intelligent

SMB LEADERS HAVE HAD TO ADAPT , BUT A

SURPRISING

NUMBER REMAIN OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THE

FUTURE OF THEIR BUSINESSES

WHILE NAVIGATING

UNCERTAINTY . tech in all kinds of ways , from offering online ordering for kerbside pickup or delivery , to putting more focus on email and social media messaging . We also see a continued embrace of business technologies like customer relationship management ( CRM ). SMB leaders who use CRM cited delivering better and faster customer service as the technology ’ s biggest benefit .

Malaysia-based property development company Myra is using CRM technology to improve customer interactions . Managing complex customer journeys was difficult with the company ’ s cumbersome paper-based CRM . Ken Goh , Head of Marketing at Myra , knew that Digital Transformation was the way forward . He said : “ With Salesforce , we are now able to act more as a consultant than a standard property developer . We can provide advice and support throughout the entire customer journey – from finance to interior design .”

Didier Uljasz , Director – Industry Advisory , SAP Middle

East South , Salesforce

Growing SMBs are accelerating their use of technology , but use fewer apps

The pandemic is also driving those able to invest to consider ways tech can help shape their future for the better . Growing SMBs , in particular , focus on three key areas where technology can help : Customer interactions , workflows and internal communications .

What ’ s really interesting is businesses are using fewer apps to get more done – and they ’ d love to use even fewer . The average number of apps SMBs use to run their business dropped over the past year . This coincides with a 24 % increase since 2019 in SMBs ’ use of a CRM system .

How can SMEs get the best out of their CRM systems ?

Didier Uljasz , Director – Industry Advisory , SAP Middle East South , explains how SMEs can make the most out of their systems :

Many SMEs still use Excel spreadsheets and even sometimes paper notebooks to ‘ store ’ customers ’ data and / or use personal email addresses or phone numbers to interact with their customers . That gives more than a glimpse of the benefits these companies could get by implementing a CRM solution in one

or all of its areas of application : Sales , service and marketing .

More concretely , you can , for instance , expect up to a 30 % increase in net sales and a 5 % increase in customer satisfaction using the right CRM solutions , according to the SAP benchmarks for a retail company implementing SAP marketing , SAP Sales , SAP Service solutions .

Moreover , customer data regulation laws create an increasing risk for these companies with regards to reputation , compliance and fines that are not digital . Last , but not least , customers have new expectations or in fact , new standards regarding the brands – brand size does not matter , customer experience does .

On the other hand , CRM solutions have reached a high level of maturity . Major software providers have solid solutions that are natively connected to their back-bone solution ( ERP ) and cloud solutions , which offer more flexibility and a business model in line with SMEs ’ expectations .

All the above create the ideal conditions of a case for change for these SMEs . But for these business benefits to become a reality , and for