For any company or business, good customer service, efficient information management and a correct workflow between the different teams that make it up are key aspects for its growth. And although at first all these aspects are manageable, as the company grows, the density of work and information to handle will also do it.
For this reason, management and planning software, such as or , have become very important for any type of business, be it large companies or SMEs. These two types of tools can be confused as they share a similarity in driving the growth and productivity of a business. However, they have particular functions and characteristics that differentiate them and relate them to different aspects of the business model.
That said, we are going to talk a little about what they are and what is the usefulness of each of these systems, in order to understand when to use each and how to get the most out of them for the company.
What is a CRM and what is its importance
The Customer Relationship Management systems, CRM for its acronym in English, are software designed to boost the capacity of a business or company, with the customer as the focus. In other words, CRM is a system that is responsible for reinforcing, streamlining and promoting sales, marketing, customer service and communication processes between the different contacts and customers of a company.
In such a way the CRM tools They allow a more organized, efficient and automated management of all those commercial processes within the company that relate to an interaction with the end customer, suppliers or partners. In this way, they allow the coordination of efforts between the entire sales team, reduce their workload, automate tasks (such as sending emails, for example), while offering more specific and complete information for the analysis of results and planning. of new business strategies based on it.
For this reason, CRMs are an especially useful solution for eCommerce and startups, although they also offer a very complete tool for any type of company. In this sense, pipe drive, Salesforce or are some of the most relevant CRM systems in today’s digital world.
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What is an ERP and what is it for?
Now, since we have seen what CRMs are about, let’s talk a little about ERPs, or Enterprise Resource Planning. Although their name may indicate that they are complicated tools, ERP software fulfills a fairly simple general function: optimizing the internal procedures of a company, encompassing and integrating different areas such as marketing, logistics, accounting, billing, customers, suppliers…
ERPs offer a means to centralize and manage the information and processes of the different departments of a company. It is a type of software specially designed to locate the aspects to be improved in the work chains of a company, productivity losses and operational failures in a company and improve them. Among the tasks controlled through an ERP are the product inventory, accounting and finance, payroll management, sales control…
Thanks to these systems, companies can automate processes within the different strata of the company, optimizing workflows. Likewise, it also allows the creation of an environment of competence and adaptability thanks to the centralization of information. These actions together also offer a means of saving for the company by reducing expenses through the optimization and automation of processes.
In this way, these systems are considered as an essential tool for any company, with a particular focus on the financial, production or resource management departments, since these would be the most benefited from the functions included in this software. Within the current digital landscape Oracle Net Suite, held Y microsoft Dynamicsare some of the main ERP systems.
In short: main differences
As you can see, both types of tools share common characteristics, such as allowing substantial time savings based on task automation. If we focus on comparing the differences between the two, we can highlight:
- A CRM is designed for companies of any size: from small ones with few clients to large companies with a significant volume of commercial work. The ERP is a much more oriented tool for medium and large companies, with multiple differentiated departments that require coordination. It usually involves a much higher start-up cost than CRM.
- CRMs are systems designed to control the relationship with customers and improve business processes, while ERPs are aimed at the company’s internal processes, understanding how they relate to each other, with a special focus on finances and productivity
- CRMs are highly sales and marketing oriented, while ERPs can be used by multiple departments within the company
- CRM helps assess the potential of future business operations and discover business opportunities, while ERP helps assess the efficiency of internal processes.
- CRMs allow us to understand how the company relates to its prospects and customers, while ERPs help in the planning of broader business strategies.
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