Underlying trends
The trends that have had an effect on the way we deploy and use IT can be grouped into three subsets.
Business Trends
Businesses and their structures have become more and more complex, in terms of both hierarchical organization and in terms of infrastructure. There are more and more different systems that need to be taken into account.
People Trends
There are two points to note here. Firstly there has been an explosion in the use of social networking sites and their corresponding notifications, comments, discussions, posts, updates, etc. Secondly, the emergence of the BYOD (bring your own device) trend, has resulted in a displacement of access points away from the computer to the mobile screen (tablets, phones).
Offer / Solution Trends
Over the last two years APIs have become more generalized and there has also been a move towards homogenizing authentication modules. At the same time, social networking has moved from the personal sphere, into the business sphere. And, the standard functions of social business software are now usually free to use.
Experiences and conclusions: “solution” is a problematic word
We have often noted the same comments coming from users during our work with our clients. The single CRM solution is often inadequate.
CRMs are usually not sufficiently able to deal with the relationship aspects of complex sales.
The single solution is unrealistic, often combining complicated add-ons or tailored developments.
It is an unbalanced situation between the needs of the company to have a database of sales-relevant information and the users’ needs to have information that sheds light on their daily business.
The single database is a myth. Individual users usually supplement the company database with Excel charts, Outlook contact lists, iPhone entries, etc.
Enter the Sales Data Hub
The Sales Data Hub refers to the real-life and workable solutions that many companies are choosing to deploy. It has 6 fundamental characteristics.
It works using pivots and facets.
It is multi-polar.
Information is accessed where it was first input, in its native system.
It links semantic value and added value.
Relationship management is possible.
It is dynamic.
The Sales Data Hub is a virtual unified system that brings together several interoperable systems. Each of the participative systems maintains its functionalities and relevance and continues to be used each time it makes sense to do so. It is accessible with today’s technologies. It will enable companies to move to the next stage of commercial efficiency, by equipping their sales force with the tools they really need to do their jobs well.
Antoine de Septenville.