group 4_sugar crm evaluation

8/13/2019 Group 4_Sugar CRM Evaluation

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G r e a t L a k e s

2013

Sugar CRM

Software Evaluation

CRMPROJECT

Group-4

DM14235 Manoj Devraj

DM14266 Ramyaa Ramesh

DM14151 Surekha.R

DM14157 Vikram Falor


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Contents

1. Overview ............................................................................................................................3

2. Objectives ..........................................................................................................................3

3. Evaluation of an Open Source CRM Software Sugar CRM .............................................4

4. Comparison of Sugar CRM with other SAAS based CRM solutions .................................10

5. Why do companies need CRM systems? ........................................................................11

6. CRM Failures ....................................................................................................................23

7. Implications of CRM Failure.............................................................................................27

8. Reasons why CRM Fail .....................................................................................................28

9. Framework for Successful CRM Implementation ............................................................29

10. SugarCRM Integration......................................................................................................31

11. Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 36

12. References ....................................................................................................................... 36


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Overview

Sugar CRM is a software company based in Cupertino, California. It produces the web

application Sugar, also known as Sugar CRM, which is a customer relationship management

(CRM) system that is available in both open source and proprietary, non-free versions.

Sugar's functionality includes sales-force automation, marketing campaigns, customer

support, collaboration and reporting.

Sugar Open Source enables organizations to efficiently organize, populate, and maintain

information on all aspects of their customer relationships.

Sugar Open Source provides

Integrated management of corporate information on customer accounts and contacts

Sales leads and opportunities.

Activities such as calls, meetings, and assigned tasks.

The system also offers a graphical Dashboard to track sales pipeline, the most successful lead

sources, and the month-by-month outcomes for opportunities in the pipeline.

To evaluate Sugar CRM we will evaluate the 3 modules of CRM namely Operative CRM,

Communicative CRM and Analytical CRM.


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Objectives

Evaluation of an Open Source CRM Software Sugar CRM.

Criteria for evaluation:

Approximate CRM ROI

Ease of Use

Simplified Workflow

Customization

Integration

Post-Sales Support

Other criteria, based on on-going software improvements

Comparison of Sugar CRM with other SAAS based CRM solutions

Comparison between features, usability, and implementation provided by Sugar CRM

and other Shared SaaS CRM software solutions. This will enable us to benchmark the

product against competitors product and also look at the key features that the market

requires.

Factors affecting implementation of CRM solutions in organization

Human

Processes

Technology

Apart from afore mentioned, we will also look at some of the successful and

unsuccessful implementations of Sugar CRM.

Integration of Sugar CRM with other enterprise applications.

The project will look at how Sugar CRM can be integrated with enterprise application

systems to create an integrated solution for an effective operation.


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Evaluation of an Open Source CRM

Software Sugar CRM

As the world's leading provider of open source customer relationship management(CRM) software, Sugar CRM applications have been downloaded more than seven

million times and currently serve over 600,000 end users in 80 languages. Over 6,000

customers have chosen Sugar CRM's On-Site and Cloud Computing services over

proprietary alternatives.

Sugar CRM and its latest version Sugar 6 was developed with the idea that CRM does

not have to be complex to deploy or use, nor too expensive for growing companies.

Sugar 6 closes the gap between robust CRM and applications that employees actually

find easier to use. With Sugar CRM, organizations of all sizes can improve their

business processes and empower their customers - with no limits or compromises.

Apart from the incredible look and feel of the application, tools like the enhanced

global search saves time and increase user productivity.

The SugarCRM offers different variants of the application like:

Sugar Enterprise offers enterprise-grade CRM capabilities and scalability for the

most demanding business. If a company needs comprehensive CRM functionalitywith offline client synchronization, advanced reporting, Oracle database support, and

extended customer support, then Sugar Enterprise is the right choice.

Sugar Professional offers a sub-set of Sugar Enterprise functionality. It provides the

CRM capabilities needed for growing companies to manage customer interactions

across teams and different lines of business. If a company is looking for team

management capabilities, sales forecasting and quoting, wireless access for employees

on the move, and standard customer support, then Sugar Professional is the best

solution.

Sugar Network provides the product extensions, training and support to ensure

success with Sugar Open Source. Sugar Network includes SugarCRM online training,

Sugar Plug-Ins for Microsoft Outlook and Word, and access to the SugarCRM

support team.


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Sugar Open Source is best for companies with a small number of users who only

need basic functionality to manage their customer relationships.

SugarCRM Deployment Options

The Sugar of offerings can also be deployed in multiple ways to meet customer needs.

The Sugar CRM deployment options are:

Sugar On-Demand is a hosted solution that allows customers with little or no IT

infrastructure to quickly set up and deploy Sugar. Sugar On-Demand provides

customers a secure and reliable solution without worrying about installations,

upgrades, or patches.

Sugar Cube is a stand-alone server that is pre-installed with Sugar and all supporting

applications such as the database and web server. The Sugar Cube is optimized for

reliability and security and offers customers a self-hosted solution that is tested and

proven to run efficiently.

Sugar Application Packs

Sugar can be downloaded and installed by customers on their own via Application

Packs. The Application Packs allow for customers to have full control of the

installation, management, and customization of Sugar.

Features of Sugar CRM :

Intuitive User Experience

Sugar CRM 6 delivers a clean, bold look with new buttons and icons that allow users

to perform tasks more easily while increasing the information density of each screen.

Simplified default views, inline filtering and one-click actions conform to the

multitasking environment common to busy sales people.

Users can use a Shortcut Bar to quickly log an incoming call or assign a task without

ever leaving the existing screen. The Sugar CRM menus take fewer clicks to accessand users can quickly find previously viewed pages from anywhere in the application.

With the updated Sugar Global Search, it takes into account where users are in the

application and quickly presents the most meaningful search results.


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Flexible Design

Building upon its reputation as the most flexible CRM on the market, the latest Sugar

6 empowers users with the ability to view and consume data and applications from

nearly any source because of the ultra-flexible platform.

Users can quickly and easily leverage information from social networks and data

services-such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Hoover's-right inside the user interface. In

addition, updates to the powerful customization utility Sugar Studio now allow

administrators to alter the attributes of default fields and customize more views such

as the lead conversion and popup views.

Open Source Architecture

As a leader in open source, Sugar CRM offers users freedom and choice in deploying

and managing their CRM. Sugar 6 is designed to run on any cloud service platform or

on-premise operating system.

High user Adoption

Accessing Sugar through a web browser, users can choose their own user interface

themes to suit their individual tastes, manage multiple information sources through

Microsoft Outlook integration, and access the information they need as fast as they

can click. Ease of use with the Sugar translates into more organized and efficient sales,

marketing, and customer service organizations, which drives greater productivity and

more visibility for managers.


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SUGAR CR

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SugarCRM Continues Record Growth in 2010. For the fiscal year, billings increased 52

percent compared to fiscal 2009. In addition, the company turned cash flow positive in 2010,

capping off a milestone year of growth in all areas.

This also saw the addition of more than 540 new customers in the second quarter of 2010.

Cloud Services

Like Salesforce.com, SugarCRM offers a SaaS solution. But, unlike Salesforce .com They

also allow customers to deploy Sugar on site, behind a firewall, without any of

the risks of traditional client-server deployment. For even greater flexibility, customers can

choose to deploy Sugar in public or private clouds such as Amazon Web Services,

Rackspace, IBM Cloud, and others.

Every Customer Has Their Own Database

With SugarCRM, customers have their own database. Other SaaS CRM solutions including

Salesforce.com, are built on a multi - tenant SaaS data model. This means that all customers

share the same underlying database. Todays databases such as MySQL are designed for

cloud computing and are inexpensive to run in a massive horizontally scaled architecture like

Sugar CRM.

Customizations

SugarCRM has more robust customization utilities than Salesforce.com. Sugar administrators

have access to Sugar Studio, Sugar Logic and Module Builder, simple GUIs to create custom

fields, screen and modules to meet specific business needs. Sugar customers dont have to be

programmers to make customizations.

With Salesforce .com, complex customizations are more expensive and more difficult to

make, resulting in a large hidden increase in total cost of ownership.

Users of SugarCRM

Sugar supports a variety of functions within an organization. The table below describes

several business functions and how Sugar enables their productivity

Business

Function Description


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Sales

Sales Representatives use Sugar to automate their salesactivities, including contacts, opportunities, accounts,pipeline management, and forecasting.

Marketing

Marketing Representatives use Sugar to target prospects,manage prospect lists, develop campaigns, and monitor the

results of marketing activities.

CustomerService

Customer Service Representatives use Sugar to managecustomer cases, report product problems, and measurecustomer satisfaction.

Management

Management uses Sugar to analyze how the business isperforming across all customer-facing activities.

Key Benefits:

Affordability- This solution can be a great fit for budget conscience organizations

capable of investing additional time in their CRM product.

Open source customization- A commercial open source solution capable of on-

demand, individual control (this may be a major positive or a complete turn off

depending upon your tolerance for open source business applications solutions).

Good program- Available source code, good documentation, training programs and

a relatively active community provide the hallmarks for a successful open source

effort.

IP socialism- A collaboration of community participants and free of vendor lock-in

Few Concerns:

Open source-While open source acceptance has grown, it is far from commonly

accepted among business applications champions. Perhaps more important, one of

the core tenants of the SaaS value proposition is to reduce or eliminate the in-

house IT resources needed to support business systems - not hire additional

programmers in order to go into the software customization business.

Small business (only) solution.

Poor reporting-Pipelines, forecasts and reporting in general are very poor.

Missing or limited system administration tools - such as account merges, mass

modifications, flexible security models.


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Comparison of Sugar CRM with other

SAAS based CRM solutions

CRM_softwares_comparison.xlsx


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Why do companies need CRM systems?

Companies in any industry mainly survive on the demand for their products/services, which

is implicitly dependent on the customer needs. The size, potential, attractiveness and growth

opportunities that exist within a segment of the market determines the level of competition in

such an industry. When the market segment matures and the competition is intense, all the

companies in that specific industry vie for the same set of customers. In such a case, the

companies/organisations are at the discretion of the customer, whoever he/she decides would

cater to their needs in a best possible way. The companies also began to realize that it was

three times more expensive to attract new customers than retaining existing customers. All of

this resulted in the breakthrough phenomenon called 'Customer Relationship Management'.

Apart from the customers and competition, there are other factors which influence in

companies adopting CRM systems. They can be described as below:

External:

o Maturity of IT

o Competition

o System Provider's expertise

o Customer demand

Internalo Top Managers' support

o Innovation acceptance ability

o System Management ability

o Organization Flexibility

o Organization Strategy

Objective

o Company Size

o Type of Industry

The above mentioned factors play a vital role in determining whether an organization should

move towards adopting CRM systems or not.

The inherent advantages that accompany CRM solutions also plays a major role in their

adoption.


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Advantages of CRM

Advantages to sales people Proponents claim that sales force automation systems can

improve the productivity of sales personnel. Here are some examples:

Rather than write-out sales orders, reports, activity reports, and/or call sheets, sales

people can fill-in prepared e-forms. This saves time.

Rather than printing out reports and taking them to the sales manager, sales people

can use the company intranet to transmit the information. This saves time.

Rather than waiting for paper based product inventory data, sales prospect lists, and

sales support information, they will have access to the information when they need it.

This could be useful in the field when answering prospects questions and objections.

The additional tools could help improve sales staff morale if they reduce the amount

of record keeping and/or increase the rate of closing. This could contribute to a

virtuous spiral of beneficial and cumulative effects.

These sales force systems can be used as an effective and efficient training device.

They provide sales staff with product information and sales technique training without

them having to waste time at seminars.

Better communication and co-operation between sales personnel facilitates successful

team selling.

More and better qualified sales leads could be automatically generated by the

software.

This technology increases the sales persons ratio of selling time to non-selling time.

Non-selling time includes activities like report writing, travel time, internal meetings,

training, and seminars.

Advantages to the sales manager

Sales force automation systems can also affect sales management. Here are some examples:

The sales manager, rather than gathering all the call sheets from various sales people

and tabulating the results, will have the results automatically presented in easy to

understand tables, charts, or graphs. This saves time for the manager.

Activity reports, information requests, orders booked, and other sales information will

be sent to the sales manager more frequently, allowing him/her to respond more

directly with advice, product in-stock verifications, and price discount authorizations.


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This gives management more hands-on control of the sales process if they wish to use

it.

The sales manager can configure the system so as to automatically analyze the

information using sophisticated statistical techniques, and present the results in a user-

friendly way. This gives the sales manager information that is more useful

information

Providing current and useful sales support materials to their sales staff

Providing marketing research data : demographic, psychographic, behavioural,

product acceptance, product problems, detecting trends

Providing market research data : industry dynamics, new competitors, new products

from competitors, new promotional campaigns from competitors, macro-

environmental scanning, detecting trends

Co-ordinate with other parts of the firm, particularly marketing, production, and

finance

Identifying your most profitable customers, and your problem customers

Tracking the productivity of their sales force by combining a number of performance

measures such as : revenue per sales person, revenue per territory, margin by , margin

by customer segment, margin by customer, number of calls per day, time spent per

contact, revenue per call, cost per call, entertainment cost per call, ratio of orders to

calls, revenue as a percentage of sales quota, number of new customers per period,

number of lost customers per period, cost of customer acquisition as a percentage of

expected lifetime value of customer, percentage of goods returned, number of

customer complaints, and number of overdue accounts. More complex models like the

PAIRS model (by Parasuraman and Day) and the Call Plan model (by Lodish) can

also be used.

Advantages to the marketing manager

It is also claimed to be useful for the marketing manager. It gives the marketing manager

information that is useful in :

Understanding the economic structure of your industry

Identifying segments within your market

Identifying your target market

Identifying your best customers in place


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Doing marketing research to develop profiles (demographic, psychographic, and

behavioural) of your core customers

Understanding your competitors and their products

Developing new products

Establishing environmental scanning mechanisms to detect opportunities and threats

Understanding your company's strengths and weaknesses

Auditing your customers' experience of your brand in full\

Developing marketing strategies for each of your products using the marketing mix

variables of price, product, distribution, and promotion

Coordinating the sales function with other parts of the promotional mix (such as

advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and publicity)

Creating a sustainable competitive advantage

Understanding where you want your brands to be in the future, and providing an

empirical basis for writing marketing plans on a regular basis to help you get there

Providing input into feedback systems to help you monitor and adjust the process

Strategic advantages

Sales force automation systems can also create competitive advantage. Here are some

examples:

As mentioned above, productivity will increase. Sales staff will use their time more

efficiently and more effectively. The sales manager will also become more efficient

and more effective.(see above) This increased Productivity can create a competitive

advantage in three ways: it can reduce costs, it can increase sales revenue, and it can

increase market share.

Field sales staff will send their information more frequently. Typically information

will be sent to management after every sales call (rather than once a week). This

provides management with current information, information that they will be able to

use while it is still valuable. Management response time will be greatly reduced. The

company will become more alert and more agile.

These systems could increase customer satisfaction if they are used with wisdom. If

the information obtained and analyzed with the system is used to create a product that

matches or exceeds customer expectations, and the sales staff use the system to

service customers more expertly and diligently, then customers should be satisfied


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with the company. This will provide a competitive advantage because customer

satisfaction leads to increased customer loyalty, reduced customer acquisition costs,

reduced price elasticity of demand, and increased profit margins.

Marketing

Marketing sub module primarily deals with providing functionalities of Long-term planning

and Short-term execution of Marketing related Activities within an organization.

Planning

Long-term Market Plans can be made and Quantitative as well as Qualitative

measures (targets) can be set for a defined period and for different product groups,

geographies etc. These are then monitored based on the actual performance

throughout the defined period.

Campaign management

Short-Term execution includes running Marketing campaigns via different

communication channels targeting a predefined group of potential buyers with a

specific message referring to a product or a group of products.

Lead management

One key objective of the Marketing function is to generate sales related leads, which

finally get converted into Sales Revenues for the company. Marketing campaigns with

the specific objective of generating leads (Prospective customers who may be

interested in a product). Lead management deals with processing these Leads,

carrying out a sanity check, evaluating the genuineness of the information (Since,

there is a lot of information that is gathered during Marketing Campaigns it becomes

necessary to screen these leads), and finally converting them to Hot Leads or Cold

Leads.

Sales

Sales functionalities are focused on helping the Sales team to execute and manage the

presales process better and in an organized manner. Sales team is responsible for

regularly capturing key customer interactions, any leads or opportunities they are

working on etc, in CRM system. The system helps by processing this data, monitoring

against the targets and proactively alerting the sales person with recommended further

actions based on company's sales policy.


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Opportunity management

Opportunities help the sales team by organizing all the relevant data regarding a

prospective deal into one place. It is characterized by the details such as Prospective

customer, expected budget, total spending, products interested in, expected closing

date, key players in the deal and their key characteristics, important dates and

milestones, etc.

The opportunity has several phases, e.g. initiation, identification, qualification, RFP

received, quotation sent, final stage, won or lost. Of course these phases can be

defined based on individual company needs.

A CRM system helps in each phase by "guiding" the sales representative to carry out

certain suggested activities as defined by the company's sales policy. It creates

reminders and planned activities within the system. For example, if the opportunity

has reached "RFP received" stage, and the deal size is more than, say, US$50,000, the

system can prompt the representative to hold a review discussion with a senior

manager. This is often referred as Guided Sales Methodology. Opportunities can be

directly converted into quotations or sales orders.

Quotation and sales order management

Opportunities can be converted to a quotation, and hence to a Sales order when the customer

is won over(sales closure). Standard features of creating a "linked" Quotation or sales orderfrom opportunities are provided. These Sales orders then flow to the Back-End (ERP) system

for further execution and Delivery.

Activity management

Activities represent various Sales or Service related interactions with the customer (meetings,

discussions, telephone calls, emails). Activity management provides a platform to consolidate

all the interactions with customer into a single platform, helping to build a 360 degree view

of customer. Activities can be synchronized to Microsoft Outlook/Lotus Notes Calendaritems (Meetings and Tasks).


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Service

Service related functionalities are focused on effectively managing the customer service

(Planned or Unplanned), avoid "leakage" of Warranty based services, avoid "Penalties"

arising due to Non conformity of SLA (Service Level Agreements), and provide first and

second Level support to Customers.

Several functionalities are:

Service Order Management

Service Contract Management

Planned Services management

Warranty Management

Installed Base (Equipment) Management

SLA Management

Resource Planning and Scheduling

Knowledge Management (FAQs, How to guides)

Call Center Support

Resource Planning and Workforce Management

Channels of communication

It is also important to mention here that a CRM system is capable of executing all the three

sub modules via multiple communication Channels. These channels can be:

Direct

Online (Internet)

Call Center (via Phone/FAX/Email etc)

Based on analysis of above factors, if organizations decide to implement CRM systems, it

inadvertently results in either success or failure based on the organization's compatibility of

the CRM solution. We would try and look at some of the success stories and implementation

failures and try and derive factors which are responsible for the same, respectively.


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Salesforce.com at Su-Kam India

Salesforce.com gives Indias premier power backup solutions provider Su-Kam the power to

manage customers more effectively in the cloud.

Challenge

No single, consistent process in place across all of customer service agents to

efficiently handle complex information-based customer interactions

Requirement to provide contextual information to call centre agents during live

customer calls

Month end reporting was a painstaking and time consuming process

Traditional CRM systems not an option due to huge upfront costs and a need for

infrastructure changes

Solution

Su-Kam implemented Salesforce CRM for the Service Heads within its 33 service centres

around India to introduce a single, company-wide solution for managing and tracking

customer data. Salesforce.com partner Lister Technologies carried out the installation,

integrating the companys existing call centre application and Oracle ERP system. Salesforce

CRM went live in January 2009.

Results

Su-Kam users have access to the same real-time data updates in the cloud from any

location at any time

Task of monthly reporting reduced from a full days work to a matter of minutes

Su-Kam has an in-depth view into the productivity of individual users, to ensure

targets are met

Customer enquiries captured through the website, by phone and by email

automatically routed to the appropriate agent and tracked through the service centre

without ever getting lost in the system or forgotten

Escalation rules ensure that Su-Kam is able to address customer complaints

effectively.

Salesforce.coms intuitive solutions call for minimal formal training for users Su-

Kam employees completed basic training within two to three days workshop


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Zoho CRM and JetHub:

About JetHub

JetHub is a worldwide, on-demand charter service that offers private flights to more than

7,000 airports in the United States and abroad. The company utilizes the best aircraftoperators, giving its clients access to the private jets they desire. JetHubs executive team is

dedicated to providing its clients the experience in private jet charter service that has been

missing in the aviation industry. The JetHub team continuously evaluates the level of service

they provide to their clients, making sure the client experience is beyond their expectation.

Challenge

JetHub needed a better way to manage its customer information. The company had been

managing some of its customer information with an industry-based, online quoting system.

However, the quoting system was wide open to anybody with access to the system, leaving

JetHub sales reps with no way to protect or secure their customer lists.

The other challenge was finding a way to support the distributed workforce that makes up the

JetHub team. While the company is headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, its seven

employees are spread across the country.

There are only three of us in the same state, and we still all work remotely. We dont have

an office we go to. This is a completely virtual company, said Kevin Lippert, president of

JetHub. I had to find a cloud-based system that would support our distributed workforce and

help me protect my employees information their client information so access could be

restricted to authorized users.

Solution

In selecting an online CRM solution, Lippert relied on third-party experts for guidance when

evaluating and selecting an online CRM solution. Ultimately, JetHub selected Zoho CRM

due to its functionality, ease of use and customization, and price.

I did not have any formal experience with a CRM system. Im a newbie, said Lippert.

Zoho CRM had everything I needed. And I like that we could customize it on our own

forms, layouts and labels, and all that was easy for us to customize, without any technical

knowledge per se. And the price is very competitive.


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Lippert values the security levels that are built into Zoho CRM, which let JetHub easily grant

or deny users access to any of its customer data. JetHub also integrated the industry quoting

function into its Zoho CRM installation, customizing Zoho CRM to mimic the same industry-

specific form layout presented by the quoting system. As a result, JetHub was able to cancel

the online quoting service and pocket the savings.

Finally, Lippert has gone from CRM newbie to CRM administrator and now manages the

companys use of Zoho CRM. In that capacity, Lippert notes the advantage of Zoho CRM

integration with Google Apps. A big reason we went with Zoho was because were a Google

Apps customer. We use a lot of tasks and events in Zoho CRM, and we post those events to

our Google calendar. And weve set up mail integration, so the emails we send from Google

Apps, we have them in Zoho and vice versa.

Result

With Zoho CRM, we now have complete visibility of our clients and client interactions,

said Lippert. We also have an easy way to follow up on the leads we get from our website.

Zoho CRM lets us disperse those leads to our team, and weve set up some automated

processes, alerts and tasks to make sure that we give our customers the best possible service

and support.

Meanwhile, the security advantages of Zoho CRM translate to thousands of dollars. My

sales reps are independent contractors, often with their own client list, said Lippert. Being

able to secure access to that information could easily save us thousands in business that could

otherwise walk out the door in the event of a data breach.


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SugarCRM at TechLive Connect India:

About TechLiveConnect

With locations in Gurgaon, San Diego, CA and Singapore, TechLiveConnect (TLC) provides

advanced, remote technology support to consumers and small businesses. Through a team of

highly qualified live experts and its proprietary Consumer Managed Services Platform

(CMSP) cloud platform, TLC excels at delighting its customers. TCL team has the rich

experience of 9 years in delivering digital support solutions and has serviced more than

200,000 customers.

Business Challenges

The TechLiveConnect (TLC) remote tech support service provides advanced, remote

technology support to consumers and small businesses. Through a team of highly qualified

live experts and its proprietary consumer managed service provider (CMSP) cloud platform,

TLC consistently delivers satisfied consumers and channel partners. With call centre volume

quickly growing from 500 to 3,000 calls per day, TLCs remote technicians and managers

often struggled when trying to match a customer with its channel partner.

At times, customers were put on hold while agents searched through Excel spreadsheets to

find partner information. TLC realized this manual process was inefficient and unsustainable

at high call volumes. The company also knew that it was wasting billable agent time on

customers who were delinquent. TLC wanted a system that would consistently reduce call

wait time regardless of call volume, track customer payment history, and enable customer

surveys on agent performance.

Business Benefits

TLCs Sugar solution has delivered significant time-savings across all TLC call centre

operations. With an average of 18,000 calls per week, phone agents save 6,000 minutes (100

hours) per week using Sugar to match partners with customers. Bheas integration of Sugar

with a third-party payment gateway saves agents an additional 100 hours every week by

automatically creating contact records based on a customers email address and linking that

record to the proper partner.


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TLCs Blacklist module saves agents 30 minutes in wasted support time for every non-paying

customer on the list, which currently numbers 200.In addition, many of the modules

developed by Bhea automate certain agent functions with custom workflows. For example,

when the status of a support case changes, the change triggers an email alert to the customer.

This reduces the volume of follow-up phone inquiries, which average three minutes per call,

and saves agents 10 hours per week managing its average weekly case load.

Bhea also created more than 80 custom reports to support TLCs management team.With

Sugar, we are a much more efficient operation and we have the information we need at our

fingertips, concludes Siddharth Thakur, Chief Technology Officer, TechLiveConnect. Now

we have a platform that can scale to accommodate our rapid growth.


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CRM Failures:

CIGNA Healthcare

In January 2002, Philadelphia-based CIGNA HealthCare migrated 3.5 million of its membersto new claims processing and customer service processes and systems.6 The broad-based $1

billion initiative included CRM and overhaul of its legacy technology infrastructure. Benefits

did not materialize as planned and resulting impacts on customer service caused the nations

fourth largest insurer to lose 6 percent of its health-care membership in 2002.

CIGNA wanted integrated processes and systems for enrolment, eligibility, and claims

processing so that customers would get one bill, medical claims could be processed faster and

more efficiently, and customer service reps would have a single unified view of members.

This meant consolidating complex back-end processes and systems for claims processing and

billing, and integrating them with new CRM applications on the front-end. The project

required complex technical work and an overhaul of the way business processes work

together between front and back office as well as an overhaul of customer service staffing

levels and skills. In addition, new processes and applications were designed to allow

members to enroll, check the status of their claims and benefits, and choose from different

health-plan offeringsall online.

There are several reasons why CIGNA was under considerable pressure to make these

changes. First, along with other insurers such as Aetna and Humana, they were being sued by

thousands of doctors about payment delays. They were also being accused of deliberately

rejecting or delaying payments to save money.(CIGNA recently settled most of the doctors

lawsuits by pledging faster and more accurate claims processing with the new integrated

platforms and promising to pay millions to physicians in compensation.)

In 2001, Georgias insurance commissioner found serious issues with CIGNAs claims

processing system and it was fined by the state of Georgia. CIGNA signed a consent order

pledging to reform its claims processing system.

Also, during sales cycles, CIGNA had promised large employee accounts that it would have

revamped systems for improving customer service up and running by early 2002. Finally, the

company had reported disappointing second quarter results in 2001 and was under pressure to


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cut costs. Although some selective hiring of staff was planned in order to alter the firms

skills mix, the goal was a net reduction of staff by 2,000 people through layoffs. At first,

CIGNA conducted small scale migrations, moving its members in small groups of

approximately 10,000 people at a time.

During this time, problems were limited and manageable. At the same time, the customer

service areas were being revamped in anticipation of the newfangled systems. Huge gains in

claims processing and customer service efficiency were expected, and the company started

laying off reps as part of a consolidation of service centres. In 2002, the company terminated

3,100 employees and spent $33 million in severance payments. CIGNA also invested $32

million in the new regional service centres.

At this point, in January 2002, with members renewing and new members lining up, the

company performed a mass migration to the new infrastructure. Serious problems emerged

immediately. Members had trouble obtaining, confirming, and inquiring about coverage.

Employees at one member company effectively lost coverage due to membership data

problems. Member ID cards were issued with incorrect numbers and prescription icons. Some

people could not get their prescriptions filled at drugstores. As a result, a flurry of inquiries

put CIGNAs new customer service operation to the test. But lower staff levels left the

centres short-handed. Customers who phoned were put on hold, and when they did get

through, some of the new reps struggled to navigate the new systems.

In addition, data from back-end systems did not show up properly in the customer service

systems, making it difficult for reps to fully understand the customers situation. In the rush

to go live, the systems ability to handle claims and service from front to back and in large

volumes was not adequately tested. Problems in one area cascaded into others; staffing levels

were inadequate, and staff were improperly prepared. Rather than realize that benefits would

come over time as the company became used to new processes and systems, they expected

them the day the switches were flipped.

Given this experience, CIGNA has now slowed down the pace of migration and solidified the

processes, systems, and staffing. It also has improved testing practices. By mid-2002, CIGNA

was moving new members without major problems. In January 2003, it successfully

performed a significant migration of 700,000 members. It also successfully launched


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www.MyCIGNA.com, a website for members to look up their benefits, select health plans,

check claim status, search for health information, and communicate with nurses online.

Now that the problems have been handled, the company is processing medical claims more

efficiently and servicing customers better than in the past. Some of the initiatives original

goals have now been achieved. The elimination of duplication in claims processing and

billing, as well as other benefits, have allowed the company to streamline its sales force and

medical management team. However, the price tag for the project has exceeded the $1 billion

planned and significant damage was done to the companys reputation and its financial

performance.

Hershey:

Candy producers record 40 percent of their annual sales between October and December.

Halloween, the biggest candy-consuming holiday, accounts for about $2 billion in sales. For a

candy producer, missing Halloween is like a toy company missing Christmas. Unfortunately,

in 1999, thats just what happened to Hershey, the nations largest candy maker.8 Just before

the big candy season, shelves at warehouses and retailers lay empty of treats such as Hershey

bars, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Kisses, Kit-Kats, and Rolos. Though inventory was

plentiful, orders had not arrived and distributors could not fully supply their retailers.

Hershey announced in September that it would miss its third quarter earnings forecasts due

to problems with new customer order and delivery systems that had been recently rolled out.

The new enterprise resource planning (ERP) and CRM processes and technology

implemented earlier in the year had affected Hersheys ability to take orders and deliver

product. The $112 million system aimed to modernize business practices and provide front-

to-back automation from order-taking to truck-loading, but Hershey lost market share as

problems allowed rivals to benefit during the season. Mars and Nestl both reported unusual

spurts of late orders as the Halloween season grew nearer.

The most frustrating aspect of the situation is that Hershey had plenty of candy on hand to fill

all its orders. It just couldnt deliver the orders to customers. By December 1999, the

company announced it would miss already lowered earnings targets. It stated that lower

demand in the last few months of the year was in part a consequence of the earlier fulfilment


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26

and service issues. Hershey had embarked on the project in 1996 to better coordinate

deliveries with its retailers, allowing it to keep its inventory costs under control.

The company also needed to address Y2K problems with its legacy systems. CRM, ERP, and

supply chain management systems were implemented, along with 5,000 personal computers

and a complex network of servers. The intention was to integrate these software and

hardware components in order to let the 1,200-person sales force shepherd orders step-by-

step through the distribution process. Sales could also better coordinate with other

departments to handle every issue from order placement to final delivery. The system was

also designed to help Hershey measure promotional campaigns and set prices, plus help run

the companys accounting operations, track ingredients, and schedule production and truck

loading.

Hershey realized that the business process changes involved with such a transformation were

highly intricate. However, despite the size and complexity of the undertaking, the firm

decided on an aggressive implementation plan that entailed a large piece of the new

infrastructure going live at the same time.

Unfortunately, the project ran behind schedule and wasnt ready until July 1999 when the

Halloween orders had already begun to come in. Problems in getting customer orders into the

system and transmitting the correct details of those orders to warehouses for shipping began

immediately. By August, the company was 15 days behind in filling orders, and in

September, order turnaround time was twice as long as usual. In recent years, Hershey sales

growth had exceeded its rivals, and the company was expecting 4 to 6 percent growth that

year. However, sales instead slipped and the company admitted that problems with the new

system alone had reduced sales by $100 million during the period.

In the past few years, other companies have experienced similar CRM-related problems. For

example, printer manufacturer Lexmark abandoned a CRM initiative in 2002 and announced

that it would take a charge of $15.8 million.9 Similarly, Agilent Technologies blamed its

quarterly profit shortfall in August 2002 on problems installing a new company-wide

software system.10 Separately, Carsdirect.com estimated in a lawsuit that it suffered $50

million in operating losses due its inability to adequately meet customer demand after

installing customer-tracking tools.


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Implications of CRM Failure:

The cost of CRM failure is dramatic and can take its toll in many areas of the business. The

following summarizes the typical impacts by category:

Financial Performance

Market share and operating losses

Failure to achieve a return on investments

Budget overruns

High post-implementation running costs

Customer Service Quality

Customer confusion, frustration, and dissatisfaction Lower service levels

Slower time to market

Negative brand perception

Sales Effectiveness

Lower sales force productivity

Increased sales force cynicism toward new systems

Increased sales force turnover

Cultural Impacts

Low morale within IT and affected departments

Growing cultural cynicism within the company toward adopting business change

Company-wide loss of confidence in its ability to enact change

Lost jobs in the executive suite

Propensity for companies to become overly conservative with regard to investments

in strategic initiatives. This leads to dampened innovation, a failure to strengthen

advantages, and deferring the update of aging processes and infrastructure


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Framework f

Implementati

Mohammad H A Tafti from th

meticulously planned results

illustrates the factors and its imp

Table1 elucidates the framework

implementation in any organizat

SUGAR CR

r Successful CRM

n

Hofstra University, in his paper lists factors

n a successful implementation. The follo

ications on the implementation success.

Figure 2

, which can be followed to achieve a successful

on.

29

which when

ing diagram

CRM


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Strategic PlanningChange

ManagementTechnology Project Management

It is necessary for the

business

to have a clear

understanding

of the make-up, wants

and

needs of its customer

base

Investigate if the

company

accepts change well

The organization must

conduct

a thorough vendor and

tool

interview and selection

process

Adequate funding must be

allocated for project

planning

and implementation

The business must have

a

vision of where it and

its

customer base will be

in 5-10

years

Management must

confront

change

IT alternatives must be

discussed and weighed

An appropriate pilot

program must be chosen

The business must

know &

understand its mostbusiness

critical data

Project decisions

must be

made with relativelylittle

political input

The CRM solution must be

compatible with the size

(i.e. in

terms of operational

volume)

of the company

The Project team has an

appropriate make-up of

business

experts and IT professionals

The business must have

determined precise

measures

of the business critical

data for

gauging success

Strong Executive

leadership

must be evident on

the

project

The system must be easy

to

use, have a high level of

responsiveness

The Project Team must

demonstrate a sound

understanding of the

necessary

CRM data and process

The business

comprehends the

benefits CRM can bring

to theorganization

CRM initiative must

be

prioritized within the

company

The most appropriate tool

of all

reviewed must selected

The project team must

demonstrate a

commitment to

data quality

The business

understands how

CRM related technology

could

be used to achieve the

business's ends

Change Management

methodology

suitable for

the company is

planned and

implemented

The selection process

should

maximize availability,

scalability, manageability

and

security of the system

A suitable methodology for

implementing CRM must be

implemented

The business has

defined the

project initiative using

best

practices

A suitable training

program

is planned for the

organization

A plan that contains aspects

of

an IT project, yet also

closely

follows the steps of a

MarketingProject methodology

The business has

defined

define the project

initiative

before reviewing IT

options

The company makes

changes in the

method of

determining

compensation

for its employees

Table 1


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SugarCRM Integration

In Order of Companies to use Social CRM it is necessary to integrate CRM across the whole

organisation. Hence it is vital for SugarCRM to be able to integrate with the companies ERP

solutions in order to be accessible across the organisation.

The Integration Challenge:

Generally, ERP and CRM systems tend to remain siloed as their contrasting architectures

make it difficult to streamline integration. Most of the company attempt to create seamless

connectivity between the two by turning to custom point-to-point integration. This method is,

expensive, fragile and also difficult to maintain. With point-to-point connections, there is a

need for the developer to manage connectivity and simultaneously implement changes. Thesechanges impact the entire system letting a large scope for errors. Hence , point-to-point

integrations deliver a short-term solution and can become overly complicated as businesses

grows.

Swivel Chair data entry is another method that the company may resort to . This method

requires an individual to manually retrieve data from one system and enter it into another.

Such a procedure is error-prone and takes an extensive amount of time and human resources.

Some businesses simplify the task by employing data loaders such as Dataloader.io for

Salesforce.com. When working with CRM systems offered by a vendor other than

Salesforce.com, however, a different solution is required.

With two different systems unable to communicate with one another, it becomes nearly

impossible to track all customer interactions and obtain information through one interface.

Sales reps spend time jumping between applications to create a 360 degree view of their

customers, slowing down sales processes.

As a lack of integration creates an inefficient workspace, businesses need a robust CRM and

ERP integration solution in order to streamline their business processes.


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Advantages of Integration of SugarCRM with ERP Solutions:

1. There is a huge Saving per user CRM license cost

2. The duplicity of effort in maintaining master data can be prevented

3. Enables the organisation to have a lean CRM system which can call SAP for checks and

business logic.

4. Provides a better clarity in defining roles and authorization structure based on

organizational unit.

5. Provides an intuitive user interface and rich analytic feature

Mechanisms for Integration Available in SugarCRM:-

Logic Hooks: There are different types of events in Sugar. You can add a logic hook

which will be called whenever these events happen (reading data from SugarDB,

changing values, etc.). You can put in that methods whatever you like to do: contact

another system's database or a another system directly etc.

WebServices (SOAP/REST): the other system can call the web services from Sugar

to read data or change values etc.

Scheduler: you can add scheduler jobs that look for files stored by other systems to

be imported, etc.

Features of SugarCRM integration:-1. Automatic import: Users will be able to import the converted (won) opportunities

from their CRM to the ERP with one click, hence rendering the manual method of

transferring the knowledge unnecessary. Users may schedule the import method as

per their convenience.

2. No Duplication: One individual task is made for every record to import in Tryton for

accounts ,opportunities, documents and contacts so reducing knowledge redundancy.

3. Fully Tested the combination module is scrutinized by unit check cases that check

the practicality of mercantilism opportunities, connected accounts and contacts. Thetesting ensures that the module behaviour is predictable and active development

doesn't hinder the operating options.

4. Efficient import mapping: The import method is enforced with extreme effectuality

avoiding knowledge corruption. each detail, like address, contact details and hooked

up documents is mapped accurately to the foreign chance.


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5. Track rate of conversion: Users will track the speed of conversion of leads into

opportunities with the help of this integration module, serving to them to organise

higher.

Examples:

Address Book Integration: Customer contact information is required information in both

SugarCRM and your ERP System. Business rules regarding synchronization of address book

information between SugarCRM and ERP systems constitutes an important decision for IT

departments to make in coordination with their various line-of-business users and leaders. In

SugarCRM the key table is sugarcrm.contacts and in a system like JD Edwards it is F10101.

Other SugarCRM tables to consider are users, prospects, leads, and accounts. Special

attention needs to be paid to deduplication, disambiguation, and address correction,

appending and related matters. For this purpose, you may want to also incorporate a data

append API such as that from TowerData into your Magic xpi integration flow. In addition,

tables such as sugarcrm.email_addr_bean_rel will define parent connections to contacts, etc.

Credit & Collections Information :Sales, service, credit and collection processes all

influence one another and affect customers in a variety of interrelated ways. Sales

opportunity qualification, pipeline and forecast ratings in SugarCRM can all be affected by

credit and collections status maintained in your ERP system. Credit decisions and collections

practices may be influenced by service histories and open issues as well. The urgency and

priority of service and support activity may also be influenced by the outstanding debt or the

opportunity pipeline related to particular account. Only with integration and visibility of

information can this data properly influence these interrelated business processes.

Notifications, alerts and escalations will need to cross traditional departmental lines in many

instances bridging SugarCRM and your ERP. SugarCRM custom fields can be used for this

purpose or you can allocate the meaning of an account field like rating for this purpose.

Another approach is to simply log credit status into the activity history on a specified day

each month and payments as they occur, or something like that.


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eCommerce Transaction Synchronization: With online web and ecommerce business

transactions of various types, both SugarCRM and your ERP system are often not the

repository of the relevant information. Systems like Magento, VirtueMart, PrestaShop,

ZenCart, osCommerce, OpenCart, Volusion, Interspire, Yahoo! Stores, Shopify, IBM

WebSphere Commerce, Shopatron, WebJaguar, etc. Only through business process

integration can one be sure that eCommerce information is aligned with the mainstream

business processes in a way that allows needed information access and visibility.

Pricing Systems: SugarCRM and ERP integration around pricing information can range

from straightforward to complex. When commodity based pricing, complex configurations,

labor estimates, and other variable factors enter into price determinations, the prices will need

to be accurately accessed and used by both your ERP system and SugarCRM. Business rules

around pricing may be managed by the advanced pricing module in systems like JD

Edwards and simply shared with the SugarCRM sugarcrm.products tableusing Magic xpi

integration flows. This SugarCRM table has fields for price, cost, discount, pricing formula,

pricing factor, book value, etc.

Product Catalogs: Similarly, product catalog integration and synchronization of master item

data can be complex and will use the same sugarcrm.products table. Related tables include:

product_product; documents_products; contracts_products; products_audit;

projects_products; product_product; product_types; product_categories; and

product_bundle_product. In many businesses, product catalog data comes from a variety of

sources (CRM, ERP, Product Configurator, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system,

etc.). Management of the product catalog data and metadata becomes complex and the data

architect and business analyst can use Magic xpi to automate decisions made about

redundancy rules, information latency, data validation, source priority, etc.


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Quote-to-Order Conversion: The opportunity-to-quote and quote-to-order conversion

processes will vary from business to business. In a retail business the process may be almost

irrelevant while in a complex manufacturing business there may be multiple layers and

approval processes involved in these conversions. In most businesses using SugarCRM, the

process will need to span both SugarCRM and your ERP system upon receipt of the order or

at some other appropriate trigger point. The Magic xpi Business Process Editor can be

particularly helpful in illustrating these business processes so that IT analysts can gain

process buy-in from business decision makers before finalizing the specifics of individual

business process flows. As with all of the examples discussed here, the Magic xpi Integration

Flow Editor can call Sugar CRM Web Services to read and update either a single entry or

multiple entries. An event in the ERP system (such as an order) can be monitored by Magic

xpi to update the SugarCRM sugarcrm.quotes table fields such as date_quote_closed and

order_stage as needed. Conversely, a closed quote in the CRM system can be used to trigger

the actual order in the ERP system. To accomplish this, Master Item Data for products and

prices needs to be closely synchronized between systems as well.

Sales Compensation: In SugarCRM, commission calculations require customization, usually

at the opportunities level. So sales compensation is another area frequently requiring

SugarCRM to ERP system integration and processes. Many of the most logical methods of

sales compensation require validated data from both CRM and ERP systems in order to make

their calculations. The approved compensation amounts calculated then need to be recorded

within the various systems involved as well. Some third-party sales compensations may be

partially or fully integrated with the CRM system but effective ERP integration is less

common. By pulling data from both ERP and CRM systems, sales compensation analysis and

methods can use sophisticated techniques based on the actual conversion ratios and sales

achievements reached by the salesperson. Automated integration and orchestration of these

processes and the exceptions to them is essential if sales compensation is to be accomplishedin a way that is not burdensome to IT, sales, HR and accounting professionals.


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Conclusion

The CRM market is consolidating around three main large players: Microsoft, Oracle, and

salesforce.com. Oracle and Microsoft offer a complete end-to-end solution of hardware,

middleware, and software, which has demonstrable total cost of ownership benefits.

Salesforce offers similar benefits using its cloud model. SugarCRM, by aligning with IBM, is

also leveraging these efficiencies. Even though its a small company (about 250 employees),

expect to see SugarCRM (with the help of IBM) start to surface in larger deals in which the

Big Three players are competing.

References1. http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/31903/

2. http://ijebm.ie.nthu.edu.tw/IJEBM_Web/IJEBM_static/Paper-V4_N5/A07-05_4.pdf

3. http://media.techtarget.com/searchCRM/downloads/CRMUnpluggedch2.pdf

4. http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:428076/FULLTEXT01.pdf

5. http://shrike.depaul.edu/~jbuttime/docs/UseCaseStudy.pdf

6. http://www.uni-obuda.hu/journal/Mishra_Mishra_20.pdf

7. http://www.mulesoft.com/resources/esb/crm-erp-integration

8. http://forums.sugarcrm.com/f6/integrating-sugarcrm-erp-system-76982/

9. http://blog.magicsoftware.com/2013/12/sugarcrm-erp-integration-example

group 4_sugar crm evaluation

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