CRM - Technology that’s a custom fit

Top left to right: Lloyd Fell, director of business development; Patrick Paul, project manager.
Bottom left to right: Robert Barnes, president; Zhe Dong, programmer

Even before the Internet was commonplace, Robert Barnes was part of a subculture using modems and bulletin boards to communicate with people worldwide.

“I got a taste of what it was like to be connected all over the world. It clued me in on how to use technology to expand my reach,” says Barnes, who today, at 32, is president of CRM Systems, a local customer relationship management company that was doing business in Europe, South Africa, Australia and the U.S., long before it was doing business in Winnipeg.

“Winnipeg was not big enough for us to get the level of expertise we needed to be the best. We needed to service a larger market,” Barnes says.

In that way, he’s always looked ahead. After enrolling in university, he realized computer science wasn’t for him, and switched to the Asper School of Business, where he got involved with a professor developing an IT minor program.

“I graduated with a gold medal in management and was recruited by Great-West Life to work in technology. But big corporations weren’t the right fit,” he explains. Instead, in 1999, he helped start a company that focused on e-commerce. Unfortunately, the dot.com bust put that venture under. Then he heard about CRM (customer relationship management). “This light bulb turned on,” he says. “Here was technology made to fit like a custom suit.”

CRM decided to focus on three areas:
•    People— Helping train, support and rationalize people to ensure proper staffing levels for an organization’s actual requirements.

•    Process— Helping define the most efficient processes to obtain and service customers.

•    Technology— Helping implement software to support an organization’s people and processes.

Excited, Barnes started a new division within an existing consulting company. In 2007, a restructuring resulted in the creation of CRM Systems. Today, CRM employs seven people in Winnipeg, and 15 more in its regional offices in San Diego, San Francisco, New York and Halifax.

“It makes a lot of sense now to start looking for local clients,” he says. “We’ve gained enough experience and want to bring our business back to Winnipeg. The timing is right. Winnipeg
is ready.”

“And,” he continues,“as Winnipeggers, we have a responsibility to build the local business community and to build our business locally.”

Barnes says a big threat is coming and unless companies become more efficient and productive, it will be an uphill battle to keep existing customers from being stolen.

“Many local industries are at an increasing disadvantage—even ones you wouldn’t think of. You can go online and get a tailored suit from China, which can be shipped by FedEx within five days. A lot of people under 35 would rather deal online (than go to a store) because they get better service at a lower price.”

CRM can change that and make local companies, especially small to mid-sized businesses (five to 1,000 employees), more competitive.

On average, companies that CRM targets, those with revenues of between $500,000 and $500 million, see a 20 per cent increase in productivity after CRM is implemented, he says.

It used to be that only larger companies could use these tools because they were prohibitively expensive, but technology costs have dropped and the return on investment is growing to the point that it’s an easily affordable solution.

“In an organization of 10 people, a 20 per cent productivity gain is the same as adding two new people at no cost or having eight people being able to do the work of the original 10, freeing up
people to provide new products and services,” explains Barnes. “Basically, it helps make the business run itself, while the people service the customers.”

If there’s one thing he’s learned, it’s the truth behind the saying: “It’s all about the customer, stupid.” Every customer, he says, wants to feel like they’re your only customer, and CRM gives employees all the information they need about a customer—a complete 360-degree view.

What CRM does is take the knowledge and processes out of people’s heads and put that information in the system.

With the baby boomers retiring, knowledge about customers, processes and procedures is walking out the door, offers Barnes. CRM, he says, mitigates the business risk by migrating their knowledge into the system, making the system a huge asset. “The net benefits are substantial,” continues Barnes, “but they vary widely from company to company. Some of our clients focus on acquiring new business, some on servicing existing customers and some on automating their internal operations.”

It doesn’t matter what business you are in, he says, adding his clients are in manufacturing, financial services, biotechnology, consumer electronics, real estate, transportation and more.

With CRM now looking to do business closer to home, he sees an opportunity to make Winnipeg an “onshoring” port. If a company were to move their IT offshore to Russia, India or China, there are no guarantees their intellectual property won’t fall into other people’s hands because there are no effective intellectual property laws.

Canada has strong intellectual property laws, and development costs are less here. “We have a huge opportunity to take advantage of that, especially with companies from the U.S., because we can lower their costs and still protect their intellectual property, copyright and confidentiality.”

There’s definitely room for growth, he says of CRM’s future.