What is CRM in general?
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. As the name implies, it is a software that is used to manage customer relationships of a company. It helps companies to focus on individual customers throughout their lifecycle.
Say for example, I run a SAP consulting company. Below are some of the activities that my company needs to perform when it comes to customer management.
• Manage marketing campaigns
• Lead generation
• Store customer contact information
• Manage sales opportunities
• Convert opportunities into sales
• Manage customer issues
• Receive customer feedback
A CRM software will help me perform the above activities efficiently. These activities might vary depending on the type of service or product a company sells, but the core activities will remain the same.
What are the benefits of running a CRM system?
The number of customers will grow as the company grows. So it’s vital for a company to make sure they capture all their customer information, their feedbacks, the products and services they bought, the products and services they like and dislike and much more. So that the company can keep the customers happy and as well as continue to sell them their products and services.
Below are some of the benefits of running a good CRM system
• Identify, capture and categorise leads in a better way
• Increase referrals from existing customers
• Offer better customer support
• Improve the quality of products and services
Now what CRM software does SAP have?
SAP offers a variety of CRM applications in the form of both cloud and on-premise model. Initially, SAP offered CRM functionalities embedded within the R/3 application in 1990. Later on in 2000, SAP released its first standalone CRM software called SAP CRM 2.0.
The latest version is SAP CRM 7.0 which is the on-premise version of SAP’s CRM application and It has Sales, Marketing, Service and Customer interaction capabilities. EHP 4 is the latest EHP version of CRM 7.0 and it is supported until 31st December 2027. After that, customers are advised to transition towards SAP C/4HANA.
Launched in 2018, SAP C/4HANA is the next generation CRM application offered by SAP in the cloud. It provides modern tools to engage modern customers through social media and mobile platforms. It can also integrate with other SAP backend systems and as well as applications such as email, calendar and social media. SAP C/4HANA provides capabilities such as Commerce, Marketing, Revenue, Sales and Services. We will discuss about SAP C/4HANA in another detailed blog post.
P.S. Check out my course on Udemy – “Introduction to SAP – The Complete Package for Beginners“
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