A Transfer of Power in CRM for SAP Users?

One might get the impression that businesses have become an aggressor, whose superiority has disregarded the rights of individuals for too long. The new regulation forces us to take a close look at our own businesses however: Eliminating redundant data, establishing compliant processes and, last but not least, smartly defining which data to use—and how to use it—are the order of the day.

The collaboration between CRM experts, data protection officers and IT experts is the key to new, compliant data storage and use. The core principle of our new digital economy remains: whoever has the data has the power and data is leading the way for the implementation of profitable strategies. If the requirements from GDPR are met, companies can devote themselves to customer experience.

Customer experience means entering into an intelligent, highly-individual dialogue and offering the customer an interactive experience that leads to success in sales.

CRM trends with potential

From the multitude of CRM trend topics, the following three are particularly promising on the way to becoming a digital company:

AI deployment: Artificial intelligence helps companies to complete the information about their customers and thus enables them to predict their wishes. There are also new possibilities for controlling the sales process: Unimportant steps can be distinguished from important tasks. The former are largely automated, while the decisive tasks are completed by employees.

Social CRM: Up to now, social media activities have primarily been carried out in the form of developing and maintaining communities and interactions via platforms. Social CRM wants to manage communication in a new style. The goal has shifted significantly: processes no longer focus on a target group, but on the individual person.

Messaging: hile in the past the focus of CRM implementations was often on forming target groups and campaign execution, the focus is now on the communication of specifically placed content.

However, the central question of whether the message of the campaign or interaction reaches the customer has remained unanswered. This success factor is now taking centre stage. How do you reach the right customer at the right time via the right channel? AI software in conjunction with the corresponding messaging can help to achieve these three objectives.

SAP tools and cloud software

SAP provides the tools for implementing the GDPR: SAP Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) provides the functions for storing, blocking and deleting data for the on-premise world. In the Cloud for Customer, these services are summarized under the entry “data protection”. Administration and documentation of the customer’s consent are included in the standard system. Access rights are to be regulated and accesses documented. To this end, the standard SAP solutions can be supplemented with third-party products such as ComplianceNow. These analyze and monitor SAP usage and show the need for adjustments in the role and user concept.

Further steps must also be taken to enter into the real digital dialogue. These include real-time processing of large amounts of data, the structured application of forecasting methods and the automation of process steps using artificial intelligence. CRM managers need quickly adaptable and scalable IT solutions. Cloud software such as Hybris-Tools plays a decisive role in the market. They promise fast implementation, high scalability and permanent functional growth.