Two women live in neighboring houses on the same street. They do not know each other, but they have one pleasant thing in common: they both cook cakes. Both started trying to cook to order in 2007. One has her own business, does not have time to distribute orders, has opened courses and is looking for a permanent workshop, although her cakes are delicious, but rather standard, like an average cafe. The second cooks something unrealistically tasty and homemade, but at the same time she made only 4 sales in 12 years and, as a result, cooks only for her relatives. It's not about age, conscience and SES raids. The fact is that the first one coped with the total automation of production and marketing, while the second one did not. This became the deciding factor. True, a simple everyday example? And you can scale it to any size: from an advertising agency "for three" to a super corporation. Is automation really that big of a deal? Let's discuss.
PS: for hardcore readers, an alternative intro under the cut 🙂
Yes, no. Yes, what are you. Yes, not in life!
Alternative intro for those who don't like girls (followed by comments)Two friends decided to go into business - well, business as a business - refilling cartridges and repairing printers. We started each business at the same time, and in the first 2 months we managed to conclude 20 contracts with corporate clients. The first guy did everything himself, was hardworking, went to clients, did the work. But here's the problem. On the 22nd contract, he began to be late everywhere, forget about meetings with clients, did not have time to repair equipment on time, and once even mixed up customers and handed them the wrong cartridges.
The second was lazy, did not want to run himself and called the goldfish. Rybka looked at him, appreciated him, and offered to do the work automatically. In order for advertising to bring leads, they get to the site, fill out a questionnaire in their personal account and become customers. And from the site, so that the information itself gets into the CRM - a system that automatically sets tasks for the driver to deliver office equipment, and even better, draws up the route sheet itself, prints out the contract, and even controls compliance with the regulatory deadlines, and when the equipment arrives, it issues an order to the warranty department . Well, a fairy tale is a fairy tale! And so, he introduced a goldfish from RegionSoft CRM. Introduced, so implemented. All of a sudden, everything flew up, started spinning, and know that the businessman is sitting on the stove, handing out tasks to everyone, and controlling their execution. And he liked doing business so much, and everything began to turn out so well for him that he decided to scale his business, open branches in different cities, and combine all management into a single consolidated system. Tell a fairy tale? Yes, there is a hint in it ... a lesson for smart fellows!
7 elements at the core of company life
We are developing our 13 years old, have accumulated a lot of experience and have repeatedly written about various aspects of automation, but never generalized - and what does it give for each process in the company, for groups of employees? That is, due to what is the much-loved advertising “increase in efficiency, productivity and, ultimately, revenue growth” happening? And if not, you need to fix it. Let's not delay - first things first.
So, what are the "components" in small and medium-sized companies that are vital to the existence of a company?
- Employees are the most important element without which there would be no company. They need to be managed, their work needs to be made as easy as possible so that they can redistribute their efforts to tasks related to clients, development, etc., and not get bogged down in a monotonous routine.
- Management is also employees, but with special requirements: it is important for them to see what results their strategy brings, what are the dynamics of indicators, how effective are employees (KPI). Management needs a tool that will allow them to quickly and concisely analyze and easily solve problems (for example, split leads or listen to problem calls when complaints come from customers).
- Clients - we deliberately put them above production, because no matter how cool and mega fancy your product is, if you have no one to sell it to, you will get nothing from it (except for the exceptional pleasure of contemplating the work of your hands / brain, but this special aesthetic is full you will not). They need cool, prompt, and now also personalized service.
- Production is the most important process of creating a product, work or service in order to exchange it all for money with the client. It is important to be able to integrate all processes so that production is just-in-time, in accordance with customer requirements.
- Data is not just “new oil”, but a valuable thing that should not lie idle: it is important to collect, process and interpret the necessary and relevant information so as not to shoot sparrows with the efforts of the company from a cannon, but to hit right on target.
- A management model is a system of established relationships and relationships within a company, if you like, a web of your business processes. It needs continuous updating and should be transparent and clear.
- Assets and resources - all other tools, means of production and other capital, without which the business cannot exist. This includes tangible assets in their economic sense, patents, know-how, software, the Internet, and even time. In general, all the environment that the company has.
An impressive list of 7 elements, each of which is a separate huge system. And yet, all 7 elements are present in any company, even the smallest one. They need automation. Let's consider it on the example of using CRM (here, anticipating comments, we will make a reservation that we are talking about CRM from our position, that is, as a universal, integrated product that covers the tasks of automating the entire company, and not as a "program for sales").
So, to the point.
How does automation help and how does automation hinder all these people and data?
Employees
What helps?
- Organizes and speeds up work. We have repeatedly read and heard the opinion that entering data into CRM / ERP is an additional job that takes up an employee's time. This, of course, is pure sophistry. Yes, an employee spends time entering data about the client and his company, but then he continuously saves it: on the formation of a quotation, commercial offer, all primary documentation, invoices, searching for contacts, dialing numbers, sending letters, etc. And this is a huge savings, here is a simple example for you: to generate a small act + invoice manually, filling out the form takes from 10 minutes, to generate them in — 1-3 minutes depending on the number of items of goods or works. Acceleration occurs literally from the first days of operation of the system.
- Simplifies communication with clients: all the information is at hand, it is easy to view the history, address the client by name even 10 years after the first contact. And what's that? That's right - the marketing word "loyalty", which forms the word "income", beloved by everyone.
- Makes each employee a mandatory and punctual person - thanks to planning, notifications and reminders, not a single thing, not a single call will pass the attention of even the most absent-minded manager. And if suddenly the manager is very stubborn in his laxity, you can catch him, poke his nose into the calendar and ask if he doesn’t get notifications (don’t do it, don’t be evil).
- It helps to quickly, clearly and ideally do the most disgusting work - to form and prepare documentation for printing. Not in all, of course, but in large CRMs, you can easily form the entire primary and prepare beautiful and correct printed forms in a few clicks based on previously entered data. In an even smaller number of systems, it is possible to form contracts and commercial offers. We are in development we went all the way: we can even calculate and form a TCO (technical and commercial proposal) - a complex, but very necessary document.
- It helps to distribute the load within the team - thanks to planning tools. This greatly simplifies the work when you can go to the calendar, see the employment of the entire company or department, and assign tasks or schedule a meeting in three clicks. No calls, rallies and other side communication that really takes time.
You can list a dozen more functions, but we have named the most important ones - those that even the most ardent opponent of automation will appreciate.
What hinders?
Any automation prevents employees from working at work while working at work - that is, doing their own thing, organizing almost their own independent business: their clients, their deals, their agreements. The same CRM makes the client base an asset of the company, and not an asset of individual employees - you must admit, this is fair, given that the employee receives a salary and bonuses from the company. And it turns out like in a joke where the policeman thought that they gave him a gun and turn around as you like.
Мanagement
What helps?
In addition to the above points for all employees, there are separate benefits for managers.
- Powerful analytics for decision-making - even if you have very mediocre software, information is still accumulated that can and should be collected, analyzed and used. Data-driven management is a professional approach, instinctive management is the middle ages. Moreover, if your boss has excellent intuition, most likely he has an analytical system or some kind of secret catalog with tablets.
- You can evaluate employees based on their actual work - at least just by viewing the work activities and logs of employees in the system. And we, for example, wrote down a cool KPI constructor - and in RegionSoft CRM you can set up the most complex and intricate system of key indicators for everyone to whom it can be applied.
- Easy access to any operational information.
- Knowledge base for quick adaptation and training of beginners.
- You can easily check the work and evaluate its quality in case of complaints or conflict situations.
What hinders?
Any automation tool interferes with management in exactly one case: if it needs to be paid for (or has already been paid for once), and at the same time it is idle, boycotted by employees, or even exists for show. Money is gone, investments in software or a physical labor automation system do not pay off. Of course, such an asset should be disposed of. Well, or understand what you are doing wrong and correct the situation as soon as possible.
Client
What helps?
The client never thinks whether you have CRM or not - he just feels it in his own skin in terms of the level of service and, based on this, already decides whether to bring money to you or your competitor who is automated to the teeth.
- Automation increases the speed of customer service: he called your company, and he does not need to be told that this is Ivan Ivanovich from Vologda, a year ago he bought a combine harvester from you, then he bought a seeder, and now he needs a tractor. The manager sees the whole background and immediately clarifies, they say, what do you need, Ivan Ivanovich, are you satisfied with the combine and the seeder. The client is delighted, time saved, + 1 to the probability of making a new transaction.
- Automation personalizes - thanks to CRM, ERP, and even mailing automation systems, you can contact each client based on their specific needs, expenses, history, etc. And if you are personified, you are a friend, why not buy from friends? A bit oversimplified and oversimplified, but that's pretty much how it works.
- The client likes it when everything happens on time: delivery of work, calls, meetings, shipments, etc. By automating workflows in CRM or BPM, you can ensure a smoother experience.
What hinders?
Automation interferes with customers only when it is not there, or it is not fully automated. A simple example: You ordered a pizza on the site, noted that you will pay by card and need to be delivered by 17:00. And when the manager of the pizzeria called you back, it turned out that they only accept cash, and the manager did not see the fact that you indicated the delivery time, because they have "this information is not transmitted to the application." The result is that next time you will most likely order pizza via the Internet in the pizzeria where everything works smoothly, unless, of course, the pizza itself is so tasty in the first pizzeria that you can ignore the rest of the little things!
Production and warehouse
What helps?
- Resource control - with well-tuned automation of production and warehouse management, stocks are always replenished on time, and work occurs without downtime.
- Warehouse automation helps to control the movement of goods, write-offs, assortment, assess the relevance of the goods and the demand for it, which means minimizing the two worst troubles for a company that has a warehouse: theft and overstocking.
- Maintaining directories of suppliers, nomenclature and price lists helps to calculate the cost and cost of products as quickly and correctly as possible, to form technical and commercial proposals for customers.
What hinders?
Sometimes conflicts arise when integrating classical production management systems and corporate software - in such cases it is sometimes advisable to write connectors and still cross a hedgehog with a snake, but more often it is better to simply use two systems: one as a process control system, the other for operational work (orders, documentation, warehouse accounting, etc.). However, such collisions are rare in small businesses; in most cases, an integrated system for management, production, and a warehouse such as .
Data
What helps?
The automatic system must collect data - if it does not, it is already something else, with an obscene name.
- Data in CRM, ERP, BPM, as a rule, is unified, cleared of duplicates, and normalized for processing and analysis (relatively speaking, if the manager earns and scores in the “price” field instead of 12 rubles 900%, the system will swear and will not allow make mistake). Thus, time is not wasted on all these crazy sorting and formatting in Excel - well, for example.
- Data is stored with maximum depth and thanks to ready-made reports (of which over a hundred) and filters are available for any period and in any context.
- Data from software is quite difficult to steal or compromise unnoticed, so software is also an important infrastructure element of information security.
What hinders?
If the software itself does not have data control methods (for example, input masks or checks using regular expressions), then the data can be quite chaotic and unsuitable for analysis. You should not expect much benefit from such software.
Management model
What helps?
- If your software can automate processes, consider that you have hit the jackpot and you have one thing to do: understand the processes, remove everything unnecessary, and, together with the vendor, begin gradual automation. Then each routine process in the company will have its own responsible, deadlines, milestones, etc. It is very convenient to work - in vain small businesses are afraid of process designers (we have no notations in RegionSoft CRM, for example - a simple human-readable native process editor and process master).
- When properly configured, an automation system such as CRM or ERP copies your management model and allows you to exclude everything superfluous, unnecessary, outdated from processes. Looking at your company from the outside is cool, even if you are looking only at your CRM system.
What hinders?
If you automate a mess, you get an automated mess. This is the sacred spell of all CRM developers.
When is automation not needed?
Yes, there are cases when automation is not needed or not worth doing.
- If automation is more expensive than potential income: until you understand how profitable your business is and whether it is ready to invest in automation, you should not take on implementation.
- If you have very few clients and the specifics of the business involve a small number of transactions (complex technology industries, state-owned companies with a long operating cycle, etc.).
- If you are not able to provide effective automation: not just purchasing licenses, but also implementation, refinement, training, etc.
- If your business is preparing for restructuring.
- If you do not have an understanding of the work of processes, well-established relationships and everything suits you in this corporate chaos. If you want to change the situation, process automation will be in your favor.
In general, company automation is always a blessing, but on one condition - you need to work on automation, this is not a magic wand and not a “Make it hurt” button.
How to Automate: Quick Tips
In the footer of the article, we will provide a list of deep and detailed articles on various aspects of the implementation of CRM systems, in which you can learn a lot of useful things for automation in general. And here we give a very short checklist of the principles of competent automation. Let there be ten commandments.
- You need to prepare for automation: review the processes in the company, collect the requirements of employees and departments, create a working group, review the IT infrastructure, select internal experts, go through the offers on the market.
- You need to automate in the same team with the vendor - trust the development companies, listen to them: they have vast experience and sometimes they can really shrug what seems to you a corporate grief.
- No need to rush - automate gradually.
- You cannot save on training: this is not the most expensive service in the vendor's price list, and it is difficult to overestimate it. A trained employee = a fearless and fast-working employee.
- Do not work without a technical task (TOR) - this is a guarantee that you and the vendor understand each other correctly and speak the same language. Carriage of saved nerves - 100%.
- Take care of security: control the system delivery method, ask the vendor about protection methods, check if the minimum minimum is the separation of employee access levels to system sections.
- Streamline processes before implementation - you will see how much faster and more transparent the work will become.
- Make automation continuous: update installed software, make all the changes that have taken place in the company, order revisions if you have specific business requirements.
- Don't skimp on matches. If you've started an implementation project, take advantage of all the features you need - belatedly understanding needs can cost more.
- Make backups. Sometimes it saves the life of the whole company.
Automation is needed by any business, and especially small and medium-sized ones - this is not just your internal software, it is a competitive advantage due to strong progress in working with clients. After all, if a horse and a cart suited everyone, the automobile would hardly have been invented. Perspectives, they are in evolution.
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Source: habr.com