Why is it Important to Choose the Right CRM Solution?

Once you’ve established the need for a CRM solution, you’re left with the matter of choosing the best one for your business. A CRM solution that works effectively for one company may not meet the needs of another.

This is why it’s important to choose the right solution that allows your business to provide your patrons with the best possible industry experience. Implementing the right CRM solution should be viewed as an investment, and chosen with great care because essentially, you’re selecting a partner to help you grow your company.  Your company should stand out to your customers, and when they know you have their best interests in mind, they’ll be pleased and continuing using your services.

CRM has evolved into a versatile system that allows businesses to maintain existing customers and recognize new ones by utilizing automated functions and lead management that supports your sales and technical personnel. A CRM solution will reduce calls to your help desk and improve customer service. 

When Choosing the Right CRM Solution, Consider the Following:

With the abundance of CRM solutions that are available on the market today, it can be difficult to choose the right one for your business, however this needn’t be so.  Break things down into manageable steps to make things easier for you, and keep the following things in mind as you begin your CRM search.

Your current needs versus your future needs

Analyze your current needs, and remember that the scalability of the product you’re selecting is important. Think three years down the road, and consider what your needs will be then; the solution you’re selecting should meet your needs now and in the future as your company grows.  Be careful, because CRM products will come with many features and items you won’t need. You don’t want to incur unnecessary expenses so be as realistic as you can be. Be in control and ready to ask the right questions. If you remember to analyze your needs first, you’ll find the best solution that will grow with your company.

Functionality

Once you’ve implemented the right CRM solution into your operations it will become an important part of your business strategy, possibly even the KEY part of your strategy.  So you want a product that provides historical interactive analytics. If the CRM solution provides crucial insight regarding historical trends relating to every aspect of your business, then it will provide all the answers you need.

It’s important to analyze trends over time to identify where your company has excelled versus where it’s fallen short. You need this information for your businesses success in the long run. A CRM solution that doesn’t provide this information will hinder your ability to make important business decisions required in today’s marketplace. Look elsewhere for a solution if the product doesn’t offer these tools.

Cost VS. Budget VS. Quality

It’s simple to state a dollar figure and go from there; CRM costs can run from inexpensive to extremely expensive. It’s important to keep in mind that higher cost doesn’t always equate to higher quality; and when a solution is expensive, that doesn’t mean it’s going to meet all your needs and expectations.

Keep weighing your options and stay critical while searching for the right CRM solution. Once you’ve determined your needs for the present and future, and settled upon the functionality you’ll require, it’s a matter of researching the market to get an idea of the cost range you can expect. Remember that implementing a CRM solution should be viewed as an investment.

You’ll be paying total cost of ownership (TCO) over time in addition to initial costs, so it’s important to look for a CRM solution that works for your business and also gives you the opportunity to grow and excel with time.

Hosted Solutions VS. Onsite Implementation.

Today, most software products can be used in one of two ways. Traditionally, the equipment can be purchased and installed on your businesses premises, where the CRM solution can be put into effect on locally at your site. The other option is to use a CRM solution stored on the cloud. Both of these solutions have their pros and cons.

Examine solutions from each of these two areas and choose one based on your budget and needs. Consider what an onsite implementation will offer as opposed to a hosted solution, and it’ll become obvious to you what solution will work for your company. Every case is different, implementation may be great for one business, but another might have greater success with a solution from the cloud. Only you know what will work best for your company.

Hosting/Vendor Selection 

Once you’ve identified your budget and business needs, you can exclude some vendors and save yourself a lot of time. Research is key, and since you’ve now eliminated many vendors and hosting companies, you can begin looking for a vendor that has a good track record and experience in helping customers achieve their business goals.

Remember to ask companies about the types of customers they’ve worked with and their long term plans; and evaluate the security offered by particular solutions because you want to ensure your business isn’t exposed to hackers. Ask for references if possible; typically if a company is proud of the work they’ve done, they’ll provide you with references you can contact.

This is usually the most difficult step in the process but it’s important to take your time because as difficult as it can be, it’ll be extremely rewarding once you’ve found the right solution.

Training 

Make sure that your team knows how to use the CRM solution you’ve decided on. Many people tend to look at training as an expense that can be dismissed, which is a mistake. If you’re staff doesn’t know how to best use the new CRM software, you’re not going to get the results you desire. Find out if the companies you’re considering offer training, and if so, ask for it to be included in the package.

It’s going to take time for you to decide on the right CRM solution. The entire process may take several months to complete.

What to Expect Once You’ve Made Your Choice

It’s been challenging but you’ve put the required effort into making the your decision. You’ve done your research and you’re completely satisfied with your choice, so what should you expect now that you’ve chosen and implemented the solution?

Assuming you’ve followed the advice in this article and done everything correctly, you should quickly begin to see the benefits of your CRM solution. Your customers will notice an improvement in how you’re doing business with them and your users should feel comfortable and confident when using the product.

Most investments take time to pay off, but the rewards should be seen in about six months. Many people don’t like change, so there might be some resistance in the beginning. However, once they see the benefits of the change, they’ll be ready and willing to comply. If they don’t, they might need to be replaced.  The change will be a positive one that will affect the culture of your business.  If they can’t get on board with the new culture, they may need to move on.

As time goes on, keep evaluating your solution; as your business changes, your needs will change as well. Don’t be afraid to make changes, and be flexible. Your solution will grow with you.

Conclusion 

Those who embrace the CRM solutions available will outshine the rest, and those who choose to ignore these solutions will simply be left behind. Your business will be more competitive by raising the bar for customer relations and interactions with your employees. Your CRM solution will help your business run efficiently and smoothly.

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Do you have questions about using CRM in your business?  Contact us and discuss how technology can benefit your business. Technology professionals are standing by ready to help you.

Every company is unique and your solution will need to match the uniqueness of your company. Making the right CRM choice will ensure your businesses success for the future, so be sure to take your time during the selection process to you choose the best CRM solution for you.  You won’t regret it.

One Onion employee fell for the phishing attack. Once the SEA had access to this employee’s account, they used it to send the same email to multiple Onion employees. Here’s what happened:

• Other staff members at Onion clicked the link because it was sent to them by a trusted address.
• Most of Onion’s employees were smart enough to refrain from entering important login credentials.
• Unfortunately, two employees from Onion did enter their credentials.
• One of the employees had access to all of the company’s social media accounts.
• Once the company realized that an account was compromised, they sent out a company-wide email asking every employee to change their email passwords immediately.
• The attacker used their access to hack another undiscovered account
• The hacker sent a duplicated copy of the email, along with a link disguised as a password-reset link.
• This went undetected because the duplicated email wasn’t sent to IT teams or any member of the technical department.

The third phishing attack was the final one; it compromised two more accounts. One of the accounts was used for Onion’s Twitter account. Once the third attack occurred, the editorial staff at Onion published articles referencing the attack.  One of the articles is noted here:
Syrian Electronic Army Has A Little Fun Before Inevitable Upcoming Deaths At Hands Of Rebels | The Onion – America’s Finest News Source.

These articles made the SEA angry, and in retaliation they posted editorial emails on Onion’s Twitter account. The staff at Onion decided that none of their accounts were safe because there was no way to tell which accounts had been compromised, and which hadn’t.  So all Onion employees were required to reset their passwords.

Ensure This Doesn’t Happen to You

The SEA wasn’t using complex methods of attack. This becomes clear when we examine incident, and others like this one such as the Guardian and Associated Press attacks. All of these attacks were accomplished using simple phishing strategies; possibly using dictionary attacks, that are easily preventable if you employ a few simple security measures.

• Keep email addresses for Twitter accounts isolated from emails that your staff typically uses. This will help ensure your Twitter accounts aren’t vulnerable to phishing.
• Always use unique and strong passwords for every account.
• Make sure that all users are educated and suspicious of any links asking for login information, regardless of who sent the link.
• To prevent a hacker from taking ownership of accounts, restrict all password-based access.
• Ensure that all Twitter activity goes through some kind of application such as HootSuite.
• Try to find a way to communicate to users without using their organizational email. The SEA posted screenshots of multiple internal security emails during the Guardian hack. This was probably due to a compromised email address that was overlooked.

Have questions about your business technology security?  Give us a call and book a time with our Information Technology security experts today.  We are your technology support experts, we are here to help you.

She also said that “Windows 8.1 will advance the bold vision that we set forward with Windows 8 to deliver great tablets and PCs with an experience allowing you to do a lot more.” For enterprise customers, she believes that Windows 8.1 will give them confidence to deploy Windows 8 devices, such as tablets and PCs. Microsoft is working on their current application designs.

Reller also mentioned that the update for Windows 8 is being accelerated, which she describes as a “continuous product-improvement cycle.” “To date, the Windows division has updated various versions of the Windows 8 operating system 739 times,” Reller said, not including updates to applications. There are now over 70,000 individual applications available in the Windows Store.

She said the company feels great about the direction Windows 8 has taken, as well as their ability to deliver continuous updates to their customers—whether it updates through the App Store, Windows 8.1 or Windows Updates. She also expressed confidence in how Microsoft is positioned in today’s mobile computing market.

However, she didn’t provide any details regarding the specific changes Windows 8.1 is going to bring, except that it will be more significant than what Windows Update typically delivers. Reller did say that Windows 8.1 will be more like a “packages set of updates.”

On June 26^th, 2013, Microsoft is planning to launch a public preview of Windows 8.1 to correspond with its BUILD Developer Conference in San Francisco. Reller said the final version should be available by the end of the year.

“Since the launch of Windows 8, we’ve seen our partners deliver more innovation than ever before. That’s across tablets, laptops and convertibles,” says Reller. “Windows 8 was built to blend our work and personal lives, it was built for a world where people can expect touch-first experiences everywhere. A world that expects to be connected because we’re always on the go.”

Microsoft has sold over 100 million licenses to Windows 8. The latest available data from NetMarketShare reveals that Windows 8’s desktop market share was 3.8 percent in April 2013, trailing Windows XP, Windows 7 and even Windows Vista. The slow adoption rate of Windows 8 convinced Microsoft to discount the cost of licensing the operating system for its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partners.

The sales of traditional PCs has been declining globally, which makes the problem worse for Microsoft. Industry analysts believe the drop in PC sales is due to rising demand for smaller form factors, such as smartphones or tablets. Microsoft assured investors in its Q3 earnings call, that they’re adapting to the changes of the market, and going for Windows 8 devices that are touch-enabled which can run on smaller form factors and offer a wider range of prices. The company has plans to expand the availability of its Surface tablet as well, which is now available in 29 markets.

On Tuesday, Reller reflected on those assurances, stating that the idea with Windows 8 was to travel beyond the PC and show that they can move from PCs to mobile computing extensively. She also said that Windows 8 introduces a new experience that redefines what can be possible with mobile computing.

Do you have Windows 8 questions?  Contact us today, we are your trusted Microsoft partner and ready to help you.

Nowadays, hackers can scan your credit card from a distance; they don’t even have to see your credit card in order to access your information. Francis believes that the criminal must have scanned her Visa account information while she was filling up her gas tank in South Florida.

Wireless attacks that siphon your credit card number, personal information and passwords have become the latest threat against travelers. Thieves can scan anything with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip imbedded in it, such as your credit card or passport. If you use a smartphone, you should be aware that it’s also possible for thieves to steal valuable data from it when you’ve logged onto a Wi-Fi network.

However, there are a few simple ways you can avoid these types of wireless assaults, such as buying new, shielded luggage products and by using common-sense steps to protect your credit cards and computer devices.

The luggage industry is now offering an entire new luggage collection with protective linings that shield all of your wireless devices and identification with RFID chips. Luggage manufacturer Briggs & Riley, based in Hauppage, New York, is adding RFID blocking pockets to its new bag and briefcase collections.

The new luggage comes with two pockets with electromagnetic shielding, one for your smartphone and tablet, and another one for ID’s and passports. They’re designed to appeal to privacy-conscious business travelers, with black ballistic nylon cases being priced from $129 to $479. Briggs & Riley’s Chief Executive, Richard Krulik, says that his company is always adapting to the demands and concerns of travelers, which he refers to as “reality-engineering.” He also stated that travelers need this new RFID blocking protection for their personal data and information, because they’re constantly relying on their luggage to keep their belongings safe.

Francis Smith was extremely lucky, because as it turned out her card didn’t have an RFID chip. Francis’ bank detected the fraud because of the suspicious purchases, and disabled her account, refunding her for all the fraudulent purchases. This is a great example of one of the best possible solutions, which is to have a bank account that will stop any fraud quickly and cover all loses. Francis also decided to use a prepaid debit card that doesn’t contain any personal information when she travels.

Not everyone has been as fortunate as Francis; nearly half of all travelers access the Internet on their smartphones while traveling, according to a survey done by security firm Kaspersky Lab. The most vulnerable wireless devices are running on Android OS, however, any phone can easily be a target; one third of cellphone users store passwords to their bank accounts, social networks and online accounts on their smartphone, tablet or laptop, making them vulnerable to identity theft.

Do you have questions about your technology security? We can help ensure your business is secured from many of the threats including educating your staff on what to watch out for. Especially identity theft.