Support And Advice

Business Geeks want to support our customers as well as we can.

Geek Chats

That's why we have Geek Chats at Geek HQ (Morningside, Queensland). We're also looking at ways we can enable customers in other locations to view these chats, or at least the slides! Interested? Let us know.

Forums

That's why we have forums. Forums for our:

• Business Geeks platform, on which all web sites are built
• Step1 Web Site, which is a special fast start, easy to use platform for small business and start-ups
• ChurchSite! - a special fast start, easy to use web site package specially developed for churches

Documents & White Papers

Register with Business Geeks to get access to Documents & White Papers.

The Business of Getting CRM Integration Right

Have you used a CRM yet? It can be intensive getting it going. It can be intensive too if you don't have it configured to suit your business and also if it requires manual intervention all the time to make it workable.

Most businesses, when starting our with a CRM take one in near enough "vanilla" form and try to work with it. Often this is to tremendous advantage because the gains over what they had before are amazing.

After perhaps six months or a year of using a CRM, most businesses are asking questions like:

• why do we have to key this in to the CRM?
• can't this be put in automatically?
• is it possible for us to raise an automatic task in this situation?
• can we send timed emails?

There is certainly a "CRM Journey". It's worth considering both your organisational work-flows and a potential CRMs capacity for configuration and integration before jumping in boots and all!

Which CRM is right for you?

If you are a Brisbane based business or other organisation, and are looking for a CRM, then give Steve a call on 0423 311 839, and he'll talk you through the flavors and benefits of CRM.

In general, the things to watch for with a CRM are:

• maturity
• stability
• project activity
• project roadmap

Apart from commercial products like Microsoft CRM, here's a brief summary of a few open-source CRMs we looked at around about 2005:

XRMS	a good standard bearer. Seems to be mature and stable, an immediate preference for sales pipeline. No orders/invoices
Sugar CRM	an excellent contender, much like XRMS, and with commerical versions
vTiger	excellent usability, used in a few open-source suites
CReaM	a great little CRM. Fast, and looks good Orders and Invoices included. no leads or opportunities.
Covide	a groupware based CRM implementation. no orders/invoices.

Where are they now? It varies. Were there some hints of their future? Yes. Roadmaps, community, activity, forums, technologies and design all tell a story; and should ideally be part of the evaluation checklist when choosing an open-source CRM.

There are many CRM projects listed on Source Forge and even Ruby Forge now. We'll be pleased to give you a hand in choosing the one that is best for you.

Brisbane CRM Consultancy

Steve is available to help your business select the best CRM for your needs. If you are Brisbane based, that's our prime service area. We also service the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

Before you choose a CRM, make sure you understand your sales process properly, and the requirements it places on a CRM. If you don't you may miss the best option and land yourself with re-work within a year!

Ask Business Geeks to assist you. We can give you:

1. a documented sales process that you can match to your CRM
2. a CRM selection criteria
3. a CRM evaluation and recommendation

This puts you in the drivers seat! Having an independent consultant on board ensures you get a clear business focus, not a product focus. It also means the CRM implementation is optimised to fit your processes instead of a product being jammed in and roughly tailored to work.

Don't be mistaken, this is important stuff! Get value from your CRM project; contact Steve at Business Geeks today.

Managing Customer Relationships - "TLi8"!

To keep track of customers and maximise sales, you need a Customer Relationship management system. CRM as a technology is however only PART of the PICTURE. Remember People, Processes and Technology!

So what does a CRM system do?

A CRM helps manage contacts, opportunites and accounts. It also helps track correspondence, alerts users to tasks that need doing, and gives some management reporting on the sales pipeline.

CRM is really cool stuff! It's the kind of product Steve helped put in for Suncorp in 2001, but that cost several million! CRM is now becomming affordable for the masses. Steve has worked briefly with Microsoft CRM, with Onyx CRM and Sugar CRM and vTiger CRM.

How CRM Fits in Your Organisation

A CRM fits into your organisation as a supportive application for your SALES and SERVICE operations. This means you need a genuine picture of the people (organisation and roles) and processes in your organisation to properly benefit from your CRM. Without this picture, you cannot integrate the CRM correctly, and will miss real business advantage. This is a common mistake, don't get caught! if you engage a technology company, not a process improvement consultancy, you will likely get a point solution!

People and Processes

People need to use the CRM productively and with comfort. This means they need a consistent process. Business Geeks can assist organisations to gain consistency by running workshops to document organisational roles, workflows and additional data requirements. Steve has taught courses in business analysis and process improvement, and can use Business Process Modelling Notation to produce very useful workflow diagrams which can then act as a base for enhancing your CRM to meet you organisations needs. The same diagrams also then act as a basis for change management and training.

Back to Technology!

Some months ago, Steve adopted SugarCRM for our own CRM platform. It has a great feature set and is very usable. Since then, we have also installed it for a client, and the staff just love it! SugarCRM is "commercial open-source", which means we can influence the features it develops according to feedback from our clients. It also means we can help resolve any bugs!

If you have challenges organising your customer information, tracking and prioritising opportunities, and keeping track of customer interactions, Steve can help you get a company wide view of your customers by providing good a CRM solution as a hosted service or on your own server. These solutions are great value, and start at just $3,500, which includes a day of Steve's time to adapt the CRM slightly to your needs and train up to four staff.

Contact Steve now on 0423 311 839 for more information. This call is obligation free, and may be the key to getting control of your customer relationships!

Email Campaign Marketing

An Email Campaign is the sending of bulk, customised emails (by permission) to customers and potential customers.

Email campaigns are a vital ingredient of any businesses marketing efforts and should be coordinated with general marketing campaigns as a sound reinforcement tool.

Business Geeks have specialist knowledge of how to run email campaigns effectively.

If you would like to lift your customer enquiry, Call Ray Atherton now on 0405 089 910 or fill in this contact form and he'll call you. Call now to start your Internet Marketing journey to a better, more productive web presence!

Social Media Marketing

Can you actually use BLOGs, Facebook, MySpace and other sites to lift your business web sites ranking? YES! Absolutely!

Is it important to do so? Yes; once you have got your web site right, search engine optimised and submitted to the right directories.

Does it require specialist knowledge? It does to do it effectively. Business Geeks have that knowledge.

Would you like to lift your business web site ranking?

Call Ray Atherton now on 0405 089 910 or fill in this contact form and he'll call you. Call now to start your web site marketing journey to a better, more productive web presence!