Selecting the best software for a business, no matter if it is a startup or not, requires a lot of attention, so that it totally fits the company’s needs and it will have the flexibility to continue to fit future needs. Being more specific, when selecting a CRM software, you will have to choose between a pure, authentic 100% CRM tool and other more hybrid solutions, like the CRM Business Intelligence, CRM Collaboration or CRM Project Management systems. The latter is the most popular one, as more and more CRM tools are trying to enter the Integration world, adding Project Management functionalities which make the collaboration between the two departments easier, boosting at the same time productivity.
David Waring, editor at Fitsmallbusiness.com , is totally a CRM Project Management fan basically due to their low cost and simplicity: “Having everything in onesystem allows me to manage the deal both before and after it’s closed from one system. This saves me from having to renter a lot of information from my CRM into my project management system once the deal is closed.”Simon Ensor, managing director of Yellowball, addressed the issue of having to log into different applications for CRM, Project Management or to communicate with his colleagues by migrating Yellowball’s processes over to a more comprehensive system with one login, therefore reducing wasted time and potential mistakes that occur with double data entry.
Kelly Fallis, CEO of Remote Stylist, deals daily with the problems remote collaboration has, so finding the right software that makes distance team working easier is more than a necessity. However, it seems that she has made her choice, selecting a CRM Project Management tool that enables her team and herself to operate from the same system, being able to see the same info in real time. She actually gives us the following example: “If a client happens to call and whoever answers the phone updates a file, whoever is working on that file sees instant updates etc., not to mention that they can pass tasks from one to other easily.” A system like that is totally the backbone of any Small Medium Business in order to stay organized, manage operations and sales, as Kelly emphasizes.
It’s a fact that the evolution of enterprise Project Management and CRM field has created a new business environment where CRM Project Management Methodologies and Software are used extensively. The CRM and PM trends for 2015 pave the way to cloud solutions that integrate Agile Project Management and CRM, providing communication and collaboration functionalities such as emails, campaigns, tasks management, productivity measurement, social media integration for engaging customers and Business Intelligence reports for data-driven decision making.
On the other hand, some people who totally disagree with all the different CRM combinations phenomenon and prefer to continue using different software for each process. Michelle Salomon, marketing director at Mobilize , prefers separate apps “because sales has completely different needs than marketing and product” and Ben Hoehn, Marketing manager at The Predictive Policing Company, seems to agree with this, as they use various applications for all different business processes. Salesforce for CRM, Leadsius for contact gathering and marketing automation or Google Analytics and Mailchimp for analytics and reporting.
To sum up, whether you are a Swiss army knife application fan wanting to remember only one password for your business app, or prefer to have the full potential of a CRM stand-alone system or even an independent Project Management software, your actual business methodology and processes are going to show you the best solution. So, all you have to do is sit down, specify what your business needs are and start getting advantage of the softwares’ free trials!
