BPM, ERP, and CRM: Choosing the Right System for Your Business!

In the realm of business systems in Ontario, CRM and ERP have likely become familiar terms, but allow me to introduce you to the revolutionary force known as BPM. While these three systems share the common goal of advancing your business, they reside in distinct classes and serve disparate purposes. Given the potential for confusion, it is essential to delve deeper into their distinguishing features.

In essence, let us highlight what sets BPM apart from CRM and ERP systems:

• CRM systems are bespoke solutions meticulously designed for the realm of sales and customer communication. They empower your team to cultivate robust customer relationships, stimulate sales growth, and elevate overall customer satisfaction.
• ERP stands as the go-to solution for proficiently managing, planning, and accounting for manufacturing processes. It optimizes operations, ensuring an unwavering commitment to efficiency and accuracy throughout every stage.
• BPM systems are the epitome of comprehensive business process automation and management. From the seamless routing of critical documents, encompassing signature acquisition, to vigilant deadline tracking and the generation of all-encompassing reports, BPM assumes the responsibility for these essential tasks, granting you the freedom to concentrate on matters of paramount importance.

Moreover, BPM seamlessly integrates with your ERP system, synergistically augmenting its capabilities, while CRM can be effortlessly integrated within the ERP framework, culminating in a comprehensive business management solution.

Have you attained a heightened understanding of these systems? If not, allow us to embark on a more in-depth exploration, unraveling the intricacies that underscore their true potential.

CRM System

A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system revolutionizes the operations of sales and customer-related departments, introducing unprecedented automation and efficiency to these critical areas of business management. Its scope is focused solely on optimizing customer interactions and sales processes, leaving other business functions untouched.

Here is a list of common functions and features offered by CRM systems:

1. Contact Management: Store and manage customer and prospect contact information, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses.
2. Lead Management: Track and manage leads throughout the sales process, from initial contact to conversion, ensuring efficient lead nurturing and follow-up.
3. Opportunity Management: Monitor and manage sales opportunities, including pipeline tracking, forecasting, and deal closure probability analysis.
4. Sales Automation: Automate repetitive sales tasks, such as lead assignment, email communications, and follow-up reminders, to streamline the sales process.
5. Customer Interaction Tracking: Record and track all customer interactions, including calls, emails, meetings, and notes, for a complete view of customer history and improved communication.
6. Sales Reporting and Analytics: Generate reports and analyze sales performance metrics, such as revenue, conversion rates, and sales cycle duration, to gain insights and make data-driven decisions.
7. Workflow Automation: Automate business processes and workflows, such as approval processes and task assignments, to increase efficiency and productivity.
8. Customer Service and Support: Provide tools for managing customer service inquiries, tracking support tickets, and resolving customer issues effectively.
9. Marketing Automation Integration: Integrate with marketing automation tools to align sales and marketing efforts, enabling lead nurturing, campaign tracking, and personalized messaging.
10. Collaboration and Team Management: Facilitate collaboration among team members, allowing them to share information, assign tasks, and collaborate on deals and customer interactions.

Let’s take the example of “Big company X”, the dominant distributor of entry doors in its region. Recognizing the limitations of Excel spreadsheets, they made a strategic shift towards a robust CRM system. With their chosen CRM solution, employees at “Big company X” gain access to a comprehensive repository of customer information. They can seamlessly handle inquiries originating from diverse sources, execute targeted promotional campaigns, and empower managers to monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) and departmental workloads.

Regardless of the scale of operations, a CRM system is indispensable for businesses. The reliance on Excel spreadsheets and outdated practices for maintaining customer databases becomes progressively perilous as your company expands. Consider the unsettling scenario where a competitor entices one of your employees away—an unauthorized exportation of your customer data through an Excel sheet would pose an imminent threat.

ERP system

An ERP system is software designed for resource planning in manufacturing. It helps answer questions like, “How much production should be scheduled, when, and what is required to achieve it?” Additionally, it encompasses all financial transactions and provides a real-time view of the company’s operations.

Here is a list of common functions and features offered by ERP systems:

1. Financial Management: Manage financial transactions, including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, budgeting, financial reporting, and cash management.
2. Supply Chain Management: Streamline and optimize the entire supply chain, from procurement and inventory management to order fulfillment and logistics, ensuring efficient material flow and delivery.
3. Inventory Management: Track and manage inventory levels, including stock tracking, stock transfers, reorder point management, and inventory valuation.
4. Production Planning and Control: Plan and schedule production activities, monitor work orders, allocate resources, track progress, and optimize production efficiency.
5. Manufacturing Operations Management: Manage shop floor operations, including job scheduling, work order management, machine and labor tracking, quality control, and production reporting.
6. Human Resources Management: Manage employee information, including employee records, attendance, payroll, benefits administration, performance evaluation, and training.
7. Project Management: Plan, execute, and track projects, including project scheduling, resource allocation, task management, progress tracking, and project costing.
8. Business Intelligence and Reporting: Generate reports and analyze data from various modules to gain insights into business performance, identify trends, and support decision-making.
9. Quality Management: Implement quality control measures, including quality planning, inspections, non-conformance management, corrective actions, and quality reporting.
10. Asset Management: Track and manage company assets, including fixed assets, equipment maintenance, depreciation, and asset lifecycle management.
11. Compliance and Regulatory Reporting: Ensure compliance with industry regulations and generate required reports, such as financial statements, tax reports, and audit trails.
12. Multi-Company and Multi-Currency Support: Manage multiple company entities and currencies within a single ERP system, allowing consolidated reporting and financial management.

One example of a company utilizing an ERP system is “Big company Y,” a soda manufacturing plant. With the system, they can track raw material requirements, monitor available warehouse space, and analyze changes in the cost of finished goods.

BPM System

A BPM system, also known as a Business Process Management system, is a software solution that enables organizations to model, automate, manage, and optimize their business processes. It provides a centralized platform for designing, executing, and monitoring processes, as well as facilitating collaboration and continuous improvement.

Here are some of the key functions performed by a BPM system:

1. Process Modeling: A BPM system allows users to create visual process models using standardized notations such as BPMN. These models capture the sequence of activities, decision points, and interactions involved in a process, providing a clear representation of how the process should be executed.
2. Process Automation: BPM systems enable the automation of manual tasks and activities within a process. By defining rules and conditions, the system can automatically route work items, trigger notifications, and execute tasks, reducing manual effort and improving process efficiency.
3. Workflow Management: BPM systems provide workflow capabilities, allowing users to define and manage the flow of work within a process. They enable the assignment of tasks to specific individuals or roles, tracking progress, managing deadlines, and handling exceptions or escalations.
4. Process Execution: A BPM system executes processes based on the defined models and rules. It ensures that the right tasks are performed in the correct sequence, guiding users through their activities and providing them with the necessary information and tools to complete their work.
5. Process Monitoring: BPM systems offer real-time visibility into process performance. They capture and analyze process data, providing key performance indicators (KPIs) and analytics dashboards to monitor process metrics, identify bottlenecks, and track progress. Monitoring enables organizations to make informed decisions, detect issues, and take proactive measures for improvement.
6. Collaboration and Communication: BPM systems facilitate collaboration among process participants. They provide tools for sharing information, commenting on tasks, and communicating with other users involved in the process. Collaboration features enhance coordination, foster teamwork, and enable effective communication within the context of the process.
7. Process Optimization: BPM systems support process improvement initiatives by providing analysis tools and capabilities. They enable organizations to identify areas for optimization, simulate process changes, measure the impact of proposed improvements, and implement changes to streamline and enhance processes.
8. Integration: BPM systems often integrate with other enterprise systems, such as CRM, ERP, and document management systems, to exchange data and leverage existing resources. Integration capabilities enable seamless data flow across systems and ensure a unified view of process information.

By combining these functions, a BPM system helps organizations streamline operations, reduce costs, improve compliance, enhance customer experiences, and drive business agility. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing and optimizing business processes throughout their lifecycle.

Consider the example of “Big company Z” with a staff of 50. The employees frequently missed contract deadlines, but manual oversight was insufficient. This had a significant impact on the budget, as a penalty of 0.1% of the contract value was imposed for each extra day. As a result, the company lost 1 million candies annually.

By investing the same 1 million candies in the automation of these and other processes using a BPM system, “Big company Z” eliminated missed deadlines, fully recovering their investment within the first year.