Customer Relationship Management (CRM) uses technology to coordinate all customer related information, events, and activities towards the overall profitability of an organization. Specifically, CRMs help organizations organize and track sales and marketing initiatives, manage customer accounts, and track customer issues and cases. The overall goal of CRM technology is to maximize sales productivity while bolstering customer satisfaction. In its simplest terms, CRM systems accomplish this by recording, tracking, and reporting useful information about an enterprise's customers. For large organizations, CRM tools have helped increase productivity and profitability by placing renewed emphasis on acquiring and maintaining customer relationships.

What is SFA
Sales force automation (SFA) is a component of CRM that is implemented to execute, drive, and track sales initiatives. SFA systems organize sales teams by providing the tools to properly manage leads, accounts, opportunities, and marketing campaigns. Though perhaps the most important component of a CRM, early CRM systems did not implement effective SFA tools nor did early CRMs emphasize the vitality of SFA to the organization. Early SFAs suffered from the problems defined on the right->.

For these reasons, the sales force automation tools of early CRMs failed causing analysts to question the value of SFA tools. However, with the advent of Web-enabled CRM tools, SFA has stolen the spotlight and is widely recognized as the most valuable part of a CRM system, and a key component in driving revenues.

Web-Based CRM
Web-based CRM is the CRM industry's answer to the two biggest barriers of traditional CRM systems-cost and implementation. By using the Internet to host information, organizations no longer need to invest in costly hardware and networking capabilities neither do they need to pay costly consultant fees to train users and implement an already costly CRM software package. Web-based CRM hosts all enterprise data offsite and uses the universal point and click interface of the Internet. Using a Web-based platform, hosted CRMs do not require any software other than a Web browser, allowing users to access critical sales information from any platform anywhere in the world via an internet connection. Today's Web-based CRMs are approaching the complexity and currently surpasses the visibility provided by traditional CRM systems with all the added Web-based benefits. No longer are these systems outlandishly expensive to purchase. They are sold as service packages with a nominal fee per license per month. Now, even two man sales teams can utilize the same productivity tools that have made their Fortune 500 counterparts so successful. Once again, technology is leveling the business landscape.

Web-Based SFA
Web-Based sales force automation (SFA) catalyzed the Web-based CRM revolution as enterprises quickly grasped the value of Web-enabled SFA products. Web-based SFAs solve the problems of tradition SFA systems.

Problems Solved by Web-based SFA

Increased Visibility

Increased Productivity

Increased Mobility

Increased Usability

Increased Affordability

Increased Visibility

The connectivity of the Internet allows sales managers to see in real time the activities of their sales force. They can track individual salespersons, groups, or regions and compare sales goals with real-time figures. Web-based SFAs provide sales managers snapshots of their sales force, giving them the information to make decisions concerning the effectiveness of sales individuals, initiatives, and goals. Web-based SFAs also provide astonishingly accurate sales forecasting tools which translate into increased overall efficiency for an entire enterprise.

Increased Usability
The well-known Web-based interface is universally familiar to anyone savvy enough to send email. Users no longer need costly training to understand how the system works. The interface of Web-based SFA tools is virtually invisible, allowing users to focus on utilizing its tools to maximize their sales productivity.

Increased Productivity
Increased user adoptions of Web-based SFAs means sales personnel are using the SFA tools that truly help them to increase and track their productivity. SFA tools streamline sales processes thereby shortening the sales cycle and increasing the overall number of closed sales.

Increased Affordability
Web-based SFA systems are sold as services not bundles. Nominal monthly service fees eliminate the expensive initial outlays of traditional CRM and SFA tools. Purchasing software as a service also entitles users to new updates and deployments that are commensurate with the certain evolution of SFA tools.

Benefits of Web-Based SFA
The problems solved by Web-based SFA tools translate into a benefit set that is measurable, tangible, and most importantly, valuable. The following benefits have made Web-based SFA one of the fastest growing segments in technology since the late 1990's:

Increased Revenue

Decreased IT Costs

Increased Customer Satisfaction

Increased Revenue

As sales teams use SFA as a tool to increase their effectiveness and productivity, they ultimately sell more. SFA arms a sales force with the tools to not only acquire new customers but also maximize the dollar value of existing customers though better customer management tools.

Decreased IT Costs
Using Web-based SFA allows organizations to decrease their overall IT expenditures by avoiding the cost of purchasing and maintaining servers, network and security software, and other IT-related maintenance costs. Web-based SFA also decreases the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of enterprise software.

Increased Customer Satisfaction
SFA tools allow sales personnel to properly manage their existing customers with the overall goal of extracting the maximum amount of revenue from each customer. Maximization of customer value can only be accomplished if customers are satisfied. SFA uses technology to properly handle customer needs and cases, increasing response time and proper customer handling procedures.