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FrontRange TfM Survey Highlights Importance of Close Integration
Company launches new GoldMine Enterprise Edition, latest version of comprehensive CRM Suite
Today's businesses place real value on the close integration of sales and marketing and clearly understand the benefits of tying the two functions more closely together. These are among the key findings of the FrontRange Solutions User Survey, carried out today at the Technology for Marketing Show (TfM) and designed to 'take the pulse' of companies large and small attending the exhibition at London's Olympia.
Some 23 per cent of those surveyed identified the ability to track leads as the most important benefit of close integration, with 19 per cent citing the quality of those leads as key and 18 per cent highlighting better RoI for marketing campaigns.
"The ability to monitor and track leads through every phase of the customer relationship lifecycle is increasingly seen as a key differentiator" says Greg Anderson, senior director, GoldMine product marketing. "Launched today, GoldMine Enterprise Edition, the latest version of our industry-leading business and customer relationship management solution, meets this requirement by enabling users to obtain a rapid overview of campaign responses, potential sales and total campaign effectiveness whenever they need it."
The critical need for businesses to achieve a 360 degree view of their customers was acknowledged by 88 per cent of respondents, who confirmed that it was 'important' or 'very important' to have dashboards, in order to analyse the results of their campaigns and activities.
"Having the ability to customise role-specific dashboards in real-time is becoming increasingly critical to our customers," adds Anderson. "It enables users automatically to see what is relevant to them or to their department and to track data closely across an entire organisation."
Serving a Diverse Customer Base
When asked to rank the most important elements of a CRM solution, delegates provided a broad spread of responses, with such external-facing benefits as customer service (17 per cent) and cost-effectiveness in managing client relationships (14 per cent) seen to be as important as internal efficiency gains including lead generation (15 per cent), forecasting capability (12 per cent), campaign management (18 per cent) and measuring conversion rates (12 per cent).
"This result clearly demonstrates the diversity of the UK CRM market," argues Anderson. "Every company has customer relationships but they all have different processes, models, interactions and business priorities. Our new GoldMine Enterprise Edition solution is a complete CRM suite, with the adaptability and flexibility to meet these diverse needs. Focused on mid-sized businesses, it also has the scalability to deliver strong benefits to large multi-national organisations."
Campaign Management Critical
The TfM survey found that managing campaigns was the most important element of a CRM solution overall, cited by 18 per cent of respondents, followed by customer service (17 per cent) and lead generation (15 per cent).
Yet, according to Anderson, "a closer look at campaign management reveals that companies are continuing to look to match internal efficiency gains with an improved customer experience, endorsing the findings of last year's survey.
"Better quality customer targeting, for example, is seen to be key, referenced by 28 per cent of respondents, up from 21 per cent last year: similarly, reduced costs were cited by 24 per cent (again up from last year's 21 per cent). Once more, these figures were headed only by the desire for better campaign turnaround times, put top of their 'wish list' by 30 per cent (compared with 16 per cent in 2006)."
Other findings included:
- Some 75 per cent of companies surveyed had some form of CRM system, up on 70 per cent last year. Of these, 54 per cent were in-house systems;
- 20 per cent of respondents believe that today they are under more pressure from senior management to manage their marketing spend more effectively, with 70 per cent seeing themselves as under the same pressure;
- Of those that perceive they are under more pressure, 25 per cent believe this is most focused on growing new business, with 19 per cent citing return on marketing investment and 18 per cent highlighting improved customer retention;
- Over the next 12 months, 31 per cent believe that they will be under most pressure to improve lead management, an increase on last year's 27 per cent, with 19 per cent looking to achieve better data management and 16 per cent to achieve improved campaign reporting. 15 per cent cited better forecasting as a major pressure, an increase on last year's 8 per cent.
In addition to launching the new GoldMine Enterprise Edition, FrontRange Solutions is exhibiting its complete range of GoldMine relationship management solutions at Technology For Marketing 2007, the UK's premier event for marketing-related and CRM technology solutions. This year, the Show will attract more than 200 exhibitors and aims to help marketers and other management professionals understand, target and reach their client base and maximise customer interaction and retention. 08.02.2007, FrontRange Solutions
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