Manage projects and business relationships in a single software package
Project teams deserve a work tool worthy of the name. Not only does this improve working methods, it also enhances the overall performance of the organization. All our CRM reviews are available here.
The essential tools
CRM: the basis of everything
CRM - Customer Relationship Management - software is a must. Since it's the tool that organizes all your sales tasks, from prospecting to loyalty building, its importance is obvious. No business, however diverse, can function without customers. And to have customers, you have to find them, then keep them.
Project tools
Project mode is very common in business. It consists of bringing together employees with similar or complementary profiles to work towards a common goal. The project manager is responsible for supervising the work, setting milestones and monitoring progress. In terms of tools, employees need to share their work media. A collaborative and synchronized EDM - Electronic Document Management - is essential.
Combining project tools and CRM
In a VSE (Very Small Enterprise), a CRM and an EDM solution for teamwork are a given. But if you're going to have both, wouldn't it make sense to combine them? That's what Teamleader's two-in-one software solution is all about.
Simplify while retaining specific features
Reduce support tasks
By rationalizing its choice of tools, a company can have a positive impact on its processes. Choosing software designed to facilitate teamwork will save valuable time and energy in the long term. Duplicating work tools leads to a multiplication of manipulations with less added value: you enter information in the project management software, which has already been entered or will have to be re-entered elsewhere in the CRM.
Cross-referencing information
A summary table here, a timetable there, a time tracker over there... These separate items of information should be reconciled: to keep track of time spent and to monitor progress towards objectives. On a tool like Teamleader, the integrated schedule is directly linked to the Gantt chart. APIs also enable integration with third-party applications, such as Google Apps. The company can thus synchronize the project management tool's schedule with the Google calendar.
Preserving work methods
Software has a direct influence on working practices. Indeed, when a tool has not foreseen an action, and it is therefore time-consuming for an employee, its implementation will tend to disappear imperceptibly in the long term. It is therefore crucial to adopt a work tool capable of adapting to your processes, to avoid the opposite: letting your working methods evolve because of the tool.
Activate the associated performance levers
Harmonize internal practices
As a salesperson, your working methods must retain their specific character. They are your own strength and identity, helping you to stand out from the competition. To make them even more impactful externally, you need to orchestrate them coherently internally. And that's where standardizing your practices from one department to another is necessary. If your sales force announces a schedule and your marketing department doesn't follow suit, you lose credibility in the eyes of your customers and prospects.
Streamline communication
The tool, at the heart of the company's processes, acts as a catalyst for best practices. Shared by the various departments, it should help facilitate communication between them. In the same way as for the integration of new recruits, its content, consolidated in this sense, will further encourage the transmission of these good practices. Like a kind of kit, new arrivals will find everything they need to become rapidly operational, while respecting the culture and identity of the company they are joining.
Increase customer satisfaction
The tool will have an even more positive effect externally than it will internally. In fact, a well-organized sales department will be quicker to respond to a customer's request on the support or after-sales service side. If a link needs to be made with another department, the technical department for example, this will be all the easier if internal communication is fluid. For the end customer, satisfaction is maximized from start to finish, and the benefits are real.
Improving profitability
For the project manager, the scope for action to make the project a success is greater. Teamleader's time control module enables precise, continuous monitoring of time spent in relation to allocated resources, so as to optimize the project. The challenge is always to meet cost and deadline requirements, without jeopardizing the achievement of set objectives. Prioritizing through schedule management helps to optimize the organization of work in this way.
Whether software is used for project teams, customer relations or both, it can make a huge contribution to an organization's processes. Properly chosen, they will have a positive impact on working methods and, by extension, on service quality and overall company performance.
Article translated from French