How important is CRM integration with your phone system?

CRM integration with a telephone system is a great feature. However, it can also be integration with the telephone only with today's SIP based telephones. Take a simply soft client from Joher called Voice Operator Panel. It has a search feature for CRM applications, that allows a search to be placed with your CRM that is based on the Caller ID and the Caller Name and Number. Essentially, when a caller calls you, his CRM records are retrieved and popped onto a browser on your computer.

Customer service departments use this type of integration daily. Buti it has not been readily available and cost effective for small business, but it is today. This is just one of many samples of how integrating CRM into your telephone network can benefit your company. Imagine your front line employees have instant customer data at their fingertips before the customer even states their name...........

Premium customer service, and reduced time on the phone means improved productivity and opex savings.

CRM integration and use come about when executives mandate it, and it's combined with some reinforcing pressure, such as tying compensation to participation, or listing deal activity to commissions on that deal. They also come to widespread use if they simplify life on the front lines, such as tying account activity notes that any rep wants to keep, into calendaring for reminders (that the rep wants to use). Most CRM integration put in place has been installed without either time and motion analysis of the users, or feedback from average, typical users. Power users that are sometimes used as reference point are not at all typical in the way they act, so are not good indicators of what it takes to gain widespread adoption.

I hope this helps? It's an all to common issue, as the question noted.

We experimented with this several years ago when I was at Polycom. The answer, I discovered, depends on the user of the technology.

Being able to log call activity for an account, attach voice messages or even initiate or answer calls through the CRM system is something valuable for sales, for support and for small to medium businesses that have a high touch relationship with their customers.

At a much simpler level, if the phone has a display and a programmable API, you could build a light CRM client on the phone to be able to see basic information on a specific record in lieu of a computer. This is a very specific use case, of course, where users prefer and use a phone regularly or more often than a computer.

Which phone system is meant here?
If the phone system is for a contact center (or call center), of course you should do it!
It may be natural to start with core CRM competence and get the CC in operation. Operational CRM still should have some sort of CRM-popup to ensure that you know which customer you are talking to and which services they (could) use. Then start logging the interactions, add other information on potential customers - and start analytical CRM. If you don't integrate that with your phone system, how are you planning to do outbound campaigns?
Not to mention collaborative CRM, self-care and other customer-facing features which you may miss by sticking to a basic, non-integrated phone system.
Perhaps the issue is purely economies-of-scale: only after a certain number of phone system users it is viable and essential to integrate it with CRM. That number depends on which industry your client is in.

If the "phone system" is mobile(cell) phone, then this is something which may be a requirement for sales processes, and no other part of CRM. The key to success is a proper anaylsis of how the sales team is already recording information - on their phones notebooks and "little black books". You'll have a hard time weaning them off these, but you may be successful if you listen well and ensure a win win - if they store their leads on a backend system, noone else gets their leads and in fact they receive more customer and product data and even more prospects to enhance their chances of success. And as stated above the recording should be automated, and a good user experience encourages users to review and enhance customer/prospect data on those quieter moments (transport, before meetings) while on the road.

Hi Leah,
I see this requirement a ton during CRM implementations. It depends on where the customer is at on the CRM deployment. If the system has been implemented and this is a Phase 2 or Phase 3 requirement, it could be a nice feature. Really depends on the volume of calls being made. Called ID screen pops and CRM autodial are features that can save time and produce an immediate ROI if the organization is a heavy call center.

Now, if this requirement was brought up during the initial rollout, I would say ABSOLUTELY NOT. Phase 1 CRM rollouts need to focus on the primary use case. Phone integration is a "nice to have" that will chew up time and money that should be focused on essentials like data migration, training, and customizations/configurations that cover the CRM use case. Unless the CRM is being implemented to fulfill a call center or high volume customer service use case, phone system integration should be deferred to a subsequent phase.
Best,
Ray

Links:
http://www.intelestream.net/en/contact/crm-questionnaire.html
http://www.intelestream.net/en/prod-intelecrm/intelecrm-pricing.html

This has to do a lot with the diagnostics and analysis of the CRM implementaiton. Some might hear about the feature and want to add it to their existing solutions, but the main question is if this is really going to be a feature that will be used.
I have seen many heavy-featured CRM implementation, that a lot of the features end up not being used.

As previously mentioned, for a call center, definitely. But make sure what are the pros and cons and that this really is a requirement.

Yes it is very important to integrate an existing CRM with the mobile network of the enterprise. But, it has to be followed through and monitored in terms of ROI.
It is certainly not enough to implement the solution technically. The users have to be trained adequately how to benefit from the advantages of a mobile CRM.
Please check this article:
http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Web-Exclusives/Viewpoints/CRM-Customer...

Hello Ms. Leah Spitz,

It is an interesting question, just "CRM" OR "CRM + Phone Integration".

It depends upon the usage of company, we are OEM of several telephony solutions and CRM and possibly I would be able to answer you well.

1. We integrate Alliance VoiceXchange (IVR) with Alliance Ensembler (CRM) to capture caller number and create entry in the database.

2. If it is a helpdesk the same system would capture the caller number and bring the history of the caller in front of agent answering call.

3. Helps in analyzing the number of people calls during odd hours which are not answered. Phone number of these people can be captured and they can be called during normal business hours. (Can you afford to miss a business opportunity?)

4. Fax Integration (Alliance FaxXchange) - Faxes can be sent through CRM and a copy of it can be maintained in the CRM, long term data storage.

5. SMS Integration (Alliance Universus) - SMS (Text Message) to a set number of Clients/Leads can be sent through CRM (Promotional Offers).

6. Cell Phone Integration (Alliance Vociewiky): Call into the server and record the conversation you had with the client and add it as journal once you reach office.

There are lot of possibilities you have but not everything is useful to everybody and it's been rightly said by Leah "but our customers rarely implemented it" .

Let me know if I can be of any help.

Regards,
Amit Grover, Business Manager - International Sales
Alliance Infotech (P) Ltd.
E-mail: amit.grover@alliance-infotech.com
Web: www.alliance-infotech.com

Field Sales Executives are the ones - who see lots of benefits using CRM on the move on thier mobile phones/smart phone. Access Leads, Update Oppurtunities, Contact Information, Product Pricing and Details on the move.
To instant response to thier customers questions for moving fast to close the deal.

It depends how they use it, how strict their CRM policies are and how much it cost them the time of a sales person. In most cases after having a phone call with a customer most companies apply policies for updating the lead or opportunity record in the CRM. This update consumes precious time and even more it distracts the sales person from interacting with the customer which is a bigger loss. In my opinion companies do not realize quite well that fact however a solution like scribe2go ( http://www.bianor.com/sales-calls-management/ ) definitely helps them to improve their sales team efficiency and preserve data precision.

Ribbit (www.ribbit.com) can solve many of these problems...check it out! I am an avid user and can certainly answer questions...