure data backup, and application upgrade services. Known industry-wide as the SaaS (Software as a Service) model, these off-site hosted applications integrate easily with a company’s existing data and IT systems. Additionally, because customer demands and sales may fluctuate frequently during a specified accounting period, implementing SaaS applications provides the flexibility large corporations need to quickly respond to economic conditions and industry demands.

Some of the open source software applications offered by service providers include:

● CRM (Customer Relationship Management)

● PM (Project Management)

● VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) for Call Center Management

● DMS (Document Management Solutions)

● CMS (Content Management Solutions)

● E-commerce solutions and integrated shopping cart applications

● Mail Server Solutions

When deciding whether to transfer some or all of their applications to a third-party service, many enterprises have to deal with several questions first. The number one concern seems to be security, since SaaS applications are stored online “in the cloud” and therefore outside of exclusive company control. Other questions that should be asked of a service provider before deciding on deployment include:

Can my company have my choice of programming language and application platform?
Will my company have to change basic IT infrastructure such as the operating system and current deployment environments?
What are the contract requirements of the provider?
Is there an upfront investment? If so, how much?
How quick is the response time for spikes and lulls in customer demand and application loading?
What is the experience of the third-party provider with issues such as global deployment, redundancy and resiliency?
What provisions are in place to keep my data secure?

Another important consideration for enterprise concerns with IT environments is managing the various compliance and regulatory data management and reporting requirements. This is another area where hosting your applications with an experienced third-party service provider can assist companies and help to mitigate the risks involved with meeting government reporting deadlines and data recovery processes.

It is the responsibility of a company’s CIO (Chief Information Officer) to ensure a company’s regulatory compliance and infrastructure security, but this is another large area that can be successfully outsourced to the carefully screened and chosen service provider. A disaster recovery plan is also required for most businesses and must include redundant backup systems. Off-site application hosting solutions will help to ensure that your applications and your business can continue to operate even when your main IT environment fails due to man-made or natural disasters.

Posted in Applications, Hosting | 3 Comments »

The Evolution of Enterprise CRM

June 8th, 2010 by Nitin Bidi

CRM. Customer Relationship Management. BI. Business Intelligence. SMM. Social Media Marketing. In the past few years, the line between these operations solutions have become blurred, and enterprises are sometimes challenged with finding the right mix.

American Unit is dedicated to providing our clients with the best solutions for their business situations. The customer care landscape is changing rapidly; just as the internet has changed from Web 1.0, to Web 2.0, and now on the horizon is Web 3.0. How has the evolution in CRM processes affected the enterprise?

First, there was database management, which came about after computerized solutions for managing large databases become commonplace in the 1980s. Customer Relationship Management as a business solution developed in the 1990s about a decade later. In theory, CRM was a great idea; but in practice it was often difficult and expensive to implement and it was confusing to keep records constantly updated and accurate. The majority of CRM systems were customized solutions meant to help companies tailor their marketing and sales to specific client needs.

At first, CRM was basically a tool for gathering business intelligence, or BI; the data was used inhouse. As CRM matured in the early part of the 21st century, the static databases of the 1990s developed into a way to continually understand customer buying behavior in real-time. Now, business intelligence as delivered through dynamic CRM solutions also included data about both the motivations and the reactions of customers; helping to make B2C communication a truly two-way.

Although today most companies of any size utilize CRM applications, three industry sectors dominate: technology, financial services, and retail. Companies can now quickly and easily both track and respond to customer patterns, habits and satisfaction levels. American Unit helps small and mid-sized businesses find and customize the best solutions as well as keep abreast of the rapid changes in CRM and BI.

Customer Relationship Management solutions, along with the ever-evolving functionality of Business Intelligence applications, offer many benefits to small and medium-sized companies who realize the importance and well as the complexity of integrating technology with business operations. Some of the benefits of a comprehensive CRM solution include:

Up-to-date and accurate data to assist in short-term and long-term decision-making.
Help with scheduling production and JIT (just-in-time) inventory levels.
Relevant information and customer feedback for the marketing and sales departments for future enhancements and upgrades for products and services.
Building and maintaining customer satisfaction levels, customer acquisition, and customer retention.
Strategizing in a customer-centric fashion.
Keeping the sales force on track with its goals.

Successfully and efficiently managing customer relationship management and customer experience management solutions is challenging, yet absolutely necessary. American Unit is ready to work with you to create a viable and highly functional platform for maximum benefit.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Next Generation of Microsoft Dynamics CRM

April 27th, 2010 by Bill Martin

While the folks in Redmond can take some comfort in being the fastest growing CRM solution among the “Big 4″, they are also cognizant that they are still fourth in the market behind Oracle, SAP and Salesforce. At Convergence 2010 this week in Atlanta, the product management team for Microsoft Dynamics CRM discussed some of the ways they hope to enhance their positioning against the other three.

The newest version of the platform, Dynamics CRM 5.0, is targeted for release at the end of 2010 and will address some of the key issues voiced by the user community with the current release. “The focus is on simplicity, innovation, and value” remarked David Patterson in his presentation at Convergence. As an example of the value focus, he highlighted the introduction of Dynamics CRM in 41 languages, and the inclusion of their proprietary solution accelerators available for no additional charge.

In a Q & A session at Convergence, Craig Unger, general manager of Dynamics CRM R&D emphasized both the flexibility and integration capabilities of Dynamics CRM 5.0. “A couple years ago, we talked about the cloud as the power of choice. Increasingly we’re talking about the cloud and software plus services…a hybrid approach.” He addressed the importance of the “consumerization” of Dynamics CRM 5.0 – “delivering the experience as the user does.” This includes, for example, integrating CRM with Outlook, having “little bits of CRM on your mobile phone,” and being able to capture leads from social networks, all without having to go back and forth between two or three applications.

It also appears that Dynamics CRM 5.0 will provide an improved user interface and data visualization features, enhanced sales and marketing capabilities, and tighter integration with Microsoft’s SharePoint Server collaboration platform, things that users have been asking about since the release of CRM 4.0.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Microsoft SharePoint | 1 Comment »

Microsoft Dynamics CRM Delivers A Shot Across the Bow

November 24th, 2009 by Bill Martin

Microsoft appears eager to take the battle to Salesforce.com and Oracle with regard to leadership in the fast growing CRM market. Microsoft Dynamics CRM, having achieved parity with both competitors in the eyes of the technology analyst community (see Forrester Wave below), has grown twice as fast as media favorite Salesforce.com over the past twelve months and recently crossed the one million user mark.

To “celebrate”, Microsoft announced, several weeks ago, a new promotion targeting current Oracle and Salesforce.com online customers with an offer of free Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online service for up to seven months for switching from their existing service provider. The seven months includes Microsoft’s standing offer of 30 days free service plus the new promotion of an additional six months.

Though the string attached to the offer is a commitment to a 12-month contract for Dynamics CRM Online, the savings on the first six months of the contract can be quite significant, meaning Microsoft is clearly smelling blood and playing to win in the customer care space.

While already considered to be the more cost-effective alternative among its peer group, Microsoft Dynamics CRM also owns the advantage of flexibility, at least against Salesforce.com, since Dynamics CRM is offered in both an on-demand and an on-premise model. Additionally, Dynamics CRM’s ability to easily integrate with Microsoft Dynamics NAV and AX, as well as Office and Outlook, delivers a productivity edge that is difficult for either of the other CRM platforms to claim.

Excepting the anomaly that is the 2009 market, most analyst estimates for CRM market growth remain in the 10%+ range for the near future. With that kind of opportunity at stake, it will be interesting to monitor how pitched this battle becomes.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM | No Comments »

The Advent of CRM 2.0

August 13th, 2009 by Bill Martin

Here at American Unit, enterprise CRM is generally top of mind when it comes to providing solutions with the greatest potential for positively impacting the operations of our clients.

But we also recognize that the traditional concept of customer care has been rocked to its foundation by the rapid advent of social media.

CRM guru Paul Greenberg via his personal blog, has made a nice attempt at defining the differences between 1.0 and 2.0.

CRM 1.0 (2003): “CRM is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a system and a technology, designed to improve human interactions in a business environment.”

CRM 2.0 (2008): “CRM 2.0 is a philosophy and a business strategy, supported by a technology platform, business rules and processes, designed to engage the customer in a collaborative conversation to improve human interactions and provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment. It is the company’s response to the customer’s ownership of the conversation.”

On the CRM 2.0 Wiki, Alex Schultze has codified Greenberg’s thinking and proposed that CRM 2.0 is actually CEM 1.0, Customer Experience Management, because, as he posits:

We are talking about the behavioral changes of our customers but I guess we have to more precise than that. The underlying change is significant: It is the change in the customer education process. Just 5-10 years ago customers where mainly educated by the experts in the respective companies, by their solution providers, analysts and media. Not today. The previous education process and therefore influence is rapidly declining and has just minor importance today. Customers educate themselves over the Internet. But not the Internet from 5 years ago but through their connections in the social networks, blogs, discussion forums, wikis, the whole nine yards.

A view to the complexity of the process that we are now talking about comes from a recent report by Forrester analyst William Band.

Locking in customer loyalty through deeper engagement and differentiated experiences will continue to be critical priorities for organizations in all sectors in the decade ahead, but navigating the complex customer relationship management (CRM) technology landscape remains challenging – particularly in light of the rapid rise of Social Computing, the increasing adoption of software-as-a service (SaaS) solutions, and the need to provide mobile capabilities for front-line personnel. But by selecting the right solutions to invest in, CRM professionals can take the proper steps without taking unnecessary risk.

This diagram from that report highlights the complexity of today’s CRM environment and the many technologies involved in successful CEM.

The challenges to CRM ISVs, system integrators and customers to create a successful CRM/CEM platform going forward will be manifest.The evolution will definitely be worth watching.

Posted in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Oracle Siebel CRM | No Comments »