CRM   VS    ERP

Which Software to Choose for Your Business 

A lot of businesses think that Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management System (CRM) are similar and overlapping in terms of handling the massive amounts of business information, contacts, and orders. Therefore, business organizations aiming at developing and expanding their business often ask what the main difference between the two is. Which one to implement at their workplace? In fact, both programs are developed to manage a lot of corporate or operational procedures, but each one is specialized in a different field. 

Although many ERP service providers claim that CRM is not a separate entity, rather a part of the ERP domain. Much like HR, Sales, or Purchase, yet there is a difference between the two. Let's see what it is.

CRM and ERP are similar in purpose. Both of them work to improve business processes and increase profitability, but each system has distinctive basic functions and a different way of working.

The main users of CRM applications are from sales, while, the users of ERP are all the company's employees no matter what their field is. They can be factory managers, HR personnel, buyers, accountants, sellers, and many others. 

ERP software improves all work processes inside an organization, and its users rarely come into contact with a client, unlike CRM. CRM's main focus is on making sales easier, fruitful, and more profitable, so CRM users are always in contact with clients. 

So, as I said the users of CRM are completely different from the users of ERP. The main individuals in your association to have logins on both the CRM and ERP frameworks would be IT team who are given the responsibilities of analytics, integration and so forth. 

How CRM works:

CRM's main function is to record and organize all the customers and sales-related data and make it easily accessible to all employees across the company especially the sales team who can make use of this information to set the current deals and plan the future ones. 

In other words, once a company salesperson enters the data about a prospect, the sales team can make use of the client information and send a personalized newsletter prompting the customer to buy the service or product. Therefore, using the right CRM software at a business can effectively document and segment every single part of the client experience.

Also, CRM systems can make sales forecasts, increase opportunities, manage invoices/emails, and analyze market trends. CRM offers all the functions necessary to build new and maintain old customer relations. A CRM framework guarantees that customer relations are greatly enhanced by adding greater precision to customer data.

How ERP System is different

ERP system is also developed to professionally manage all business operations. However, while CRM's main target is the organization’s sales, an ERP system works in a broader spectrum. ERP integrates together multiple departments of the business. Along with managing sales, an ERP system takes care of managing inventory, sales, purchase, accounts, human resources, manufacturing operations, and many others. An ERP system enables the management to be fully connected with all business processes, making sure enterprises have standardized information which is readily accessed throughout every department. ERP makes all business procedures fully automated which relieves enterprises from manual data entry bringing by that more precision to data, thus, helping businesses to make better-informed decisions. 

Key Functionalities of CRM and ERP

Of course, these functions of CRM and ERP systems are just the tip of the iceberg. Deep down there is a lot more to gain. 

Both ERP and CRM frameworks enhance the workflow and bring great benefits to businesses as they offer a central easily accessible database for clients' information. However, an ERP framework is broader management of the business, taking care of every part, field, and procedure of the business. Thus an ERP system significantly reduces the operational costs of business enterprises. 

On the other hand, a CRM magnifies the sales volume and fosters better customer interactions. It can give you a comprehensive overview of your customers' information. The unified database CRM provides, can easily provide you with customer information such as customer contact data, insights into their most recent collaboration, a brief about earlier meetings, and more in one click. In addition, it enables the sales department of your organization to maintain a connection with their potential customers and prevent losing any past information through a central database framework.

What to choose CRM or ERP 

Since both systems offer remarkable advantages, business organizations seeking more growth, development and profits find themselves in confusion about which system to implement first and whether one system can replace another

To scale, organizations should definitely improve their sales and profits. Hence, good CRM software is required for the business. Then again, ERP software stores and organizes the data of all the business departments. Along with sales, ERP system brings precision to all other business activities with no disparity in operational characteristics. ERP helps with reducing the amount of capital invested in each business procedures, be it sales or any other. It generates insightful reports of each business undertakings, helping the organization in making smart business decisions, and taking real-time precautions. 

So, what to choose?  You want to improve your sales and profits so CRM is the answer for you, or if your aim is to develop and organize all your business departments and reduce all operational costs so ERP is what you need for your business? 

What if you need both? That's a lot of expenses, isn't it? 

Well, in this case, you can choose one of them according to what you need most, or you can do better  "go for Odoo" 

Odoo is two in one and more. Get a complete CRM by implementing Odoo ERP at your business end. The open-source ERP application comes comprehensive in action and each module adds great effectiveness for the management of specific business functions. 

Odoo comes with 30 basic modules listing CRM, Accounts, Human Resource, Purchase, Sales, Ecommerce, Inventory, Manufacturing, Website, Project, Point of Sale, the list thus goes endless. 

The large community of Odoo developers is constantly improving the Odoo ERP, deeply focusing on expanding the functionalities of each core module. If you implement Odoo ERP you won't regret it. Odoo is one of the fastest-growing open-source ERP with distinctive features. Each module is extensive, highly adaptable, and scalar. 

To spotlight the power of Odoo, here we will list over 50 benefits of Odoo CRM.

    1. Organize Customer Data

    2. Increase Your Sales

    3. Increase Overall Productivity

    4. Improve Marketing Strategy

    5. Real-time Status Updates of Sales Operations

    6. Reduce Client Close-Time

    7. Increase Client Close-Rates

    8. Lessen Client-handling Costs

    9. Increase Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention

    10. Reduce Customer Acquisition Cost

    11. Organized Prospect Handling

    12. Easy Internal File Sharing

    13. Organized Sales Calls -VOIP Integration

    14. Easy Elimination of Clients based on History

    15. Customer Feedback Recording

    16. Reduce Customer Churn Rates

    17. Elimination of Repeat Calls 

    18. Efficient Task Management

    19. Predictive Reporting For Smarter Business Decisions

    20. Sales Pipeline to strike balance b/w lead generation and lead management

    21. Integrates Business Emails

    22. Send SMS manually or on automation

    23. Automatic Payment Follow-ups

    24. Easy Client Segregation based on Profits

    25. Eliminated Data Redundancy and Duplication

    26. Internal Team Chat Option

    27. Setting Business Reminders

    28. Analyze Customer Preference and Purchasing Patterns

    29. Reduce Manual Labour and Manual Errors

    30. Sales Analytics for Business

    31. Easy Contract Renewals 

    32. Zero Data Leaks/Access Rights Issues

    33. Cross-selling/Up-selling

    34. Increases Margin of Profits

    35. Easy Assignation of Clients to Sales Team By Managers

    36. Easy Generation of Customer Quotations and Invoices 

    37. Electronic Document Signing

    38. The setting of Sales Targets

    39. Rewarding Sales Team for Outstanding Performances

    40. Mass Mailing Options

    41. SMS Marketing

    42. Social Media Marketing

    43. Email Marketing 

    44. Big Data/Accurate Sales Forecast

    45. Tight Security for Critical Business Data

    46. Improved Business Scalability

    47. Email Automation Features

    48. Efficient Tracking of Sales activities

    49. Automated Accounts 

    50. Seamless Calculation of Sales Commissions

    51. Effective Time Management in Sales Operations

    52. Integration of Gamification

    53. Shortens Sales Cycles

    54. Improves Customer Grievance Redressal Rates

    55. Reduce Client Attrition Rates

    56. Working With Remote Teams Made Easier

    57. Appointments made organized and easier

    58. Complete Sales Automation

    59. Reducing Sales Training Expense

    60. Enhance Support Service Performances

    61. Easy Discovery of New Clients

    62. Populate Website and Becomes Lead Generation Tools

    63. Real-time overview of next actions

    64. Increase Lead Conversions

    65. Increase Customer Retention

    66. Improve Customer Lifetime Value

    67. Keep your Inventory Intact

    68. Provides Performance Indicators

    69. Gain Competitive Advantage

    70. Integrates GPS to boost outreach

    71. Smart and Intuitive Dashboards

    72. Deeper Analytics via Integrating CRM with E-commerce

If you decided to implement Odoo ERP at your business, we – Boraq Group _ can happily do it for you.  Boraq Group has long years of experience in all Odoo ERP modules such as CRM, Manufacturing, Accounting and Purchase, Sales, Warehouse Management, E-commerce, and Website. Our highly skilled teams of developers and consultants will provide you with the business software that especially fits your business needs. You can contact us at info@boraq-group.com   

Keywords: CRM, ERP, Boraq Group, Odoo ERP, Manufacturing, Accounting and Purchase, Sales, Warehouse Management, E-commerce,