Han Solo is a big-hearted, high-flying marketing and communications manager, accompanied everywhere by his ever-present, loyal companion Chewbacca. As a talented project manager, a popular leader and a natural charmer, he has all the qualities of an effective communicator and has proven his worth in the fight against the Empire. The only problem: "the luckiest man in the galaxy" suffers from a brutal shortage of high-performance tools to help him do his job (it's difficult to install an ERP solution on the Millennium Falcon!). Han Solo explains what he and his intern could have improved with a good ERP solution.
Benefits of an ERP system for marketing and communications professionals
With a good ERP system that is designed for SMEs, you can easily create platforms that link to your business, whether they are for a website, a blog or even a forum. You can even keep to your brand guidelines while doing so. These modules are generally very easy to use, with no coding knowledge needed to develop a modern, appealing platform.
Some ERP modules allow genuine productivity gains in your communications campaigns. For example, by making it easier to create email campaigns: from qualifying the database through to analysing performance statistics (open rates, number of clicks) and link tracking. The same applies to event management. A good ERP package will enable you to manage every stage in the process of creating a professional event – such as managing speakers, selling tickets, and even promotions.
In addition, the features offered by an ERP solution result in genuine time savings for the communications team, because all documents can be accessed directly from the platform. There's no longer any need to spend time exporting data: documents are instantly ready to send.
A “fully integrated” solution that benefits your entire business
With a properly configured ERP system, coordination between the different departments is improved and some activities can even be automated. To streamline communication even further, you can also choose to integrate discussion group or chat modules into your ERP solution to encourage dialogue among your staff.
A new-generation ERP solution for a high-performing marketing team
With a “new-generation” ERP solution using a SaaS and/or open-source model, you gain access to a wide range of even more advanced features. Continuing with the idea of encouraging discussion and idea sharing within your organisation, you can also provide an ESN (Enterprise Social Network) for your team.
This allows you to implement a strategy to improve customer satisfaction via your ERP, for example by using online surveys. These can be integrated directly into the customer journey, with an automatic link to the CRM system. This is ideal for sending satisfaction surveys to a targeted list of customers right after they have made a purchase!
So, as Han Solo would say to his intern, Chewbacca: "Come on Chewie, hit the hyperdrive!"
"Anticipate, you shall."
The Marketing and Communications modules should feature in the budget from the very start of the project. This does not mean that they need to be deployed immediately, but they should be planned for.” - Master Yoda's advice