The KINAMU CRM Solution

The customer is king

Especially in such times when globalization provides new possibilities and options for economic growth the competition on the market becomes more severe. It has to be our aim to attract new customers as well as to bind already existing ones by providing the best possible service.

CRM - no silver bullet but an effective tool

Simply using CRM tools does not win new customers. It, however, may help you and your organization to gain a better overview of your customers and the actual business to be able to provide better service structures in your sales and marketing departments. This is how you can create the basis for an active and coordinated sales process and optimal customer binding.

The use of CRM - ideally step-by-step

The approach we follow with our solution at KINAMU is a step-by-step model. The basic function consists of a central data management with a database for all customer data, contact persons at the actual or potential customer's site. This database - where customer orders will be processed and steps like billing will be carried out - has to be and, naturally, is integrated into your ERP system.

The next step will be the processing of sales and marketing activities with the CRM tool. However, to make the most of it - especially when it comes to marketing activities - a well developed database is required. The CRM tool supports marketing activities such as developing and carrying out of campaigns (via telephone, e-mail or internet) including a reporting function which gives feedback of successful marketing activities. A centrally managed sales pipeline shows progress in sales activities thus enabling the sales manager to better forecast sales development. The account manager may use the tool to retrieve all customer relevant data including an overview of the sales cycle and customer contacts; no doubt an invaluable advantage provided CRM is being used properly.

However, most important is a step-by-step application in correspondence with the organization. Many CRM projects of the past have failed. The reasons mostly were too high aspirations, an underestimation of the organizational efforts, lack of discipline. As a result, these projects incurred high costs but failed to bring about the expected success.

Central focus on the CRM user

To be able to use CRM systems efficiently it is indispensable to provide user-friendly and easy-to-apply tools. Generally, sales personnel are rather casually using such systems; therefore it has to be a web-based, easily accessible and ready-to-use system. This is why the KINAMU solution is based on SugarCRM - an Open Source CRM solution which offers SMEs a good scope of functionalities at a reasonable price.