Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are unlike most other enterprise applications in that the software itself, once implemented, will do little to improve a company’s business. Years of vendor hype have perpetuated a near-magical aura around CRM; and many companies implicitly believe that the application itself can effect better sales or service.

While having a high-performance, well-implemented CRM system is essential for ultimate success, it’s the use of the CRM application that leads to business improvement. Thus, while companies always start their CRM implementations with the best intentions, implicitly high expectations often aren’t balanced with a realistic timeline and plan to permeate a customer centric company culture throughout the organization and gain the backing of key user communities such as Sales, Marketing and Customer Support.

User Adoption Directly Impacts Business Benefit

The inextricable link between customer relationship management software usage and benefit cannot be overemphasized in discussing best practices for CRM implementation; simply put, the benefits of integrated CRM systems can plummet to nearly zero if CRM software is not uniformly and widely embraced by the customer facing user communities.

As a result, many mid-market companies and large enterprises are today in the process of choosing a second CRM system, due to shortfalls in their first. At the most fundamental level, any CRM implementation should be a balanced effort that considers equally the people, process and technology involved. All companies can employ in implementing a CRM software system, at both strategic and tactical levels, to address people/change management and technology issues.

Workflow Tools Enable Business Process Automation

Reality is that most CRM systems can capture data – some better than others – when there is unique data to track. But true flexibility comes from architecting processes in the CRM software such that completion of one action triggers another. This is the definition of workflow, the availability of which elevates the CRM system from being a data repository to a true process enablement tool. CRM software workflow tools are the enabler to define triggering events, and instruct the system to perform subsequent activities – or advise designated resources to take next actions.

Workflow is necessary to address not just immediate needs, but more advanced requirements that will arise over time. Business process automation often delivers the single biggest payback feature when calculating CRM ROI.

CRM Implementation Summary

Clearly, a well-thought out software implementation links the critical variables of choosing the right CRM software system, gaining widespread user adoption and achieving rapid delivery of value. A successful, best-practice CRM implementation should have the following components:

• Strong executive sponsorship
• A dedicated project leader
• An active user community that is involved in all phases of the CRM system’s deployment and use
• A phased implementation plan that delivers benefits quickly, while remaining true to the overall goals and objectives covered in subsequent phases
• A balanced deployment approach that makes the right allocations of time, effort and investment among people, process and technology. Furthermore, the implementation project must balance the need to move with speed with the mandate to deploy the CRM system properly.
• To provide continuous motivation, and an appropriate dose of realism, the right amount of help is required from executive sponsors, the project manager, the user community and the vendor, who should provide advisory assistance to validate the deployment approach, design choices, training methods and technical decisions

As a final best practice, CRM software implementors should seek full-service solution providers where possible. Vendor management, project continuity and accountability are all enhanced when a single provider offers an array of integrated professional services, which may include project management, change management, implementation advisory services, software application expertise, business process re-engineering, training and the deep technical skills for data conversions, system integration and software customization. Finding the complete suite of necessary services from a single partner can be difficult, but if done generally reduces project risk, accelerates the implementation time line and pays big dividends.

A properly chosen CRM application has the flexibility to adapt to business processes – not the other way around. This entails not just existing processes and their modification, but new business goals such as increased customer retention, building sales revenue, building service revenue, etc. With the help of Global iTS and Microsoft Dynamics CRM we ensure you that your organization will reach each and every goals you have through continuous development and growth of your business and its process. Contact Global iTS for further information.

Building an XRM application can take the form of customizing the existing customer relationship management applications that are included in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, or by designing completely new line-of-business applications that are not based on the sales, service, or marketing capabilities included in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The common thread to all the definitions of XRM and methods of extending it is that your application will use the Microsoft Dynamics CRM as a platform, leveraging the capabilities of the platform to deliver business value to your users.

There are a number of advantages to building an application on top of Microsoft Dynamics CRM instead of SQL Server. The most obvious advantage is that the Microsoft Dynamics CRM platform comes with a number of in-the-box entities and applications that are immediately usable. Microsoft Dynamics CRM includes the following features for any XRM application:

Cloud computing, often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources—everything from applications to data centers—over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis.

• It doesn’t need any effort on your part to maintain or manage it.
• It’s effectively infinite in size, so you don’t need to worry about it running out of capacity.
• You can access cloud-based applications and services from anywhere – all you need is a device with an Internet connection.

How cloud computing works

With a cloud app, you just open a browser, log in, and start working.

Without any hardware to buy and manage, or software to install and update. That’s because the hardware and software required is all the responsibility of the cloud company that runs the app.

You can run all kinds of apps in the cloud:

• Create and collaborate on documents and spreadsheets with Google Apps for Business;
• Video conference with your colleagues on Skype;
• Manage your Sales & Customer Service functions, alongside other key business processes on the Platform.

You can even build your own social, mobile and real-time employee apps and run them in the cloud. The latest innovations in cloud computing are making business applications even more mobile and collaborative.

Who uses the cloud?

Without the cloud, life would be very different. It’s become so integral to our everyday lives that most people use it without even realizing. In fact for many people life without the cloud would be unthinkable.

The cloud has transformed the business landscape too. Today millions of organizations around the world rely on cloud services for everything from document creation, backup and accounts, and just about every application imaginable in between

Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be or usually have been provided in-house. Outsourcing is a trend that is becoming more common in information technology and other industries for services that have usually been regarded as intrinsic to managing a business. In some cases, the entire information management of a company is outsourced, including planning and business analysis as well as the installation, management, and servicing of the network and workstations. Outsourcing can range from the large contract or temporary office workers on an individual basis.

When to Outsource?

For every company, the right time to outsource is different. Some businesses have in-house staff to handle daily activities, but may need outside help to undertake new projects that don’t warrant another full-time employee. When you and your current employees are unable to manage the day-to-day business of your company and build the business satisfactorily, it may be time to consider outsourcing.

Finding the Right Contractors

Before handing over the reins, be sure you’re working with the right partner. While technology makes it much easier than it once was to find capable, reliable outsource providers, the selection process is still vitally important.

The Reasons

1. Reduce and control operating costs.When you outsource, you eliminate the costs associated with hiring an employee, such as management oversight, training, health insurance, employment taxes, retirement plans etc.
2. Improve company focus.It is neither practical, nor possible to be a jack of all trades. Outsourcing lets you focus on your core competencies while another company focuses on theirs.
3. Gain access to exceptional capabilities.Your return on investment is so much greater when you outsource information technology to a firm that specializes in the areas you need. Instead of just the knowledge of one person, you benefit from the collective experience of a team of IT professionals. Outsourced IT companies usually require their IT staff to have proper industry training and certifications as well.
4. Free internal resources for other purposes.You may have someone in your office that is pretty good with computers or accounting, but most likely these were not the jobs he or she was hired to do. If they are spending time taking care of these things, who is doing what they were hired to do? Outsourcing allows you to retain employees for their highest and best use, rather than wasting their time on things that may take them longer than someone who is trained in these specific areas.
5. Resources are not available internally.On the flip side, maybe you don’t have anyone in your company who can manage your IT needs, and hiring a new employee is not in the budget. Outsourcing can be a feasible alternative, both for the interim and for the long-term.
6. Maximize restructuring benefits.When you are restructuring your company to improve costs, quality, service, or speed, your non-core business functions may get pushed aside. They still need to be handled, however, and outsourcing is an optimal way to do this. Don’t sabotage your restructuring efforts by failing to keep up with non-core needs.
7. Function difficult to manage or out of control.This is definitely a scenario when outsourcing to experts can make a big difference. But don’t make the mistake of thinking you can forget about the problem now that it’s being “handled.” You still need to be involved even after control is regained.
8. Make capital funds available.By outsourcing non-core business functions, you can spend your capital funds on items that are directly related to your product or your customers.
9. Reduce Risk.Keeping up with technology required to run your business is expensive and time consuming. Because professional outsourced IT providers work with multiple clients and need to keep up on industry best practices, they typically know what is right and what is not. This kind of knowledge and experience dramatically reduces your risk of implementing a costly wrong decision.

The Risks

Anytime you give someone else responsibility for an aspect of your business, whether a full-time new hire or an outside vendor, there is risk involved. Did I hire the right person/company to do the job? Will they do what they are supposed to do? How will they “fit” with existing employees or departments? These are the questions that nag owners of small businesses when handing over the reigns to a new employee or vendor.

1. Some IT functions are not easily outsourced.IT affects an entire organization; from the simple tasks employees do every day to the complex automated aspects. Be sure the outside vendor are qualified to take care of your greatest needs.
2. Control may be lost.Critics argue that an outside vendor will never be as effective as a full-time employee who is under the same management as other employees. Other concerns include confidentiality of data and disaster recovery. However, a supervisor that is knowledgeable in managing an IT staff member will usually be required.
3. Employee morale may be affected.This is particularly true if you will be laying off employees to replace their job functions with an outsourced firm. Other employees may wonder if their job is at risk, too.
4. You may get “locked in.”If the vendor does not document their work on your network and system, or if you’ve had to purchase their proprietary software, you may feel like you can’t go anywhere else or take back your network. Many outsourced companies require you to sign a year to year contract which limits flexibility.

The Rewards

1. Access to the latest and greatest in technology.You may have noticed how rapidly software and hardware becomes obsolete in this industry. How is one staff person going to keep up-to-date with everything? Outsourcing gives you the benefit of having more than just one IT professional. And since it’s the core competency of the company, they can give you sound advice to put your IT dollars to work for you.
2. Cost savings.Outsourcing your IT services provides financial benefits such as leaner overhead, bulk purchasing and leasing options for hardware and software, and software licenses, as well as potential compliance with government regulations.
3. High quality of staff.Since it’s their core competency, outsourced IT vendors look to hire staff with specific qualifications and certifications. You may not know what to look for if you’re hiring someone to be on staff full-time, so you may hire the wrong person for the job.
4. Vendors have multiple resources available to them, while internal staff may have limited resources and capabilities.
5. Job security and burnout reduction for regular employees.Using an outsourced IT company removes the burden from your staff who has taken on more than he or she was hired for because “someone needs to do it.” You will establish a better relationship with your employees when you let them do what they do best and what they were hired to do.

Now that you have seen the risks and rewards associated with outsourcing the IT function of your business, there is a lot to think about. Whether you choose to outsource or hire internally, one thing is certain, you must know how to manage successful working relationships with your IT service providers. Global iTS having experience professional will be able to help you achieved your goals and improve your business and its processes.

Our business management consulting services focus on our clients’ most critical issues and opportunities: strategy, marketing, organization, operations, technology, transformation, digital, advanced analytics,corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions and sustainability across all industries and geographies. We bring deep, functional expertise, but are known for our holistic perspective: we capture value across boundaries and between the silos of any organization. We have proven a multiplier effect from optimizing the sum of the parts, not just the individual pieces.

As a Business Management Consultants, we help businesses improve their performance and grow by solving problems and finding new and better ways of doing things. It’s not just in the private sector either – many firms work with public sector organizations to help develop their services and, where necessary, reduce costs and make savings.

Consultancy firms offer services across all areas of business – from HR and marketing, to IT and finance. The broad span of consulting work makes it an attractive career, offering a variety of projects, challenges and opportunities for personal development. An aptitude for client handling, listening, strategic planning, business analysis and team-building are attractive to consulting employers, as is creativity, flexibility and strong interpersonal skills.

What Does a Business Consultant Do?

A business consultant, first of all, has to have the ability to understand function over form and cause over effect, because the consultant is going to either be brought in for a specific or a macro problem.And you’ve got to be able to be causation-focused. You have to first look at the effect, but then determine what is really causing it. Consulting service line provides an all encompassing evaluation of the primary requirements needed for an organisation to succeed.

Clear, practical advice

We connect and decipher the information businesses need to thrive. Behind our strategic advice is the technical depth of specialists who have designed and delivered major projects for the entire energy chain – from supply to transmission and demand.

Our people combine the management calibre of consultancy with the ability to speak in technical and operational terms. By doing so, we can act as translators between financial institutions and technical experts, for example, to give our clients clearer insight – for a competitive edge.

Solutions that work

Joined-up thinking delivers pragmatic solutions. Our specialists in IT and communications strategy use their practical expertise to plan for success in mission-critical facilities such as data centres. Our resilience, security and risk consultants marry protective intelligence and design to shape more secure assets. And our operations consultants have the hands-on experience necessary to truly align technology, people and processes in operational readiness programmes that get even the most complex projects – up and running smoothly.

Unprecedented challenges

Future uncertainties, from economic shifts to climate change, are complicating the business landscape. Global iTS’s economics and planning consultants break down traditional silos of thinking to help organisations consider their future drivers of change and plan ahead with greater confidence.

We ensure that whatever the business strategy pursued, the execution of our integrated professional business management consultancy solutions, act as the link between target identification and its realization, through expert forecasting and structuring. The achievement of success is based on Global iTS reliability, pedigree and depth of expertise in fundamental management consultancy areas that include, Process Mapping, Agreed Upon Procedures and Impact Assessment Studies.

These areas of expertise, when applied and communicated to our clients, ensure the realization of corporate potential in achieving those goals and avoiding risk in a cost effective and efficient manner.  Contact Global iTS for further details.

Business intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and presenting actionable information to help corporate executives, business managers and other end users make more informed business decisions. Business Intelligence encompasses a variety of tools, applications and methodologies that enable organizations to collect data from internal systems and external sources, prepare it for analysis, develop and run queries against the data, and create reports, dashboards and data visualizations to make the analytical results available to corporate decision makers as well as operational workers.

The potential benefits of business intelligence programs include accelerating and improving decision making; optimizing internal business processes; increasing operational efficiency; driving new revenues; and gaining competitive advantages over business rivals. Business Intelligence systems can also help companies identify market trends and spot business problems that need to be addressed.

Business Intelligence data can include historical information, as well as new data gathered from source systems as it is generated, enabling BI analysis to support both strategic and tactical decision-making processes. Initially, Business Intelligence tools were primarily used by data analysts and other IT professionals who ran analyses and produced reports with query results for business users. Increasingly, however, business executives and workers are using Business Intelligence software themselves, thanks partly to the development of self-service BI and data discovery tools.

Business Intelligence programs can also incorporate forms of advanced analytics, such as data mining,predictive analytics, text mining, statistical analysis and big data analytics. In many cases though, advanced analytics projects are conducted and managed by separate teams ofdata scientists, statisticians, predictive modelers and other skilled analytics professionals, while BI teams oversee more straightforward querying and analysis of business data.

Business Intelligence is a broad category of computer software solutions that enables a company or organization to gain insight into its critical operations through reporting applications and analysis tools. BI applications may include a variety of components such as tabular reports, spreadsheets, charts, and dashboards. Although traditional business intelligence systems were delivered via host terminals or paper reports, the typical modern deployment of a BI application is over the web, via Internet or intranet connections. It is also possible, and becoming more popular, to develop interactive BI apps optimized for mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones, and for e-mail.

Well-designed BI applications can give anyone in your company the ability to make better decisions by quickly understanding the various “information assets” in your organization and how these interact with each other. These assets can include customer databases, supply chain information, personnel data, manufacturing, product data, sales and marketing activity, as well as any other source of information critical to your operation. A robust BI application, which includes integration and data cleansing functions, can allow you to integrate these disparate data sources into a single coherent framework for real-time reporting and detailed analysis by anyone in your extended enterprise – customers, partners, employees, managers, and executives.

Get the right information to anyone who needs it. Integrate and discover data on your own. Create and share vibrant interactive reports. Spark your curiosity with easy-to-use analytics. And monitor key metrics so when something goes awry, you’ll understand why – and know what to do about it. To find out more about Business Intelligence, Contact Global iTS for further information.

Business Process Re-engineering aimed to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors.

Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is the practice of rethinking and redesigning the way work is done to better support an organization’s mission and reduce costs. Re-engineering starts with a high-level assessment of the organization’s mission, strategic goals, and customer needs. Basic questions are asked, such as “Does our mission need to be redefined? Are our strategic goals aligned with our mission? Who are our customers?” An organization may find that it is operating on questionable assumptions, particularly in terms of the wants and needs of its customers. Only after the organization rethinks what it should be doing, does it go on to decide how best to do it.

Within the framework of this basic assessment of mission and goals, re-engineering focuses on the organization’s business processes—the steps and procedures that govern how resources are used to create products and services that meet the needs of particular customers or markets. As a structured ordering of work steps across time and place, a business process can be decomposed into specific activities, measured, modeled, and improved. It can also be completely redesigned or eliminated altogether. Re-engineering identifies, analyzes, and re-designs an organization’s core business processes with the aim of achieving dramatic improvements in critical performance measures, such as cost, quality, service, and speed.

To maintain profitability and a competitive advantage in a challenging and uncertain marketplace, many leading companies are turning to business process re-engineering. When executed well, business process re-engineering initiatives can result in more efficient and effective operations, with an improved bottom line and balance sheet.

Business Process Re-engineering Success Factors

Several factors can go a long way toward ensuring the success of a business process re-engineering program:

• Visible, sustained support from executive leadership and commitment to the business process re-engineering project.
• A strong business case based on empirical data that aligns the business process re-engineering effort with strategic goals and defines clear, measurable objectives.
• Use of proven business process re-engineering methodologies that have solid grounding in real-world results – not just in theory.
• Clear communication within the organization, including documentation, which conveys the goals of the business process re-engineering initiative as well as the roles and responsibilities of the participants.
• An end-to-end perspective that takes into account the entire process, and involves multiple parts of a company that may play roles in elements of its execution.
• Identification and attainment of “quick wins” that can help to build early confidence in the business process improvement

Another critical business process re-engineering success factor is the selection of the right consulting partner – a partner with a proven track record, wide and deep experience, and sound methodologies. At Global iTS, we offer you an advantage that’s unavailable elsewhere – we can deliver a wide range of both standard or custom products and solutions, and also utilize our expertise to integrate our products and solutions into Microsoft Dynamics Systems. Contact Global iTS for further details.

In today’s business, each organization runs with IT. Each and every department needs technology to stay productive and to help your business compete. As data continue to develop, demands increases as well for applications and resources on your IT infrastructure.

 As your datacenter is the hub for storage, networking capability, and the computing capacity necessary to run your business productively, you need a datacenter that is not limited and restricted. With Global iTS, you can create an environment that can extend beyond your datacenter walls, an environment that is flexible and agile enough to handle changing needs and unexpected opportunities.