Software Improves Process Collaboration Models

Organizations all over the world are seeking to enhance their internal process collaboration models. What’s really interesting about this influx of interest in business collaboration models is the simplicity of the root idea: make things easier and more transparent to everyone inside of a process, and you’ll improve speed and efficiency. Pretty simple, right? With an effective process collaboration model you can use employee feedback to improve upon wasteful processes or sources of frustration as well, ensuring that your team stays happy with your software and continues to use it enthusiastically.

But we all know that this is easier said than done. Managing constant changes within your industry can put a strain on your business and communication efforts, causing information and departmental silos. Maintaining separate, rigid software systems furthers this divide by hindering access to enterprise data. Realizing the time and revenue lost by using disjointed systems, many businesses are now requesting enhanced collaboration models to be built within their enterprise software.

Almost all new software being designed today is seeking to create greater transparency and communication inside of organizational business processes and the tasks that employees complete every day. This means creating a more accessible source of data (a single source of truth) for employees and stakeholders to access in order to shorten process life cycles and enhance current collaboration models. In this piece, we provide more insight into the role of enterprise software in building a more collaborative enterprise. 

Software Innovations

This need for a strong process collaboration model is not a new one, but technology is only now fully giving organizations the capacity to create the transparency and communication needed to optimize business processes. Organizations like Salesforce and Epicor have built social aspects into their enterprise software offerings that improve process collaboration models and foster conversations between team members and stakeholders.

Salesforce Chatter, for example, supplies an interactive feed that enables users to stay up on projects and collaborate on specific tasks to win more deals. Salesforce’s premier mobile functionality ensures that your workplace is on the same page about sales, marketing and service demands at all times. Epicor has also embedded Epicor Social Enterprise (ESE) into version 10 of its ERP solution. Similar to Salesforce Chatter, ESE provides a feed with notifications of real-time updates in back-office functions and enables easy collaboration from any device.

These software functions allow businesses to effectively communicate all the important information around a process to the respective stakeholder, while keeping a record of the entire flow to provide full transparency to anyone involved. Feedback can be heard much more efficiently, and everyone involved in a process knows their role and how they need to work with others to get the job done quickly and successfully.

CRM and ERP Integration

Software integrations empower greater business collaboration by creating a single source of truth. Too many departments conduct business without any knowledge of what’s going on in the rest of the enterprise. When CRM and ERP systems are joined together, departments can access enterprise-wide data to gain insight into the entire company. This information is priceless in streamlining processes and improving business strategies.

When information is coalesced into a single system, there’s no more time wasted on dual data entries. Everyone running back-office functions is privy to customer needs because of their access to CRM data, equipping them with the knowledge to better develop products and services that improve customer experiences. Salespeople can quickly access inventory and pricing data so they can deliver accurate information to leads. If users throughout the enterprise have access to the same information, they can more effectively collaborate on new strategies and products to drive business. 

Learn more about the benefits of ERP-CRM integrations by checking out our Unity demo! 

Scared of Social?

Many businesses may hear the term social inside of this conversation and immediately think of Facebook and Twitter and other time-wasting activities that shouldn’t have a place in the business world. This then leads to visions of employees and stakeholders sharing personal information and chatting about irrelevant information. However, this kind of thinking is reductive. The truth is that the value of social sharing and communication cannot be overstated when it comes to your business’ most crucial processes. The term “social” in this situation is speaking specifically to business process collaboration model best practices: the ability to socially connect with all the parties involved in a process and collaborate around tasks, functions and responsibilities. In business environments, social sharing takes on a whole new meaning and can serve an integral role in boosting productivity.

Wrap Up

Businesses that want a better collaboration model are going to have to work for it. Burdensome check points and waiting areas between your processes and departments are a product of the way that many conduct business today—a state of mind that can be hard to escape. Fortunately, Epicor, Salesforce and other enterprise software vendors contain the functionality to replace these divisions with a more collaborative model.

However, we do always caution that software alone will not solve any challenge. Businesses must have a comprehensive idea of how the software needs to work inside of their business to implement it (and its modules) correctly and to truly achieve great ROI on the software. Datix is here to help you in this ambitious mission. We’re an Epicor Platinum Partner and experts in CRM, eCommerce and integrations. Using proven methodologies and our wide breadth of software knowledge, we execute software projects to align with each client’s unique needs and transform businesses. 

For more information about process collaboration models and software, contact the Datix team today!

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