SalesforceIQ CRM: Project Rationale and Business Strategy Alignment

This project rationale focuses on the implementation of SalesforceIQ CRM software to enhance business operations. The proposed solution aligns with business strategy and objectives by improving sales and profitability through reduced administrative tasks and increased sales focus. The assignment details the tangible benefits such as increased sales representative time with customers, new customer prospects, and improved customer service efficiency, alongside intangible benefits like smoother company functioning and improved employee motivation. Financial benefits are also discussed, including reduced sales cycles, improved win rates, and the ability to identify potential leads. The project highlights the costs associated with CRM implementation, including software, business operation conversion, and consulting fees, and emphasizes the diverse returns from improved revenue, cost savings, and productivity. The document references several academic sources to support the analysis of CRM software and its benefits.

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Project Rationale and why it is needed
Business opportunities offered by Jerry has helped him start his own business of carpet
making and selling, but usually at a lower cost and with fewer restrictions than a franchise.
How does the proposed solution align with the business strategy and/or objectives?
The proposed solution is a customer relationship management (“CRM”) software known as
SalesforceIQ CRM. This software is cloud based solution which will help Mr. Montgomery in
increasing sales and profitability by allowing his team to spend less time on admin and more on
accelerating the sales (Venturini & Benito, 2015; Janczarek & Sosnowski, 2015; Töllinen et al,
2015).
 Tangible benefits/Intangible benefits (Venturini & Benito, 2015; Janczarek & Sosnowski,
2015; Töllinen et al, 2015):
o Increase in time spend by sales personnel with existing customers, per day
o Increase in the number of new customer prospects pursued by sales
representative.
o Increase the time spent by sales managers in contacting customers and working
with sales representative on customer issues.
o Increase the customer service efficiency.
o Increase in timeliness of follow-up correspondence to prospects and customers.
o Increase in revenue per month per sales representative
o Increase in overall business results
o Increase in frequency that your company's name is in front of your customers and
prospect
o Increase in customer satisfaction

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 Intangible benefits (Venturini & Benito, 2015; Janczarek & Sosnowski, 2015; Töllinen et
al, 2015):
o Overall smoother functioning within your company
o Increased employee motivation and satisfaction
o Better trained and more skillful sales, marketing and customer service personnel
o Improved use of mobile access devices
o More up-to-date information and easy access to this information
o Improved responsiveness to customer and prospect requests
 Financial benefits (Venturini & Benito, 2015; Janczarek & Sosnowski, 2015; Töllinen et
al, 2015):
o The best CRM software allows you to follow quality leads and reduce time
wastage following prospects. Sales cycles are reduced and win rates improved.
Moreover, you can check customer buying histories to identify potential leads,
upsell opportunities or repeat customers.
o CRM for financial services is like CRM in no other industry. In this blog post I
share some design ideas and CRM software screenshots for the most used
business processes. I also share an overarching approach in how to morph
seemingly separate compliance and client account management objectives in
order to achieve a single, streamlined enterprise-wide customer management
system.

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Installing a CRM system is going to require an investment. In addition to the cost of the
application software, there is the cost of converting business operations, the cost of the time and
resources needed to implement and the additional costs, like consulting fees, to get the system up
and running. Even with software as a service (SaaS) CRM systems, the costs associated with
implementation and business interruption during the deployment period are material. These costs
are usually pretty straightforward to calculate since its money out of the organization's pocket
(Venturini & Benito, 2015; Janczarek & Sosnowski, 2015; Töllinen et al, 2015).
The returns are all the ways that the CRM system contributes to top line revenues, cost
savings or cost avoidance. In a well-implemented business system these benefits tend to be
extraordinarily diverse. Returns come from nearly all income categories, such as incremental
revenue, margin, lower costs and improved productivity. In addition to the "hard" benefits there
are almost always "soft" benefits that don't show up directly on the balance sheet, but
nonetheless represent real benefits to the business. Classic examples include improved customer
loyalty due to better customer service, improved decision making from having better and more
timely information and improved transaction throughput resulting from decreased cycle times
(Venturini & Benito, 2015; Janczarek & Sosnowski, 2015; Töllinen et al, 2015).

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References
Janczarek, P. A. W. E., & Sosnowski, J. (2015). Managing complex software projects. Information
Systems in Management, 4.
Töllinen, A., Karjaluoto, H., & Jayawardhena, C. (2015). The Intention of The Sales Force To Use
Mobile CRM: Model Development and Validation. In Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing
the Old (pp. 180-180). Springer International Publishing.
Venturini, W. T., & Benito, Ó. G. (2015). CRM software success: a proposed performance measurement
scale. Journal of Knowledge Management, 19(4), 856-875.