Is CRM an ERP?
Well, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) both seem to be the same but are different from one another in many ways.
So, is CRM an ERP? Yes, CRM is a part of an ERP. CRM is required to manage customer retention and store information whereas ERP focuses on improving the efficiency of an organization.
ERP and CRM both are needed for a business to grow exponentially over time. In some ways, they are similar to one another and in another way they are different, just like the two sides of the same coin. Both are important, both seem to be the same but both are alike in some nature but still, they are required for different works.
One is used for increasing the efficiency of the employees whereas the other is use for increasing sales. So, when both are integrated in a business, the company can show a skyrocket growth year after year.
We have seen most of the people asking questions like what is CRM and What is ERP? So, before diving deeper into the topic let’s first understand the CRM and ERP.
What is CRM?
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a tool or software that is designed in such a way that enables a sales person or an executive to maintain records of the customer interaction and their data.
Basically, you can see a lot of these relationship management tools in banks where a sales executive has to meet clients and put the record of the interactions in the CRM so that when they meet their clients another time; they exactly know what they talked about in the last meeting.
The CRM can be used for much more other work than keeping the records of the client’s details and interactions. A sales executive can easily do a sales projection by looking at the closures, hot leads and the pipelines.
Overall, by using a CRM a company can make a good relation with a client, improve their retention and finally increase sales.
Example of CRM
Sugar CRM
This CRM was introduced in the year 2004 and today it is used by more than 500k users for generating leads, monitoring and storing customer information, retain customers and finally grow sales.
The structure of SUGAR CRM is modular and therefore it can be customized and integrated with various other platforms easily.
So, is it an open source CRM? Yes, definitely it an open source software and the source code can be used by any developer to customize it according to their use. So, if you are using it for your organization, you can ask a developer to customize it according to your product and uses.
Streak CRM
Streak is a CRM that integrated through your Gmail and used G Suite Apps. This CRM is basically made for those who need to track and schedule messages.
This CRM is ideal for freelancer’s andsolopreneurs who want to have their CRM right inside their mail.
There are certain drawbacks of this CRM and therefore it can’t be used by majority of the organizations.
Pillars of CRM
There are 4 pillars of CRM that you need to know before you need start with. Customer data has become an essential asset for an organization development and that’s what CRM helps in.
Let’s know the 4 pillars of CRM that can play a key role in development of an organization.
- Customer centric – It doesn’t matter whatever your company does, either it provides service or sales a product. The record and information of a customer plays its own essential part in understanding the buying behaviour of a customer.
- Value of the customer – Once you understand the value of a customer for your organization, you can easily divide it into segments on the basis of how useful they are! With a CRM you can easily do this without any manual intervention.
- CRM system- Most of the time we call this as Customer system. Maintaining the record of the customer interaction helps in understanding the actual prospect and hot leads and the closures that can be done in the coming months.
- Profiling Customer- Customer profiling is done is almost every organization whether it is small or big, it doesn’t matter. Profiling of a customer can help you get the clients that can change your revenue structure. If done well a small organization can become a big brand easily.
What is ERP?
ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) refers to a system used to plan accounting, finance, manufacturing, and professional services operations. An ERP simplifies existing business workflows, ensures continued business productivity, and helps steer higher operational efficiency. This orchestrated solution automates technology functions, improves sales-driving efficiency, and delivers industry-leading solutions to ascertain reputable position in global business.
There are major three types of ERP
- On-Premise ERP Software: It refers to a company’s choice means installed locally, on a company’s own computers and servers.
- Cloud-based ERP Software: Cloud ERP refers to ERP software and tools that are offered and managed in the cloud and accessed through a web browser.
- Hybrid ERP Software: Hybrid ERP is a combination of on-premise and Cloud-Based ERP software.
We have seen above that CRM mostly focus on customers rather than on business itself. But, just focusing on the customers doesn’t bring growth to an organization. What an organization need? Increase in efficiency of the processes so that each department in an organization get instant details of what’s happening!
There are many ERP’s available in the market but Odoo ERP is certainly the best that we have ever used!
Odoo ERP is an all-in-one platform that automates and assists the management of crucial business operations. It is an open-source, which allows developers to come up with custom third-party apps that can be easily integrated.
Who Can Implement An Odoo ERP For You?
In the case of Odoo ERP, Hire Odoo developer who is certified, and give your business a boost by allowing it to work on data rather than process and can sketch the entire business diagram. They also provide the application chart that must be installed and other customization requirements.
In short, ERP works in a way that your business is streamlined by more focus on data and information rather than operations.
Example of ERP
Oracle ERP
Oracle ERP came into the market in the year 2012 and it is one of the popular cloud platforms that is used by numerous small and big enterprises. Yes, since it come from ORACLE, there is no doubt about the features and abilities it has. The machine learning and the automated tasks makes it a flexible toll that can be used and liked by multiple organizations.
But, there are some flaws that you must know about this cloud platform. Inspite of coming from a big company like ORACLE, it is not mobile friendly and till now there is no App support that has become an essential thing in today’s era.
This is widely used in financial, healthcare, retail and manufacturing organizations.
Are CRM And ERP Both Needed For An Organization?
So, what you really need, CRM, ERP or Both? The answer to this depends on what’s your company size and how complex your business is!
Whether you are a small business organization or a bigger one, you always need to retain your customers. They are the reason of an organization growth a decline and if you are able to retain them than half of work is already done.
Odoo ERP, however, is required in big organizations where the work is complex and each and every department is separate. The Odoo makes this complexity an easy task and let managers and executives know what processes are going at real time.
If you have a small business or just a StartUp where every team member is sitting next to each other then you don’t really require an Odoo ERP, a simple CRM would do the work for you.
Which is Important ERP or CRM?
ERP or CRM? Deciding the importance between these two is just like deciding the importance between engine and steering wheel of a car.
Odoo ERP is just like the steering wheel and guides the businesses on a profit making path with data and analytics. On the other hand, CRM is the engine that provides power to the engine to keep running by improving sales and thereby profits.
The difference
| CRM | ERP |
| Manage leads and Pipeline | Distribution process becomes easy |
| Time spent on leads conversion (Calculation) | Manages supply chain |
| Makes sales process easy | Accuracy in financial data |
| Improve Customer retention | Project planning becomes better |
| Customer service is automated | Access the need of the business |
| Keep record of customer data and Info | Can be used for Payroll management |
| Sharing Info with colleague becomes easy | Helps in Knowledge based service |
| Can tell Sales executive which product sales well in the market | Lowers the purchasing cost |
| Can be used for creation of reports and sales forecast | Reduce unwanted risks |
What is Odoo and what are its benefits?
Those who don’t know about Odoo must know that it is one of the best and fast pace growing ERP software that is open source. Python is the main programming language that is used in the development of this open source software.
You can find Odoo in many different versions ranging from online version to an enterprise version. But as far as other ERP softwares are concerned, Odoo has many benefits over them which makes this ERP software as the one of the most liked and used for web development.
Benefits of Odoo
The feature that makes an ERP software a great one is the flexibility, User interface, easy integration and the modules. Let’s go through all the features of Odoo one by one.
Flexibility
Each and every software comes with some pre-installed modules that can be used according to the user needs. The one this that makes the Odoo unique is the flexibility for a user to add modules with the expansion of the business.
This added benefit is really helpful for business that sees the rapid growth and need more modules in their business plan.
You can easily find the list of the modules and install the required modules for your business just with one click installation feature.
User Interface
Who doesn’t want a platform which is simple to use but at the same time has a lot of abilities and user friendly?
The simple platform and user interface is helpful for beginners an even the companies using it for years to do whatever they want easily with the easy navigation features they see on the dashboard.
Integration
We have seen people asking one question always that how could they integrate Odoo with other platforms? Can I do it myself or do I require a developer?
The problem that many platforms face is the easy of business process. Odoo is simple and easy to integrate and use with ebay and magneto.
The easy and effective processing makes Odoo the best platform to be used by start-ups and big businesses.
Modules
Modules play an important part in the specifications of Odoo development. The modules make it sure that each and every process is taken care by separate modules.
What I personally find impressive is the Lead Scoring, Live Chat and Email marketing that is really better than the other competitors like pipedrive,insightly, SugarCRM.
Bottom Line
What a company needs first? Streamlining the business or creating a business process. It’s obvious that creation of a process comes first and so does the CRM.
Without sales a company can’t survive in this competitive world. CRM makes it possible as it helps in improving the profits and generating and maintaining leads.
However, with Odoo development you can create an ERP customized accordingly to your business needs which could have all elements of a CRM.The most amazing part of Odoo is the interface you can that can easily help you out in maintaining daily tasks and reports.
If you have a product and you want to keep an eye on what is happening with your sales, whether it is increasing or decreasing, what elements you need to focus on, all can be seen in the reports that you generate using Odoo.
How We Can Help You In ERP?
We, at Kanak Infosystems, develop customized ERP software for our clients to analyse, monitor and improve their resource management and planning, inventory, risk management, productivity, collaboration and ultimately save a ton of money.
The uses of ERP completely reduce the cost and help in taking a real time decision.
We have developed several customized ERP software for small and large organizations and right now we are among the top ERP software developers.
Being an ERP software development firm it's also our obligation to know the issue area and necessity of the customer prior to creating the ERP solutions to supply them with a suitable solution which may aid them in company development.
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Top comments (1)
Interesting, thanks! By the way, CRM for healthcare allows medical organizations to boost overall performance by creating measurable relationships between all the parties involved — patients, team members, referrals, and providers. You can read more here: cleveroad.com/blog/healthcare-crm-...