Audaxium Blog

In my opinion, excellent customer service is defined by engaging the customer to ensure all their needs are met and their questions and concerns answered.  Especially when you haven’t heard from them in some time. When you need to continuously keep tabs on which customer needs to be contacted or reached out to, providing such customer service may be difficult without automation.  This is particularly true when using the support management module in NetSuite. What happens when you’re waiting for the customer to reply?

For example, when your customer opens a support case with you, you’ll reply and then wait.  You’ll want to remind them that you’re waiting to hear back, and doing this manually can be tedious.  Maybe you want to automatically notify your customer that your customer representative is working on your case.  Or, maybe you’d like to send one final reminder before you close the case.  These are just small number of areas where automation can help take the work off of your support reps.

We recently completed a project for a client who needed this type of automation.

The application offers flexible configuration points to meet the needs of the business.

• Configurable waiting period before triggering message to customer.
• Configurable secondary action after message is sent.
• Customizable message content with ability to personalize to customer.
• Expandable to support additional automation based on different types of case status.
• Case locking by NetSuite after another set period.

Would you like to find out more about this solution? Contact Audaxium for more information.

Credit Opensourceway on Flickr

Throughout 2011 Audaxium has been working with more and more companies and we’ve seen some interesting situations. In working on NetSuite fixups, and implementing Pardot with customers with various CRM systems, both NetSuite and Salesforce, we’ve noticed companies getting into trouble in systematic ways.  Often, problems happen when the data in the system doesn’t match what’s happening in real life.

Life is complicated.  People like simplicity.  And getting people to use CRM properly can be challenging depending on your organization.  So why not just keep things simple? Doesn’t KISS apply?

Here are some examples of somewhat common decisions that cause problems later.

Custom Field for Sales Rep

The client decided, that, in order to not let sales reps think they “Own” accounts, to not put the rep in the default Sales Rep Field.  Instead they used a custom field for Sales Rep and left the main field blank.  Result?  Difficulty in using standard reports.  Difficulty in getting notifications to Reps.  Difficulty in integrating with marketing campaigns.

Duplicate Contacts on Customers

The client decided that, to make it easier on the tech support team, if a person called in to discuss an issue at a certain customer location, (which they were tracking as sub-customers), they would enter a NEW contact on that company record, with the same name, email address and phone number.  Result?  Massive contact duplication in the database, no single source of the truth with regards to communication and emails.

Manual Prices on Items

To make it “easy” on order entry, the client decided to put only a few items in the item master, and overwrite the description and price.  Result?  No ability to report on the delivery and fulfillment of particular types of services.

The above are just a couple of examples of compromises made that lead to problems later. But anecdotes are just that, there are, to my mind, 3 main reasons why you should truly map what’s going on in your business in your CRM or ERP system.

3 Reasons Why Reality is Important

Information Accuracy

There is a balance between segmenting your data for reporting purposes, and capturing every last detail. What level of accuracy do you need to both operate, and make decisions?

Take a company that sells chickens and eggs. You could weigh and measure every egg you sell, sell them by grade, sell eggs separate from chickens, or sell 1 item called “Chicken and by-products”.  In this case, the reality is that the customer buys eggs by grade, either by the flat or by the dozen.

To take an example closer to home, what about our contacts example above?  There is only one person with a particular name, email address and phone number. There should be only one contact, but that contact should be attached to multiple companies as most CRM systems allow.

Easy to Train Multiple Teams

Sometimes by oversimplifying, you’ll need to be constantly explaining how fields are to be used and how to look up certain information.  Because most people in your company will understand how you do business, it’s easier to have them understand the system if it matches real life processes.  The sales team, support team, and services teams need to think of each other when considering how data gets entered.  There’s nothing like hearing things like; “the main contact field is whoever is the decision maker, until they are closing, then it’s the buyer, until they’re a new customer, then it’s the project lead, until they renew, then it’s whoever cares about the renewal”

Your CRM system should enable your business process, not be a workaround for it.  If your processes are too hard for your team to enter into a system, consider changing your processes.

Integration with Other systems

We’re in a world of integrated applications, and when a company writes an integration with another app they make certain assumptions of how you’ll use it.  You’ll need to think long and hard about taking default functionality and using it for another purpose.  Just why are you using a custom field when there’s a similar default field available?  By getting creative with core fields, you’ll risk giving yourself more work down the road when it comes to integration. Sometimes that work can be worth the extra effort, but make sure it’s necessary.

Challenges

Often, customers do understand the above, so why do mistakes get made?  Here are some common reasons.

No system is Perfect

Sometimes they can’t represent the reality of your business because they lack the functionality. Until recently, a good example was NetSuite’s multi-currency function.  You couldn’t create transactions in multiple currencies to the same customer.  This caused un-wanted duplication of records and work-arounds needed to be found.  Fortunately this is no longer an issue. When evaluating systems, ask your implementation partner just what the ramifications of a certain functional limitation are.

Clicks and Keystrokes

Often, when selecting systems, the client, and the end user, will focus on how “easy” things look and feel on some standard screens. If they have to fill in two more fields, or wait 5 more seconds for a screen to load, they’ll be frustrated and complain about productivity.  It doesn’t matter than those 2 fields save their co-worker 10 minutes.  It won’t matter that they can see information they’ve never had access to on that new screen.

Saving someone a few seconds at the price of a messy database is a bad trade-off.

Implementation by Department

I’ve seen NetSuite implemented a few times for a particular department and only later does the client discover that they’ve painted other departments in to a corner.  Both Sales and Finance are equally notorious for doing this with NetSuite.  Unless both groups are considered during an implementation, the easy options will be chosen that don’t let the system represent what really happens for the other team. Even if you’re just implementing for one group, work with an implementation partner who understands the bigger picture.

Audaxium is proud to be a sponsor of the Pardot Elevate 2011 User Conference (Nov. 15-16, 2011) http://bit.ly/uqbXQn

Here are the Top 5 Reasons to Visit us at our booth:

1) You’re a new Pardot customer, and you could use some help

Pardot is the easiest to learn Marketing Automation system available today. However, there are often multiple ways to accomplish the same objective in the system. It’s great to have powerful software, but it’s even more important to use it in the most effective manner possible to generate quality sales-ready leads.

Audaxium QuickStart implementations help shorten your learning curve, launch your first campaigns quickly, and get you up to speed on best practices and latest trends in the Marketing Automation community.

2) You’ve been using Pardot for a while, but you’re busy

Most Marketing teams have long lists of ideas for campaigns they would like to run, but they don’t have the resources to get everything done. A typical Marketer’s “to-do” list keeps growing rather than shrinking as tasks get completed.

If you feel that you haven’t gotten enough strategic work done in Pardot or aren’t taking full advantage of the capabilities, why not bring Audaxium in to help? We offer development of drip programs, email campaigns, landing pages, and content marketing strategies.

3) You’re a NetSuite customer and you wish the integration with Pardot worked better

Pardot provides, at no charge, an out-of-the-box connector for NetSuite CRM. It automatically syncs data between the two systems and provides basic reporting capabilities. However, NetSuite has some unique ways that it manages data, so there are steps you need to take to increase the amount and type of data that syncs.

Audaxium can help you configure and optimize this integration in order to segment your lists of customers and prospects in Pardot more effectively, and to deliver to your dashboard better campaign ROI reports.

4) You’re a NetSuite customer and you wish NetSuite were easier to use

NetSuite is in fact a leading system for not only ERP, but also CRM and eCommerce. However, some Marketing and Sales teams are not in love with the capabilities or the ease of use of NetSuite.

This is NOT because NetSuite isn’t a capable CRM tool, but rather because many NetSuite implementations are focused on the requirements of the Finance or Operations team, with little focus on Sales & Marketing.

When NetSuite is configured properly for Sales & Marketing, your team becomes much more productive.

5) You like craft beer or good wine

We really like craft beer and good wine, and we’re always looking for an excuse to buy new friends a drink at the bar at the end of the day. Drop by our booth to say hello, have a chat about Pardot marketing automation, then let’s meet up at the bar to celebrate great software!

READ MORE: http://bit.ly/u0bf2b 

User adoption is key to ROI

CRM vendors all promise fantastic ROI by helping your company increase sales productivity, improve customer satisfaction, and enable marketing effectiveness.  However, those benefits only come to life if your employees actually use the system.

WII-FM:  What’s In It – For Me?

To maximize user adoption, you need to figure out the answer to this question: “How can we make them WANT to use, or even depend on, CRM, even though it might require more discipline on their part?”

Generally speaking, people resist change, they already have too much on their plate, and some even struggle to learn new software.  The last thing you want to do is give them a system that gets in their way, rather than making their life easier and more productive.

WII-FM:  Questions to ask yourself

• What dashboards will help my employees make better decisions with their time?
• What reports do they need quick access to?
• What information are they searching for frequently?
• What tools will help them get more work done in the same amount of time?
• What reminders will help them get better organized?
• What real-time performance metrics will help keep themselves on track?
• How do I make it easy and fast for salespeople to keep their forecast up-to-date?

How to answer the Questions

Many people make the mistake of simply asking a few trusted people in each functional area what they want/need, and then turn that into a requirements list.  Observation and measurement are better tools.  Talking to existing CRM reference customers about these questions is another way to find out what works, and what doesn’t.  Watch how your most effective employees get things done.  Replicate some of their methods, and remove obstacles from their path.

What to expect if you don’t consider user needs

There’s no question that a modern CRM system is a wonderful tool for managers and executives.  You get better visibility into the key metrics in your business, you get real-time reports that allow you to make quicker decisions, and you get tools to manage employee performance.

This only works if your whole team uses the system. For example, if only 60% of your salespeople enter their leads, log their phone calls, and manage their sales pipeline, your dashboard is only 60% accurate, at best. Your visibility becomes more than a little foggy.

The Bottom Line

When planning an implementation of a CRM system, put yourself in your employees’ shoes and you’ll make better decisions that will maximize user adoption and accelerate your ROI.

Questions?

Audaxium consultants are former employees of companies who have implemented new CRM systems.  We’ve been through the learning curve and can provide you with some ideas to accelerate user adoption and reduce the impact of change.  Contact us for more ideas.

Customer Relationship Management.  Perhaps the worst descriptor ever used to describe a class of products.

Why?  Because a CRM application does so much more than simply manage lists of companies and contacts, opportunities and orders.  It’s a business management platform that can manage any kind of information you want.  Well, almost any.

It’s also a bad description because CRM should, in the best implementations, be used to manage performance.  And the best way to manage performance is to set goals and targets for yourself and your business.

If you’re looking at CRM for the first time, here are three things to ask yourself as you examine your different options.

What are the 3 most important goals for my business, or my different business areas, this year?

Can a measurement and reporting system help me meet and exceed those targets?

What is the financial impact of exceeding those targets?

If you can answer those questions you’re on your way to figuring out the financial justification of a CRM system.  The important thing to keep in mind is that there are many systems that can measure results.  ERP systems are great at measuring.  But does yours allow you to put in targets and report against them?  Can it measure non-financial data, such as the number of new leads?  The percentage of RFP’s won or lost?  Because a (good) CRM system is so flexible you can measure much much more.

So as you consider either if you need a system, or, which CRM to implement, perhaps take the time to ask how your important goals and targets would be tracked, compared, and presented, and, how doing so would impact your business.

If you’d like to see a demonstration of this, please feel free to contact us.

Here at Audaxium, we have been spending a great deal of time talking to customers about how to get off on the right foot when implementing marketing automation software, in this case, Pardot.

These discussions are as unique as our customers, but there are a few constants in the equation that add up to a successful implementation. It’s important to give these careful consideration.

As point of reference, all of our clients sell to other businesses, and they typically have a lot of customers and contacts at those customers. But they also have a keen desire to both generate new leads, and manage leads sent to them by their partners. Our advice below makes the most sense in that context.

So what’s first? Where do we begin?

What first happens is a discussion of the value of marketing automation tools. Times have changed. It’s no longer appropriate to download lists of email addresses and spam them. It’s not valuable to email your entire customer base each week with every message you want to broadcast.

In a nutshell, you’ll be using an application like Pardot to achieve the following:

• Capture Lead Information
• Track Lead and customer behavior on your website and content
• Measure the “sales readiness” of contacts
• Manage the hand off of sales ready leads to the sales team
• Give customers content and offers they are interested in

But you already knew all that. You’re here to learn about your first steps.

Data Scrubbing

The first step is an analysis of your existing data. Just how good is it? This breaks down into two essential questions. How much data that you need to use to segment your database, is missing? Address, email, company size, industry etc. are typical but there may be others. The second question is, how much duplicate information is there?

While improving data quality should be an ongoing task in your organization, and not a one time program, you’ll need to make sure it’s happening as you move ahead with marketing automation. Clean your data.

Make sure you’re removing or merging duplicate email addresses. Put in place metrics in your CRM system to warn users when they are working with incomplete records.

Your database will never become perfect, but place a high degree of importance on the effort to make it so.

Click the green button to read more…

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Garbage in, Garbage out!  I hear this comment almost every other day.  And it’s not me saying it, it’s the customer.

Then why oh why are most companies in such a state of disrepair when it comes to their customer information?

How can we fix this up when we implement NetSuite?

How can we make sure that it doesn’t happen again?  Or at least not to the same degree.

But first let’s get to the top 3 reasons why this happens. Read More »

We live in an age of self help.  Anyone with a brain is supposed to be able to sit down, and with a good enough help file be able to turn on just about any technology going.

This has lead a few folks I know to implement NetSuite without much help at all.  It’s not that it’s impossible, or even terribly difficult, but it’s harder the first time you do it.  This got me thinking and this quick list came to life.

It’s a bit Scary

When you implement NetSuite, you’re putting in an application that has the potential to affect almost every part of your business.  You don’t want to mess it up and fly into the ground.  Or, perhaps worse, you don’t want to wreck anything or anyone while trying to get off the ground.

Solution?  Talk with people who’ve implemented it before!  You don’t learn to fly from the guy in the showroom who sells you the airplane. (If you can afford an airplane in a showroom) Talk to people who run the system day to day, and to people who’ve seen mistakes made.  That would be me by the way!

It’s Easier with a Copilot

With NetSuite you can get people to help you implement it remotely.  They’re really smart.  And having someone talk you through it over the web just might work in many cases.  But there is also something to be said by having someone by your side, giving you the best practices and the finer points that will take you from good to great.

Consider what the benefits are of getting someone into your boardroom to help you out.  Even if it’s just for a second opinion or for best practices and change management.

Airplanes have Standard Dashboards

NetSuite has a lot of power in it’s Dashboards.  It’ll consume a lot of time if you simply try to muddle through and figure out the best way to work.  Talk to those who use Dashboards every day, what works, what doesn’t.

There’s a lot that belongs on dashboards but there’s a lot that doesn’t.  Get stuff up there that really lets you manage the operations of your business.  This isn’t Salesforce.com here.

Heads Up Flying

It’s critical when flying to fly the plane and look up, and not keep your head stuck in the instrument panel.  The same is true for a NetSuite implementation.  You’ve got to manage the people involved, you’ve got to constantly be examining your situation and your business surroundings.

When implementing NetSuite it’s about getting your business to the next level.  Keep the end goal in mind and you’ll have a safe arrival.

I’ve had a few conversations in the past few days to people who are, or have, implemented NetSuite.

If it’s just NetSuite CRM, or NetSuite ERP and Accounting, E-commerce, or the whole ball of wax here are some things to consider if you’re just getting into it.

This is by no means a comprehensive list but just what has come to mind in the last couple of days.  This list is also a bit more appropriate for smaller implementations of 10-100 users.

Find an Admin

If you’re going to be successful you need to get a person dedicated to learning NetSuite who you trust to implement and make decisions about how you run your business. 

There’s a lot of changes that can be made quickly and you shouldn’t let everything get managed by committee.  You’ll go faster if you loosen the reigns. 

Get an Executive Champion

There are going to be those who look to to the big cheese before they commit to a new system.  Make sure that you’ve got a leader who is going to lend not only her full support but also big ideas on where the company is headed.  

It’s not enough to attend the kick off meeting and ask for updates.  NetSuite is THE system of record.  Get the big cheese involved.

Prioritize your Requirements

You can’t have everything you want on day one.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a sales person, or the boss, get over it.  

Pick your big wins and focus on those.  A lot of little wins will come along for the ride and you won’t waste time boiling the ocean to get at all the tiny details

Consider other Departments

I’ve seen it happen over and over. One department gets going with NetSuite and makes a bunch of decisions without considering the implications for other groups.  

NetSuite offers an amazing opportunity to get everyone working together.  Use it.

If you don’t fully understand the implications, call someone who does. *cough

Keep it Simple

Sometimes it’s fun to cook up a complicated plan and see how far you can get but more often than not it means that you’ll just have a lot of late nights prior to going live.  

The more simple you keep things, the more flexibility you have down the road, and there’s real value in having options.

Things to keep simple? The plan, the requirements, the customizations, the phases, the roles, well, everything.

Plan for Change

I love NetSuite because it can be changed fairly quickly.  Don’t worry if you don’t nail everything for day one.  You’ll be able to change things as you go to make life easier on all the users.  

Don’t go for months without getting people up and running on the system.  You’ll have plenty of room to have multiple phases after go live.

Be Bold

People who defend old, silly processes never cease to amaze me.  Don’t be afraid to use the implementation to change some things about the way you do business that annoy employees and customers.  

Be easy to do business with.

Automate Later

There are two reasons you want to delay writing scripts to automate things in NetSuite whenever you can. First, you don’t really know what you want and what’s important. And secondly, it adds a level of complication to your plan that violates Keep it Simple.

I’ve seen too many people invest in scripts and then turn them off because they either complicate the users experience or they can’t accommodate every little scenario.

Automate once you’ve gotten everything working manually.

(There are exceptions to this rule but you’ll know them when you analyse your business requirements and prioritize them)

Plan for Improvements

This tip goes with the above one.  Every NetSuite implementation should have a Phase II where you put in a bunch of improvements that weren’t critical but are still helpful. Do this for two reasons.

First, it keeps the momentum going on the adoption of the system.

Second, you don’t want to delay Phase 1 with a bunch of “nice to haves”

Consider a Partner

If you’re purchasing NetSuite you can purchase, separately or together, the software and implementation from an implementation Partner.  Many people don’t even consider this.

I’ll get into this in a later post but an Implementation Partner like Audaxium can offer a different kind of service than those offered directly from NetSuite.  Partners have often used the software in production and can be more flexible in how they engage with you.

Ignore the Naysayers

There are a lot of people who will be negative about change, about NetSuite, about your plan.  Your challenge is to pick out their key concerns, address them as best you can and then move on. Move with confidence and people will follow.

The other day I was having a nice discussion with a new NetSuite customer about best practices when implementing NetSuite.  We covered a wide range of topics but the one that I’ll cover today is training.  I’ve got a few simple words of advice on how to ensure that your NetSuite experience is a great one.

Training for NetSuite is available from a number of sources.  Each one has it’s place and should be used appropriately.  I would encourage you to work with your NetSuite implementation partner to ensure that you have all the bases covered.  Cutting costs by cutting training will surely cost you more in the long run.

Online Training

NetSuite has some decent online training available via the customer support center, formerly known as NetSuite University, now called Suite Training. There are 17 online videos some of which are almost 30 minutes in length.  In total there’s about 4 hours of video.  

Most of the content there is good and well produced.  It’s also very general in nature.  Normally, when introducing new users to the system, I will direct them to 3 or 4 video that pertain to their role in order to get them familiarized with the system.

Because the content is fairly broad it’s important not to use those videos as the only training resource for either yourself or new NetSuite users.

Also available via NetSuite Central are some documents on particular topic. They are also worth a read if you are new to being a NetSuite Admin.  They are:

• KPI Scorecards for Business Intelligence
• Customer Returns Management
• Getting and Giving Credit With Gift Certificates
• Keyword Marketing Campaigns
• Forecasting for Success

Give those a read if you are just setting out.

Customer WebCasts

Also available via NetSuite Central are some previously recorded webcasts done by the NetSuite Training Department.  The content varies widely and you’ll find some useful ideas and tips inside.  These presentations are longer than the basic videos above and you’ll find yourself hovering over the fast forward button, but they are very useful.  You’ll find such topics as:

• Commission Management 
• Forecasting – Predicting Your Sales Future 
• Data Mining: Mastering Reporting and Saved Searches in NetSuite 
• NetSuite Productivity Tips 
• Productivity Tools for Sales Reps – Make Selling Easier 
• Involve Your Customers: Using Self-Service to Optimize Customer Relationships 
• The Ultimate Marketing Tool: Closed Loop Marketing Campaigns 
• Webstore Customization: Using Site Templates to Enhance your Website

As a NetSuite admin make sure to check these out, grab a beer and sit down and watch them.  You’ll also want to direct specific users, such as sales and marketing to go watch some of them as well.

Scheduled Online Courses

Now that you’ve gone over the basics you may want to attend some of the Administration courses that NetSuite puts on on a regular basis.  You can learn more about some of these NetSuite training options here.

These courses are longer and can last the entire day.  They also have a price but can be useful in rounding out your training plan and can give you an opportunity to ask questions.  There are not a ton of different courses, as you’ll see but they are the commonly requested ones.

So what’s left?

The training above will probably serve you well as a NetSuite system administrator.  By the time you get done the above training and you have been given a chance to mess with your demo or sandbox account you’ll be using the help file or the NetSuite user group to get most of your questions answered.  

However, both you and your users have missed out in two key areas.  First, I have found, the end users will benefit from customized training done in the context of your specific NetSuite instance, and their jobs.  Secondly, the admin has missed out on someone providing advice on why to do certain things in NetSuite as opposed to how to do things.

Custom Training

Once everyone is up to speed with the basics I suggest that you, the NetSuite Admin, or someone like us in partnership with you, sit down and plan out training for your end users that shows them specifically how and why to do certain tasks in NetSuite to get their jobs done.

You can deliver this training on-site or over the web, my suggestion is to do it face to face, in order to look over peoples shoulders and help them through.

This training should target a specific group of users at your company and be focused on their tasks, and, it should also provide an overview of how their work impacts the work of those in other departments.  With an integrated system like NetSuite this is particularly important.

When it comes to your own knowledge ensure that you have a resource who will be able to explain what the ramifications are of configuration decisions within your own instance.  You don’t want to learn the hard way, just do it right the first time. Often times a partner, like Audaxium, can help with this custom training.  You can also get help from NetSuite Professional Services for a fee.

If you’re interested in learning more about this please let me know!

What’s New?

Lastly, I encourage everyone to check out the what’s new training, again via the customer portal, on an ongoing basis.  It’s important to keep up with the new functions being launched. There are a lot of them and you want to take advantage of them just as soon as possible.

Planning

The final word on this topic is PLAN!  Ensure that, as you are launching NetSuite, that you have a training plan for yourself and different user groups.  Make sure that you make full use of the resources out there to maximize your NetSuite productivity.

Keep your plan task focused.  By showing users how to get their tasks done in NetSuite you’ll have much better results than by demonstrating features and buttons.  Pay particular attention to how to view information related to their tasks in NetSuite, searching and reporting is just as important as the work itself.