Legrand CRM for You and Your Clients

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• October 2006 Issue
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By Doug Sleeter

From the Oct. 2006 Issue

Once in a while, I find a QuickBooks add-on product that just hits the mark right in the center of the bullseye. And when I do, I like to tell the world about it.

Legrand Software is a company that has done just that. They’ve created the Legrand CRM system, which integrates with QuickBooks (QuickBooks Pro, Premier or Enterprise Edition – 2003 or higher) using the Legrand Accounting Link. This link manages a bi-directional transfer of information between the databases, eliminates double-entry, ensures the consistency of contact information, and provides live access to sales histories. Most importantly, this occurs without providing non-authorized users direct access to sensitive accounting information.

Before I go into the solution here, you might want a little background on the term CRM. CRM is another one of those acronyms that computer geeks like me use to keep the rest of the world from knowing what we’re talking about. CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.

What is CRM? Well, no matter what business you’re in, most likely you and your office colleagues are constantly in touch with prospects, customers, vendors and partners. And if you’re smart, you keep a database of some type in which you track all of your contacts.

The problem is — with most small businesses anyway — that it stops right there. Just a database of contacts (address, phone, e-mail, etc.) stored in MS Outlook or something similar. And usually, each employee keeps their own contact list, with no sharing of data between employee contact manager databases. So a common question any employee might have is: “When was the last time anyone in our company dealt with this customer, and what was it about?” And, of course, that’s hard to answer because each employee has their own notes in their own database.

In addition to these basic contact questions, the sales force needs access to historic sales data and other financial information (balance owed, etc.), which is usually only available in the accounting system. For example, maybe you want to do a mailing to all customers who have not purchased in the last 90 days, or perhaps you want to create a list of names and phone numbers for everyone who is more than 30 days past due on their account. Additionally, you may want to know which products were sold to a given customer so your sales or support staff can instantly look up what and when the customer purchased and maybe even when the service contract expires.

The technology solution for tracking all this information, centralizing it and controlling access so sensitive data is protected, is called CRM. With CRM, you have a complete, corporate-wide solution for tracking customer information in a centralized, secure and controlled way.

Most CRM software companies target their solutions at the fortune 500 companies since the needs in those companies are so clearly evident. However, even very small businesses can benefit greatly by implementing a CRM system.

LEGRAND’S QUICKBOOKS ACCOUNTING LINK
The Legrand CRM Accounting Link synchronizes customer information between QuickBooks and Legrand. This allows employees throughout the company (even those who cannot directly access QuickBooks) to view critical sales information from within CRM software. For example, a sales or support representative could view customer balances, products or services purchased, credit limit status, and other accounting notes, even though he or she does not have direct access to QuickBooks.