Management information
CRM applications provide management information to allow managers and team leaders to view the progress of their teams, and to analyze their performance.
Management information usually comes in the form of easy to read visuals of the underlying data, such as charts, graphs, or lists. The information can be provided within the CRM application as dashboards, or it could be exported as reports in varying formats such as text files, CSV files, or PDF files. The following figure shows examples of some management information charts for the sales team in SageCRM:
Examples of some management information charts for the sales team in SageCRM
In a non-integrated CRM application the information available for analysis is the information stored in the CRM application. Some examples of information that is available are:
Opportunity progress by sales user or team: A range of charts, graphs, or reports can be made available that show the progress of opportunities grouped per user, or per sales team. The analysis may show expected revenue for the next time period, for example monthly or quarterly. They may show the quantity of opportunities or the rate that they are being processed by user or by team. This information helps the manager judge the performance of the sales team and forecast revenue.
Customer support tickets by customer support user or team: A range of charts graphs or reports can be made available that show the progress of customer support tickets grouped per user or per customer support team. The analysis may show information such as the closure rate of tickets, or the quantity of tickets being processed, or the time taken to deal with tickets, grouped on a per user or per team basis. The information helps the manager judge the performance of the customer support team.
Information that is not available for analysis in a non-integrated CRM application is any information that resides in the ERP.
Integration opportunity for management information
A non-integrated CRM application can show useful analysis of information that is gathered in the CRM application only. There is plenty of useful information that is stored in the ERP that will not be available.
With an integration it is possible to expand the information shown to users by adding ERP information such as order fulfillment information, invoices, purchase history, and statements. This information presented to managers and team leaders results in a more comprehensive overview and better planning.
Some examples of where adding ERP information can give a more comprehensive overview are as follows:
Sales analysis: We talked about the analysis that can be done on the opportunity workflow when you have non-integrated CRM. If we add in ERP information about invoices, shipments, and other transactions, we can get a more complete analysis of a sale from the lead all the way to a shipped and delivered product. This information helps the manager judge not only how good a sales user is at making a sale, but how many of the sales are converted to revenue received and goods shipped, which is a better overall indicator of the health of the sales process.
Customer support: We talked about the analysis that can be done on customer support tickets to see how well a customer support user or team is doing. If we add in ERP information such as data on refunds, replacements, and returns we can get a more complete analysis of a customer support ticket all the way from when it is initially logged to final resolution, even if that resolution involves an ERP workflow. The information helps the manager judge not only how good a customer support person is at closing a ticket, but how many times this results in products being returned or refunded, which gives a better overall assessment of the quality of the product or service that is being offered.
Workshop
In general, for your customer-facing teams, managers, and team leaders, identify the ERP information that would be useful for them in analyzing their users, teams, and company performance.
