The Benefits of Merging BPM and CRM

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Although a firm’s business process management (BPM) solution often functions separately from its customer relationship management (CRM) software, combining these two tools makes a good deal of sense, say industry experts.

Most, if not all, mid-to-large organizations have some form of customer relationship management (CRM) system. Many of these same companies also have or are considering business process management (BPM) software, typically to improve the customer service experience. But do you really need both a CRM system and a BPM system? An increasing number of analysts, customer service experts and business managers are saying “yes” if you truly want to deliver great customer service, improve efficiency and increase sales.

Following are 10 ways that combining CRM with BPM can benefit your organization.

1) Improve data aggregation. “CRM is typically utilized for account management and pipeline building processes – and does a poor job of aggregating data that is relevant outside the CRM solution,” said Chris Lewis, vice president of Operations at iDatix. “For instance, a user may want to access customer data from a CRM for reference purposes while they are evaluating their credit score.” By adding a BPM solution, you are now “able to access documentation surrounding their mortgage, locate banking centers and contact third parties,” giving you a better understanding of an individual’s credit worthiness.

2) Get better leads – and improve lead management. “CRM systems thrive on a healthy diet of imported leads and contacts,” said Glenn Johnson, senior vice president of marketing at Magic Software Enterprises. “Your BPM system’s ability to orchestrate lead assignment and input from diverse sources will accelerate the sales and marketing process.”

Added Scott Herron, CEO of MaintenanceNet: “When sales professionals are armed with cleansed BPM data — ranging from complete customer contact information, to accurate service contract expiration details, to product refresh suggestions and even recommended replacement parts — they are in position to reach out to the right customer at the right time with the right sales pitch.” Moreover, “the higher the levels of data quality that your CRM system contains, the more effective it will be, and in this way BPM solutions can play a key role in CRM success.”

3) Maximize cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. By combining your CRM system with a BPM system, “cross-sell and up-sell can be streamlined based on business processes to enable optimal sales performance and results,” said Gabriel Gheorghiu, research analyst and consultant at Technology Evaluation Centers (TEC). “BPM can intelligently provide rules for personalized offers and packages, taking into account the history of the customer, their profile, budget and any current marketing promotions.”

Read the rest about combining CRM and BPM at Enterprise Apps Today.