How does CURSOR support CRM in the Corona crisis?
Intro: An interview with the two board members of CURSOR Software AG Andreas Lange (Sales) and Stefan-Markus Eschner (Technology and Innovation). Our idea was to create a short-term field report on how a CRM provider uses its own CRM system in the context of the Corona crisis.
The guiding questions for the interview were: What does CRM do at CURSOR during the Corona crisis? Which tools and modules did CURSOR use? What was adapted from the standard? What ideas for further developments and innovations have been developed?
There are also 4 webinars on this topic: Click here to register.
Georg Blum: Hello Mr. Lange and Mr. Eschner, currently the whole nation or all private and business people are in corona crisis mode. How are you dealing with this in the company? What has CURSOR initiated?
Andreas Lange: As the pandemic situation in Germany has become increasingly acute, we established a crisis management system at an early stage. The aim was and is to be able to react quickly to the challenges that arise for employees and business partners. In doing so, it is important to us to create transparency in all aspects of crisis management and measures.
Stefan-Markus Eschner: “By involving our experts, especially from the IT and marketing departments, we were able to establish a mobile office regulation for over 90% of the employees within two days and inform our business partners in the shortest possible time in a target group-specific manner. It was immediately clear to us that we would use our own CURSOR CRM solution to create transparency and that we would adjust to crisis mode via quick configuration.
“Our customers also use CRM to manage suppliers, partners, shareholders and employees”
Andreas Lange: First and foremost, a CRM system is a support for communicating with prospective customers and customers. We, as well as many CURSOR customers, also use CRM to manage suppliers, partners, shareholders and employees.
Georg Blum: The CRM system is therefore a control center for all addresses in the company, no matter for what purpose. Whether special Christmas addresses, suppliers, shareholders – or as is currently the case – also special emergency or helper addresses.
Andreas Lange: Yes, exactly. Depending on the target group that you want to manage with our CRM, it is possible to store simple identifiers with the business and contact partners to indicate who belongs to which group. Depending on the number plate, the corresponding personalized information is then passed on to this target group.
Workflow or project management or …? What was all used?
Georg Blum: Which modules or features were used? Workflow or project management or which were they?
Stefan-Markus Eschner: Basically we use our flexible campaign management module. Logically, the focus in this situation is not on the advertising character, but on the ongoing, informative communication to the various target groups. We reach employees via an internal news ticker or via the chat function, external contacts via e-mail, smartphone and, if it makes sense, of course also by letter.
Georg Blum: What else have you changed about your system? What were the obvious aspects and adjustments?
Stefan-Markus Eschner: We immediately redesigned the dashboard that is displayed to every employee at the start. Various tiles with behavioral instructions, news and key figures were quickly implemented. This allows us to share the latest information on pandemic measures with our employees in real time.
With the chat function: So everyone is always up-to-date.
Andreas Lange: “With the chat facility in our CRM discussion rooms, every employee from the home office can direct his or her questions to the supervisor or board member. This way, everyone is always up to date. Even the management board itself has its own chat group. So we can get information at any time of the day or night – and we can also do this on the move with the CURSOR app.
Stefan-Markus Eschner: This means that we on the Board of Management all know immediately where the shoe pinches. A quick vote and one of us can react immediately. An answer to the employees or customers is thus possible within a few minutes. Of course, quick reaction is particularly important to us during this time.
Georg Blum: Above all, do you have specialist information on working together and setting up the home office in the dashboard?
What does CRM do at CURSOR in the Corona crisis? “We have set up a special Health & Safety Board
Andreas Lange: Not only that, a special “Health & Safety Board” has been set up with hygiene and safety recommendations and current external news.
Stefan-Markus Eschner: Against the background of the corona pandemic, our survey module can be used to protect employees, for example at suppliers. They were asked, for example, what their corona measures were. The tool is also suitable for quick internal employee surveys, e.g. do employees belong to the risk group or questions on “What do you need most urgently right now? Within a short time, the management team thus had a clear picture to decide on appropriate measures.
Georg Blum: Many of our friends and customers reported an extreme act of switching from office work to home office? How did you manage this?
Stefan-Markus Eschner: Even before the Corona crisis, our employees were able to work in consultation with their superiors from the home office, so for most of them it was not a new experience. Of course, there were still individual challenges during the company-wide conversion. All colleagues who needed IT support used the ticket system integrated in CRM. So our service team had a lot to do. But everything ran in a very orderly fashion. Very quickly, the IT teams could see whether identical or similar requests were available in a short time. The result: The colleagues did not have to help everyone individually, but were able to quickly offer help or send a short explanation to all those affected via collective mail or an info PDF. That is effectiveness in times of crisis.
There are therefore no limits to the creativity of the users.
Georg Blum: Let me summarize at this point: Already after so few examples, it becomes clear to every reader that a good CRM system can do much more than just contact management. It makes important contributions to internal and external communication. It does not only have to be sales and advertising campaigns. All at once, the system supports with its variety of functions, which are otherwise rarely used in companies or in any other way. It becomes clear that the extensive functions of the CRM system are also useful for supporting crisis management. For example, the survey tool helps to quickly gather mood and opinion leaders, the ticket module channels service requests cleanly. The interaction with the most diverse stakeholders flows immediately into the system and can be used for further measures. Interim conclusion: There are thus no limits to the creativity of the users.
Stefan-Markus Eschner: And it’s all fast, uncomplicated and release-proof.
Andreas Lange: You had previously asked for project or campaign management module. CURSOR offers both modules. Depending on the goal, one or the other is used. This means that when it comes to internal processes, such as when considering the economic effects of the crisis, the PM tool can be used to bundle tasks and communication or to manage important processes.
Stefan-Markus Eschner: Here, we are clearly concerned with quality, with the proof of completed work steps. If the focus is more on communication, we use campaign management. Mapping different iterations or branches or dependencies (editor’s note: as with the decision tree method) works in both modules.
With CRM, dual control decisions can be handled digitally
Andreas Lange: Now that all employees are in the home office, we are able to process decisions digitally. For example, the invoice or offer approval process. The dual control principle is optimally supported by the tool, in which the employee checks the offer (or invoice). Afterwards, the superior receives a digital impulse and can carry out the release with one click. Independent of place and time.
Georg Blum: Is there surely a comparable support for the filing of vacation or substitution rules in case of illness?
Stefan-Markus Eschner: Of course! Even in times of crisis, the loss of resources or capacities must not interrupt work processes. A substitution mechanism in our system ensures that tasks are completed on time and nothing escalates.
All basic functions are available in the mobile app
Georg Blum: Does the CRM APP for mobile use offer all essential functionalities or does the user have limitations?
Stefan-Markus Eschner: No, the CURSOR app offers the user the necessary range of functions. In mobile use, everything is very simple because all elementary functions are also available for IOS and Android on the move.
Andreas Lange: By integrating the Office365 services we can edit all office documents in the home office.
Stefan-Markus Eschner: The switch to crisis mode has also given rise to new ideas. For example, the integration of a translation tool like DeepL or the functional Expansion of our Microsoft Team Integration. We will specify these suggestions in the coming weeks and include them in our Innovation Map together with our current experiences.
What does CRM do in the Corona crisis at CURSOR? CRM software is also used for risk management.
Georg Blum: Let’s finally come to the important aspect of risk management. Every GmbH or – as in your case – an AG has high legal requirements in this regard. How do you deal with this? What was used here?
Stefan-Markus Eschner: As part of the planning for the year 2020, the Management Board and the executives also use CURSOR-CRM for GAP analysis. What economic effects could Corona have on the company? The identified GAPs lead to tasks and measures, which – as described above – are then processed again in the project or campaign management module. Thus a well-rounded matter.
Georg Blum: Many thanks to Mr. Lange and Mr. Eschner for the detailed interview on the topic of “What does CRM do in the Corona crisis at CURSOR” and the deep insights. Good luck with your webinar on the same topic. Your team has planned two dates each on two days: on 02.04. and 03.04. at 11:00 to 11:30 and 14:00 to 14:30.
If you would like to have a recording of the webinars, please contact CURSOR directly vertrieb@cursor.de . Keyword: Webinar recording
You can find further information on CRM-Tech.World on Corona crisis management, for example
in our two ePapers Address and Data Quality and Drop Ballast. Another article provides tips on the DSGVO.
Note: This is a machine translation. It is neither 100% complete nor 100% correct. We can therefore not guarantee the result.
