Digi Skills Agency

You are here: Home / Archives for business

business

The Difference between ERP & CRM Systems

by

CRM and ERP – Two systems becoming increasing popular in businesses of all sizes. But what exactly are these systems and how do they differentiate from one another?

Today’s technology gives companies an advantage they have never before had. With the ability to streamline processes and access data in real-time, companies can stay on top of their competition. In addition, today’s data analysis technology allows companies to foresee future events and plan accordingly. These tools, which include both enterprise resource planning software (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM software), give companies the power to control their success in today’s market. While similar at first glance, ERP and CRM platforms are distinctively different. Understanding each platform is critical to your system’s success.

 

What is ERP Software?

First and foremost, ERP software is designed to make a company’s processes more effective and efficient. By better managing all of the key functions of a company – accounting, warehouse, inventory and supply chain – ERP software allows the company to focus on what really matters: the data. With integrated ERP software, employees can update the platform with important information available in real-time to all departments within the company. This integrated technology gives companies a heads-up when problems occur. If there is a problem in the supply chain, the ERP software will capture the issue and make it available to all areas affected, such as the warehouse. ERP not only provides all departments with updated information, but it also gives companies a clear and accurate picture of their standings at any given moment.

 

What is CRM Software?

CRM software fulfills the customer-side of the system. Customer relationship management systems (or CRM systems) focus on just that : customers. This software manages customer information and captures all relevant details for the company. This information is used all across the board, from sales reps to managers to accounting personnel. A quality CRM system should capture every interaction the company has with the customer. By properly managing customer information, companies can build their customer relationships in order to increase customer loyalty and, ultimately, revenue.

 

Integration

Both types of software manage important information for your company. While both software systems manage different information, their integration is critical. The benefits of integrating these systems are many, including ensuring an optimal return on your investment in both platforms. The information captured by both platforms helps employees make better decisions. For example, a sales rep could not make an effective sale without leveraging both CRM and ERP. By forgetting CRM, the rep could miss out on information crucial to that client’s sale. Without ERP, the sale has the possibility of not being communicated to accounting, production and/or warehouse departments, creating a mess that could result in unmet client expectations.

Ultimately, integration between ERP and CRM ensures that your customers’ expectations, and your company goals, are met. This integration guarantees that all departments in your company are working together. The sales rep can communicate with the accounting, supply and warehouse departments before making the sale. If there are problems, the sales rep will be notified ahead of time. This gives sales reps the ability to close deals with all necessary information and maintain a good name for your company. Without ERP and CRM integration, your company stands the risk of being lost in communication.

 

If you’d like to know more about Enterprise Resource Planning, be sure to check out last week’s blog post discussing the costs involved in implementing an ERP system. You can view it by clicking here!

If you’re looking for careers in ERP system management and administration, we might just have the right vacancy for you. Check it out by following this link!

– Robert Baran

10 Extremely Effective Marketing Strategies for B2C Businesses

by

Marketing is one of the most important aspects to promoting a business.

It’s therefore important to have extensive knowledge in a variety of Marketing techniques. Research has revealed what sort of Marketing techniques resonate well with Business Consumers. Check out the top 10 most popular techniques.

 

Cause Marketing

Cause marketing is a cooperative effort between a for-profit business and a non-profit organisation to mutually promote and benefit from social and other charitable causes. Cause marketing is not to be confused with corporate giving, which is tied to specific tax-deductible donations made by an organization. Cause marketing relationships are “feel goods,” and assure your customers you share their desire to make the world a better place.

Fact: 64% of consumers want corporations to integrate social impact directly into their business models.

 

Direct Selling

Direct selling accomplishes exactly what the name suggests – selling products directly to consumers. In this model, sales agents build face-to-face relationships with individuals by demonstrating and selling products away from retail settings, usually in an individual’s home. The top three direct sellers in 2015 are Amway, Avon and Herbalife.

Fact: The top 3 direct-sell companies averaged $9 billion in sales in 2015.

 

Co-branding and Affinity Marketing

Co-branding is a marketing methodology in which at least two brands join together to promote and sell a single product or service. The brands lend their collective credibility to increase the perception of the product or service’s value, so consumers are willing to pay more at retail. Secondarily, co-branding may dissuade private label manufacturers from copying the product or service.

Fact: In 2014, 6% of all product launches relied on co-branding.

 

Earned Media/PR

Earned media (or “free media”) is publicity that is created through efforts other than paid advertising. It can take a variety of forms – a social media testimonial, word of mouth, a television or radio mention, a newspaper article or editorial – but one thing is constant: earned media is unsolicited and can only be gained organically. It cannot be bought or owned like traditional advertising.

Fact: Nearly 75% of consumers identify earned media as a key influence in purchase decisions.

 

Point-of-Purchase Marketing (POP)

Point-of-Purchase (or, POP) sells to a captive audience – those shoppers already in-store and ready to purchase. Product displays, on-package coupons, shelf talkers that tout product benefits and other attention-getting “sizzle” often sways buying decisions at the shelf by making an offer simply too good – and too visible – to pass up.

Fact: 64% of consumers making unplanned purchases switch brands when a deal is offered in-store.

 

Internet Marketing

Internet marketing, or online marketing, combines web and email to advertise and drive e-commerce sales. Social media platforms may also be included to leverage brand presence and promote products and services. In total, these efforts are typically used in conjunction with traditional advertising formats like radio, television and print.

Fact: 97% of consumers search for businesses online.

 

Paid Media Advertising

Paid media is a tool that companies use to grow their website traffic through paid advertising. One of the most popular methods is pay-per-click (PPC) links. Essentially, a company buys or “sponsors” a link that appears as an ad in search engine results when keywords related to their product or service are searched (this process is commonly known as search engine marketing, or SEM). Every time the ad is clicked, the company pays the search engine (or other third party host site) a small fee for the visitor – a literal “pay per click.”

Fact: 76% of businesses use promoted posts and search engine marketing.

 

Word of Mouth Advertising

Word of mouth advertising is unpaid, organic and oh-so-powerful because those having nice things to say about your product or service generally have nothing to gain from it other than sharing good news. A recommendation from a friend, colleague or family member has built-in credibility, and can spur dozens of leads who anticipate positive experiences with your brand. It’s important to note that word of mouth isn’t strictly verbal. Leveraging online reviews and opinions are equally effective at spreading the word.

Fact: Word of mouth referrals drive $6 trillion in annual consumer spending.

 

Social Networks and Viral Marketing

Social media marketing focuses on providing users with content they find valuable and want to share across their social networks, resulting in increased visibility and traffic. Social media shares of content, videos and images also influence Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) efforts in that they often increase relevancy in search results within social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram and search engines like Google and Yahoo.

Fact: 54% of B2C companies report revenue generated from social media leads.

 

Storytelling

Brand storytelling uses a familiar communication format to engage consumers at an emotional level. Rather than just spew facts and figures, storytelling allows you to weave a memorable tale of who your company is, what you do, how you solve problems, want you value and how you engage and contribute to your community and the public in general.

Fact: Brands that inspire a higher emotional intensity influence consumer purchase intent 3 times more often than less emotionally connected brands.

 

Every Strategy Requires an Effective Marketing Plan

Regardless of the strategy you choose, marketing effectiveness is most dependent on how you execute. Create yourself a Marketing plan and devise yourself a structure to follow in order to utilise these marketing techniques to their full potential in which both your business and consumers will benefit from. Good luck!

If you already posses knowledge and experience in Marketing? Check out our latest marketing role by following this link. It may be just right for you!

 

 

ERP Feature: How much does a typical implementation cost?

by

The use of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is becoming increasingly common in a variety of businesses of all sizes. But what costs are involved in implementing this sort of software?

Whenever a company considers implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, one of the first questions they typically ask is, “How much will this cost?”

This is a fair question. Implementing an enterprise-wide integrated accounting and business system is a significant investment, and although there are many variables to take into consideration along the way, it can help to have a general idea of what to expect.

The following guidelines apply to most small- to medium-sized companies looking to implement any ERP system.

 

Type of company and number of users – Not all companies have the same requirements of their ERP system.  Generally, a moderately-sized manufacturing company will require more complexity than a similarly sized professional services company. Since most ERP systems are priced according to the number of concurrent users and the level of access each of these users will require from the system, companies should expect to pay around $4,000 per concurrent user for a manufacturing or complex distribution company and around $2,000 per concurrent user for a professional services or light distribution company. Additional licenses for “light” users (users only requiring limited access to the system) are usually priced at a few hundred dollars per named user.

Third-party software – Third-party software products are often available to extend the ERP software or enhance it with applications tailored for a specific industry or specific business process needs. Third-party add-ons typically account for 10% to 35% of the overall software cost.

 Implementation costs – There are many factors that influence the actual cost of implementation: the company’s industry, the size of the company, the anticipated transaction volume, scope and complexity of the implementation, and the number of third-party integrations, to name a few. Most implementation costs are calculated based on a ratio of software to services. The more the company implementing the ERP system can handle on its own without relying on external vendors, the closer the software-to-services ratio can get to 1 to 1. For most companies of average size and complexity, however, it is more common to see software to services ratios of 1 to 1.5 or 1 to 2.5.

Customization – Very few ERP systems can be installed and used “out-of-the-box.” Therefore, most companies will require some amount of customization to integrate the ERP software into their workflow. The amount of programming, testing, and training is directly related to the size and scope of the effort.

 The bottom line – For a typical mid-sized company, the total software and services cost will range between £100,000 and £560,000. Hardware and infrastructure costs are usually addressed separately, and typically these estimates assume an on-premise implementation rather than a hosted or subscription-based solution.

Admittedly, this analysis yields a wide range in price, but it should assist companies who are just starting the evaluation process to understand the factors that influence the cost of their proposed ERP implementation. Moreover, it should prompt companies to carefully evaluate estimates that fall significantly below or above the ranges discussed here to ensure there are no hidden costs and that the company is receiving the best business value while they seek to minimize cost and risk.

 

Do you possess experience in ERP Maintenance and Administration? If the answer is yes, our new ERP Business Support Analyst job role may be just right for you. Check it out by clicking here!

– Greg Kaupp

24-Steps to becoming a Marketing Prodigy

by

Content marketing has become a big part of consumer engagement and attracting the attention of the right audience online. That means that a lot more companies are doing it, and it’s getting increasingly challenging to stand out amid the sea of audio, video, images, documents, blogs, and more.

To make matters worse, virtually every marketer and business owner have found themselves in a rut trying to create enough marketing content, get the desired engagement, and find interesting ways to innovate.

Research shows that that 70% of B2B marketers are creating more content than they were the year before, and 54% find it difficult to produce engaging content.

There’s a distinct difference between B2B and B2C marketing, and each comes with its own unique challenges. Despite that, you can still benefit from these tips to get out of that rut and start to churn out something new and exciting.

 

Here are 24 content marketing tips you need to know in order to become a ‘Marketing Prodigy’:
  1. Use your content to gently guide your customers through your buying cycle. Don’t treat it like a speedboat, full-throttle through to conversion.
  2. Use social ads as a way to amplify the reach of your content marketing when you push it out through your social channels. A slight budget boost on Facebook can go a long way.
  3. Promote your content through a .com domain as often as possible.84% of top-ranking pages use .com as their top-level domain.
  4. “The best marketing doesn’t feel like marketing,”says Tom Fishburne of Marketoonist. If you have to force your audience to see the value in the content, or hard sell it, it won’t work. Build content around a takeaway for the audience.
  5. Don’t write short posts just to get the job done and over with. Write long-form content of 1,000+ words to help improve your search rank, traffic, and value to the reader.
  6. Create a buyer persona before you start planning or producing content. That way you have a better understanding of who is reading it and the answers they’re looking for. That leads to much higher conversions.
  7. Guest blog on popular industry sites and put a link back to your site within your byline or bio. This builds traffic as well as personal brand authority.
  8. Avoid verbose headlines and go with short, simple, optimized titles that get the point across. The closer you get to looking like click-bait, the more wary your audience may become.
  9. Never skip an opportunity to leverage email in your content marketing.80% of businesses report that email is directly tied to their primary revenue.
  10. Blog consistently, not sporadically. According to a recent survey, 82% of marketers who blogged daily reported acquiring at least one customer via their blog, compared to 57% who were only blogging monthly.
  11. Share your own content and use the social sharing buttons next to your content. You can use a plugin to make this process even easier.
  12. Re-purpose old content in a new way to bring something fresh to users who may not have seen it. “In the end, the re-purposed content needs to provide some level of unique value to people, or it’s not worth doing,” says Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing.
  13. Syndicate your content to reach a new audience and drive referral traffic back to your site.
  14. Always create a content strategy. The most effective content marketers are more likely to have a documented strategy in place.
  15. Create a strategy for content promotion. Use a checklist for each post that lists all of the social channels and applications you’ll use to promote your content.
  16. Always have a plan for building your audience. Use time-saving content marketing tools that work with you to help organically grow your following.
  17. Make reference to influencers by linking to their content or quoting them within your content marketing. Then reach out and let them know when you’ve mentioned them, either through manual social notifications, via email, or with an online marketing tool.
  18. Don’t generate one-off pieces of content. Create series pieces to drive repeat traffic.
  19. Remember to use the basic principles of conversion optimization so that all of your content, on every channel, has a higher chance of generating leads and sales for your team. Think about headlines, visual engagement, content layout, and call to action, just to name a few.
  20. Pay close attention to your analytics so you can keep track of the most popular topics and content types that are bringing in or driving traffic to your site. Do a lot more of what works, and cut the dead weight from your strategy.
  21. Trending content is important, but remember to include evergreen content that will continue to product traffic month after month, year after year.
  22. Always keep the focus on your audience when you produce content, no matter the type or channel. “Don’t focus on having a great blog,” says Brian Clark, Founder of CopyBlogger. “Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
  23. Talk and write as if you were having a conversation with a friend. Your audience is far more likely to relate to and engage with content that is conversational in nature. Speak on their level. You’re not a textbook.
  24. You can’t force good writing. Try different conditions, influences, and times of day for writing. Find the conditions that are most conducive to your creativity. If you can’t manage, you can always turn to freelancers to help you produce the content that your audience is hungry to find.

 

We hope you have found these 24 tips useful. Explore different ways of utilising them in your marketing strategy to see how they can work for you! The difference in traffic generation could be astounding and prove to be worth every effort. Good luck!

Are you interested in careers in marketing? We may have the perfect opportunity for you! Check out our latest Marketing Manager role by following this link.

 

– Sujan Patel

What is Business Development?

by

“Business Development Executive”, “Business Development Manager” are impressive and heavyweight titles often heard of in organisations.

Sales, strategic initiatives, business partnerships, market development, business expansion, and marketing–all of these fields are involved in business development, and are often mixed up and mistakenly taken as the sole function of business development, which leaves the question: “What exactly is business development?”

This article explores the base aspects of business development, what it encompasses, and what, if any, standard practices and principles to follow.

 

What is Business Development (BD)?

In the simplest terms, business development can be summarized as the ideas, initiatives and activities aimed towards making a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions. But it’s challenging to boil down the definition of BD. First, let’s look at the underlying concept, and how it connects to the overall business objectives.

 

Concept and Scope of Business Development

BD activities extend across different departments, including sales, marketing, project management, product management and vendor management. Networking, negotiations, partnerships, and cost-savings efforts are also involved. All these different departments and activities are driven by and aligned to the BD goals.

For instance, a business has a product/service which is successful in one region (e.g Shropshire). The BD team assesses further expansion potential. After all due diligence, research and studies, it finds that the product/service can be expanded to a new region (e.g Staffordshire). Let’s understand how this BD goal can be tied to the various functions and departments:

  • Sales: Sales personnel focus on a particular market or a particular (set of) client(s), often for a targeted revenue number. Business Development personnel assess the market and establish an achievable sales figure over the course of 2-3 years. With such set goals, the sales department targets the customer base in the new market with their sales strategies.
  • Marketing: Marketing involves promotion and advertising aimed towards the successful sale of products to the end-customers. Marketing plays a complementary role in achieving the sales targets. Business development initiatives may allocate an estimated marketing budget. Higher budgets allow aggressive marketing strategies like cold-calling, personal visits, road shows, and free sample distribution. Lower budgets tend to result in passive marketing strategies, such as limited print and media ads, and billboards.
  • Strategic Initiatives or Partnerships: To enter a new market, will it be worth going solo by clearing all required formalities, or will it be more pragmatic to strategically partner with local firms already operating in the region? Assisted by legal and finance teams, the business development team weighs all the pros and cons of the available options, and selects which one best serves the business.
  • Project Management/Business Planning: Does the business expansion require a new facility in the new market, or will all the products be manufactured in the base country and then imported into the targeted market? Will the latter option require an additional facility in the base country? Such decisions are finalized by the business development team based on their cost-, time- and related assessments. Then project management/implementation team swings into action to work towards the desired goal.
  • Product Management: Regulatory standards and market requirements vary across countries. A medicine of a certain composition may be allowed in India but not in the U.K., for example. Does the new market require any customized (or altogether new) version of the product? These requirements drive the work of product management and manufacturing departments, as decided by the business strategy. Cost consideration, legal approvals and regulatory adherence are all assessed as a part of a business development plan.
  • Vendor Management: Will the new business need external vendors? For example, will shipping of product need a dedicated courier service? Or will the firm partner with any established retail chain for retail sales? What are the costs associated with these engagements? The business development team works through these questions.
  • Negotiations, Networking and Lobbying: A few business initiatives may need expertise in soft skills. For example, lobbying is legal in some locales, and may become necessary for penetrating the market. Other soft-skills like networking and negotiating may be needed with different third-parties such as vendors, agencies, government authorities, and regulators. All such initiatives are part of business development.
  • Cost Savings: Business development is not just about increasing sales, products and market reach. Strategic decisions are also needed to improve the bottom line, which include cost-cutting measures. An internal assessment revealing high spending on travel, for instance, may lead to travel policy changes, such as hosting video conference calls instead of on-site meetings, or opting for less expensive transportation modes. Similar cost-saving initiatives can be implemented by outsourcing non-core work like billing and accounting, financials, IT operations and customer service. Strategic partnerships needed for these initiatives are a part of business development.

The BD scenario discussed above is specific to a business expansion plan, whose impact can be felt by almost every unit of the business. There can be similar business development objectives, such as development of a new business line, new sales channel development, new product development, new partnership in existing/new market, and even merger/acquisition/sell-off decisions.

For example, in the case of a merger, significant cost savings can be accomplished by integrating the common functions of the house-keeping, finance, and legal departments of the two firms. Or, a business operating from five different offices in a city can be moved to a large central facility resulting in significant operating cost savings. But would this lead to employee attrition, if the new location isn’t convenient for everyone? It’s up to the business development team to assess such concerns. In essence, business development involves high level decision-making based on a realistic assessment of all potential changes and their impact. Through new ideas and initiatives, it aims to improve the overall business prospects, which drive the functioning of the different business units. It is not sales, it is not marketing, it is not partnering. Instead, it is the eco-system encompassing the entire business and its various divisions, driving overall growth.

 

The Right Fit for Business Development

A Business Developer can be the business owner(s), or the designated employee(s) working in business development. Anyone who can make or suggest a strategic business change for a value-add to the business can contribute towards business development. Businesses often encourage employees to come up with innovative ideas, which can help in improving the overall business potential.

Businesses also seek help from external incubator firms, business development companies (BDC) and small business development centers (SBDC). However, these entities assist in business establishment and the necessary fine-tuning only during the early stages of business setup. As a business matures, it should aim to build its business development expertise internally.

 

What Should a Business Developer Know?

Since business development involves high-level decision making, the business developer should remain informed about the following:

  • The current state of the business in terms of SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). (For more, see: Executing a SWOT Analysis.)
  • The current state of overall industry sector and growth projections
  • Competitor developments
  • Primary sources of sales/revenues of current business and dependencies
  • The customer profile
  • New and unexplored market opportunities
  • New domains/products/sectors eligible for business expansion, which may complement the existing business
  • The long-term view, especially with regards to the initiatives being proposed
  • The cost areas, and the possible options of cost-savings

What Drives Business Development Activity?

Due to the wide open scope of business development and activities, there are no standard practices and principles. From exploring new opportunities in external markets, to introducing efficiencies in internal business operations, everything can fit under the business development umbrella.

Those involved in business development need to come up with creative ideas, but their proposals may prove to be unfeasible or unrealistic. It’s important to be flexible, to seek out and take constructive criticism, and to remember that it’s a process.

 

The Bottom Line

Business Development may be difficult to define concisely, but it can be easily understood using a working concept. An open mindset, willingness for an honest and realistic self-assessment, and the ability to accept failures, are a few of the skills needed for successful business development. Beyond the ideation, implementation and execution of a business development idea, the end results matter the most. The bright minds in business development should be ready to accommodate change in order to achieve the best results. Every approval or disapproval is learning experience, bettering preparing you for the next challenge.

Are you already familiar with the fundamental principles of Business Development? Our most recent Business Development Executive role may be just right for you. Check it out by clicking here!

– Shobhit Seth

© 2025 Digi Skills Agency Ltd. All rights reserved. Sitemap

Website Design by Yellow Marshmallow.