CRM with Project Management: Streamlining Business Processes

Sales

by   INSIGHTLY TEAM March 07, 2023

In today’s digital age, businesses rely heavily on technology to streamline their operations and ensure growth. Two vital components of business operations are customer relationship management (CRM) and project management. While both are separate disciplines, they have a common goal: to improve business processes, increase customer satisfaction, and drive growth. In this blog, we’ll delve into the intersection of CRM and project management, their benefits, and how they can be integrated to enhance business processes.

CRM with Project Management

Businesses that use CRM systems to manage their customer data often require project management to ensure that projects are delivered efficiently and within budget. Combining CRM with project management can help businesses effectively manage projects and customer relationships. By integrating these systems or – even better – using one application for both functions, companies can quickly access customer data, monitor project status, and provide timely project updates to customers. This approach allows businesses to manage customer relationships and project management tasks from a single platform, thereby simplifying business processes.

Best CRM for Business

When it comes to choosing the best CRM for business, there are several options available. You’ll hear a lot from big players with big promotional budgets, including Salesforce and HubSpot, but don’t stop your research there. Insightly offers a comprehensive suite of tools for CRM, customer service, marketing automation, and integrations that are perfect for growing busineses. Other popular CRMs for business include Zoho and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Best CRM for Startups

Startups require a CRM system that is both affordable and flexible. Insightly CRM is an excellent choice for startups as it offers a range of features, including lead management, sales forecasting, and analytics. Insightly CRM also offers a free plan for up to two users, making it an affordable option for startups. Other CRMs for startups exist, such as Zoho CRM, but Insightly’s plans and user-friendly features make it a more flexible choice. 

CRM and Project Management for Small Business

Small businesses often struggle with managing customer relationships and project management tasks. However, integrating CRM with project management can help streamline business processes and drive growth for small businesses. Insightly CRM is an excellent option for small businesses as it offers project management capabilities, including task management, project tracking, and reporting. It uses the same familiar interface for both customer pipelines and project management, so your team won’t have to learn to use two separate systems. Plus, you can convert a closed-won opportunity right into a project, so all of the customer journey data flows right through to the project management team.

Best CRM for Project Management

When it comes to selecting the best CRM for project management, several factors need to be considered, including features, ease of use, and pricing. As  noted above, the ablity to convert a closed-won opportunity right into a project is a time saving feature since all of the customer journey data flows right through to the project management team. Insightly is an excellent option for project management as it offers a comprehensive suite of tools for managing projects, including project tracking, task management, and collaboration. Other CRMs that offer project management capabilities include Salesforce, Zoho CRM, Insightly, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

CRM Project Manager Job Description

A CRM project manager is responsible for overseeing the implementation and management of the company’s CRM system and usually is part of a sales team. The job involves developing project plans, managing project resources, and ensuring that projects are delivered on time and within budget. A CRM project manager should have a degree in business, information technology, or a related field and possess excellent project management skills.

CRM Manager Job Description and Salary

A CRM manager is responsible for overseeing the implementation and maintenance of the company’s CRM system, including tracking necesary integrations. While the CRM Project Manager may sit on the sales team, the CRM Manager is more likely to be on the IT team.  The job involves managing data, ensuring data quality, and analyzing customer data to improve business processes. The average salary for a CRM manager in the United States is $89,165 per year, according to Glassdoor. However, the salary may vary depending on the company size, industry, and location.

CRM Project Example

Several companies have successfully implemented CRM systems to improve customer relationships and streamline business processes. Insightly’s customer stories provide back stories and project details from dozens of successfule CRM implementaions. One such company is Knighscope, which left Salesforce for Insightly and now successfully uses features like workflow automation, reporting, project management and integrations in Insightly every day. Knightscope was able to customer Insighly CRM and project management without paying a pricey firm to do the work. They currently use Insightly for CRM, project management and Insightly Marketing. 

CRM Project Ideas

There are a plethora of projets that you can tackle within your CRM implementation. You can set up your CRM with a goal of improving the buyer’s journey or, look internally at improving operational efficiency. You can set a goal to increase retention or lower customer aquisition cost. Or, it can be more general, as in to simply generate more sales. For any of these, set a goal and them put a project plan in place to achieve it. For instance, what key metrics will you use to measure success, how often will you measure them, and how will you report the data. 

See Project Management and CRM in action

Ask for a tour of the project management functions built right into the Insightly platform. This can help you keep your tech stack simple, your number of vendors low while still having the tools you need to grow your business. Get started with a free trial of Insightly CRM today, or request a personalized demo to see how Insightly can help your company achieve its business goals.