Business Process Mapping For CRM

Any business that is planning a change from the traditional way of doing business (delivering what is good for you) to a customer-centric way of doing business (delivering what is good for the customer and then you) will require a re-alignment of information flow and work flow by going through a business process mapping exercise. The purpose of this exercise is to expose the the fundamental inefficiencies and ineffectiveness of cross-functional work flows.

In the front office, the biggest problem is always in the hand off of information between functional units like Sales and Marketing, or Sales and Customer Service. And once you begin the business process mapping exercise you will also likely find redundant work processes from department to department. The goal of realigning processes for CRM is to look at how things flow from a customers perspective. Bottlenecks, delays or even asking the customer to bridge the gap between departments, only serves to lower their satisfaction with the process and ultimately leads to lower customer loyalty.

What to expect from realigning business process

The guru on realigning front office work flows for CRM is Dick Lee of High Yield Methods. He was writing about what CRM really is way back in the 1990's. Back then, I was simply plowing forward in my standard VAR mode. I still can't believe how long it took me to understand the fundamental changes that need to take place in a company in order for CRM to be a success. For a long time, I thought all the problems were technical in nature. I was really mistaken.

Dick has developed a business process mapping methodology called Visual Workflow designed specifically for the front office. He feels, and I agree, that there are fundamental differences between front and back office environments. Here are a few of his examples (see his white paper on Visual Workflow:)

Office - Manufacturing

- Low Repetition - High Repetition Decision-based Process - Fixed Process Adaptability is critical - Consistency is critical Defects at Workflow Level - Defects at Work Process Level Invisible Defects - Visible Defects Empowered Staff - Compliant Staff

Those area just a few examples of the differences. It's important to keep these in mind because methodologies like Six Sigma were designed for manufacturing processes. Frankly, anything with a cottage industry attached to it scares me. So I like Dick's more appropriate approach.

The Outcome

Probably the most important thing about realigning business processes are the outcomes.

• Driving toward shared objectives across functional lines
• Building a stronger relationship with your customer
• Building stronger cross functional employee relationships
• Eliminating workflow bottlenecks
• etc.

The outcomes of your alignment need to address the specific challenges of front office work flow, especially those designed with the customer at the center. A process for forming sheet metal is difference than a work flow where people are empowered to make decisions. Business Process Mapping is a powerful and necessary tool in your CRM initiative, but choosing the wrong methodology could hurt your efforts.

Business Process Outsourcing and Its Advantages

Business process outsourcing or BPO is a service-based sector that encompasses a wide range of activities including marketing, sales, logistics, legal, financial research accounting and so on. All the given services are essential to be offered as per the needs and demands of customers.

Most major corporations in Europe and United States are busy outsourcing their back office operations to the BPO centers. These companies select BPO in lieu to gain advanced services and to attain the customer retention.

The business process outsourcing market is broadly classified into three distinct categories like transcription services, customer care services and the knowledge based services. With the ever evolving technological innovation, companies tend to make best use of the advanced technologies.

The use of ever-evolving technology, process efficiencies, labor arbitrage and technology has helped the established transcription and customer care services to continue to develop rapidly. In addition, the diverse and the new knowledge based BPO services are also fast emerging through technological advancements and use of skilled expertise.

Why do companies outsource?

There are several reasons that lead most companies to outsource business processes. Some of these reasons are as follows:

• The option to ensure cost reduction opportunities • Proving access to the special expertise • Providing flexibility to focus on core business areas • Increasing organizational flexibility • Increasing speed of the given business process • Providing the resource-related business solutions that relieve the resource constraints, augment or reduce IT staff

BPO outsourcing involves consideration of diverse factors that brings desired results in every respect. The domain knowledge, expertise, use of skilled and general infrastructure and a group dedicated, trained and highly skilled professionals are needed to offer superior quality outsourcing services to the clients.

There are several factors that contribute to the advantages of BPO outsourcing services. Some of these significant factors are as follows:

Skilled BPO professionals: All employees are well-trained to offer services as per the needs and requirements of the clients. They are available for all types of telemarketing. This is to retain the existing customers and also to build the new base of potential customers for the client.

Use of right infrastructure: The most significant asset of the BPO firm stands to be its infrastructure. After human resources, infrastructure stands to be an essential factor of a business process outsourcing set-up. Whether it is use of general or telecom infrastructure or advanced equipments, most modern BPO centers meet essential infrastructure needs. Companies no longer require being equipped with all necessary facilities related to work.

Boosting efficiency: There are some processes in each organization essential to contribute in terms of efficiency and increasing productivity. However when required most processes contribute little in terms of the productivity. Most processes need special expertise and skills to manage processes without having to lose concentration on the main core processes.

Business process outsourcing helps businesses to carry forward business processes by the team of experts. This not only boosts your efficiency but also enables to save time.

Business Process Management: Is It Useful for All Kinds of Business

Business process management plays a very vital role in the successful operations of different kinds of business. This is the main reason why this process is used in almost all business organizations. If you own a business and you want to try the process out, then you have to familiarize yourself with how it works. You have to know how to make it work in order for you to achieve the kind of success that you are aiming for. This way, things will become even easier for you and for your employees.

Business process management (BPM) can be described as a methodology or business system which aims to improve the overall productivity of a certain organization. It is capable of optimizing all the practices of your business and providing a huge help in your aim to achieve your business goals in a more unified manner. This can be performed through a series of activities that include identification of all your current business processes, designing or creating new processes, implementing them and tracking each of them. BPM also has a great involvement in all the steps and departments of your business. It is used primarily for the purpose of producing productive results while your business continues to operate.

BPM has been used today by different kinds of organizations, regardless of size. Since it is a huge help in finding solutions for complex business problems, it is no longer surprising why several business owners tend to seek the service of the process. However, if you are trying to utilize this for your business, you have to be aware that its success can still be dependent on the managements approach and on how you apply it. Among its main purposes are to manage people and enhance the level of productivity within the workplace; you should be able to have a management team that is capable of making the process work. This way increased productivity can result in better customer service.

If you want the workload of your business to be managed in a more proper manner, then business process management can be a huge help to you. It ensures that your resources are not underutilized and the flow of information is made in a smoother manner. With this, you will no longer face issues when it comes to the operation of your business. You can increase your chances of obtaining success with the BPM around. You will then be able to gain control over the processes involved in your business.

Understanding of Business Process Is a Must for the Success of a Custom Website Design

When you are planning to create a website for your business it is very important that you define the right purpose of developing it. Some people need website to simply show an online presence whereas for others it might be a basic need because their entire business is depended on it. If the real functionality of your website is information broadcasting then you can go for a general website with a few pages like home, about us, services, careers, blog, contact us and so on. However if you require your website to generate online orders for your business then you would require custom website for your business.

Custom websites are very different from generic ones in almost all the aspects. They are tailor made and offer solutions to each of the business process. As they are developed based on the requirements of the client, they fulfill all the functionality required by the business. If you are planning to have custom website design for your online address and think that only hiring an experienced website designer is enough then you are mistaken as hiring the right web designer is just the first step to develop fully functional custom site for your business. The main task starts with making your developer understand your business process as the entire site will be dependent on this and the success of your business will also rely on the same.

The first step in the planning of custom website design is the business process understanding. If the client is able to explain the business process correctly to the web designer then the whole process of developing a website goes smoothly. It is important to explain each business process and associated functionality to the developer so that he can design accordingly. It is understandable that one may not remember all the points of the business process at one go and explain the same to his developer at one meeting. There might be some critical or rare functionalities of your business which you might forget. So, it is important that you start preparing your notes prior to your appointment with the developer so that you can remember all the points and explain him properly. Functionalities like refund of payment if damaged goods are delivered or for any money back guarantee, require proper understanding of different cases. Even a small mistake can damage your business greatly.

It is always advisable that you draft your business process and each functionality associated with it on papers so that you can make sure each case of every functionality is explained properly to the web designer and based on which he can come up with the right solution. Based on the nature of your business there might be different processes associated with your business such as registering a member, maintaining stocks, tracking orders, invoice generation, delivering goods, after sales service, maintaining your affiliates, and so on and the successful execution of each process is very vital for the smooth functionality of your website. So, to get the best results from an experienced website designer it is very important that you make him understand each process associated with your business thoroughly.

Business Process Management News

Business process management (BPM) is an emerging technology for improving the efficiency of business concerns. It includes the elements of workflow, document management, business rules, and enterprise application integration. The latest news in business process management is the diverse software packages available for this process. Many call centers are currently using business process management software to reduce abandon call rates and improve overall customer service.

According to analysts, business process management has become today's hotly contested software category. Almost all companies that design these software packages claim that these are highly beneficial for the business as well as the customers. However, business process management software packages can be quite expensive. A recent survey has revealed that a majority of companies dealing with the BPM projects have spend between $100,000 and $500,000. If this is the case, then by 2008 expenses with regard to business process management software is estimated to cross over one billion dollars.

BPM tools are designed to let company executives and end users take a process-centric approach to business projects and analyze the effectiveness of those company processes. An enterprise using BPM can follow strategic initiatives including mergers, consolidation, acquisitions etc., with full confidence. As more and more companies try to use business process management, the processes to streamline data capture and the underwriting process becomes easier.

Latest trends in business process management can be obtained through periodicals, journals, and websites. Business books are another fruitful source. You have many options to get updated business process management news through the various websites devoted to this. As business process management news usually highlights the views of many people, you will get detailed information about the pros and cons of the process. You also get awareness about the various approaches used by different persons while implementing BPM in their organizations.

Business Process Improvement - Drawing the Process Map

Drawing and documenting a business process helps you understand how it works; what activities constitute the majority of the work; and where handoffs occur between departments, suppliers, and customers.

The map you draw will provide the information required to allow you to estimate how long a process takes from start to finish and how much it costs. This data will help you apply improvement techniques, and it assists you in setting improvement targets. The map provides everyone involved in the work with a better understanding of how the business process works from beginning to end.

So how do you start? Drawing a process map is not difficult, even though it may seem so when you look at one that another person created. The symbols used are simple to learn and there is software available, like Microsoft Visio, to help you draw the map. The hardest part in many projects is identifying where to begin, and drawing the map is no different. How do you know where to start? What do you write inside the first activity box you draw on the map?

Creating a foundation, or blueprint, an important step in improvement work, will help you get started with this step because the blueprint includes the boundaries, or rather where the process starts and ends. Whatever you identified as the start in the blueprint is what you write inside the first box on the map. From that point on, you will find drawing the rest of the map easy. Just remember to include the output of each activity box and make sure that what you write on the output line leads to the input for the next activity.

In most cases, unless you own the process and work alone, you need other colleagues to help you draw the map because you probably do not know every step and every handoff involved. At the bare minimum, you should have resources available that can answer your questions as they arise.

Drawing the map is the third step to improving the effectiveness, efficiency, and adaptability of your business.

Copyright 2009 Susan Page

Microsoft Visio is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation

How To Start A Service Business

Setting Up A Service Based Business For Beginners

Although there are exceptions where both entities are entwined into one, most basics of the business is built around one unifying category so that the intentions and goals are clearly and visibly set.

This distinction allows the individual to then decide of the accompanying tools that should be chosen for the purpose of enhancing the business experience and also to contribute positively to the ease of running the business entity.

Most service based forays are labor intensive which the business entity revolves around. This is either packaged as the selling of expertise in a particular field or the selling of the actual "engines" that produce the desired outcome that bring in the revenue.

Either way the quality, efficiency, attention and detail that is exercised within the business are the eventual elements that are going to make or break the business foray into the revenue churning mechanism.

Basically offering the time frame required to create a particular service or to provide the content of the project itself is how the cost factor is calculated and the profits are gained in the service based business.

Therefore, the individual would have to factor in the cost of business entity by the labor intensive tool it provides, in order to provide a suitable base line for the eventual calculation of the profits and the pricing suitable to be demanded.

Alternatively the value of the service based business can be calculated on the value of the service being provided in a consultancy capacity which is evaluated against the insights the said service will bring to the company with the intention of creating a system thereby the said company is able to save or be more cost effective.

Being able to identify a suitable and good service based company is very important if the new business or existing business owner intends to hire its services to help enhance the site's potential.

Identifying the characteristics of a particular service based company and matching them to the needs of the site in question will allow the business owner is make an informed decision of the merits of the chosen service.

Do Your Research First-

Customer perception of a company is very important to the progress and eventual success of any business endeavor, therefore it is very important to be able to identify the appropriate service based one to best suit the individual's needs.

Being able to provide good service should always be the prime concern of any business entity especially if its revenue earning power depends on this one factor.

Market research is often the best way to identify the companies that have good track records and are capable of delivering what they promise.

This information can easily be sourced over the internet as these companies will be active in presenting their achievements for all interested parties to view.

It is also an excellent platform for potential clients and competitors alike to note the merits of the presenting service based company.

Being well-placed on the search engine rankings will allow the service based company to be more visible and thus make it easier to garner the intended customer base to ensure its consistent success.

The features of a good service based company would have to include the value added by the business entity from the input stage to the output stage where the results are then measured by its success rates.

These input stages are often regarded as the commodity phase and the processes that it is designed around have to ensure the successful output stage which is where the end desired results are more than adequately met.

Making a sale or pushing a business proposition is never an easy task to accomplish for some, therefore having the relevant assisting tools at hand should provide the individual with some encouragement to see the process to success.

Marketing Skills-

The following are some tools that can prove to be of great assistance to any individual intending to beef up their marketing skills:

Making use of as many online tools as possible to promote the business or product intended is one way to start the enhancement of the marketing skills venture.

Using blogs to create the interest and visibility for the item is something that should be considered as this is one way to get the attention of the target audience without much cost incurred.

Working together with others is another way to beef up an individual's marketing skills. Being part of a team effort where the individual's talents and contributions are noticed and acknowledged is definitely an encouraging factor and helps the individual to be more adventurous and keen on honing his or her skills further.

Availing one's self to be listed on freelance job sites is also another way of beefing up the marketing skill of an individual. The fact that the visibility factor the site can bring to the individual will help the person focus more on ensuring the eventual connections made are optimized and locked in at the earliest opportunity.

Social websites are also a good platform to introduce one's marketing skills to the masses.

Because of the competitiveness of all the participants in this particular platform the individual will subconsciously be forced to step out and ensure his or her participation leaves a positive impact on the interactions.

Showcasing all the positive skill of the marketing process will eventually earn the respect and attention of others looking for such services.

Create Your Website-

Creating a website can be a challenging feat for those not very internet savvy, however it is not altogether a task that is formidable in nature. With a little startup knowledge and tips anyone can successfully attempt to put together their own website.

The following are some guidelines that will help ease the process:

Registering the suitable domain name is the first step to take when designing a website.

The choice of this domain name should ideally take into consideration the relevance the name has to the intended site, an easy to remember reference, one that is short yet descriptive and whether it has the right extensions tagged to it such as.net,.com,.org.

The next step would be to set up a web host account and this would entail the picking one that can provide the services the individual would need for the website.

Although cost is always a factor for every business endeavor, it would be advisable to avoid using the cheaper and inexperienced ones available as this might end up costing the individual in the future.

The follow up step would be to point the domain to the web host in place.

This is a fairly simple exercise, however if the individual faces any potential problems along the way there are always assisting platforms to tap into to get the relevant help or explanations.

Getting a word press linked to the site is another important step to incorporate into the setup. This word press is a free platform that is used by bloggers and allows the individual to build the website with the minimum of effort while making it user-friendly always.

Last but by no means the least, would be for the individual to organize the website.

This process would involve the backtracking exercise to ensure there are no defaults that would cause the viewer to be put off when visiting the site.

Learning to build websites isn't the complex technical process a lot of people think it is. All you really need to do is come to our website and get access to 300+ Tutorials that show you step by step how to build a website, and so much more, and start playing around with building your own websites.

Advertising Ideas-

In order to stay competitive it is necessary to always be able to have fresh views and ideas to present to potential customers and target audiences. Without such innovations the website will become stagnant and outdated thus eventually causing the original high volume of traffic flow to thin out. Brainstorming is one way of gathering and creating new ideas that would benefit any endeavor.

Some of the ways that can be adopted to bring forth interesting and innovative ideas at the brainstorming sessions are facilitated by encouraging the participants to simulate the mindset of the customer or the intended target audience.

By doing this the participant are more likely to anticipate the needs and wants of the customers and target audience and design any changes to fit into this discovery.

Bringing people together to discuss ideas at the same time and in the same place is also another good advantage the brainstorming sessions can facilitate.

Advertising ideas and campaigns can be discussed in "real time" as opposed to having emails flying about which is less effective and time-consuming and even confusing at times.

How To Turn Your Passion Into Profits

Everyone has passion within them. All they have to do is to realize it.

Everyone has some kind of passion in them; even people who deny that they aren't passionate about anything have some kind of passion in them. Most people live without realizing their passion and among those that know they are passionate about something; the majority does not seem to care. Forget making money out of their passion; they don't even want to acknowledge to themselves that something can be made out of it.

Consider a young man who is exceptionally fond of playing drums. He might be very good, but unless he realizes that his talent of playing drums can make money for him, he won't actually do it. But for that, he needs to do two things:-

• First, accept and believe that he has the talent
• Second, use that talent in marketable forms so that money might be made with it.

​

​Since we are going to talk about how you can unleash the potential of your passion on your moneymaking aspirations, the first thing you need is to understand where your passion lies. Once you do that, you have to make plans in order to start monetizing your passion.

Your passion could be the thing that you like to do the most. Picture this - you are in a 9 to 5 job for your daily bread and butter. But the thing that really drives you are those weekends you spend at the beach, indulging in some parasailing. Now, there is your passion! You trudge on through the whole week just to have that one day of parasailing at the end of it. That's your passion.

This is the kind of passion you can potentially tap into. You certainly have a lot of inside knowledge through your trysts with your passion which you could tap into. You could write an eBook about it, start a website, start an online group, etc.

There are several ways in which you can earn money doing things you really want to do.

So, how much money can you make by digging into your passion?

Spend a moment to think about J. K. Rowling. Or think about Roger Ebert. Or think about Donald Trump. Or think about Paul Greengrass. These are people who are immensely rich. But what made them rich? They are rich not through things that they don't like to do - they are rich through the things they really like to do, things that they think they exist for.

J. K. Rowling had a passion for writing ever since she could remember. She began writing when she was a kid. Despite the various difficulties in her life, she did not give up. She continued writing whenever she could. With two kids in tow, this woman conjured the biggest fiction phenomenon of our generation - Harry Potter. When she made Harry Potter, did she think she would become richer than the Queen? Not at all. She just wrote it out. She gave vent to her passion. The rest just happened.

There's probably no cinematophile as crazy for movies as Roger Ebert is. He writes reviews for practically every movie that's released. See how he has converted his passion for movies into his work? His movie reviews are the most highly-prized and he gets paid handsomely for watching movies and penning his keen observation about them!

Need one say anything about Donald Trump? Business is his forte, his passion. And he is unstoppable there. When he has one venture running, he invests into another. He doesn't even have the time to stop and think about the money. He is just giving vent to his innate passion, allowing it to manifest itself in whatever way it can.

Paul Greengrass is known as one of the most upstart directors in Hollywood

today. His directorial styles have been criticized earlier, especially his penchant for using shaky camera moves, but did he bend his style to please his early detractors? No, he didn't! And what did he come up with? The Bourne series, that's what! And his movies have become cult. Not to forget, he's become quite filthy rich.

Chase your passion. Don't listen to detraction. Are you good at something, so good that you feel it coming out of your ears? Well, then go right ahead with confidence. You have it in you to make money out of it.

Some important principles that you have to base your passion-related moneymaking ventures on.

It is quite possible to make money out of your passion, but as it is with any other moneymaking opportunity, you must remember that there are some principles and ethics that you need to follow. We shall take a look at some of them here.

1. It is highly important that you respect whatever it is that you are dealing with. If your passion is coin collecting, make sure you bring about the right reverence to your activities. You cannot start blatantly criticizing and abusing this subject. Well, you could criticize, but then you have to justify what you say. Remember that you are trying to make money here. Since your target audience is going to be other people who are also passionate about this subject, you will not earn anything if you sling mud at it without reason.

2. Be knowledgeable. People who will come to you already know the basics. What they want to learn is the viewpoint of another expert in the subject. Make absolutely certain that you know all the terms well and that your facts are right.

3. Keep up with the times. Things are going to change fast, whatever your scope of interest is. Always keep on the move learning new things. It could be a great idea to use Google Alerts which can tell you what's happening around you.

4. Be responsive. When people reach out to you, they are hoping to commingle with someone else who has the same likes as them. They are reaching out with some expectations in their mind. Don't belie these. If you do, you are effectively stopping other people from reaching out to you as well.

This brings us to the fifth principle. Always network with people. If you are trying to make money out of a subject that you are very passionate about, network with other like minded people. The more people you network with, the more will you be talked about.

Running your own home business-

Many individuals right now are sick of running to a daily job of 9 in the morning to 5 in the evening and so they're seeking best home businesses.

There are numerous home businesses and the only thing that you have to do is to look around and get the correct business ideas. Running your own home business has got lots of benefits compared to working for somebody else's business.

One of the benefits is that your schedule is more flexible. This is because you get to work at whatever time that you wish and likewise at the comfort of your own home. This is really nice as you've time for your loved ones and friends as compared to being an employee.

Looking To Start A Work From Home Job

I am always excited at all of the ways to make money online. If you keep it simple, you can surely find something that appeals to you.

Here are a few ideas to look in to.

1) Take paid surveys. Companies with pay you for your opinion. Cash create is an excellent example of this.

You can join them for free and start earn money taking surveys right away. They also have an excellent referral program that you can earn money referring people to this free site.

2) Affiliate Marketing, Get paid to get leads, make sales or even my click.

Some of the top affiliate programs you can earn with today include Amazon. ClickBank, Commission Junction, and Google AdSense.

You can join a 2-tier affiliate program and get paid to recruit affiliates and teach them how to sell products. You earn a lower commission rate than you do on your sales.

3) Network Marketing. Join an MLM company for under $100 and start making money almost immediately selling products. 

Join a company that allows you to build a worldwide business and use the internet to prospects and recruits. My World Plus is an excellent example of this. So is Strong Future International.

4) Data entry jobs. I recently bought a membership in Global Data Entry jobs and was blown away at all of the information they provide on earning doing data entry.

You can also make money typing working for yourself. Examples of this include blogging, article writing, posting in discussion forums, and making blog comments.

Become a virtual assistant and you can type for other Internet marketers all day long. They will be happy to pay you to return emails, type letters, do Internet marketing for them, and so on.

5) Warrior Special Offers. Join the Warrior Forum for free and hang out and hang out in the Warrior Special Offers Forum. 

You will quickly find all kind of simple ways to make money, and you will spend hardly anything to buy the blueprints these talented Internet marketers have come up with. 

It's only natural when you sit down in front of a computer that you start to complicate things. You begin to get confused as you surf from one website to the next looking at all the many ways to make money online.

In reality if you keep it simple, you can make money starting today doing some of the things I listed above. This is not theory, but somewhat proven ways to make money that are not hard anyone can do with a little bit of effort.