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As Cincom sells its own guided selling system, the company uses this technology to provide customers with knowledge-based search throughout the entire product lines and also through specific prepackaged solution bundles as well. This has been very effective in upselling customers to a specific, customized solution.
The use of information technologies has also drastically changed how the distribution of products is also handled, in addition to the delivery of services. Cincom had in the past relied on a manually-based contract management system that took months at times to coordinate pricing, delivered software updates and special requirements of customers. Each contract had to be manually updated and each change had to be approved by the controller of the company. As of 2009, the company completely redefined their contract management system and had it integrate into the Microsoft CRM system. This provided advance notice to the sales teams when a contract was about to expire, defined the terms of the contract, showed the history of the contract, and provided a scorecard of the lifetime value...
With all this information, the sales teams now know when to begin discussions around a contract renewal and also know exactly what the prices are for the customers.
Within Cincom, any new software application cannot be released until a contract has been updated. In the past, the contract would be walked down to software distribution, where a CD was made and then shipped to the customer. This is no longer the case because software distribution is integrated directly to the contract management system. Now when a contract is renewed the CD is automatically prepared and shipped within hours. Customer satisfaction is way up as a result. A second area of where the combination of the CRM and contract management systems is paying off is in getting premium customer support sold to the largest accounts. Now with the combination of contract value and CRM data, sales reps are better able to manage their time and target only the most profitable and potentially high value customers for service upgrades. The result has been a 18% increase in profits for services in the last twelve months.
A secondary factor is how the use of these technologies has accelerated the use of comparison analysis on the part of customers. Now the Cincom main website and ancillary sites all are compatible with the Apple iPad, iPhone and iTouch, in addition to the comparison features on the site itself, which allows for different software applications to be compared as well. As Cincom sells its own guided selling system, the company uses this technology to provide customers with knowledge-based search throughout the entire product lines and also through specific prepackaged solution bundles as well. This has been very effective in upselling customers to a specific, customized solution.
The use of information technologies has also drastically changed how the distribution of products is also handled, in addition to the delivery of services. Cincom had in the past relied on a manually-based contract management system that took months at times to coordinate pricing, delivered software updates and special requirements of customers. Each contract had to be manually updated and each change had to be approved by the controller of the company. As of 2009, the company completely redefined their contract management system and had it integrate into the Microsoft CRM system. This provided advance notice to the sales teams when a contract was about to expire, defined the terms of the contract, showed the history of the contract, and provided a scorecard of the lifetime value of the customer. With all this information, the sales teams now know when to begin discussions around a contract renewal and also know exactly what the prices are for the customers.
Within Cincom, any new software application cannot be released until a contract has been updated. In the past, the contract would be walked down to software distribution, where a CD was made and then shipped to the customer. This is no longer the case because software distribution is integrated directly to the contract management system. Now when a contract is renewed the CD is automatically prepared and shipped within hours. Customer satisfaction is way up as a result. A second area of where the combination of the CRM and contract management systems is paying off is in getting premium customer support sold to the largest accounts. Now with the combination of contract value and CRM data, sales reps are better able to manage their time and target only the most profitable and potentially high value customers for service upgrades. The result has been a 18% increase in profits for services in the last twelve months.
These dealers have high levels of credibility with their customers due to their backgrounds, yet do not have the experience or interest in learning the depths of a quoting system. Cincom has created an quoting, pricing and product configuration system that allows for uploading of images directly from smartphones as a result. Another factor is the optimization of pricing (Bilek, 2010) and the use of the Cincom Acquire suite of
The sales cycles of the enterprise software industry however are changing drastically due to Software-as-a-Service and Cincom's CRM systems are in the middle of a transition as the company seeks to stay competitive in 2010. Assessment of CRM at Cincom Systems The internal CRM system was initially called Quota, which was meant to connote the urgency of attaining sales quotes by the Cincom sales teams. Quota had the ability to track
Enterprise vs. Departmental CRM Comparing Departmental and Enterprise Information Systems Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Teams in Cincom Systems It is paradoxical that the majority of enterprise software companies today have highly fragmented Information Systems (IS) departments with one entire series of departments dedicated to enterprise computing and a second, to specific departments or divisions. As enterprise software systems, specifically in the areas of enterprise CRM are organized to ensure a very high level
Social Technology and Security Cincom Systems, a privately-held enterprise software company who is very active on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and has an extensive blog network relies on social media sites to share customer success stories and the latest updates on events the company is participating in. Cincom has six different product divisions, each offering a different type of enterprise software, ranging from Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
A change management strategy that concentrates on getting the feedback of the sales teams, who will be the primary uses of the CRM system, and also the engineering team who will want to evaluate it, are both critical. This focus on shared ownership will overcome the political factors and forces that will push for the SaaS-based CRM system to be not installed and used. The sales teams however will
Scenario Analysis Taking the five drivers of technological innovation, consolidation of the enterprise software industry, increased focus of new competitors in high growth sectors, compliance requirements of customers, and the shift in software to becoming more knowledge-based, the future of Cincom Systems is highly dependent on strategic renewal (Agarwal, Helfat, 2009). Taking these five factors together and defining realistic, optimistic and pessimistic scenarios provides insights into the extent to which Cincom