CRM and Business Intelligence

CRM and Business Intelligence are important for business owners. Here’s why.

Customers make businesses what they are and what they want to be. When you take care of your clients you are taking care of your business.

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management software stepped up to meet this need.

Customer relationship management, (CRM) according to Wikipedia, is a term that refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to analyse customer interactions. Also, it includes proceeding data with the goal of improving business relationships. In fact, by integrating CRM into your systems you add a personal touch to the communication with the end-user. The successful company in this crowded market is the one who puts their customers first.

The Business Intelligence systems

Business Intelligence is a technological process for analysing data and presenting actionable information. It helps executives, managers and end-users make more informed business decisions. This is a system that has proved worthy over the years.

BI helps with reporting, forecasting and predictive analytics. In Business Intelligence organisations use software applications to analyse raw data. This information is useful to any organisation as it can help with critical decision making. In other words, it can help cut costs, improve decision making and identify new business opportunities.

Is there an actual need to pay attention to BI and CRM?

There are many views and observations about the future of Business Intelligence and CRM. Many believe that BI is going places. For example, in 2010 the BI software market was valued at about $7.2 billion, with a growth of 6.5%, which was significant.

Is there an actual need to pay attention to this system? We expect that Business Intelligence will make an entry into emerging markets. We have seen it go to every single enterprise application and deliver more value than the sum of parts. It also helps to answer casual user queries. Clearly, a function that every customer will always need.

There is a need to incorporate both Business Intelligence and CRM in organisations. The information obtained from business applications such as bespoke developments or off-the-shelf packages helps you understand your customer better. Some are of the view that Business intelligence will fade into the background and act more like a simple service. We disagree.

Some reasons why BI will add value to your business:

  1. Direct access to enterprise-wide information. This helps managers make critical decisions. Additionally, it also increases the overall company productivity and accuracy.
  2. Improve on your Client Relationship Management. It uses the information obtained to understand your clients better.
  3. Improvement in business effectiveness. This includes better utilisation of business resources. For example, making more informed decisions, consistent views of critical business data, and the measurement of KPI’s.
  4. Improved work labour efficiency. I.e.the reduction of the total labour cost for IT. Additionally, it contributes to a better return on investment for brands. Also, this will increase the amount of time firms spend on strategic work rather than manual work.

The future of Business Intelligence and CRM will be shaped by start-ups such as Blue Tea. We can make Business Intelligence approachable and easily deliverable to the huge potential in the mid-market.