Sap Business One CRM Implementation Notes

Posted by admin in Business Quotations on Jul 20th, 2010 | 0 comments

SAP B1 ERP has integrated CRM functionality and you can purchase named user licenses for CRM only at half of the normal all-in-one user license price. Client Relation Management business logic typically fits to your sales people and considering typical business office, you may have as many as half of all office employee working in Sales department, CRM licenses might help your budget in Software purchasing and implementing. Let’s review the functionality:

1. Opportunity. This is the key CRM object. Opportunity might be assigned to either Customer or Lead Business Partner. Toward opportunity you can do activities, such as phone calls, meetings, task, note or other. You also can associate opportunity with Partner channel – if you sell SAP products you can associate with SAP BO product line (SAP Business One you can make a partner for opportunities). Also you can associate opportunity with competitor, for example Microsoft Dynamics. Plus for the opportunity you can select existing or create new quotation or sales order, in this case you may decide to update opportunity budget from Quote or Order

2. Opportunity phases and stages. By default new opportunity is created in open phase. Then as you go with your sales cycle you can move it to won or lost phase. In CRM setup you define opportunity stages with estimated closing percentages at each stage. As well you enumerate stages. You can also move back to previous stages. Good example is negotiation and following quotation stage. You can move back from quotation to further additional negotiation

3. Related Documents. These are quotes and sales orders. If you have multiple re-negotiation steps you may associate multiple sales documents to the same opportunity and every time you can update budgets and plus closing estimated percentages

4. Opportunity reporting. Here, as you normally expecting from SAP BO, reporting is really sophisticated and at the same time pretty intuitive. Besides standard reporting we encourage you to practice or establish good habit to practice in SAP B1 unique drag-and-relate technology, which is very cool feature, resembling data mining and warehousing

Business Books in the Current Economic Climate

Posted by admin in Business Books on Jul 20th, 2010 | 0 comments

Whether someone decides to become a pilot, a plumber or a footballer, it’s probably fair to say that those who wish to reach the top of their profession will no doubt have to learn from the best if they are to fulfil their true ambitions.

Whilst a lot is down to the individuals themselves in terms of how they apply themselves and the effort they put in, long term success also depends on how willing someone is to seek advice from those who have already been there and done it.

This is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs and budding businesses that are starting up for the first time. Whilst money can’t buy that gut instinct that is so important in making those crucial business decisions, being informed by sound advice will prove very beneficial, especially in the early days. And this is probably even more important in the current economic climate, with many industries struggling to remain profitable.

There are many free business advice services available for those with little or no practical business experience, should they decide to take the plunge into self-employment and start their own company. However, even before getting to the stage of seeking out professional advice, it’s always good to have a reasonable notion of what it takes to start a new business and turn it into a long-term success.

Indeed, there is a whole host of business advice literature covering everything from finance and law, to e-commerce and general business strategy. For those who are looking for a more holistic business start-up guide, there is a plethora to choose from. Any successful company will need a detailed business plan, so it’s probably worthwhile investing a little time researching the best way to develop one from the very start.

Then there are more advanced guides for existing business owners on how to reshape their business into a modern, streamlined technologically-shrewd online enterprise.

But whatever the required specialist subject area, business books may well be increasing in popularity due to the current economic downturn; and for good reason. Regardless of whether someone is just beginning their journey into self-employment or whether they are an experienced business person who simply needs a little guidance to ensure their long-term survival, the need to be proactive and learn the necessary skills to succeed cannot be overstated.

And by learning from the best, this will put businesses of any size and from across all industries in a much better position to sustain their profitability; well into the future.

Photography Business Book Exposure

Posted by admin in Business Books on Jul 20th, 2010 | 0 comments

Photography is treated as a business more than a passion nowadays. This is due to the increase in the monetary gains through the sales and promotions of photos. There are many ways to increase your business through photos. Some of the common methods are advertising and marketing, while the latest ones are referrals and photography forums.

If you are considering your photographic interests to be converted into a business, then there are certain tips you can follow to achieve the most ultimate benefits out of it as explained in photography business books. The first one out of it is the age old process of advertising and marketing. You have to market your photos and self to gain more business.

If you have a good collection of photos, just upload it on your photo web site or blog, or other photography web sites like ShutterStock, Fotolia, and the like. By doing so, you gain money each time your photo is downloaded by someone. The photography business book goes into great depth on this subject, and we quickly change the way you think about this profitable online photography business.

A good method to enhance your photography business is to ask for referrals. You can do a couple of photo shoots and ask your acquaintances to refer you. If you are giving out hard copies of the photos, give your customers a few excess prints or free albums. This is a marketing strategy to establish and increase business.

If you are specializing in a particular area of photography like fashion, pets, children, etc, keep your specialized list of contacts also. For example, if you are a fashion photographer, models are not the sole people who can bring in business to you. Maintain contacts with event organizers and coordinators, people behind the fashion industry, and the like. They can give you tip offs on what is happening when and where.

Always maintain a collection of the work you have done. In today’s world, as everything is happening online, a web site or photo blog is the best option. But some still admire and are passionate about the hard copy photos. So if possible you can maintain a work album as well. You can show it off to prospective clients when you go marketing.

Make use of photography web sites and forums. These are the mediums which you can use to promote and enhance your business. Leave a comment on these forums and a link to your web site. This is sure to bring in interested clients to your web page.

Hand out creative visiting cards to customers and prospective clients. This also is a method of impression making and business building. Find local distributors to sell your photographs. Utilize the photographs to create post cards, photo calendars, or greeting cards. You can sell it locally or to your acquaintances. You can even keep these for sale through your web site. This brings out the creativity in you and increases the business as well. Some people may not be ardent fans of photography, but they may purchase a calendar with good photos, as it has a purpose in daily life.

Using these techniques and tips you can increase your photography business. Always keep your self updated on the happenings and trends in the industry.

Outsourcing Customer Service

Posted by admin in Customer Service on Jul 20th, 2010 | 0 comments

Quite a few organizations hire employees in internal positions such as human resources, marketing, sales, facilities, cafeteria, accounting or security without adequate training in customer service skills. Generally, unless a customer complains or compliments an employee their supervisor typically assumes that everything is being done well and provides positive feedback on their performance review.

 

Customer Services includes small and large details such as understanding the needs and purchasing habits of the customers, responding to all e-mail and phone inquiries, human contact and conversation, taking responsibility, to celebrate little triumphs with them, commiserate in their complaints and even get to know them. These customers once made will remain loyal customers forever.

 

By itself customer service is too vast to handle unless you are a large business with well defined sections in your office. Outsourcing customer service can allow a small or medium business to take care of its core competencies, while the customers are professionally and satisfactorily dealt with.

 

Online customer service is handled by quite a lot of call centers. The need for such service arises on two accounts.

 

First an online business is a 24*7 business. Your customers belong to the world and there are several time zones out there! Their hours and holidays are different from yours. Remember you lose a customer to your competitor if you do not respond to their calls.

 

Secondly, call response needs training and expertise handling. You cannot personally attend each call. So you need to hire employees. Each employee will need to be trained in your products, their handling and customer responses. So you will need to setup an entire process. The entire procedure is very time centric. If time is at premium (as it is for most of us) outsource it to the experts. Call center employees are trained in such procedures, responses come easier to them and they are trained to present a human face to the prospect.

 

Outsourcing customer service may have its pitfalls if the call center and business do not work closely in tandem with each other. The outsourcing company should work with the call center hand in hand to get customer feedback. The script flow must be based on previous experience of the company. The concept of personal attention to the customer is very important for closing a call. There some guidelines to be followed for ideal customer service assistance. Some of them are discussed here.

 

The customer must be put first as a person. The customer should be helped to make a decision and not pushed to buy. Respect him and he will respect you in turn and come back to you.

 

Listen to what the customer has to say. Clarify their doubts and answer the questions. The customer service employee should always have in-depth knowledge about the product or services. If unable to respond to a query immediately take the customers contact id and respond soon. Customers always have a tendency to look for a problem solver rather than an order taker

 

Learn about the customer in a casual way not as a marketing survey sort of thing. The easiest way to do this is to ask for them for feedback about their experience with the company or organization.

 

Respect the customers time. If a customer is in hurry be fast and friendly whatever the medium. In companies where the customer profile has senior citizens may want to talk a while. Give into them. They’ll come back to you for sure. It is also important to be fast and friendly.

 

If promises are made, should always be kept with the customers. If not, they should be compensated.

 

Lastly, review and feedback go a way in improving customer service. The staff can be asked about unusual requests or difficult situations. Reviews teach many important lessons.

 

In addition to the above points some do nots have to be kept in mind. Pitfalls such as incompetence, disorganization, unprofessional manners, lack of standard policy, delays and unreliability lose customers. It’s said that happy customers are the best and most effective way to find new customers. Let your prospects and leads rave about your customer services.