The Importance of Information Management Software Free-Samples

Question: Clearly Describes the System, Costs, Benefits and recommendations in business language that could be understood by the Client. Answer: Introduction This report is based upon the analyses of the company namely Barrys Beans which are leading coffee chain brand in the Australian countries. The company needs to attract the new customers and become competitive in the market with the help of the modern information system software namely CRM. In this report, it analyses the overall problems and issues related to the company that may affect the companys profitability and market in the future. This report is categorized into four different parts. The first part depicts the summary of the overall costs, benefits, and systems used by the company. In the second part, it explains the detailed understanding about the information system selected by the company. The third part reflects in this report about the insightful recommendations of the concepts regarding the problem in the identified case. In the last part, it explains the particular system requirements of the new procedure and key business personnel. Background Barry Beans is the small leading coffee company that imports the coffee beans from the various coffee producing countries. The company has the retail stores in various states of Australia like Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart, Brisbane, and Darwin. It is indulging in two main activities of the business that selling, distribution and coffee house retail outlets (Stair and Reynolds, 2013). The company faces the problem of the competition and tight margins. The company identified that the CRM information system is best for the company to resolve the issues and problems in the company significantly. This information system software that assists to increase the profitability by organise and automate the business processes. This system helps the company to obtain the relevant data of the customer and aids to manage the customer profile and loss. This software helps the company to manage the data of the customers, interaction, and access business information and automate sales which helps busine ss to remain competitive in the market. About CRM Systems In the global competitive economy, information system plays an important role in increase the competitiveness of the company from effective information systems. It is identified in the case of Barry Beans the emerging company in the sector of beverages i.e. coffee products faced the many problems due to effective use of information systems by their competitors (Friedman, et al., 2013). The company has already the solid base of customers in their both divisions distribution and retail division. So it is important to maintain the relationships with their existing customers and increase their customer base through effective information system namely CRM. Source: (Info Entrepreneurs, 2016) Meaning and importance of CRM in the company CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management which is a most effective approach to maintain and create relationships with their customers. With this system, management can identifies the overall portfolio of the customers of Barry Beans and analyse the trend and correlate the customers needs effectively and increase the market share of the Barry Beans significantly (Kubina and Lendel, 2015). The CRM monitors and tracks the every single detail of the customers of the company effectively and indicates a company that which customer is more profitable. The current version of CRM system is beneficial for the company namely Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2016.This advance version of system grouped customer according to the different aspects it records the overall information of the customers like their location, business, tastes, and preferences. This information distributed to the management of the company which enables to focus and forecasts the each and every need of the customer significantly (Malthouse, et al., 2013). Moreover, all the details of the system are centralized for e.g. the company has five retail branches in Australia like Melbourne, Canberra, Hobart, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Darwin. The company has the strong customer base and CRM system helps to retain their customers with the help of better communication practices (La Ferle, et. al., 2013). This system helps to closely monitor the every single detail of the customers and provides the viable information to the management for strategic decisions in the long term. More over, there are some issues related to this information system which impacts the operations of the business significantly. Issues and challenges related to the CRM software at Barry Beans The key issues related to this software are listed as below: a) Implementation of software is expensive. The implementation cost of the CRM software is expensive for the company it includes all the manpower cost, training cost, business dependency cost and vendor cost which can be expensive for the company (Dutot, 2013). Below given table indicated the rough estimate of the implementation of CRM software. (Source: Customer Think, 2017) b) Reluctant staff to adapt- Adaption of new technology is quite difficult for the employees and vendors of the company. They are not well aware of the new system which can be the major challenge for the company in term soft cost and time (Sakas, et al., 2014). c) Outdated data and existing system support- The product may not be support to the existing systems. It cannot be compatible with the cloud applications, on-premise private cloud and operating systems. There is a lot of old data needs to be format before installing this system. The CRM cannot work effectively if there is old data in the system. It creates the extra burden on the management to manage the old data which decreases the productivity of the employees. Benefits of this system I) Enhances quality and efficiency of the products- The CRM system helps management to better understand the customer. This will enhance the ability of the company in targeting customers. This system helps to create product differentiation in the market through this software. Barry Beans can use this technology in a different manner and offers customers to different payment options like smartphone mobile apps (Kale, 2014). This system provides the facility to Mobile application payment option, which generates barcode to be used at different retail stores and distribution points of the company. This will reduce the cost and improves the profitability of the company while the focus on high-end II) Automation in marketing: The CRM system is centralized and all the information regarding the products and services on tips. The employees can use this system to promote their products and services through emails and SMS to their customers regardin value added services. Moreover, CRM gives the strong database to the sales team of the company and on the basis of data the sales force can manage its current and prospective customers (Triznov, 2013). iii) Manages customers and increase the value of priority among them: It provides the 360degree view on the customers. It integrates the various functional departments of the organisation like sales, marketing, and customer service and that empowers the business for its effective interactions with the customer and management (Lii,et al., 2013). IV) Records sales and expenses and keep everything on track: This system helps the company to maintain the records of the sales and expenses of the company on daily, monthly and quarterly basis. So that the management can identify the sales trend and makes the strategic decisions in the future. Moreover, CRM not only manages the sales data and expenses of the company but also reduces the costs, wastage, and complaints in the company. Current trends in CRM Cloud-based CRM-Cloud based software is cost effective to gather customer data. Social CRM helps companies to know the more effective information of the products and services. The company used the social sites and social media optimization to gain marketing strategies (Education, 2013). Crowdsourcing- Currently customers responds through social media and business can take the advantage of crowdsourcing for business improvements. As per the above latest developments in the technological sector, the marketing and technology aspect will grow in the coming years. Companies should adopt technology as a strategy to increase their market share and revenue. Recommendations As per the overall analysis of the problem of the Barry Beans it is recommended that the company should use the Customized CRM software according to the needs of the business. The company should use the sales force software which reduces the cost of the software per user up to $25. The companys main issue is to maintain the base of the existing customers and attracts prospective customers for growth in the long term. The company should focus on the effective training of the employees especially marketing and customer service department because they directly interact with the customers. Moreover, company should personalize the CRM, so it makes easy for the employees to work on real time. For e.g. the manager needs to show their team members that how to reduce repetitive manual tasks and replace them with the automated process or show that how valuable information takes the time to process and collect in manual processes. The company should develop the open communication with the employees while giving the initial CRM training. It encourages users to share their experiences and feedbacks. On the basis of feedbacks and issues make some modifications in CRM updates that will develop the strong relationship with its users. System Specifications People- The company needs to give training to the existing staff and new employees regarding CRM software. It will help to increase the productivity of the employees and maintain an effective relationship with their customers in the long term. Moreover, company can hire the CRM professionals at all functional levels so that they can effectively work on the systems and manage the issues significantly. The CRM professionals help the company to analyse the customers habits, trends and sales of the company (Long, et al., 2013). On the basis of effective training and systems, the company can increase their margins and customer base. Processes: The Company needs to install the current version of SalesForce CRM software it is beneficial for the company to record, analyse, and identify the competitors movements in the market. Moreover, the existing systems of the company are manually and it takes the time to store and retrieve the information in the database. The new information systems work effectively and provide the information of any functional departments in seconds (Ni?u, et al., 2014). It tracks the real-time data of the various retail stores and records the expenses and sales on daily basis. Data: The present system needs the fresh data to effectively work and provides the strategic report to the management. The Current latest version of the software will update the data of the customers on daily basis and categorized the data according to the functional levels of the company (Kpper, et al., 2014). Conclusion As per the overall analyses of the study, it can be concluded that CRM plays a crucial role to develop the effectiveness of the Barry Beans significantly. Moreover, it is also concluded that implementations of the CRM software is expensive for the company in terms of cost. But with the customized CRM software which significantly reduces the cost of the company. Furthermore, it can be identified from the study that it properly manages the database of the company and monitors the market competition and trends effectively. Moreover, the information system is important for the people, process, and data to analyses the requirements needs of the company in long term. 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