User Review
( votes)The global Information Technology Industry is forecasted to reach revenues of $4.8 trillion by the end of the year 2020 according to IDC. The industry is as exciting to be part of as it is ridden with all sorts of challenges, big and small, including lack of skilled talent, cybersecurity issues, lack of agility, outsourcing risks, and more.
Being a technologically advanced unit, the IT segment employs several SaaS solutions to facilitate the working processes and increase efficiencies in recruitment, outsourcing, lead generation, and project management. This is when CRM for the IT industry comes into play working as an integrator of multiple processes, creating a synergy of communication between partners, colleagues, clients, and multiple disparate tools.
The technology industry is among the top economy segments globally @Deloitte
Are you an independent project manager? Software company owner? App developer working in an outsource? Cloud computing engineer on a freelance team?
Read on to find out how you can use CRM in the information technology sector to streamline your working routine and squeeze more in your day with Nimble’s insider tips.
Significance and Role of CRM in IT
Maintaining top-level relations with existing customers
Among factors that drive business in 2021 the most significant aspect with the weight of 59% is picked up in existing customer business. This proves the value of customer relationship management as a concept.
CRM tools for software development companies help maintain close relationships that are omnichannel in nature, expanding over email, social media, and calendar. Nimble CRM is the social media-centered CRM that fully incorporates social media communication into the working flow, allowing to nurture strong bonds between parties.
Prospecting and Lead Generation on Steroids
Sales and marketing teams in the technology sector are the most tech-savvy bunch among marketing peers. This is why they know the importance of CRM for the technology industry.
In fact, reaching new customer segments is the second biggest driver of positive growth for IT in 2021 with 47%!
The best assistant when it comes to prospecting? The Nimble Prospector browser extension, which reduces manual work, allows you to pull extensive profile info from anywhere on the web and enrich profile data of partners and clients.
Driving Interdepartmental and Cross-Departmental Efficiencies
45% of the respondents marked improving operational efficiency as the aspect of driving growth in the tech industry in 2021.
Enhanced efficiencies are the main advantage of using CRM systems Nimble CRM users save 90 minutes a day when they start using the Customer Relationship management tool.
IT Sector Software Systems: Types, Features, and Top Tools
IT has several software solutions that help this complex multi-layered infrastructure function smoother for all: the team and the customers.
There are four main functional classes of SaaS tools for people involved in software development and other IT segments:
- IT Management Software
- IT Project Management Software
- IT asset management software
- IT Service Software
Let’s view some of the functions and key features of these types of IT industry software solutions:
IT Management Software
Operating systems, mainframes, applications, databases are controlled and monitored with IT management software solutions.
Key features:
- Capacity management
- Inventory management
- Issue auditing
- License management
- Patch management
- Compliance management
- Remote access & control
Top IT management software tools:
IT Project Management Software
IT project management software allows PMs to organize, systemize, schedule, plan, execute, control, bill for, and collaborate on projects with a team of developers.
Key features:
- Product Roadmapping
- Milestone tracking
- Issue management
- Portfolio management
- Requirements management
- Status tracking
- Prioritization
- Percent-complete tracking
- Time & expense tracking
- Agile / scrum compatible
- Testing & QA tracking
Top IT Project management software tools:
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IT Service Software
Automation of technical management and field services lies at the core of the function of IT services software, which helps providers of Information Technology services to sell, execute, and finalize for IT services.
Key features:
- Contract management
- Incident management
- Knowledge management
- Release management
- Ticket IT asset management
- Service catalog
- Service reporting
Top IT service software tools:
The Use of CRM systems in the IT Industry: tips and best practices 2021
While we have had an overview of major IT industry-specific software solutions, the majority of companies will also have a Customer relationship management integrated with other systems.
Why is that?
Let’s drill down into the reasons below:
Contact Database Management
Why would one care to buy a CRM for an IT Company?
First things first: contact database management.
You may have an entire team of yours added to IT-specific platforms and project management tools, but there are so many more people than just teams in IT.
Add all of the stakeholders of the process to your CRM: team, partners, vendors, investors, industry peers. One of the most primitive benefits that come to mind: you will be able to congratulate them all with New Year in just one email or with separate messaging targeted by segment.
Calendars & Scheduling
IT companies, like software development, IT outsourcing firms experience inconveniences based on time zone difference all the time.
Having a calendar that’s got all of the company team daily schedules and can be integrated with other major calendars, like Outlook and Google Calendar helps smooth out the edges of issues arising from time zone differences.
Recruiting with 360-Degree Candidate Overview
Recruitment is one of the biggest pains of IT, specifically with globalization and pandemic-intensified WFH culture, technical talent is hunted across borders as teams and individuals.
CRM for IT Service providers helps to conduct talent selection based on a 360-degree overview of a candidate.
Nimble Prospector extension, for example, helps to quickly capture and add information to contact profiles from anywhere on your desktop: email, social media, 3rd party applications. Yes, you heard it right, you can use it on Twitter and LinkedIn too, this is why it’s such a favorite with HR teams!
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Task Management
Most of the IT PM tools will have task management as a module.
CRM is capable of adding another layer of dimension to such systems though with extensive reporting, deal, and pipeline management.
So once you integrate a customer relationship management system with other vital components of your tech stack, you get better visibility of the processes and can deep dive for a more granular view of the workflow.
Mass Emailing with Open Rate Tracking
Email marketing software solutions cost quite a bit and depend on the number of contacts in your database.
Many CRMs will have quite an extensive email module that can help deal with most of the functions of an email marketing SaaS.
Nimble CRM, for example, has a group messaging feature so you can send email to many contacts at a time and – this is a fun bit – check if they opened it or not later on.
Due to a custom field feature, users can create segments based on pretty much any datapoint they need – not only preset ones, like location, gender, company, role, and more.
Quicker Employee Onboarding
People come and go – sometimes in the middle of the project too.
Onboarding a new member of a team (specifically if your company is using freelancers or any type of outsourcing) may be a bit hectic.
A CRM for IT Services makes things easier for newcomers and HR managers alike. To facilitate a smooth onboarding, we recommend having a few folders with company standards available for all team-members in G Drive or DropBox. It also makes sense to create some sort of company-wide and departmental resource center, that people have access to according to their roles – with every useful piece of information they may need.
Reporting & Analytics
The best CRM for IT companies will have an extensive reporting feature, of course.
They allow users to have a bird’s eye view of processes, pipeline, sales per agent, activities, deal stats, as well as drill-down for a more granular understanding of all trends.
The data is presented in graphically accessible charts and graphs, that are easy to read and spot the trends, plateaus, and peaks even for a beginner.
Nimble CRM for the tech industry
Nimble CRM has been at the top of the charts of independent review sites, like Capterra and G2 Crowd. We help 140K+ professionals the world over save as much as 90 minutes a day by creating new efficiencies in day scheduling, task management, and communication.
These are just some facts about why Nimble is the go-to-tool for client relationship management for so many SMB:
User-friendly
IT people have to deal with too many complex things, they don’t have to struggle with CRM too. If you are OK with managing your Facebook account, you should be flying in Nimble CRM in no time.
But to be honest, it’s your sales team, marketing, and HR department, who will love Nimble most. Their life’s a breeze with that Nimble Prospector and mass emails.
Packed with useful features
However easy to use, Nimble is also packed with goodies.
You can do so many things from a task or a contact – just click around to see all the possibilities. You will be surprised to find out how many steps can be cut, as many features are available from anywhere in the system.
Customizable
If you want to create a custom tag – for example, to mark all your team with tags for their specific skills, like programming language knowledge: C#, Golang, etc. Just create a specific tag and add it to your team members. Later you will be able to create reporting based on custom made tags as well as send them emails or mass invites to meetings.
Lots of learning materials on YouTube
If you are looking to pick up some of the best practices of how to use CRM for increased efficiency – there are heaps of webinars and tutorials on our YouTube channel, that you can recommend your team watching whenever is most convenient for them.
Straightforward pricing
Scaling is always a thing to think about when you are part of the IT segment.
Nimble CRM has a price that is as straightforward as it is low:
$25 per user per month if paid monthly
$19 per user per month if paid annually
2 weeks free trial with full access to all features.
Are you looking for CRM software for an IT company? Try Nimble for free now.
