Sage Blog

CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is more than a strategy, more than a piece of software – it’s about people. You need to have everyone actively involved who is going be part of your company’s CRM solution and will ultimately help you achieve your goals. On most CRM projects some key members of your team will be experts you use to help implement your  strategy. Here at Sage we work with selected, certified Business Partners to give you experts in your local area to enable you to get the people you need to bring your plan to life.

Sage Business Partners

In case you don’t know, SalesLogix is our CRM solution that is available either on premise or as a cloud-based CRM system.  Our Business Partners are highly experienced, professional CRM experts who not only know how to install, configure and customise Sage’s CRM solution, SalesLogix, but can help you lay out your CRM plan and strategy.

We’re proud of our Business Partner community; they truly are experts in their fields, and it’s absolutely key that they are kept up to date with the latest information about our products and industry innovations. Our CRM solution lives in a world of innovation and we consistently deliver CRM leadership through our SalesLogix’s roadmap. The new innovations in SalesLogix deliver what customers are demanding in today’s world to help people to take advantage of the modern work world.

So, how do we keep our Business Partners up to date? And how do we make sure that the information our Business Partners glean from customers is fed back into future product development? One way is through our SalesLogix Boot Camp.

Our global CRM community

The SalesLogix Boot Camp is a truly global event that delivers the knowledge our Business Partner’s need to help our customers’ in their CRM journey as well as sharing the latest innovations and customer feedback. I was lucky enough to attend this year’s event in November in Arizona, along with people from Spain, France, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Holland, United Kingdom and America.

CRM – the hot topics

Getting together a group of CRM experts from across the globe gives a great opportunity to discuss not just our roadmap and CRM vision, but also the key topics affecting the community from mobile, to analytics, and of course cloud.

But our Business Partners agree that the most important part is talking with our customers, and hearing firsthand about the things they want. Overall the feedback was they want an affordable, flexible CRM system that “works the way I do” on “the devices I use” – so we are focussed on enabling our customers to work more efficiently in a way that suits them.

Celebrating success and innovation

We’re an innovative bunch in the SalesLogix team. As a team we’ve introduced the new HTML5 Mobile client which can happily work on a variety of mobile devices such as iPhone, Andriod and BlackBerry. We encourage the same attitude in our Business Partner community and it was great that Europe dominated the nattily named Business Partner Customisation Competition aka Geekapolooza. The winner was Alberto Chiesa from Gianos Consulting (Italy) with an application he wrote over 4 nights, followed by Mark Cooper from Qgate (England) and 3^rd place for Domenico Catrambone also from Gianos Consulting.

What’s in the future for SalesLogix?

So, with all this talk of innovation and customer insight what does the future bring for SalesLogix? The consensus from our Business Partners was that “SalesLogix Version 8 looks cool.” So what’s coming? Well, sorry, you’re going to have to wait and see! Version 8 communications will start early in 2012, but let’s just say our Business Partners are excited and even the English guys were whooping and clapping!

Of course, not all the talk is of CRM at these events. Most of our Business Partners were able to join us for dinner followed by karaoke. They’re a talented lot our Business Partners. Not only can they help you with your CRM system they can do a pretty mean Elvis rendition too! What more do you need?

Check out #slxbootcamp for more of our antics.

Duncan Wood, Sage Saleslogix Expert

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The business partners that came along from our part of the world were (in alphabetical order):

• http://www.bond-solutions.com/
• http://www.cbssolutions.com/
• http://www.collierpickard.co.uk/
• http://www.datel.info/
• http://www.dmcsoftware.co.uk/
• http://www.empath-e.com/
• http://www.gianos.it/
• http://www.managedsaleslogix.com
• http://www.pinnacle-online.com/
• http://www.qgate.co.uk
• http://www.seelogic.co.uk

If you’re not from a technical background, attempting to understand “cloud computing” could be both confusing and somewhat daunting. But it needn’t be. Put simply, cloud computing is a way to access products and services securely through an internet connection anywhere in the world.

It has been around for years. Whether you’re accessing Facebook, Amazon, Hotmail, YouTube, Sage CRM OnDemand or Sage One, you’re using cloud computing. You tap in to huge banks of data through some very complex programs, each of which are hosted on various forms of physical hardware, located elsewhere in the world.

The term “cloud computing” incorporates all of the clever networking, languages, programs and environments that allow us to do this. It refers to our ability to link to computer technologies globally through our modest internet connection.

Why the big fuss?

Whilst types of cloud computing have been around for years, the ability to link to these technologies has only recently started to mature. IT investment is expected to focus on this area in the coming years. Where certain technologies were once out of reach for particular businesses, they are now accessible.

Take software, for example. Traditionally, it came on a disc and you loaded it on to your hard drive. In a larger business it was stored on local servers, where the IT department would have needed to buy and install the software, as well as set up and maintain the servers it ran on.

More recently, however, software that we access through our web browser has become more popular. This is known as ‘software as a service’ (SaaS), and is one of three components classified within cloud computing. Sage One and Sage CRM On Demand are examples of software we host and provide using cloud computing.

‘I’ve heard of Saas, but what else is involved with cloud computing?’

I’ve introduced you to the first component of cloud computing, SaaS. There are two more. The second component is ‘platform as a service’ (PaaS). While SaaS allows access to software through a browser, PaaS offers much more than just buying and installing the software. It allows an organisation’s IT department or IT supplier to:

(i)      Source or build and maintain the platform for the users to work from.

(ii)    Customise the software to fit the organisation’s processes.

(iii)  Develop software for its users.

This can be a complex process. PaaS providers allow their customers to build software and make changes to it using a simple internet connection in an environment they have built, support and manage.

The third component is ‘infrastructure as a service’ (IaaS). Data, hardware, servers and networking components require ongoing maintenance. Providers offer to host products in a central location and provide access to them through a secure internet connection. Huge buildings full of hardware exist worldwide, with masses of virtual and real-life security. They are there to ensure that no one can access those servers but the customers using their internet connection thousands of miles away. This service is IaaS.

Cloud computing gives IT buyers access to technologies, without the constraints of large upfront fixed costs, space, power or extensive setup times. As technology continues to improve and develop, the ability to access the best products and services from anywhere in the world is also improving and evolving.

‘Does Sage offer any Cloud applications?’

Yes – we have partnered with a major provider of cloud technologies, Amazon EC2, to host our business relationship software, Sage SalesLogix on the Cloud.

Most hosted software only offers what is known as ‘multi tenant’ software. While this means you can access your own data, the core of the software is still shared by all users of the service, so it can’t really be customised to suit a business’s processes.

We are offering a more extensive application – leasing our customer their own servers (with backup) on which they can host their version of Sage SalesLogix. Sage Business Partners can also access the software remotely and customise it if desired. This can be done from anywhere in the world, using a web browser.

Sage provides hosted relationship management software, services and support through Sage CRM On Demand, ACT and E-Marketing to small and medium sized businesses. You can contact us on 0845 111 99 88 if you would like to find out more.

Chris Coulson and Simon Campbell, Sage SalesLogix Team

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

It’s the busiest time of year for the world’s leading gift distributor (no…we don’t mean Amazon). With lists to check (twice), worldwide flights to arrange and a busy team of helpers working flat out right up until Christmas Eve there’s some pretty smart software keeping everything running like clockwork.

Santa's SalesLogix CRM

Our customer gets requests via letter and, these days, email and has to manage a vast database of information including names, addresses, ages, delivery schedules and the all important naughty or nice lists. So it’s important that he has a hard-working customer relationship management system, Sage SalesLogix, to help his festive workers fulfil all their orders in time.

Purchase lists, product information and gift history are all centrally recorded in one constantly updated system. And there’s a mobile link, so it’s available wherever and whenever it’s needed to make sure there are no hiccups with deliveries.

Now this particular customer is well known for carrying out his business without attracting too much attention to himself, but we did manage to get a few words from him: “Ho, ho…every year, more children and more gifts, it’s a big old responsibility, but things have never run so smoothly. Now I know exactly who has asked for what and when I can deliver it. So everything’s ready for December 24.”

So, what’s this all got to do with the customer-relationship software you use and your business’ customer strategy ? 

Let’s start with the software first.  You are likely to be using customer-relationship software  to help your lead prospecting activities.  Capturing names & interests is at the very heart of of customer-relationship software.  Yet, those same prospect records can be greatly enriched through the information available on through Social Media outlets.  Information such as:

• What topics are important to them?
• Who else are they talking to?
• What are they saying experiences (products & more) ?

You can use information from these sites to help enrich a prospect’s record as part of building your  customer relations program.  That’s converting time spent on social media sites into revenue for your business.  Information from these sites can be fed directly into CRM – be that ACT!, Sage CRM or SalesLogix, informing & improving your direct marketing activities.

Relating Social media to your customer strategy – listening for & managing the content.

Your investment in CRM is key to your customer retention strategy.  Ensuring you stay relevant in to customers, both before and after a sale.  But without social media interaction, you can only “know” about the conversations you have directly with them.  What happens when they talk about you in other forums – blogs, forums, social networking sites, etc ?

 Investing time in social media outlets provides you with an opportunity to ‘listen in’ to the conversations being discussed (check out our free guide Connecting with your customers; a guide to social media to help you get started). You can develop an understanding of your customers and benefit from insights within their communities.  Further, with businesses getting more than half of their customers through word of mouth, staying tuned in & monitoring the flow of conversation will give insights to other prospects & encourage the flow across these informal networks.

 Listening in also gives you a chance to improve customer relations when things go wrong for a customer.  By tuning in to relevant conversations, you can dramatically improve your chances of finding unhappy customers quickly and addressing their issues before they do serious damage to your brand.  

 An investment in CRM software is only partially realised without a matching customer strategy.  Harnessing Social Media is an essential part of your business’ customer strategy & key to keeping customers.