Putting CRM in context (page 1 of 2)

More sophisticated collaboration tools offer virtual team collaboration, content management systems, and real-time communications. However, despite the strong embrace of collaboration technology, we continue to wrestle with fundamental questions like, "how do we share information?" and, "what is the best way to find and communicate with my team members?"

Having a truly collaborative CRM system requires three things:

1. A central location for all company information, with the ability to share that information with customers, partners and colleagues.

2. Multiple ways to communicate the information, without needing to click to a different screen or start up a new application.

3. Secure accessibility from anywhere; including our desktops, mobile phones and, of course, the World Wide Web.

A CRM system that fulfills these requirements will deliver significant business benefits. It will help sales teams attain higher sales percentages by giving them access to best practices, lessons learned and the tools to collaborate as effectively on the road or in the office.

It will help marketers target prospects more effectively and deliver higher quality leads to sales. It will improve customer service by providing contact center agents with detailed customer knowledge and real-time conferencing tools for instant troubleshooting support. And it will raise customer satisfaction as customer requests are answered faster, more accurately and smarter.

Can a CRM system achieve all these things today? With the right collaboration tools at the right integration points, the answer is a resounding YES.

Collaborate in context

The problem today is that most collaboration tools are standalone applications that are not in the "context" of customer-centric processes. Users wishing to collaborate on a project or urgent customer issue are often forced to "alt-tab" between applications and cut-and-paste data into an e-mail or document.

Consequently, the intended co-collaborators only receive snapshots of data from a particular point in time, without a way to access or augment the most up to date information. These snapshots could even be inadvertently copied, forwarded or otherwise intercepted through less secure transmission channels.

Contextual collaboration provides CRM teams with the ability to seamlessly track and share information in the context of a particular business process or application, whether it be sales, marketing or service. This minimizes the number of clicks and entry points, and enhances the ability to locate key people and information in real-time.

A sales scenario: the RFP response

Let's take a closer look at a common sales scenario: An account manager learns from his customer that they will be soliciting responses to a Request For Proposal (RFP) in a few days. A couple days later, the RFP is sent to the account manager and appears in his e-mail inbox.

In most cases, managing a RFP response today is an inefficient process due to the use of disparate tools. Information is scattered across disconnected repositories, and the burden is on the end users to personally follow threads and manage the emails and attachments related to the RFP.