Process Controls within Sage CRM

Name: Process Controls within Sage CRM
Uploaded: 2012-06-22T08:18:19
Description: Process Controls within Sage CRM

Sage CRM Process Controls

Sage CRM allows you to systemize how information moves through different individuals and departments. These features are very powerful and flexible. This ability that Sage CRM has of systemizing a process is the single biggest differentiator from other CRM applications.

The companies that take advantage of these features have a higher rate of adoption and success with their CRM initiatives.

Warning

Leveraging these features can be addictive. Once organizations start seeing the benefits of being more systematic and efficient, they typically find more and more ways to leverage Sage CRM.

Key Benefits

Transparency: Everyone knows where a task (deal, support ticket, application, etc.) is in the process.
Accountability: We know exactly where something is in the process and which staff member is currently responsible.
Efficiencies: With a centralized location to manage data and a consistent approach, the department becomes significantly more organized and efficient.
Changes in Behavior: Transparency always leads to changes in behavior.

Workflow Examples

Sage CRM’s workflow feature is a toolkit that can be used to enforce best practices, and systemize your organization. Below are examples of how we have leveraged this feature set for other organizations.

It is important to convey that this isn’t a feature that you simply turn on and turn off, rather it is configured around the unique needs of your company.

Opportunity Workflows

The expression opportunity within Sage CRM means different things to different people. Sometimes there is only a single person that needs to update a deal but in other situations, a collection of different people are involved in any single deal.

Additionally, how far an opportunity is monitored is different. Sometimes only to the point of winning the deal, and in other situations, the opportunity workflow controls the flow all the way through to fulfillment.

Basic Opportunity Workflow

In this example you will see:

Information messages
Conditions that enforce the user upload/attach specific document along the way
Emails that get sent out if/when conditions are met

Connecting different departments - with Conditions

In this example you will see:

The user has a choice when selecting which entry point to use
Rules that display based on conditions such as the ‘Type’ of opportunity and the department that the CRM user belongs to
Conditions that enforce the user upload/attach specific document along the way

Case Workflows

The expression Case in Sage CRM can be interpreted in different ways. For some organizations, this means Jobs or Tickets. We work with a lot of companies that use Sage CRM to manage service jobs and the technicians involved in those jobs. Cases can also be customer service issues or RMAs. It doesn’t really matter how you label this section of Sage CRM, the key takeaway is that you can use it to manage ‘non opportunity’ activities that flow through your staff.

Basic Case Workflow

This example is from our internal system. We use cases to record the work we do with clients. Some of these cases involve multiple people (Project Manager and one or more Technicians).

In this example you will see:

Multiple Entry points (primary rules)
Info messages
An On Hold / Off Hold feature
A flow that takes the case from ‘Logged’ right through to ‘Confirmed’

Dashboards and Workflow

Workflow controls the progression of individual jobs, but connecting all jobs is the role of Sage CRM’s dashboarding feature. Dashboards, when used effectively, reflect exactly what jobs the individual user (or department) should be aware of.

This 90-second video illustrates how we communicate to users when their input is required by leveraging CRM’s dashboarding features.

A user-specific dashboard should be the first screen that pop-ups when the user logs into Sage CRM.

How to Leverage these features

This 5-minute video provides an overview of these features and explains our process for helping organizations leverage these features.

Leveraging Sage CRM’s process control features is a collaborative process. One of our project managers will meet with your side to guide you along, show you all your options, and ultimately make this transition as smooth as possible. Below are a few important items to keep in mind that will significantly contribute to your success.

Define Your Objectives: What will this system do and what department(s) will it support?

Determine who will be involved in the design phase: Setting up these features involves a lot of policy decisions. When planning how it will work, the proper stakeholders must be involved.

Define a point person: Someone within your organization will need to help with training and support issues. That person should be involved throughout the entire process.

Establish a timeline: Generally, our approach is to set weekly 1-hour meetings to clarify and document the process. After 3 or 4 of these meetings, the process is normally clear enough to build our the system and start testing.

Tweaks and Adjustments: Invariably, once we start testing and using new system, changes are required. That is just part of the process.

FAQs about Sage CRM's Workflow Engine

When is it appropriate to use these features?

In practice, leveraging these advanced features usually only makes sense when there are >6 users involved in any process. Fewer than 6 and... everyone normally already knows what is going on so there is less of a benefit.

Can we use these features on our own without involving a consultant?

Technically yes, anyone that has Sage CRM can use any of the tools within Sage CRM whenever they want. However, it is very rare that an end using company has the experience (or ambition) to figure it out on their own. This is why we recommend working with a consultant who has plenty of experience helping companies leverage these features.

If we work with My CRM Manager to set this up, what is the cost involved?

That question is very open-ended. Sometimes we can crank out a meaningful system in just a few hours, but in other cases, it can be very involved. If you want to learn more about these features and applying them to your specific requirements, your best bet is to schedule a call and we can talk it through.

How flexible are these features?

Super flexible, Sage CRM's process automation features can be used to manage and enforce the unique requirements of any given department. Whether it is enforcing a specific document be uploaded into the system or notifying a manager when approval is required, how you use Sage CRM’s workflow tools is completely up to you.

What does this look like for users?

When a workflow has been enabled and configured, the user will need to follow certain 'rules' in order to progress the task they are responsible for.

What advice can you give me?

Be involved. The more your key stakeholders get involved in the planning and testing, the smoother the transition to this new system will be.