CRM Trends for 2015 and What Implies?

Chirag Shivalker for Enterprise CIO Forum writes:  Past few years have been quite eventful – Development of a number of supremely advanced tools has changed the course of business operations in the corporate world.  Among the innumerable tools, CRM or Customer Relationship management has emerged as a very powerful and effective tool.

Since, the market is getting more volatile – And therefore, it is important to streamline the work and cater to the overwhelming demands. CRM has played a pivotal role in bridging the rift between the two key areas; Sales and marketing, as well as helping to make these areas more efficient.

Just like last year, it is expected that CRM will see a continuation of its trend helping to capitalize your business and give a leverage to the profits. With the recent announcement by Microsoft, Dynamics CRM 2015 will have several updates, and few more new feature will be added helping the company to gain an upper hand over the competitors.

Cloud CRM will be the IN-THING in 2015!

One of the most interesting trends that is expected to see a surge in the 2015 is the ‘rise of Cloud CRM’. In fact, according to a study conducted by Gartner, indicated that around 50% companies are now opting for or thinking to go for cloud CRM deployments in 2015.

• What is Cloud CRM?

Every new development feeds on constant and costly new upgrades. With the number of updates and upgrades rising, many companies have set their eyes on cheaper means and therefore switched over to the ‘cloud’. This means smaller IT staff on the premise, resulting into lower IT infrastructure costs and a more flexible platform ready for the future. 

• Implications

If you’re still stuck to an ‘on-premise’ CRM system, give a serious thought to switching over the cloud CRM. This will help you to reduce costs of IT infrastructure.

Mobile Capabilities are Getting More Powerful!

Among the myriad of supreme benefits of CRM empowerment of the sales teams to systematize their work more effectively is one that is scoring the points.

This directly results into more ‘time-selling’. However, as salesperson usually spend more time on the ‘field’. And it is no secret that sales meetings and travelling does not go hand-in-hand – The CRM records usually get left out when there is a lot of moving around.

Earlier, many CRM apps had limited functionality. However, with the changing times, CRM vendors are going for a robust mobile platform to make it more powerful. Moreover, Microsoft has improved CRM by adding voice commands for Windows phones to start with…!!!

With this new and amazing feature, salespeople can easily talk about the CRM records, even add notes and get details that help them to close more number of deals. In other words, there will be no scope for excuses.

• Implications

Picking up a CRM vendor with robust mobile and tablet application which helps the sales people to close more deals, well-prepared for meetings, and prepare accurate report. Bottom line – impressive results in coming years.

• Enhanced and strong social listening tools

Social media has emerged as a potential area for the success of any business. As such, Microsoft CRM is modifying so that sales and marketing people have a better hold of the social media.

The newly improved and upgraded Social Listening tool helps the marketers gain deeper insights in the social media.  Also, salespeople can easily access “Social Listening information” within the platform. This surely makes your gain that competitive edge.

It will give them a handy tool to understand customer problems, identify opportunities to upsell as well as add more worth compared to salespeople at competing firms.

• Its implications

Investment in Social Listening tools empowers marketing and sales teams to be apt as well as customer-centric with all touch points. Eventually this results into improved association, enhancing customer satisfaction!!