On one street, in neighboring houses, live two women. They do not know each other, but they are united by one pleasant thing: both bake cakes. Both started trying to bake to order in 2007. One has her own business, cannot keep up with orders, opened classes, and is looking for a permanent kitchen, although her pastries are tasty but quite standard—like those in an average café. The second one bakes something incredibly delicious and homemade, but she has made only 4 sales in 12 years and, in the end, only bakes for her family. It's not about age, conscience, or inspections. It's because the first one managed to fully automate production and sales, while the second one did not. This became the crucial factor. A simple everyday example, right? But it can be scaled to any size: from a small advertising agency to a super corporation. Is automation really that decisive? Let's discuss.
P.S.: For hardcore readers, an alternative introduction awaits below 🙂
Oh no, not at all. No way! Not a chance!
An alternative introduction for those who dislike girls (following comment threads)Two friends decided to start a business—well, just a business like any other—refilling cartridges and repairing printers. They each started their own business simultaneously and within the first 2 months managed to secure 20 contracts with corporate clients. The first guy did everything himself, was hardworking, visited clients, and completed jobs. But then trouble struck. On the 22nd contract, he started being late everywhere, forgetting meetings with clients, failing to repair equipment on time, and once even confused the clients and handed them the wrong cartridges.
The second was lazy, didn't want to run himself and called the golden fish. The fish looked at him, assessed, and offered to automate the work. To ensure the advertising brought in leads, they would end up on the website, fill out a questionnaire in their personal account, and become clients. And from the website, the information would go directly into the CRM system, which would automatically assign tasks to the driver for the delivery of office equipment, and even better, generate the route sheet, print the contract, monitor compliance with regulatory deadlines, and upon receiving the equipment, issue an order to the warranty department. A fairy tale, right? And so, the golden fish implemented RegionSoft CRM for him. Implemented it fully. Suddenly everything took off, spun around, and the businessman remained sitting on the couch, assigning tasks to everyone and controlling their execution. He enjoyed running the business so much, and everything was going so well that he decided to scale his business, open branches in different cities, and integrate all management into a single consolidated system. You might say it's a fairy tale? But there's a hint in it… a lesson for clever fellows!
7 elements at the core of a company's life
We develop our For 13 years, we have accumulated a great deal of experience and have repeatedly written about various aspects of automation, but we have never generalized — what does it give for each process in the company, for groups of employees? In other words, what drives the much-loved advertising growth in efficiency, productivity, and ultimately revenue growth? Since there is none — we need to correct that. Let's not drag this out — everything in order.
So, what ‘components’ in small and medium-sized companies are vital, defining the existence of the company?
- Employees are the most important element, without which the company cannot exist. They need to be managed, and their work should be made as easy as possible so that they can redirect their efforts to tasks related to clients, development, etc., rather than getting bogged down in monotonous routine.
- Management also consists of employees, but with special requirements: they need to see the results of their strategy, the dynamics of indicators, and how effective the employees are (KPIs). Management needs a tool that allows for quick and concise analysis and easily solves problems (for example, dividing leads or listening to problematic calls when complaints arise from clients).
- Clients — we consciously place them above production because no matter how cool and sophisticated your product is, if there’s no one to sell it to, you won’t benefit from it (except for the sheer joy of witnessing your handiwork, but this special aesthetics won’t fill your stomach). They need great, prompt, and now also personalized service.
- Production is the most crucial process of creating a product, work, or service in order to exchange it for money from clients. It’s important to integrate all processes so that production is timely and meets client requirements.
- Data is not just "the new oil"; it’s a valuable asset that should not lie idle: it’s essential to collect, process, and interpret the necessary and relevant information to avoid misdirected company efforts and to hit the target accurately.
- The management model is a system of established relationships and interconnections within the company; if you will, it’s the web of your business processes. It requires continuous updating and should be transparent and clear.
- Assets and resources encompass all other tools, means of production, and other capital without which a business cannot exist. This includes tangible assets in their economic sense, patents, know-how, software, the internet, and even time. In general, it refers to the entire environment that exists within the company.
An impressive list of 7 elements, each of which represents a distinct large system. Yet, all 7 elements are present in any company, even the smallest ones. They require automation. Let's consider this using CRM as an example (here, anticipating comments, we will clarify that we are referring to CRM from our standpoint, meaning as a universal, comprehensive product covering the automation needs of the entire company, and not merely as a 'sales tool').
So, to the point.
How does automation help or hinder all those people and data?
Employees
How does it help?
- It organizes and accelerates work. We've read and heard numerous opinions that inputting data into a CRM/ERP is extra work that takes up employee time. This is, of course, pure sophistry. Yes, an employee spends time entering data about the client and their company, but then they continuously save time: on generating quotes, price lists, all initial documentation, invoices, looking up contacts, dialing numbers, sending emails, etc. And this results in tremendous savings; here's a simple example: manually creating a small act + invoice takes about 10 minutes, while generating them in — 1-3 minutes depending on the number of items or services. Acceleration occurs literally from the first days of system operation.
- It simplifies communication with clients: all information is readily available, it's easy to review history, and even 10 years after the first contact, you can address the client by name. And what does that mean? Right — the marketing term 'loyalty' which forms the beloved word 'revenue'.
- It makes each employee a responsible and punctual person — thanks to planning, notifications, and reminders, no task or call will escape the attention of even the most scattered manager. And if, by chance, a manager is very negligent in their habits, you can catch them, point them to the calendar, and ask why they aren't receiving notifications (don't do this, don’t be evil).
- Helps to quickly, clearly, and perfectly handle the most tedious tasks — creating and preparing documentation for printing. Not in all cases, of course, but in major CRMs, you can easily generate all primary documents and prepare beautiful and accurate print forms in just a few clicks based on previously entered data. In an even smaller number of systems, there is the possibility to generate contracts and commercial proposals. During the development we went all the way: we allow you to calculate and create even TКP (technical and commercial proposal) — a complex but very necessary document.
- Helps to distribute the workload within the team — thanks to planning tools. This significantly eases the work when you can access the calendar, see the availability of the entire company or department, and in three clicks assign tasks or schedule a meeting. No calls, meetings, or other time-consuming communications.
You could list another dozen functions, but we named the most important ones — those that even the most staunch opponents of automation will appreciate.
What does it hinder?
Any automation hinders employees from working while working — meaning doing their tasks, organizing what is almost their independent business: their clients, their deals, their arrangements. The same CRM turns the client database into a company asset, not an asset of individual employees — agree, it's fair, considering that an employee receives a salary and bonuses from the company. Otherwise, it’s like the joke where the policeman thought he was given a gun and could do whatever he wanted.
Guide
How does it help?
In addition to the aforementioned points for all employees, there are specific advantages for managers.
- Powerful analytics for decision-making — even if you have fairly mediocre software, information is still accumulated, which can and should be collected, analyzed, and utilized. Data-driven management is a professional approach; management by intuition is medieval. Moreover, if your boss has excellent intuition, they likely have an analytical system or some kind of secret catalog with tables.
- Employees can be evaluated based on their actual work — at least by simply reviewing their actions and logs in the system. For example, we developed a great KPI builder — and in RegionSoft CRM, you can configure the most complex and intricate system of key performance indicators for everyone who can use it.
- Simple access to any operational information.
- Knowledge base for a quick adaptation and training of newcomers.
- You can easily check the work and assess its quality in case of complaints or conflict situations.
What does it hinder?
Any automation tool hinders management in just one case: when it requires payment (or has been paid for once) and at the same time sits idle, is boycotted by employees, or simply exists for the sake of appearance. Money is wasted, investments in software or physical labor automation systems do not pay off. Such an asset should certainly be disposed of. Or understand what you are doing wrong and correct the situation as soon as possible.
Clients
How does it help?
The client never thinks about whether you have CRM or not — they simply feel it on their skin based on the service level and then decide whether to give money to you or your fully automated competitor.
- Automation increases the speed of customer service: when a client calls your company, they do not need to explain that this is Ivan Ivanovich from Vologda, who bought a combine a year ago, then purchased a seeder, and now needs a tractor. The manager sees the entire history and immediately asks, 'What do you need, Ivan Ivanovich? Are you satisfied with the combine and the seeder?' The client is delighted, time is saved, +1 to the likelihood of making a new deal.
- Automation personalizes — thanks to CRM, ERP, and even marketing automation systems, you can address each client based on their specific needs, spending, history, etc. If you are personalized, you are a friend, and why not buy from friends? A bit exaggerated and simplified, but that's roughly how it works.
- Clients like when everything happens on time: project deliveries, calls, meetings, shipments, etc. Thanks to the automation of workflows in CRM or BPM, a more streamlined operation can be guaranteed.
What does it hinder?
Automation only hinders clients when it is lacking or not fully implemented. A simple example: You ordered a pizza on the website, indicated that you would pay by card, and requested delivery by 5:00 PM. But when the pizzeria manager called you back, it turned out that they only accept cash, and the manager did not see the delivery time you specified because 'this information is not transferred to the order.' The result is that next time you will likely order pizza online from the pizzeria where everything works smoothly, unless, of course, the pizza from the first pizzeria is so delicious that you can overlook other small issues!
Production and Warehouse
How does it help?
- Resource management — with well-configured automation of production and warehouse management, stocks are always replenished on time, and operations proceed without interruptions.
- Warehouse automation helps monitor the movement of goods, write-offs, assortment, and assess product relevance and demand, thus minimizing the two most severe issues for a company with a warehouse: theft and overstocking.
- Maintaining databases for suppliers, product nomenclature, and price lists helps calculate the cost and price of products as quickly and accurately as possible, as well as formulate technical and commercial proposals for clients.
What does it hinder?
Sometimes collisions arise when integrating classic production management systems and enterprise software — in such cases, it may be reasonable to write connectors and still intertwine the hedgehog with the snake, but more often it is better to use two systems: one as an automated production management system (APMS), the other for operational work (orders, documentation, warehouse accounting, etc.). However, small businesses rarely encounter such collisions; in most cases, a comprehensive management system for production and warehouses suffices. .
Data
How does it help?
An automatic system must gather data — if it does not, it's something else with an inappropriate name.
- Data in CRM, ERP, and BPM systems is typically standardized, cleansed of duplicates, and normalized for processing and analysis (for example, if a manager gets carried away and inputs '12,900%' instead of '12,900 rubles' in the 'price' field, the system will flag an error and prevent the mistake). This way, time is not wasted on all those crazy sorting and formatting tasks in Excel.
- Data is stored with maximum depth and is available for any period and in any dimension thanks to ready-made reports (over one hundred of them) and filters. over a hundred) and filters are available for any period and in any breakdown.
- Data from software is quite difficult to steal or compromise unnoticed, making software a crucial infrastructural element of information security.
What does it hinder?
If the software does not have data control mechanisms (for example, input masks or checks using regular expressions), the data can be quite messy and unsuitable for analysis. Such software is not likely to yield much benefit.
Management Model
How does it help?
- If your software can automate processes, consider yourself lucky; all that's left is to understand the processes, eliminate everything unnecessary, and begin gradual automation with the vendor. Then, each routine process in the company will have its own responsible person, deadlines, milestones, etc. It's very convenient to work this way — it's a shame that small businesses are afraid of process builders (for example, in our RegionSoft CRM, there are no complicated notations — just a straightforward, user-friendly native process editor and a process wizard).
- With proper setup, a CRM or ERP automation system replicates your management model and allows you to eliminate everything excess, unnecessary, and outdated from the processes. Looking at your company from the outside is great, even if you're just looking at your CRM system.
What does it hinder?
If you automate chaos, you will get automated chaos. This is a sacred mantra of all CRM developers.
When is automation unnecessary?
Yes, there are cases when automation is not needed or should not be implemented.
- If automation costs more than the potential income: until you understand how profitable your business is and whether it's ready to invest in automation, you should not start the implementation.
- If you have very few clients and the nature of your business implies a small number of transactions (complex technological industries, government companies with long operational cycles, etc.).
- If you are unable to ensure effective automation: not just purchasing licenses, but also implementation, adjustments, training, etc.
- If your business is preparing for restructuring.
- If you have no understanding of how processes work, established relationships, and if you are satisfied with this corporate chaos. If you want to change the situation—process automation will be beneficial for you.
In general, company automation is always a good thing, but on one condition—automation needs to be worked on, it is not a magic wand or a 'Make it awesome' button.
How to automate: brief tips
In the article's footer, we will provide a list of in-depth and detailed articles on various aspects of CRM system implementation, from which you can gain a lot of useful information for automation in general. Here, we will provide a very short checklist of the principles of effective automation. Let’s have ten commandments.
- You need to prepare for automation: review company processes, gather requirements from employees and departments, create a working group, reassess the IT infrastructure, select internal experts, and review market offers.
- Automation needs to be done in tandem with the vendor—trust the developing companies, listen to them: they have vast experience and can sometimes clarify what seems like a corporate misery to you.
- Do not rush—automate gradually.
- You must not skimp on training: it is not the most expensive service in the vendor's price list, and its value is hard to overestimate. A trained employee = a fearless and fast-working employee.
- Do not work without a technical specification (TS) — it guarantees that you and the vendor understood each other correctly and speak the same language. You'll save a ton of nerves — 100%.
- Ensure security: control the method of system delivery, ask the vendor about protection methods, verify if there is a minimum of minimums—a separation of employee access levels to system sections.
- Organize processes before implementation—you will notice how much faster and clearer the work will become.
- Make automation continuous: update the installed software, incorporate all changes that occurred in the company, order modifications if you have specific business requirements.
- Don't be stingy on the details. If you start a project implementation, use all the resources you need — delayed understanding of needs can cost more.
- Make backups. Sometimes this can save the entire company.
Automation is necessary for any business, especially small and medium ones — it's not just your internal software; it's a competitive advantage due to significant advancements in client relations. After all, if a horse and cart satisfied everyone, the automobile would never have been invented. Opportunities lie in evolution.
From June 10 to 23, we have a promotion
Our informative articles
About our RegionSoft CRM
CRM Implementation
About KPIs in business
Miscellaneous interesting topics
Source: habr.com
