Claritysoft
Driving Growth with Intuitive CRM

The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) market is expanding rapidly as sales and support organizations realize they need an effective software tool to improve communications between staff and clientele. To capture a greater share of this growing market, CRM software providers are scrambling to add more features and extra functionality to enhance their appeal. This approach, however, has resulted in a clear downside. Many CRM providers have created software that is often viewed by end users as convoluted and far too complex and difficult to use. “The CRM industry has lost sight of its basic purpose and has alienated the very end users it was designed to help,” says Steve Schade, CEO of Claritysoft based in Dublin, OH. “As functionality is built in to accommodate the information requirements of management, the basic workflow for the salesperson using the software day in and day out is compromised.”

The Claritysoft development team understood a fundamental problem; if the software is not easy to navigate, end users struggle to use it effectively; and therefore, the quality of information for management is greatly diminished. “Poor end user adoption is a real problem in our industry, and it creates a domino effect,” asserts Schade. “Without good front line data, the CRM value proposition is lost for every level of the organization.” Claritysoft CRM was carefully modeled to meet the needs of each stakeholder. Its intuitive design enhances the end user’s ability to stay focused on the basic sales process while innately producing the information management needs.Functionality cannot be added as an afterthought, it must be designed for users to easily achieve their purpose. “Our mobile platform is not simply a reiteration of our desktop platform, it has been intentionally repurposed to flow with the unique work patterns of a mobile user,” adds Schade. Claritysoft intends to use this same approach as it integrates its own SCORM compliant learning platform directly into the CRM suite.

Schade cautions, though, that ease of use alone won’t solve all the challenges organizations face with CRM. “A well-designed interface won’t fix the sales report that’s been falsely inflated because unqualified leads have been tagged as real opportunities by salespeople,” says Schade.

“If you really want to gain traction, your executive sponsor and your sales team must agree upon and communicate about basic best practices such as what qualifies as a real opportunity,” advises Schade. “This collaboration at the beginning of the implementation process will pay big dividends for everyone in the end.” To ensure its customers experience a successful implementation, Claritysoft consults with the organizations stakeholders about CRM and sales best practices.

As an example, one of Claritysoft’s customers was challenged with managing and forecasting maintenance renewal contracts. A Claritysoft advisor facilitated a conversation between sales, management, and accounting and discovered that adding a few custom fields would provide the data needed to prompt timely pre-sales activities, generate accurate renewal forecasts, and allow accounting to invoice consistently based on quality information. “CRM can be a powerful tool in solving problems such as these, but you must have meaningful communication within the organization about process to make these solutions a reality,” says Schade.

Without good front line data, the CRM value proposition is lost for every level of the organization

Following the philosophy of designing with the end user in mind, Claritysoft customers have been enjoying the new Marketing Platform that’s been integrated directly into the software. With Claritysoft CRM, using a third party for email marketing is no longer necessary. “Sales and marketing can now generate beautiful marketing content using the same easy-to-use workflow that characterizes the entire Claritysoft platform. It’s taking sales to a whole new level,” concludes Schade.