Any business is ultimately about customers. IT systems have an important and increasing role in managing customers – maintaining accurate contact details, keeping track of leads, monitoring the sales cycle, improving the relationship with the customer and retaining their business. When a company starts up or is relatively small it might be possible to do this with a series of DIY speadsheets, but as it grows something more sophisticated and manageable is needed. OfficeNetExpress provide a selection of best-of-breed business tools (applications) to help you do just this.
Microsoft Dynamics CRM is one of the leading applications for sales force automation. With a familiar Microsoft Office feel, tight integration with Outlook and wide functionality, Dynamics CRM is a compelling choice for organisations that want to keep their data in-house rather than use an online service such as Salesforce.com. Added advantages of in-house operation include: no ongoing monthly payments; no restrictions on data volumes; no dependencies upon internet performance. Available in workgroup editions for as little as 5 users, Dynamics CRM can prove more cost effective than online alternatives.
Dynamics CRM is about streamlining and automating the sales process, enabling sales people to create a single view of the customer to help ensure shorter sales cycles, higher close rates and improved customer retention. By giving them access to accurate data, sales people are able to work more efficiently and spend more time selling. The integration with Outlook means that your sales people are effectively using a single tool to manage customer relationships: no more flipping between email and a separate program.
Some of the the things that Dynamics CRm can help your organisation do are: manage work more easily; understand your customers better; improve sales qualification; increase sales success; keep customes informed; analyse sales performance; gain a comprehensive view of sales data; communicate information effectively; transform information into sales intelligence.
To find out more, call us now on 0207-096-1136 or click here
SharePoint: for Team Working
Businesses consist of teams and people work best in teams when they are able to share accurate information in an effective manner. Collaboration software such as SharePoint allows them to do just that: if you think of Word and Excel as enhancing personal productivity, then SharePoint enhances team productivity. And a team is not just a group of employees: some teams might include customers, partners and suppliers too.
SharePoint enables collaborative applications to be quickly created, either in-house or by developers such as OfficeNetExpress. These are accessed from a portal using a browser such as Internet Explorer – think of it as a sort of private website that only your company can see. But unlike most websites, SharePoint allows for two-way access: employees can both access information but can also update it as well, without technical knowledge and in a controlled, secure manner.
Most organisations will have some need for SharePoint-style applications. A simple example is a document library - a single place containing reference documents that employees need to be able to access. For example: HR policies, timesheets, expense claims, sales presentations, product brochures, company calendar and so on. But SharePoint does a lot more than this: for example, it can act as an event planner (useful for planning product launches), run a Help Desk (for keeping track of customer requests), manage sales pipelines, even act as a mini-CRM system.
Sharepoint is not just for in-house use, either. Trusted partners and customers can connect in a safe, secure manner over the internet. Applications can be created in which both parties can access and update information. For instance, you might have a supplier that develops customised items (kitchens, sheds, medical equipment – anything) which you resell. With Sharepoint, projects can be managed and design and manufacturing information discussed and shared online. It is far more efficient than just email, and gives you a degree of sophistication that can enable you to “punch above your weight”.
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Smartphones, Blackberry, BES
Smartphones are transforming the way we do business. Useful as mobile phones are for talking and sending text messages, the ability to send and receive emails greatly adds to their usefulness. Many organisations have adopted products such as Blackberry, Windows Mobile and the Apple iPhone to keep in touch. But, these are often used in a manner that does not allow their full benefits to be realised. For instance:
Basic use only | How it should be |
A personal email address is being used e.g. Googlemail, Hotmail etc | Standard company email address is used both for sending and receiving messages |
| Email is only collected ("pulled") on a predefined schedule e.g. hourly | Email is pushed out to the Smartphone as soon as it arrives at the office |
| A personal address book or list of contacts has to be maintained | Full access to the organisations address book and contacts |
| Access to personal appointments and schedule only | Ability to book meetings and appointments with all colleagues in the organisation |
To fully realise the benefits of Smartphones they need to be integrated into the organisation's main email system, which is usually Microsoft Exchange. OfficeNetExpress specialise in this type of work; for instance, we can install and integrate the BES (Blackberry Enterprise Software) that is necessary to proper utilise Blackberries.
To find out more, call us now on 0207-096-1136 or click here