Is Your CRM Helping You Accelerate The Pace of Business?

In the world of business, few things are certain. It has become clear in recent years, however, that we can count on this: The pace of business is not slowing. Expectations of fast turnaround have continued to accelerate, driven by companies such as McDonald’s, FedEx and Amazon, and by technologies such as email and social media. As the late Carrie Fisher observed in her novel Postcards From the Edge, “Instant gratification takes too long.”

Few organizations understand this better than public accounting firm Grant Thornton, which advises its clients on technology strategy and digital transformation, in addition to its traditional accounting services. As Nichole Jordan, a managing partner at Grant Thornton, in a recent Microsoft interview,  it’s “all about helping businesses prepare for and really thrive in the future.”

Jordan also noted that the professional services industry as a whole has been undergoing digital transformation that was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced businesses to adopt new ways of working, both internally and with their customers.

In some cases, Grant Thornton found that switching from face-to-face to virtual meetings had unexpected benefits. Using the chat and polling features in Microsoft Teams, for instance, enabled a greater diversity of viewpoints to be expressed and considered, leading to better decision making.

Technology transformation also played a part in Grant Thornton’s customer interactions, which also went almost exclusively virtual overnight. Their integrated environment, which consists of Microsoft products such as Dynamics 365 CRM, PowerBI, PowerApps, and Teams, as well as third-party tools such as LinkedIn Sales Navigator, made it easier to keep in touch with their customers and maintain those relationships.

Taken together, Grant Thornton’s technology capabilities had three major benefits:

• Enhanced ability to connect with more clients and establish deeper relationships with them
• Ability to identify and focus on opportunities with a greater chance of winning new business
• Increased speed and accuracy when responding to customers and opportunities when they request quotes or proposals

Does your organization have what it needs to keep up with the accelerating pace of business today–or tomorrow? One way to find out is by using the Empellor CRM “Self Assessing Your CRM & Process Strategy Checklist.” This comprehensive checklist will help you understand whether your data, applications, and processes are set up to help you succeed or are holding you back.

Don’t let your organization get left behind by the break-neck pace of modern business. Download the checklist today.