Is your business’s shop floor taking full advantage of a customer relationship management (CRM) system? If not, you might not only be failing to earn your clients’ loyalty, you might also outright be losing them. CIS Magazine found this topic so important that it recently ran a feature article titled “Top Ten Tips to Build and Keep Customer Loyalty with CRM.”

Before delving into some of those strategies, let’s get a better picture of CRM. Short for customer relationship management, CRM is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) module that is a key element to factory floor efficiency. A “company-wide computer software system” ERP is “used to manage and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of a business from shared data stores,” explains Wikipedia.

Shop floor managers can get the most out of ERP (and CRM) with a real-time data collection system that utilizes touch screen capabilities. That’s because such a scheduling system visually improves the sequencing of production (and raw materials) through a PC-based system that is completely interfaced with most ERP and MRP systems.

Now that you know what ERP and CRM are, let’s get back to their customer loyalty advantages according to the experts at CIS Magazine.

1. “One experience does not fit all.” – Software switches inside a real-time data collection system allow shop floor managers to configure the product to match the way they do business.

2. “Don’t wait, anticipate.” – A solid factory floor management system enables managers to touch, monitor and adapt every one of their specific shop processes for real-time improvement that delivers greater profitability.

3. “Strive for ‘first experience’ resolution.” – A high-quality management system helps factory floor managers discover and resolve problems faster. Reminders appear to inform of special instructions. Shift-to-shift information is contained on screen. An easy-to-use email system distributes messages to specific areas or persons. Automatic notification of a floor problem is displayed so action can be taken immediately.

4. “Respond fact to critical interactions.” – A shop floor management system allows businesses to compete on speed. While traditional planning systems are accounting based – meaning they measure cost, but do nothing to improve performance and increase production speed – a real-time management system is based on the actual “activity” of the floor. It modifies and adjusts work in progress based on actual “real world” production events, with the goal of improved performance.

5. “Increase access to real-time information.” – A shop floor management system delivers real-time, continuous improvement for greater profitability and faster delivery to customers. By blending planning technology with new, factory floor activity technology, such a system affords employees the opportunity to use touch screen computers right where they need them – on the factory floor. As a result, they can enter and retrieve data on the spot, providing their clients with new instantaneous updates. They simply touch-in current job data in a real-time environment that improves accuracy and provides a faster time to discovery of problems.

To get the competitive edge that keeps you in touch with your factory floor – and that builds customer loyalty and retention – look for a reputable enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that implements a solid customer relationship management (CRM) module.

Carmen Fontana is a Web Services Manger for Western Reserve Internet Services. You can learn more about shop floor control
software at http://www.factivity.com
.

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Microsoft Dynamics project ? or formerly referred as Project Green should unify and modulate all Microsoft Business Solutions ERP applications: Microsoft Great Plains/Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Navision (former Attain) Microsoft Dynamics NAV, Microsoft (Navision) Axapta/Microsoft Dynamics AX. The challenge of unification probably will result in quality change for the unified interface, such as Web/Business portal/Microsoft Outlook & MS Office integration, Deployment of new technologies, such as Microsoft Sharepoint with workflow automation. Plus the development platform for Microsoft Dynamics products should shift from proprietary tools, such as Microsoft Dexterity, C/SIDE, MorphX (no confirmation for Axapta yet ? but we guess it should follow) to C# and VB.Net with VisualStudio. In this small article we will try to orient IT managers in Microsoft Business Solutions MRP products selection for international and regional markets.

? Microsoft Dynamics GP. The regional markets for Great Plains 9.0 and following Microsoft Dynamics GP 10.0 version will narrow: United States, United Kingdom, Canada: both English and French speaking, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and other English speaking countries in Asia, Africa and Worldwide, plus Spanish Speaking Latin America. Microsoft Dynamics GP 10 will not be available for Germany, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Poland ? the last version localized for these European countries will be 9.0 ? June 2006

? Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Currently Navision has very good presence in Europe, including East Europe: Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia. Microsoft also localized Navision for new markets, where it just moved in: Brazil for example ? it was interesting development in Brazil ? first Microsoft probed Solomon, then Microsoft Great Plains 7.5 and in 2004 replaced it with localized Navision

? Microsoft Dynamics AX. Microsoft Axapta, opposite to Navision or Great Plains where market shares are gained/divided and competition is based on renovations and product improvements, Axapta has great potential yet to be deployed, coming from its modern and very futuristic system design and architecture. Being targeted to upper mid-market and corporate clients Axapta shows very good progress on emerging markets: in Russia for example the number of Axapta installation is similar and comparable with the number of Navision installations. Plus, in 2005 large number of Microsoft Business Solutions gold certified partners rushed into Axapta consulting arena ? this is seen in the USA, UK, Australia and continental Europe. In Brazil currently MBS in local Portuguese Axapta launching mode ? localized for Brazilian tax code

? Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Is planned as front CRM solution for the majority of Microsoft Dynamics ERP system: integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP is available for GP 7.5, 8.0, 9.0 and CRM 1.2 and 3.0, Microsoft Navision ? through third party integrations, Axapta integration is planned. Microsoft has Microsoft CRM as worldwide product, so you should not have any doubts regarding your regional market.

? Competition. Oracle is on the way with Oracle Fusion project, aiming on Oracle Financials/Applications/E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JDEdwards and potentially Siebel integration. SAP with the purchase of new mid and small market ERP: SAP Business One and Mendocino ? for SAP R/3 is catching up

Please do not hesitate to call or email us: USA 1-866-528-0577, 1-630-961-5918 help@albaspectrum.com

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer at Alba Spectrum Technologies ( http://www.albaspectrum.com
http://www.greatplains.com.mx
http://www.enterlogix.com.br
) – Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains, Navision, Axapta MS CRM, Oracle Financials and IBM Lotus Domino Partner, serving corporate customers in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Medical & Healthcare, Distribution & Logistics, Hospitality, Banking & Finance, Wholesale & Retail, Chemicals, Oil & Gas, Placement & Recruiting, Advertising & Publishing, Textile, Pharmaceutical, Non-Profit, Beverages, Conglomerates, Apparels, Durables, Manufacturing and having locations in multiple states and internationally. We are serving USA Nationwide: CA, IL, NY, FL, AZ, CO, TX, WI, WA, MI, MA, MO, LA, NM, MN, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Washington, Baltimore, New Orleans, Austin, Kansas City.

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Siebel is traditional CRM market leader, however and mostly due to recession 200-2003, Siebel lost sizable portion of CRM market to new tiger, such as Microsoft CRM. Microsoft CRM s recent (2001) CRM answer from Microsoft and attempt top get market share from traditional vendors: Siebel, Oracle, Onyx. Now it is targeted to the whole spectrum of horizontal and vertical market clientele. It is tightly integrated with other Microsoft Business Solutions products such as Microsoft Great Plains, Solomon, Navision (the last two in progress).

We would like to give you Microsoft CRM selection advise, based on our MS CRM consulting practice, going back to its inception in 1999. This article is written in FAQ style for beginner level

1. What is your industry ? how strange it may look ? close to 40% of our clients or so-called orphan clients ? who needs help with Microsoft CRM customization are freight forwarding, transportation companies, who needs either improvement in Exchange-CRM connector or MS CRM integration with their freight forwarding system, where they would like to see on the fly resent shipment info. And also to mention freight forwarding companies are usually large (more than 50 CRM users)

2. How comfortable you are with Microsoft technology in-house support ? The old-days idea of Apple computer was to make computer absolutely intuitive and working for housewife. Now we know that this is not realized so far. If you compare MS CRM with Siebel ? you will see that MS CRM requires y0u to have Microsoft Certified people in staff. Everyone knows that Microsoft is ?so innovative? that each product requires daily service packs and patches

3. Do you have Great Plains, Solomon or Navision ? CRM is usually integrated with ERP system and if you are looking at MS CRM ? you should benefit if you have ERP from Microsoft Business Solutions (Great Plains, Solomon, Navision, Axapta or Small Business Manager – SBM)

4. Operating System Philosophy – Microsoft likes clients who have no UNIX/LINUX/IBM/Apple etc inclination and staked on Microsoft Windows 2003/2000/XP/Longhorn, preferably staying on Intel platform (No AMD Athlon 64)

Have fun in selection and decision. We are here to help you: 1-866-528-0577

About The Author

Andrew Karasev is Chief Technology Officer in Alba Spectrum Technologies ? USA nationwide Microsoft CRM, Microsoft Great Plains customization company, with offices in Chicago, Phoenix, Los Angeles. San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Atlanta, Denver, Miami, Toronto, Montreal, Madrid, Moscow ( http://www.albaspectrum.com
), he is Dexterity, SQL, C#.Net, Crystal Reports and Microsoft CRM SDK developer; akarasev@albaspectrum.com

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Whether you are doing research in your field or you are simply trying to understand your client base a lot better, one of the things that you can use to help you is MLM management software. If you are in a position where learning about your customers is as valuable getting them in the first place you will find that having the right tools to further your understanding of the field in general is a great way to make progress, but the important thing to remember is that your software needs to be about as unique as your client base! When you are looking for good MLM management software, there is a lot to keep in mind.

Sugar CRM provides a lot of what you might be looking for in terms of MLM management software. First, Sugar CRM’s background is fairly impeccable. As an open source software, it guarantees that it is not one of those companies that spends about seventy cents out of every dollar on marketing. In fact, all of the money that is spent on this software is used directly to improve the content and to make sure that it continues to be behave in a way that creates a great deal more revenue and accessibility for the people involved.

When you are looking for an MLM management tool, you will realize that some of the point and click capabilities of Sugar CRM have a great deal to offer in terms of customization. One of the marks of good software is that t can be easily adjusted into what you need it to be, and this is one of the main selling points of this software. Sugar CRM will also offer access to the source code that works as the underpinning to the program in question. You’ll find that it this level of customization is very important when you consider the needs of your business.

When you are looking for MLM management software, the first thing that you need to think about is the needs of your business. What do you need to get out of your software? Will it mostly be used for invoicing, or are you hoping to give it a more organizational role in your structure? The first thing to think about before you start looking around for software is what you hope to accomplish with it. By having a list of goals as well as some things that are more negotiable will help you make a good decision.

If you are not alone in your networking venture (and more and more people are getting involved cooperatively) you will realize that you need to get software that will work for all of you. Because this is something that you will be using together, talk about what you need and think about individual needs as well as those of the business.

Sugar CRM is one program that is very user-friendly, and no matter the level of the user, can be formatted accordingly. Take some time with your decision and make sure that the MLM management software you find is something that precisely meets your needs.

Learn more about Brian Garvin and Jeff West at Internet Marketing
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