The Marriage of Customer Relationship Management and Content Management
Marketing and sales organizations are plagued by inefficient processes. Paper-based documentation, ineffective collaboration and manual workflows make it difficult to deliver targeted marketing programs and collateral in a timely manner. Organizations are constantly challenged to improve proposal creation processes by capturing and reusing previous documents and by tapping into the expertise of experts located throughout the world. Contract negotiation and approval is also fraught with inefficiency as important documents are routed by email, often falling through the cracks and delaying the closure of key deals. Every salesperson knows the truth of the expression “time is money,” but in reality, reduction in time and access to the right content are required to win in today’s fast-paced business world.
It is not only access to content that is required for maximum efficiency but also the automation of key processes and the elimination of inefficient paper-based processes. Marketing content ready for review must be accessible to all users without requiring multiple programs on the desktop to view it. Communications via email, fax and electronic documents need to be integrated, classified for use, reused and made available to geographically dispersed teams. Routine processes such as press release approvals, copy reviews, purchase order requests and contract modifications must be automated so that only exceptions are handled manually – and reporting and audit trails need to be leveraged for visibility and accountability.