In our last Sage ERP X3 blog post we detailed Manufacturing Management for Sage ERP X3. With X3 Manufacturers are able streamline the entire manufacturing process and support the planning, scheduling and production control activities. This post will move on to describe the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) function. In relation to the Sales Management application, Customer Relationship Management for Sage ERP X3 allows you to keep track of all customer-related information, which helps boost sales, customer retention and customer satisfaction. Note: Depending on a company’s needs, SageCRM and SalesLogix, standalone CRM products, can also be used with Sage ERP X3.
Customer Relationship Management
A Broad and Integrated Approach: While most CRM packages were developed to interface with legacy business systems, Sage ERP X3 CRM was designed from the start as a fully integrated module within the Sage ERP X3 enterprise suite. The sales support functions are linked directly to Sage ERP X3 Sales features, such as quotation management and sales order entry, saving significant entry time and fostering an error-free environment.
Finished goods shipped on customer orders are automatically available to be serviced in the customer support area of Sage ERP X3 CRM. This inherent integration results in significant time and cost savings, lowering the total cost of ownership for the Sage ERP X3 application.
A Flexible Database of Business Partners and Contacts: Sage ERP X3 CRM shares critical data with other portions of Sage ERP X3. Relationships can be managed with normal business partners (prospects, customers, suppliers, and more) or directly with independent contacts, with whom no relationship yet exists. Business partners may have an unlimited number of contacts, each of whom may play different roles, and contacts may be associated with several different business partners. A portal calendar provides easy visual access to events.
Sales Support: This portion of the Sage ERP X3 CRM module can result in significant benefits to a company’s sales department by providing a range of tools for managing customer relations and activities. Using a set of presales actions, the sales staff can schedule appointments, log both inbound and outbound phone calls, assign critical tasks, check on late actions that need to be done by coworkers, and obtain an overall view of the activities on a particular prospect or customer. Sales opportunities can be registered and the key pre- and post-sales steps set up so that the entire sales process can be controlled up to the creation of a sales quote, which can be tied directly to the opportunity defined in Sage ERP X3 CRM. Sales objectives can be defined so that management can easily determine sales performance (actual revenue versus forecast) by sales rep and/or other important criteria.
Marketing Campaign: A company’s marketing group can benefit from the Sage ERP X3 CRM management tools, global visualization screens, and functional control over marketing campaigns. A marketing manager can easily follow the activities that are in progress and can quickly compare their projected costs to the overall campaign budget. “Assistants” are provided to facilitate the creation of mailing and phone campaigns, and to record media and trade show events.
Customer Support: Sage ERP X3 CRM also provides means for managing the customer base after sales are made by tracking service contracts and information about units installed at customer sites. From this set of data, service requests can be processed for fault diagnosis, repair, and advice. Responsibility and control are established by the service contracts, which specify the terms and conditions of the warranties and maintenance agreements, and the level of service to be delivered. A dynamic service knowledgebase is available for service personnel to shorten the time it takes to find solutions to requests. An automatic assignment process quickly selects the most qualified employees for a particular service problem.
A service “workbench” is available with which to view all service requests in the queue (in process or late), responses pending, status of service centers and work queues, and service employee work statistics. Customer support can be initiated and managed either internally or by authorized customer personnel.
Management Reports: Sage X3 CRM provides a set of summary reports, created using Crystal Reports®, which support activities in three main areas—Marketing, Sales, and Service. All reports can be easily personalized. Some examples are:
- Activity analysis by sales rep
- Sales opportunity analysis
- Late service requests
- Expiring contract listing
- Effect of marketing activities
Microsoft® Office Integration: The seamless integration of Sage ERP X3 with Microsoft Office allows users to manipulate Office documents (images, video, Excel®, or Word documents, and more) within the context of CRM operations. For example, mailings may be stored in the system database in Microsoft Word format as part of marketing campaign data. More importantly, the CRM functions of Sage ERP X3 may be set up to work in sync with Microsoft Outlook®, allowing users to synchronize tasks, calendars, meetings, and contacts from their local folder.
Contact Our Sage ERP X3 Team
Are you interested in learning more about the features and functionality of Sage ERP X3? Contact SWK’s Sage ERP X3 Team to learn how these features can benefit you. For additional information contact us at 877-979-5462 or click here to contact us.
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