CRM is – Customer Relationship Management & ERP is – Enterprise Resource Planning.
CRM and ERP ? What is the difference
ERP was basically custom systems created that were primarily designed for a company to be able to generate real-time information on things like Acccounts,inventory, production , masters /resource management etc . At the earlier days ERP was considered as the elephant in the house as that was the only biggest , organized enterprise information systems developed for businesses.
However when we look at enterprise soft wares now , we see and hear about companies like salesforce.com ,zoho ,but what these companies are providing is something else but on a enterprise level .It’s something called customer relationship management ie CRM .
What CRM does, is it organizes and records the interaction with customers. CRM is built for reducing the gaps between the businesses and their customers, thus improving the way that they are providing the products and services.
We will discuss about CRM and ERP ?
What is the difference , there are many advantages to using a system. Each have their own characteristics and feature sets which help you to choose the right system for any business.
ERP systems are focused on the management of your company’s processes, functions and resources; integrate all available information in a centralized manner in a single platform.
Establishing and implementing such systems your business can have a larger control over productivity and utilization of available resources with regards to financial information, expenses, production planning. supply chain, manufacturing, reporting, and also human resources. It also reduces the information overload by providing key parameters.
Among other things CRM systems have a direct focus on commercial areas like sales, marketing and customer relationship.
Basically it registers and stores, all information related to, customer interactions,
it can be used by managers to create sales projections
by employees to consult information ,customer registration ,
it can be used by resellers who need to maintain the contact with their customers
and even ,by the collection sector that needs to generate ,the invoices for sending reminders
Although sometimes it may appear similar in terms of ERP,CRM systems have different approaches to increase company profits by sales , marketing and better customer service .
CRM focuses on sales force management which eventually increasing sales, on the other hand ERP emphasizes on reducing operational costs and resource management.
ERP came into existence way before than CRM came into the market. You can even say that CRM is an extension of ERP .
However , integrating and working together can help company/businesses to reduce costs and increase the profits in a simplified and organized way .
CRM can help you in
Contact management
Sales force automation – establish your sales processes
Lead generation and tracking it sources
Track lead to sales progression
Identify time line for a sales cycle
Sales pipeline management – forecasting
Record customer interactions with your business
Access customer account information, collaborate with team
Create, organize measure marketing campaigns
Customer service automation
Daily activity management – reminders and notifications for follow ups, meetings et
ERP can help you in
Record and track Finance and Accounting transactions – Accounts Receivable/Payables, General Ledger etc
Establish a clean organized business process to capture accurate and audit friendly financial /operational data
Manufacturing , Production planning and control
Eliminate repetitive and unwanted tasks thus reducing operational costs.
Better project planning and job costing.
Inventory management
Supply chain management, Track shipments
Human resources management and Payroll generation.
Hope we have covered a part of what is CRM and ERP ? What is the difference.