SaaS network management is a very powerful, relatively new form of SaaS which you really ought to have some interest in, no matter what business you’re in. There are a lot of choices with this software, though this writer must confess that when doing research on the topic, Google and Yahoo are less than helpful at the moment. I bet that most of you interested in this topic have had the same problem. Well, given how powerful this software can be, and how much trouble it can spare you, I figure, what the heck, let’s talk about it here. I’m easy to find, no matter how difficult Google or other engines are being.
So, while I usually never single out a single provider of a service and laud them, today, I am going to break that unspoken rule, and talk about what has to be the best (also free) SaaS network management suite out there, Sugar CRM.
Sugar CRM is highly professional, and they actually have a flair for aesthetics, which is something SaaS designers often overlook. Aesthetics are important in productized software, even utilitarian business software. Consider the fact that people have to look at this day in and day out, so it better be easy on the eyes, right? So, before we get into the meat of what this software does and why you need it, I just needed to give them kudos for this attention to detail and all of the important design aspects of UX and usability standards.
So, in the digital age, there are a metric ton of ways in which people can contact each other, some direct, some simplex (meaning one way) and some being passive entirely. However, this is a management nightmare for CRM professionals.
On top of this, as I’ve spent a decent amount of time talking about in my CRM articles, there’s a big push to move at least in parallel, some CRM work load off of call centers and onto things like Twitter, mobile clients and the like. Well, that’s all well and good, but if you centralize your CRM department, which almost everyone has already done prior to this move, then you’ve got a logistics nightmare on your hands, don’t you?
That’s where software like Sugar CRM comes in handy. This network management concept is actually the direct result of “how do we manage all this stuff?” being asked.
Very recently, they’ve included a ton of extra mobile support into this suite as well, and Sugar CRM is now a complete, versatile contact management system for CRM people. What it does is integrate fully with all of your outlets for contact, including call centers, help desks, email exchanges, social media and even instant messengers and mobile SMS. This way, every customer contact is registered in the database as a single generic entity. The method of contact, and the contact addresses of the agent and the customer, are just subsets of data within them. Easy searching with contact type or address as a key is easy to do, and forwarding contact items from one section of the CRM department to another, to redirect twitter contacters or phone contacters to other departments or communications mediums is much less difficult. Two agents can, in advance, exchange information on the customer and issue via Sugar CRM, and once the customer is redirected, the new agent doesn’t need to ask a bunch of new questions. It also spares extra hold or wait times as a new agent is acquired, when advance notice is provided via Sugar CRM.
It also logs metrics, resolution rates and a lot more data, allowing you to easily debug where problems or inefficiency exists in your CRM department via any given support or service department. This kind of debugging in customer management is novel and a godsend, trust me.
So, you need SaaS network management in this digital age, and I am absolutely confident in recommending Sugar CRM. It’s free, so come on, it’s practically risk-free to try it!