Firms should consider integration 'a necessity'
News Article - Tuesday, February 6, 2007 11:34
Filed under: IT Infrastructure
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Manufacturing firms would be wise to think of IT integration as a necessity rather than a luxury, according to an expert.
Larry Caretsky, the president of Commence Corp, suggested that managers were often wary of integration, "and with good reason if their software can't support it".
However, he stressed that both manufacturers and distributors should not write it off as a luxury, but rather work to implement it in an ever more competitive business world.
Commence Corp, a customer relationship management (CRM) specialist, notes that there are two main kinds of integration - back-end and contact management.
Integrating sales and marketing databases with back-end accounting or other software allows the sales team to have a complete view of the customer and see how cost effectiveness can be improved.
Contact management integration exists primarily so that users don't have to type the same piece of data more than once, which is a clear waste of time.
"If you choose to integrate contact management, then all relevant contact-related data, including calendar, will be available in software such as Microsoft Outlook and able to synchronise to the sales team's PDAs or Pocket PCs," Caretsky said.
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