If you are looking to improve leads, increase productivity and augment business efficiency then CRM/CMS development are the answer for you. These two web development abbreviations are outlined in more detail below.
Understanding CRM
CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, involves using a system to record and manage all interactions between a business and its customers. In most cases this approach to recording comes in the form of a database, where all details pertaining to the customer can be stored and managed. Depending on the type of business you operate and the CRM software you select this can either be very simple or relatively complex.
What are the Benefits of CRM?
By gathering information such as this you can more easily manage customer relations and establish what sort of clientele you are attracting as a business. This will ultimately help you to improve decision making, refine your branding and enhance image building.
Understanding CMS
CMS is an abbreviation of Content Management System and involves changing elements within your website such as removing an announcement or updating a web page.
Since websites are written in their own specially coded language you need to translate your website desires into this language by using your Content Management System. Though many people might believe that CRM is a simple technique, web language coding can be notoriously difficult to understand and incredibly complex.
With CMS, a web designer creates a framework website that features banners and graphics. The pages and text are held on the CMS, which can be updated on your website as and when needed.
There are countless CMS systems to choose from – some more intricate than others. The exact system that you select will depend on how detailed and complex you want your website to be.
How to Improve Operational Efficiency in Manufacturing
Improving productivity in manufacturing operations
If you are looking at ways to improve operational efficiency in manufacturing, you’re not alone. Operational efficiency is a challenge faced by many manufacturing organisations. Challenges and pressures are increased by having to work to tight deadlines and, as a result, the productivity of both onsite and offsite employees can be affected by the availability of time-critical information. Adding business activity monitoring system integration and automation capabilities to manufacturing software solutions helps manufacturers become lean and more profitable by automating the back office tasks that cost time and money. Learn more about the principles of 5S.
How to improve operational efficiency in manufacturing
Business process automation can help manufacturers improve operational efficiency by:
- Providing access to real-time data
- Eliminating manual effort from the report production process
- Alerting senior managers when delays occur
- Improving the invoicing process
- Enhancing customer service levels
- Proactively delivering support ticket information
Working in a commercial environment, where customer service and product quality is paramount, means that management and operational teams need to receive time-critical information quickly and efficiently. To combat the increasing challenges faced, manufacturing organisations are turning to intelligent automation solutions to save time and money across the business.
Business process automation (BPA) and business activity monitoring (BAM) improves operational efficiency in manufacturing by helping organisations to identify and rectify potential production issues earlier and more effectively, before they develop into serious bottlenecks.
“We are now able to be more responsive to changes and we have the capacity to scale our transaction volume well into the future without running into limitations.”
Thomas Jackson, Group Operations Manager, Jackson Industries
Keeping senior managers informed
Business activity monitoring enables operational teams to monitor and report on key data generated within their service application in real-time. In many instances, prior to automation, the monitoring of key client data is handled manually by senior managers. As a result, outstanding jobs within a service management application could lead to delayed invoicing, causing cash flow issues at a later stage.
The impact of an action in one department can lead to a significant bottleneck in another area of the business. In any organisation, business processes cross multiple departments and functions, and a delay in one area can affect activity in another. Where a service manager application relies on manual operations, for example to close down a job which has been completed, financial processing could be delayed further down the line.
Business process automation software allows senior management to have information relating to job completion delivered to them dynamically each day via email. As a result, invoicing is more efficient, which leads to fewer queries.
BAM software allows manufacturing organisations to achieve rules-driven, data-triggered email or SMS notifications which provide real-time updates or can be used as a mechanism to remind employees to complete tasks. Typical examples of rules-driven data alerts include:
- Low stock levels
- Aged debtors totalling X
- Compliance procedures not followed / complete
- Unauthorised discount levels
Automating customer management and finance
At the very heart of an organisation is the customer services department. It’s up to them to provide critical information that influence decisions throughout the business. For example, automating ‘contract due dates’ can have a significant impact on a business.
Business activity monitoring solutions enable a business to proactively monitor key data within a service management application, such as sending details of contracts which are 90, 60 or 30 days away from renewal. Automating this process means that service managers no longer have to spend time on administration, but can devote time to work closely with their customers. Additionally, renewal revenue and cash flows can be predicted and processed more efficiently.
“We have halved our response time when dealing with customer queries and, as a result, we have improved our customer service levels.”
John Mills, Operations Manager, Posturite
Finance departments in every business run a number of daily reports which can influence the decisions of senior managers. These reports are often crucial to the business, and their production and distribution involves time from a number of people. Intelligent business process automation provides the opportunity to increase productivity and reduce administration costs in report and document generation.
Within a manufacturing business, many finance departments run stock reports and monthly reconciliations manually, which can often result in administration errors. Business process automation allows reports to be generated and distributed automatically to provide an instant, positive impact in real-time, thus reducing reconciliation times.
Additionally, as another form of reporting, BAM dashboards are often used to display an overview of real-time information which can be accessed quickly and easily to aid decision making. For example, accounting and finance professionals can view a summary of financial transactions and statuses at a glance, whilst stock management teams can view stock levels, values and slow moving stock to aid production and procurement processes.
