If you are in charge of system construction or marketing for your company, you have probably heard of the terms “ERP” and “CRM.” You may have been approached by a system company or a consulting company and asked if you would like to implement ERP, or your boss may have said to you, “We would like to implement CRM at our company as well.”
This time, we will explain the meaning of ERP and CRM, the differences between the two, and the key points for implementation.
The meaning of ERP and CRM and the benefits of implementing them
First, we will explain the overview and benefits of ERP and CRM, as well as the differences between them.
- What is ERP? What are the benefits of introducing it?
ERP is an abbreviation for “Enterprise Resource Planning”, which in Japanese means “management resource planning”. Specifically, it refers to a core system that can be used commonly by multiple departments.
A company is a collection of various departments such as accounting, human resources, production, manufacturing, sales, and sales, and there are many companies where each department manages information in its own unique way to proceed with business.
If different departments use different systems, losses will occur when coordinating with other departments. For example, the sales department aggregates sales data and sends it by email to the accounting department, or when a production site runs out of materials, it generates a slip and arranges for the purchasing department to purchase. No.
For this reason, if you use a unified core system within your company to share information, this kind of loss will be less likely to occur, and you can expect to improve operational efficiency and productivity. An advantage for managers is that they can see a variety of company information and figures, making it easier to make accurate and speedy business decisions.
The advantage is that if you implement CRM and enter customer information, you no longer have to look at business cards of business partners to find contact information. You will be able to accurately approach potential customers by visiting customers you have done business with in the past, sending e-mail newsletters to people who have made inquiries, and inviting people who are interested in your products and services to seminars. It can also be used for sales department management and marketing, such as checking the progress of sales activities, following up on subordinates, and analyzing customer trends.
If you can improve your business efficiency and approach prospective customers more accurately using CRM, you can expect to increase your profits.
It may be easier to understand if you think of ERP as something that can be used by all departments throughout the company, and CRM as something that is used primarily by sales and marketing departments.
Key points when implementing ERP/CRM
What should I be careful about when introducing a new ERP/CRM? How can we get more out of it? From here, let’s think about the points to consider when implementing the system.
- Should I introduce ERP or CRM?
ERP that can manage all kinds of company information and CRM that can manage customer information. If you think about it simply, it seems like you only need to introduce ERP, which has a wide range of coverage. There are certainly ERP systems that come with features that allow you to manage customer information. However, when considering ease of use, functionality, and scalability, a CRM that specializes in sales support is better for customer management.
By the way, there are also systems that are customizable so that ERP and CRM can be linked, or systems that are designed to be linked from the beginning.
If customer information and the progress of sales activities are not shared within the sales department, if you want to carry out sales activities and marketing measures that utilize customer data, or if you want to strengthen the management of the sales and marketing departments, introduce CRM. let’s.
We also recommend that you refer to usage examples. You may be able to get some hints on how to use the system effectively.
- Let’s master the system
Even if you introduce a good system, if you can’t make full use of it, it will be a wasted treasure. Furthermore, if there is no alignment within the company, for example, some departments use systems to manage information while others continue to communicate on paper, they will not be as effective as they should be.
After all, ERP and CRM are just tools. Only by making full use of the system will we be able to improve the efficiency of our operations and management, and reach our goal of increasing our company’s profits. To this end, it is important to clarify the purpose of the introduction, and prepare and inform employees so that they can share the necessary operations after the introduction.
summary
◆ERP means “management resource planning” and specifically refers to a core system that can be used commonly by multiple departments.
◆CRM stands for “customer relationship management” and refers to a sales and marketing support system that creates a database of customer information (personal information, transaction history, progress of business negotiations, needs, etc.) and makes it easier to utilize.
◆Introducing ERP as a core system can be expected to improve the business efficiency of the entire company.
◆By introducing CRM, you can improve the efficiency of sales and marketing.
◆If you don’t introduce a system that matches your goals and issues, you won’t be able to fully utilize it and your treasure will be wasted.
◆What can you do? Can’t you? It is important to have a meeting with the person in charge of the system company to clarify the