CRM – Buzzword of the week
CRM – Something you might hear people muttering, but what is it?
Customer Relationship Manager
What does it do? CRM uses a database to manage customer stuff for you – the stuff usually being business related – managing customers contact details, keeping track of what you sent to who, and what they sent back to you, allowing you to cross reference data, and much more.
These days, CRM systems are often web based, so can be accessed from anywhere you have a computer and broadband connection. Your customer data is held securely in a database, leaving you free to worry about other things.
Todays buzzword comes from South West ICT and Simon Leek – who I had a meeting with this morning. Simon provides CRM solutions to companies using open source software. His clients are all over the UK and range from small businesses to large call centres. I met Simon to talk about integrating some of my telephony systems with his CRM solutions. However, that’s covered by another buzzword – CTI and I’ll write about that soon…