Manage your projects and your commercial relations in a single application
Project teams deserve a work tool worthy of the name. Not only does this improve working methods, it also improves the overall performance of the organisation. All our CRM reviews are available here.
The essential tools
The CRM at the heart of everything
CRM - Customer Relationship Management - software is essential. Insofar as it is the tool that organises all your sales tasks, from prospecting to building customer loyalty, we understand its importance. No business, however diverse, can function without customers. And to have customers, you need to find them, then keep them.
Project tools
Project mode is very common in business. It involves 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 synchronised EDM - Electronic Document Management - is essential.
Combining project tools and CRM
In a VSE (Very Small Enterprise), you're bound to find a CRM and an EDM solution for teamwork. But even if you have both, wouldn't it make sense to combine them? That's what Teamleader has done with its two-in-one software solution.
Simplify while retaining its specific features
Reduce support tasks
By rationalising 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, time tracking over there... This information, although separate, should be reconciled: to keep track of time spent and to monitor progress against 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 synchronise the project management tool's schedule with the Google calendar.
Preserving working 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 working 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
Harmonise internal practices
As a salesperson, your working methods must retain their specific characteristics. 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 in a coherent way internally. And that's where you need to standardise your practices from one department to another. If your sales people announce a programme 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 practice. Shared by the various divisions, it should help to facilitate communication between them. In the same way as for the integration of new recruits, its content, consolidated in this way, will further encourage the transmission of these good practices. Like a kind of kit, new arrivals will find everything they need to become operational quickly, while respecting the culture and identity of the company they are joining.
Increasing customer satisfaction
The tool will have an even more positive effect externally than it will have internally. A well-organised sales department will be quicker to respond to a customer 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, end-to-end satisfaction is maximised and the benefits are real.
Improving profitability
As far as the project manager is concerned, there is more scope for action to make the project a success. On Teamleader, the time control module enables precise and continuous monitoring of the time spent, in relation to the resources allocated, so as to optimise the project. The challenge is always to meet cost and deadline requirements without jeopardising the achievement of the objectives set. By prioritising work through schedule management, you can optimise the way in which you organise your work.
Whether software is used for project teams, customer relations or both, it can make a huge contribution to an organisation's processes. If they are well chosen, they will have a positive impact on working methods and, by extension, on service quality and the company's overall performance.
Article translated from French