Businesses today have a wide range of options when it comes to procuring programs that can help their company work more efficiently. Among these are ERP and CRM programs, with numerous ERP software for manufacturers and CRM programs for hotels. But how exactly are they different from each other?
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning, while CRM is for Customer Relationship Management. In many ways they’re the same. They keep track of things for your company and make business operations more efficient. This in turn can make your enterprise more profitable.
Yet they also have crucial differences:
Different Focus
ERP focuses more on resources that make up the crucial functions of a company. Thus, it tracks components, warehousing, inventory, the supply chain, and accounting.
On the other hand, CRM focuses more on the needs of the customers. It tracks customer wants, preferences, and needs, so that your company can offer better products and services.
So let’s say you run a toy manufacturing business. You track your toy production, taking note of the materials and labor needed to complete the production process according to your schedule. The program makes sure that there are no unnecessary delays, by anticipating material shortages and by streamlining reports. The ERP consultants then track the distribution of the toys to the various sellers.
Once these toys are on the market, the CRM can then track customer behavior and every interaction of your company with a customer. This program can contain details, which sales managers, sales reps, and accounting personnel can use. The information contain in the CRM software can build customer relationships, boost customer loyalty, and ultimate increase profits. Newer solutions are now on the market that help online retailers build stronger relationships, too. This new variant is called ecommerce CRM, and works by creating profiles from ecommerce order activity, helping online retailers get to know customers better, identify trends and improve loyalty and retention.
Different Components
As the focus of each type of software is different, so are its individual program components. The ERP can track:
- Account details
- Human resources
- Supply chain availability and prices
- Manufacturing costs and speed
- Project management details
The ERP can also track customer relation management, the sales force automation aspects, and the marketing automation, and these are all functions that CRM software can do as well.
But CRM programs do have unique aspects that focus solely on customers.
- It tracks call center services and details.
- It monitors customer service requests, questions, and complaints, and what the company has done to offer solutions.
- It manages community activities that make the business integral to the local community to foster better community relations and better local customer popularity and loyalty.
- It can even manage social media activities to boost customer loyalty, including interactions on Facebook and Twitter.
ERP and CRM Necessity
For many businesses that manufacture products, ERP software can be crucial. This type of program makes sure that enterprise processes remains smooth and efficient, by minimizing costs and by speeding up the production schedule. If you can lower your expenses and produce more in a given time, you’re better able to profit.
If your business does a lot of interactions with customers, then CRM software will be invaluable. This is especially true for businesses that deal purely with selling items, instead of making them. You can use your CRM software to track customer demands, needs, and preferences, so that you’re better able to provide them with what they want. When you consistently offer them products that satisfy them, customers tend to remain loyal.
Of course, a business may be involved in both producing and selling items to customers. If that’s the case, then both ERP and CRM programs will be helpful. It is possible to find both types of programs that integrate well with each other, so that a business owner can track both the production and the customer relations side of the business with equal accuracy.
