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MANAGE YOUR PAPER MATERIAL WITHIN YOUR CRM SYSTEM

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There are two main types of data within the enterprise: structured and

unstructured data.

Structured data is managed in databases (customer records, orders,

invoices ...). It is classified, indexed, categorized and its treatment is simple

and fast.

Running an accurate search such as “Find all customers aged over 18” is

very easy these days, with the proper tools.

Unstructured (or semi-structured) data includes paper documents,

photocopies, resumes, contracts, faxes, e-mails, meeting reports, videos,

and audio recordings that enrich the knowledge about the customer, for

example.

Content management within a company (or ECM: Enterprise Content

Management) means managing unstructured data for business. The aim

is not to classify it in the same way as structured data, but so that it can be

accessed quickly and easily.

A search such as “Find all contracts signed by a specific customer from a

central location” no longer is a problem and can be done in seconds.

It then becomes possible to manage all the information of a client in a

single infrastructure.

What if this was your CRM structure, where structured data is already

present?

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ACCUMULATION OF BUSINESS DATA Enterprise Content Management has become one of the most

dynamic markets in the Information Technology sector. With

an estimated growth of about 11.4% per year in 2015 (source:

Gartner 2011 ECM Magic Quadrant report), ECM became one of

the priorities in the development of business IT infrastructures.

Given the amount of data, a company can feel overwhelmed

by the data volume, and reach the crisis point of information

overflow. How can we deal with, or simply organize the

enormous amount of information that is produced every day,

every moment?

Because this data is an added value and a gold mine to better

management of customer relationships, it becomes essential

to address this unstructured information flowing in our

organization. The estimated annual growth of data volume is

36% and the evolution of technology obliges the company to

analyze more data forms and in countless formats.

Unstructured data, shown in the image above, represents

80% of information circulating within a company. Only 20%

of the data stored in your system is structured. Therefore, it

is necessary to find a solution to better analyze, understand,

manage and drive this information.

TOOLS TO MANAGE DATA For a long time, and still for some companies today, the only

way to manage data was by hand. Whether structured or not,

paper data about a customer can be stored in a simple plastic

folder between dividers and put away on a shelf.

Fortunately, nowadays, databases have provided fast

management of structured data. Regarding unstructured data,

the issue remains difficult to solve and hours of searching are

required.

So how to answer these questions ? How to provide a result to

this searching in a timeframe that is adapted to your economic

challenges ? You might face situations like:

• In a pile of resumes, how to automatically find the files

related to one particular person, or people with a bachelor

degree ?

• Where to find the email written in 2001 which deals with

the implementation of the calendar synchronization with

Lotus Notes for a specific customer ?

• Is it possible to find the definition of a technical term in a

set of installation documents ?

• How to find the workshop picture taken the same day as

the inauguration of the new assembly lines ?

• Which sound recording deals with a particular feature of

my application ?

In all these examples, it is apparent that the solution would be

easier to find if the information was indexed, or in other words,

structured.

Obviously, it is not about indexing and normalizing every

single unstructured item. It is important to extract the main

components and to define the links and distinctive parameters

that can be easyly used in a search.

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There are tools to help you better manage this data: ECM

solutions.

Content Management aims to cover the entire life cycle of

unstructured data.:

• Its collection or capture

• Its organization

• Its use

• Its publication

• Its disposition

• Its archiving for proof management purposes

CUSTOMER SHEET: STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED DATA

Let’s go back to CRM and content management, and focus on

the information we gather or can gather about a customer. The

opposite diagram shows the different kinds of data, structured

and unstructured, and how they are associated with the

customer. The complexity of analyzing this data increases with

the lack of data structure.

ERP and CRM : Often displayed in a single system, the

CRM, this data corresponds to the basic information that

characterizes a customer. It also contains all the activity

exchanged with the company: quotes, orders, invoices... This

information helps to define a first summary sheet.

Customer interactions: This represents, for example, all

emails, meetings and other interactions with the customer.

This information is important because it characterizes the

relationship with the customer.

Social media : This includes all the information given by the

customer or about the customer on social media.

Mail and documents : All paper materials (resumes, signed

contracts, fax, official documents...) related to the customer.

These documents are important because they define legal

constraints and must be easily reachable.

Shared data : All non-structured data that can be associated

with the customer: articles, photographs, videos, sound

recordings... This data is difficult to index entirely but it

is still important. We may need to manage or deal with a

representative part of this data.

Word of mouth and other sources of information:

Anything about the customer, but where a complete structure

is impossible (rumors, talks, unofficial information...). This data

can have an impact on the customer. The total absence of

management of this information can have a negative impact on

the relationships.

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THE BENEFITS OF PIVOTAL CRM

Pivotal CRM will display the synthesis of the customer with all

information contained in the CRM and the ERP systems.

Pivotal CRM can also manage the interactions with the

customers thanks to its complete integration with Microsoft

Outlook or Lotus Notes synchronization. Interactions with the

customer will appear in the summary sheet in Pivotal CRM and

complement the basic information contained in the ERP and

CRM systems. Pivotal CRM already allows for the structuring, as

well as quick and easy indexing, of unstructured data.

Pivotal CRM also offers an application module: Pivotal Social

CRM. It provides your company with the power of social

networks where it is most relevant and valuable: within your

CRM system. Pivotal Social CRM, an application module

developed for Pivotal CRM 6, is designed to work with the

most popular and universal social networks such as Facebook,

LinkedIn, Twitter, InsideView and Google BlogSearch@Bl.

This solution captures a considerable amount of information

from social networks and contributes to the elaboration of your

customer database, while also allowing your sales, marketing

and customer service departments to interact with these

media.

Unstructured data like mail and documents, shared data,

word of mouth and other sources can be managed within

an additional Pivotal CRM module: Pivotal Document

Management (and Microsoft SharePoint integration). This

module is the answer to your content management needs and

is integrated to Pivotal CRM.

PIVOTAL CRM AND MICROSOFT SHAREPOINT INTEGRATION: DEEPER INTO CONTENT MANAGEMENT

SharePoint covers all aspects of a traditional EDM (Electronic

Document Management):

• Acquisition : creation of Microsoft Office files,

unstructured content management (e-mail, instant

messaging, social networks).

• Ranking : SharePoint has a centralized server where all

files can be stored and indexed.

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• Storage : the SharePoint server can contain all

kinds of files, including multimedia. Administrative

operations enable the management of the access

permissions and backups.

• Broadcast : SharePoint can make the documents

directly available on a company’s internal network, on

its intranet or on its website.

Microsoft SharePoint also goes beyond Electronic

Document Management through the following

capabilities: content management, research, BI, creating

composite applications, social network.

Pivotal Sales Portal The first SharePoint integration is located in the portal.

This makes it possible to display Pivotal CRM data in a

SharePoint portal accessible via Pivotal or from another

application, or to display external data in this portal.

Pivotal SharePoint Sales Library

The most important SharePoint integration is located at

the content management level. Unstructured information

can be handled in one single system: SharePoint. This

Electronic Document Management enables the control of

different versions, the control of access rights and the use

of the advanced search features of such tools.

Pivotal Document Management allows the linking of

records between Pivotal CRM and the files stored within

SharePoint. This link is possible through the meta-data in

the SharePoint database. This meta-data enables the user

to structure these files and, as noted earlier, to extract the

main components and to define the links and distinctive

parameters easily usable in a search.

The documents are available to all the stakeholders in the

company with accesss to a SharePoint account. This data is

accessible to CRM users from the linked records.

A file upload feature is available from the records in the

CRM database. This data can be accessed via Pivotal CRM

or externally.

A search option from Pivotal enables users to search the

SharePoint stored files according to various criteria. You

can benefit from the power of SharePoint directly within

your CRM.

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More than 5,000 customers around the world rely on Aptean to give them a competitive edge. By providing innovative, industry-driven enterprise application software, Aptean helps businesses to satisfy their customers, operate more efficiently, and stay at the forefront of their industry.

For more information, visit: www.aptean.com

Pivotal CRM highlights

• Microsoft-style interface

• Personalizable dashboard

• Role-and-task based navigation

• SharePoint integration

• Outlook integration

• Office suite integration

• Microsoft .NET Framework

• Powerful querying capabilities

• Custom workflows and sales milestones

• Mobile CRM

• Low cost of ownership

• Highly flexible and usable application

development platform.