Have you considered the below points while selecting your Enterprise Solution ???

Read on further to acquaint yourself with some questions you need to answer before you finalize on an Enterprise solution for your Enterprise.

1. Scalability of your CRM to ERP and vice versa
   When selecting an ERP or CRM it is essential to keep in mind that we need to select a system which can be scaled up in future. As the business grows the need of integration amongst systems arises, the possibility of managing the current islands of information and automation decreases and you require one platform to manage the various activities of your business. The ERP or CRM that you select must be such that it can be scaled up and can be integrated with the systems that you may require in future. It is best if the same vendor can provide you with both the solutions, this helps in better integration amongst the systems. You may not realize it today but in the long run this integration proves to be one of the major success factors for your solution and forms the backbone of your business. Always look for a solution which has the capability of integration and can scale up to an enterprise level solution.
   
   
   
2. Skill set of your Users ,Organizational Needs, Technology
   The skill set of your users and the organizational needs should determine the solution that you purchase be it ERP / CRM you need to understand your business requirements and analyze them with the current user base. The question you need to answer is that will my users be able to handle the complex system and are my current requirements complicating the system ? You may need to sacrifice some of your requirements and may require a restructuring of your business processes so that your current users can fit into the system and can work with it. The additional requirements that you have can always be accommodated in the Phase 2 when your users are more comfortable with the system. So always remember that you need to select a system that can match closest to your requirements and which your users can use, keeping in mind the scalability aspect of the solution .
   
   
   
3. Saas Vs On Premise
   As a business owner it is very essential for you to decide on what kind of investments you want to do in the system and what kind of support structure can you provide to your ERP/CRM. SaaS model seems profitable at the first go , the investment is less , you do not have to maintain IT Infrastructure and it is a subscription based model. But what we do not see is the recurring cost that we have to pay every month/year to keep the subscription live and going. Also the scope of customization is restricted in SaaS. On Premise on the other hand is a costly option the initial investment is high but the recurring charges are very low and sometimes even NIL. The scope of customizations and mapping your business requirements is very high . Both the models have their own Pros and Cons, one thing you need to check is that can the SaaS model you take be converted to an On Premise model.
   
   
   
4. Realistic expectations
   This is one of the factors why sales people are frustrated, over selling happens and Implementations and systems fail. It is very important to set realistic expectations form a software , be it the cost , the implementation time frame or the delivery that the software will do . we need to be realistic about the functionalities of the software that we are purchasing and cannot expect Stars and moon from the system at the first go . We need to keep our expectations low during the initial phases and then raise the Bar as the system gets stabilized . All you need to do is check if the system has the capability to meet your expectations now and in future.
   
   
   With all this in mind you can start your search for the right ERP / CRM Solution for your organization.Sage Software offers you the exact fitment for your business,Sage Extended Enterprise Suite is an offering from Sage Software which comprises of Sage ACCPAC ERP and Sage CRM. These two application work independently and also work in synch with each other and have an inbuilt integration i.e. no customization is required to integrate the two.Sage EES offers you a complete business solution wherein you can start with ERP or CRM as per your immediate requirement and then add on the other later.Going ahead you can add a BI which will help you in better reporting , some add-on modules like a manufacturing module , project and job costing ,National accounts , GL Security , DMS etc… there is no limit to what all you can add to enhance your system …the best part is that all the offerings given by Sage are integrated to each other and the products are user friendly.
   
   The extensive training given by the Partners help the users in understanding the system better and our aim is to make the application as user friendly and as simple as possible. With Greytrix and Sage you can be sure of a speedy and simple implementation . The consultants @ Greytrix help you identify the right solution and the Best Business Practices. Sage also offers you a choice between SaaS and On premise for their CRM solution.
   
   Contact us @ sales@greytrix.com / 022-67687847/ http://www.greytrix.in/
   
   

Iron age Businesses v/s Silicon age Businesses

Iron Age businesses were more focused on operational efficiencies, deliveries, finance and administration compared to Silicon age businesses which are more focused on one most important aspect of their business and that are Customers.

Silicon age Businesses understand importance of Customers viz their Products and Services, giving focus to Customer because once a Customer is comfortable with “You”, he will be your customer forever and your products and services keep changing with changing times and economies.Silicon age companies use high end IT solutions to cater their customers and provide them world class service, answer their queries and resolve their complaints and shortest possible time to enhance customer experience while dealing with companies; traditionally an ERP system was considered to help organization in optimizing operations but ERP system puts Operations and Finance on top and Customer on bottom of Pyramid.

According to Thomas Abraham, CEO of Sage Software India, for any organization their BEST Sales force is their Customers and Word of Mouth is best method of advertisement and it is the proven fact in sales world over. A good CRM product can help people achieve this pretty easily and make them transform from a Iron Age system to a Silicon Age system” Silicon age companies have realized that ERP is cart for their Business and CRM solution is Horse, without Horse you cannot use cart efficiently and you will need loads of Cart Pushers increasing costs of operations; an effective and fast Horse can make your business faster and achieve business goals and increase your top line and bottom line very faster. A CRM solution justifies ROI faster compared to an ERP system which takes years to justify investments.

Jitendra Somani, COO of Greytrix and implementer of integrated CRM-ERP solution at various multinationals opines “An icing on cake would be integration of your Horse and your cart, in other words an end to end integrated solution which can not only track your Production but can also track who is using your product or service and how satisfied end-user is with your services or products giving you a 360 degree view of your business, enable your sales force and customer support to get an insights into customer habits, buying patterns and overall customer satisfaction index.”

A good example for this type of solution would be Sage CRM solution offered by world’s leading SME software giant Sage Software, Sage provides a scalable solution where you can start with basic Sales Force automation and move on to next level of your customer centric activities like Targeted Marketing, Customer Support, Customer Self Service Portal with integration to back office ERP system giving your sales and service team a 360 degree view of sales and support life cycle.

Few of key challenges faced by SME segment is reluctance of their workforce to adapt to new technology due to constrains like difficult software processes, geographical diversity and limited exposure to technology; Sage CRM addresses these challenges by providing a world class web based architecture with very simple to use familiar web based user interface; Apart from this Sage CRM offers Role based interface so a user does not need to learn entire software to function on software, they just have to learn their area of responsibilities thus making entire CRM rollout very fast and leverage functionalities in base year of implementation of CRM software and organization can reap benefits of CRM immediately.