The demand for CRM solutions is large. The worldwide market for 2015 estimate the Gartner analysts to 26.3 billion dollars – by far the largest segment of the software market. Many companies have some catching up and increasingly asking service providers and manufacturers. With the trend away from on-premise licenses to cloud services should especially Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics benefit – one might think: SAP has however used the grace of late birth and sail the competition with SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (C4C).
In autumn 2015, SAP announced a revolutionary solution with C4C which goes far beyond the classic CRM addition, thanks to digital networking through social media analysis, customer service and support. Industry experts and IT managers were skeptical that promises were dismissed as pure marketing measures. But SAP is keeping its word and continuously published four times a year a version with extended functionality, the standardized supports new processes.
Meanwhile SAP C4C mastered the high customer demands and has grown into one of the most advanced cloud-based CRM systems on the market. As the cloud dominates about half of the CRM market and software-as-a-Service (SaaS) in 2015 recorded an increase of 27 percent, the solution captures the spirit of the time. Since it is hardly surprising that SAP ERP can be SAP 6.0 with sophisticated on-premise processes run for CRM and the successor S / 4hana it has hardly innovative and efficient functionality.
Instead, SAP focused on the cloud and should convince even the last skeptics so. For the CRM in the cloud is to SAP C4C safely. SAP operates the application as a public or private cloud in their own data center and transmits the data encrypted. Concerns about IT security and the loss of business-critical data thus belong to the past.
The competitors in the CRM market have long jumped on the train: Salesforce CRM is built exclusively on the cloud and Microsoft Dynamics CRM are the first two releases of new versions only in the cloud. Since it does not matter that the on-premise deployment of the software is optional. In short: On the cloud passes no way in CRM.
User-friendly and platform independent
Comparing the solutions of different vendors, SAP, however, has the edge – especially in terms of usability and user-friendliness. By tile appearance of the user interface, the program can be operated intuitively. In addition, the wide range of functions simplifies processes in various departments such as Service, Sales and Marketing. For example, the service staff can easily tickets, orders and contracts detect and manage, assign parts and technicians or receive the status in the backend systems. About dashboards and reports can also operate extensive monitoring.
As the third-party applications also allows C4C working in offline mode, thereby enhancing the usability. Compared to the competition, however, SAP is the platform independence of the solution: Without additional programming, the software adapts to the operating system up and running as on Android, iOS, or Windows. Thanks to a mature Responsive designs she also recognizes on which device it is used and adjusts the interface to smartphone, tablet or Windows PC.
Interface maintenance and increasing functionality
Another factor that should not be underestimated, is the integration into the existing SAP ERP. With SAP C4C this is effected via the familiar SAP component Process Infrastructure, which is for many users already in use for years. Another possibility is the integration with the HCI tool (Hana Cloud Integration), which is available in the SAP cloud.
Since SAP this standard interface continuously developed, the effort lies solely with the manufacturer and the user companies must implement any additional component for direct ERP integration. Besides growing with each release of the functionality of the solution. Users of Salesforce and Microsoft on the other hand have to do without standard interface and integration module for SAP. This attracts constant updates and rewrites by itself and has a corresponding effect on the operating costs.
But even without SAP ERP running SAP C4C. For example, can be a Oracle-based ERP system with SAP C4C use as a CRM system productive. This vendor independence makes the solution of SAP especially interesting for companies that want to start small. Thus, the CRM functionality can be used for example for the construction of a new subsidiary, without charge for the integration accumulates in the central ERP system. The subsequent integration of the branch into the SAP ERP of the parent company is readily possible.
There’s one catch, however: Does it extremely complex requirement situations – for example, the coordination of thousands of service employees of a manufacturing company – to manage, SAP C4C is reaching its limits. Here the immature offline client the solution of SAP still a disadvantage compared to specialized SAP-integrated mobility solutions.
CRM as a holistic approach
Although this is ultimately to software, it comes with CRM to more than just the implementation of the solution. Looking through the eyes of Change Management may be prepared by the proper use, for example, processes optimize, improve the quality of master data or homogenize procedures. To scoop up these advantages, companies should always analyze them what functionality they expect from the CRM solution. Because demand situation and initial position differ depending on the company and industry.
remcojansen | SAP CRM & SAP Marketing Cloud blog 