Onboard Plc has been a certified partner of the leader on the CRM market Salesforce.com since 2006.

What is a CRM platform/system?

The term CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management or Customer Relations Management. It applies to the processes at a company related to the management of its customer relations. Software of the type CRM is used to support such business processes and store detailed information about existing and potential customers, which information can be accessed by employees in various departments like Sales, Marketing, Customer Services, Professional & Business Development, HR, etc. The main objective is to improve the services directly offered to clients and to use the information in the system for marketing and sales goals. Many companies have common clients. It's a challenge to persuade somebody to choose exactly your company for a business partner. It's an art to make your clients feel special. That's exactly what the CRM platform/CRM system does - it creates an integrated approach to define, win and retain customers. CRM is not simply technology, but rather a strategy which places the client at the very center of the company policy. A world leader on the CRM market is Salesforce.com*.

Salesforce.com CRM benefits:
Depending on the extent to which CRM strategy is applied at a certain organisation, the benefits from using a CRM (Customer Relations Management platform) system can be of various nature. Some of these are:

- knowing well your clients, clients' needs and expectations;

- increasing customer satisfaction; customer loyalty strengthening;

- increasing market share through attracting new customers and successful retention of existing customers;

- costs optimization & return on investment;

- a single database with shared information, the information is accessible to any employee at any time;

- better campaign & sales process management; and many more.

Additional benefits of Salesforce.com CRM:
- More timely responses to customers
- Better-targeted services for customers
- Increased customer income
- Bigger success with cross-sell and up-sell sales
- Shorter sales cycle
- More efficient call-center operations
- Better sales forecasts
- Fewer problems with customer
- Better-informed marketing decisions

Other benefits include: easy usability - the system can be used every day from any place, access is given through a unique username and password; customisation possibilities - there are no two companies alike, that's why the platform Salesforce.com CRM offers lots of customisation options specifically for your company needs and for your industry; there are no software obstacles - with web-based applications such as Salesforce.com CRM, upgrades are automatic, meaning that the client always has and uses the latest version and does not have to buy, install or make additional settings to any software; security - Salesforce.com guarantees that customer data is protected through data encryption, an authorized access to the system, application security, firewall protection - a level of security that only a world class provider can deliver; payment - there are no initial fees; instead, you pay while you are using the application; customer activity tracking; work with any mail application (Outlook, Gmail, etc), connection to Google AdWords, sending out mass email messages, marketing campaigns management, easy to use by any department at your company, and others.

Key business processes that the Salesforce.com CRM system facilitates are:

1. Sales Automation - management of the sales process from the planning, the ‘wooing' of the potential customer, through orders until ending the relationship with him.
2. Marketing Automation - marketing/PR campaigns management, segmentation and lead generation.
3. Services Automation - consultations, technical support, monitoring and statistics (analysis of customer behaviour, visits and business results).

Which companies is Salesforce.com suitable for?
Generally there is no limitation as to the type of companies to use Salesforce.com. Still, this platform is most suitable for mid-sized enterprises, although it is a very good solution for the small business as well. As implementation costs are minimal, the system has incorporated ‘best practices' and business processes which can be very useful to the small and mid-sized business. Also, the small and/or mid-sized businesses receive the same functionality and level of security as all other big companies. In principle, they would not be able to afford this level of functionality, security and infrastructure if an ‘on-premise' solution was chosen.

Salesforce.com CRM in times of economic crisis:
In times of economic instability, the solution Salesforce.com CRM turns out be extremely suitable for lowering the risk of CRM implementation and ensuring the budget flexibility companies are aiming for. In support of this statement here are some figures: for the last quarter, ended on 31st July this year the company reports an income amounting to 316,1 m. dollars, which is with 20% more in comparison to the same period a year ago. Income amounts to 21,2 million dollars. During the preceding quarter Salesforce.com reports an income of 305 million dollars, which is again a quarterly record for the company. It also adds 3900 new users and that without any financial incentives (discounts, etc), but only because of the platform structure and opportunities offered.

Test Drive Salesforce.com CRM:
Every company or individual user can test free of charge Salesforce.com for a period of 30 days. The procedure to generate you access to the web-based Salesforce.com CRM system takes only 10 min. and can be done from here.

* Salesforce.com positioning as a leader on the CRM market. Source: Gartner, July 2009.

Read this article in Bulgarian.