Why an integrated CRM system is essential for finance teams working remotely
The current pandemic has changed much of the business landscape, with businesses having to adapt their service offering and delivery, to implementing a working from home operation almost overnight.
Until recently, the concept of working from home full time and for major parts of the workforce had been overlooked. Business leaders may have feared lack of productivity and motivation from employees and a disconnection of relationships between teams and customers.
The pandemic however, has acted as a catalyst for change but the unprecedented nature of it has left some businesses - and finance teams - in the lurch with no effective transition plans in place to switch services from on-premise to off. And, without a remote financial management system readily in place, a business is almost blind.
An effective, integrated CRM system will ensure your business continues to function even when working from home.
Saving time
Since the pandemic began, employees from various industries have noticed their roles change to adapt to the current state of play. Finance teams in particular have seen their responsibility rise to another level, with more frequent forecasting and increased reporting in order to drive forward the business and guide it towards recovery.
That’s why it is vital that finance has a holistic view of the business and each division, especially now remote working has become the new normal.
In a normal office environment, departments are often siloed – making access to their information and personal expertise both difficult and time-consuming to find. In today’s climate, finance teams need to be able to dedicate their time to other tasks like recovery strategies, balancing accounts, and insights to feed board meetings.
Spending hours on the phone to the sales teams to chase down customer history puts finance teams at a huge disadvantage, wasting both valuable time and ultimately taking them away from jobs that require closer attention.
Accurate financial reporting is perhaps now more important than ever, and so having access to information around transactions and customer invoicing, to purchase order details at the touch of a button, is crucial.
All through one dashboard, finance teams can save time by being able to create workflows, automate reminders and schedule emails for chasing people in other divisions. Added to this, the finance team can grant a certain level of access for other departments to retrieve information from the central dashboard, so that they don’t have to spend time finding and feeding back that information to those individuals themselves.
Finance professionals can also keep an eye on project progress, at-risk accounts and even track people on furlough, both employees and suppliers. In addition, they can monitor the finer details such as their predicted return dates, so they can plan for any overheads, anticipate problems, and easily allocate time to approve extra expenses from returning staff.
Rather than trawling through countless documents or directing questions to HR teams, who are facing time-consuming challenges of their own, finance teams will be able to save themselves hours by alleviating those manually-intensive tasks.
Communication is key
While always important, digital connectivity is now fundamental to the continuity of business operations. Particularly now, an organisation depends on a healthy relationship between sales and finance, but failure to communicate and collaborate effectively can adversely affect operations, ultimately hindering the growth and profitability of a company.
The need for frequent and transparent communication has always been key to success, and adopting technology that allows all teams to have a helicopter view of the business will only serve them well in the long-run.
An integrated CRM system, acting as an extension of your sales ledger, will provide finance professionals with full visibility of customer summaries, from order history and credit limits, to customers on stop. Importantly though, all customer-facing departments will be able to see each aspect of customer interaction in one place, like understanding when invoices have been paid, without having to speak directly to the finance team.
No longer will information be siloed, instead each tier of the business will be able to make better, more streamlined decisions - for example, providing insights on forecasting and monthly KPIs so that managers can feed information back to their own divisions, as well as producing detailed reports based on customer feedback or market trends.
A map for expansion
From this data, your teams may find areas of the customer journey that could be improved, a product that could be refined or a service that you do not yet deliver in. Presenting the perfect opportunity for expansion.
Each metric, all handled by differing teams across the company, will then help to feed into the overall business aims mapped out by the senior team. With that knowledge, the finance team can then put a strategy in place to prepare for future growth and budget for additional expenses like product upgrades and R&D.
Not only will these real-time insights provide more revenue for the business as it expands, the system also demonstrates the funnel process that so often helps to feed company growth – aligning all the businesses’ departments, from marketing and customer services, right through to operations and finance, towards one single version of the truth.
Many businesses, particularly those using CRM software, have demonstrated they responded more effectively than others to enable employees to work from home immediately. Using the software as a hub for daily engagement with both clients and colleagues enabled them to continue business as normal, all to the benefit of the customer.
Combined with our financial management software, the technology will improve customer experience and drive growth. Importantly though, it will help business leaders to establish a cohesive and unified team that works towards one goal.
Learn more about our finance and accounting solutions here, as well as information on our cloud-based CRM software.
