End Lawlessness: Embed Business Processes in CRM

2006 year. At the forum of SQL experts, the question suddenly arises of the desirability of modeling business processes in CRM systems. Words sound: long, expensive, Siebel, not necessary, difficult.
year 2014. Increasingly, customers are asked to advise CRM with the ability to build and run business processes. What is the reason? The first suspicion - somewhere heard and now reach for fashion. The question “Why?” Receives a balanced answer: “Tired of lawlessness and confusion in the organization of work. At least in frequently repeated actions, order is needed. ” One cannot but agree that the main purpose of regulating business processes in a company is precisely order. Admit it, it’s nice to realize that many processes in the organization are clear, coherent, fast, with minimal nervousness.

What are business processes and why are they in CRM?

It is customary to consider CRM systems in Russian practice as programs for automating sales and interacting with customers. However, today vendors who have long been working in the market have functionally expanded their programs and turned them into a tool for comprehensive business automation. Now CRM, as a technology for improving the efficiency and organization of business, is used by everyone: sales people, marketers, accountants, logistics, senior management. Accordingly, CRM should be able to satisfy a new user request - to resolve issues of internal communications and management. Simply put, be able to build and automate business processes.
In fact, a business process is a universal interaction scheme, an algorithm by which employees pass from time to time to achieve a result. This scheme (action map) should take into account a number of factors:

• plan time
• provide task setting
• track key process points
• inform staff
• build reports

Business processes are characterized by three essential elements :

1. stable connections (transitions, conditions, multiple choice, etc.)
2. actions during the process (including notifications, attachments, calls, etc.)
3. logical completion (goal achieved).

At the same time, it is important to understand that not all users of the business process know what they are following - everyone should be responsible for their own stage and complete the task on time. For the process owner, the result achieved on time and the analysis of problems that arise during the course of work are important. Keeping a journal (protocol) of the process helps to fix all the subtleties and either fix the process itself or make adjustments to the work of the "weak" link. In general, errors or delays in the course of a business process should in no case be the reason for punishing employees. Moreover, it is better to correct the process several times based on the experience of previous launches, so that in the future it runs smoothly and in optimal terms.

The use of business processes turns the familiar CRM into a technology for transforming the chaotic organization of chains of interaction within a company into streamlined and coordinated processes. Spending time creating and debugging a process inside CRM (another CIS) you will get a tremendous saving of time and nerves in the future - the baton of actions will be simple and reliable. In addition, the smart process will not allow you to forget to perform actions that may be missed (for example, invoice on time, make a call or notify interested parties about the event). In general, CRM with integrated business processes is a new level system that connects a company into a single network of connections and interactions. Such a structure reduces the human factor and creates an order that will necessarily affect the result of activity.

Who needs business processes?

It may seem that the construction and, especially, the automation of business processes is the concern of large, bureaucratic companies with a huge staff. This is not true. Everything is a process: approval of a document, ordering from a supplier of products, shipping to branches, customer service, customer order fulfillment. These actions are mandatory and take place in the company with a certain frequency. It’s a sin to hide, often unpleasant mistakes, delays and delays occur that negatively affect not only relations within the company, but can also become fatal in relations with customers.

Remember the tales where a magic ball helps a baffled hero to find the right path? This is a great illustration of how business process automation helps a business. Performing his duties, everyone receives his stage, acts according to instructions and a reminder, passes the stage on ... The ball of the process unravels until it leads to the desired result. Thus, the designer of business processes is needed by all companies that want:

• create a unified IT infrastructure
• put things in order in constant tasks
• remember all the details of actions: from the most important to the smallest
• minimize the impact on the processes of the human factor
• include customers in their business processes
• honestly and reasonably share responsibility
• save time and money on company management

By the way, about responsibility. Business processes in CRM regulate the relationship between the established responsible, who, in the event of an unfavorable outcome, will no longer be able to blame the tablemate, as they will have both a documented reminder and a logged stage transition.

What should we build process

Building a business process is not only a necessary task, but also an interesting one. I would recommend creating processes in two stages: on paper and in the program. Before entering a business process into the program, describe the process on paper as accurately as possible, paying attention to all the details: notifications, time, responsible ... After that, try to eliminate unnecessary things, optimize the way to achieve the goal, and after that, add the process to CRM using the built-in tools and notations.

You can build processes using familiar flowcharts, simple data organization, lists, and special BPMN (Business Process Model and Notation) notation. BPMN notation combines the notation of a procedure (the very functional flowcharts that everyone saw at least in school) and the notation of an event tree, laying the foundation for a chain of processes composed of these very procedures and events. This is a simple and understandable notation that describes the step-by-step process execution and builds a visual map of the process. In my opinion, BPMN notation in its classical sense is needed only by very large companies, the rest will be quite adapted, simplified BPMN with responsible tracks, and the vast majority will do without using notation at all.

The main advantage of using non-BPMN constructors in CRM is a clear and simple interface that can be mastered in an hour of training. Moreover, the process can be built out of blocks, or it is possible by filling out forms of each stage of the process when a graphic map is drawn automatically. It is subjectively more convenient to fill out a card (fields) - it is easier to take into account all the nuances and provide for the smallest conditions and connections based on form fields thought out by the developer.
After creating a business process, be sure to run it and test it , paying attention to the following points:

• are the deadlines for completing tasks
• are notifications, reminders
• Are automatic goals and objectives set
• are the responsible persons indicated correctly
• Does file attachment work, documentation generation (if necessary)
• are there any unmotivated interruptions
• how process access rights are distributed
• Whether process actions are logged.

Thus, in order for the process to begin to work as it should, all the details should be preliminarily worked out and then you will get organized work of departments and employees in a modern way.

Russian Market Players: CRM Review

If we talk about the segment of small and medium-sized businesses, it is worth choosing universal CRM with the built-in ability to create business processes. In addition to my favorite systems, I included new players in the review. As for the foreign enough strong solutions Bizagi and Bonita Open Solution, I do not consider them, since these are process modeling systems without Russian localization, which, moreover, are not part of CRM. My goal is to consider the comprehensive automation of a business that needs to model business processes.

Terrasoft CRM (for review purposes - cloud bpm'online sales) - perhaps the most famous CRM with embedded business processes. It includes the ability to build processes in BPMN notation, as well as a number of ready-made business process templates based on “ready-made practices”, as the developer himself claims. Knowing the features of a business that implements automation, I can safely say that ready-made packages with integrated business processes are nothing more than a beautiful marketing move, since no process can be sharpened in advance for a specific company. As a rule, it is either required to create business processes on order, or to train employees to create business processes on their own.
bpm'online sales allows you to create processes using the wizard and process designer (available only in the paid version). The processes in the wizard are easy to create, even without knowledge in the field of business design - the system itself divides the process along the paths of those responsible and departments. This is not the most convenient BPMN constructor, however, the process map is simple and straightforward, the process of starting, tracking and logging the stages of process execution is obvious. You enter the steps, the responsible and the transitions, and the system draws the map itself. Alas, I could not test the paid version of the process designer in bpm'online sales, but knowing the designer from the Terrasoft desktop, which is no longer supplied, I can assume that this is a powerful interesting tool.
Among the shortcomings, I note the lack of the possibility of appointing several people responsible for the stage without creating groups of employees, the “stretching” of the circuit on the monitor, and the roughness of the graphic implementation of the process map.



RegionSoft CRM has integrated a business process editor in its latest version 5.0 in its CRM system. The developer abandoned the use of formal notations and introduced his own logic with a human-friendly interface. The designer of business processes is simple and convenient - the user enters the parameters of each stage in special forms, including notifications and child processes with infinite nesting, and at the output receives a graphical implementation of the process.
Each participant in the process is assigned a task at its stage; it is possible to suspend a business process until the task is completed. As the process is created, a notification about the correctness of the process construction is displayed below - the user will not be able to start the incorrectly created process. In the notifications received by the user, a process card is opened, in which you can easily mark the necessary connections, attach files and related documents. A separate advantage is the tips and explanations in the windows, which make it clear what this or that mechanism does.
Among the shortcomings, I can note not the most elegant graphic implementation, which in the loaded process may seem a bit confusing. It is worth recognizing that having abandoned the use of BPMN notation, RegionSoft did not lose, creating an understandable and successfully fitting into the CRM constructor. However, if we talk about integration with the same Visio or Business Studio, then the rejection of BPMN is critical.



Microsoft Dynamics CRMIt includes business processes without a graphic card, which is initially inconvenient, especially after testing several systems with visualization. However, for the very essence of the business process, this is not critical. It was not possible to find the process settings module right away; after going through the menu, I had to turn to the manual. MS Dynamics CRM provides three ways to configure business processes: through the menu in the system, based on the CRM SDK for advanced ones, and by purchasing ready-made processes from a third-party developer. Consider the first way as not costly and not requiring special skills.
Adding steps, conditions and records is familiar to users of Microsoft corporate systems: conditions are set by drop-down lists and logical expressions familiar to many advanced users. This is a convenient implementation that almost everyone encounters in various information and analytical systems. Unfortunately, the areas of responsibility are not displayed in the interface, the general view of the process is not obvious, one can only hope for the accuracy of the settings and the internal logic of the created algorithm. In general, setting up a business process is convenient, but it is worth remembering the inconvenience of perceiving an already built process.



Bitrix-24 (1C) .Contrary to my principle, not to consider 1C products, I could not get around Bitrix, because the range of systems with business process designers is limited and includes a number of new players, besides the already familiar participants in previous reviews. Strictly speaking, Bitrix-24 is not CRM at all, but a social network for the company (corporate portal), in which the CRM module is just built in, which will be discussed.
Finding a module with setting up business processes is difficult. For those who are interested: CRM → more → settings → business processes. When creating a process, you need to select the category for which the business process is configured, if necessary, you can specify custom parameters and variables, and the commands can be written using PHP code, which is interesting in itself, but requires certain skills.
The business process in Bitrix is ​​built using a convenient visual designer in which the user selects the necessary blocks and functions from the columns to the right. This is not a classic BPMN notation, but certain rules are respected. From a user point of view, the editor’s interface is not the most intuitive; you have to edit each block individually, revealing its “card”. In my subjective opinion, creating a process in Bitrix is ​​the most time consuming.



ELMA(ECM, CRM +) has become for me a completely new product that I have never encountered before. However, in this review, this system occupies a worthy place. Despite the serious congestion and combination of WEB and desktop interfaces, it uses BPMN notation in its purest form and this is interesting. Business processes are created in a separate desktop constructor with functional windows. In addition to the standard BPMN notation, ELMA supports the creation of scripts and custom scripts for business processes in C #, which with proper skills is a good advantage. In addition, import of processes from Business Studio in XPDL format is supported.
Processes are already running in the WEB interface, there is a separate responsibility matrix, process logs, process metrics, you can create process instances. In general, to me personally, the interface of both the system and the designer seemed redundant. I am sure that units and then in large companies will use all the opportunities. In general, we can safely say that this system exists for the sake of business processes. ELMA is supplied with various platforms and programs, when choosing it is worthwhile to understand that the price will consist of CRM and a platform for developing business processes.



In all of these systems, there is the possibility of additional CRM integration with the site, which, combined with business processes, reports and internal CRM logic, opens up the possibility of creating many interesting pieces related to customer service on the site or in the online store.
Speaking about all systems, I want to note one common drawback. I suppose that all developers look at the Habr and see a remark, which for all its negligence causes a huge inconvenience: it is impossible to select several responsible, holding Ctrl, everywhere you have to do one at a time or pre-create groups of employees.

In the table, I grouped some basic information about the listed vendors and, of course, indicated the prices, because in today's situation this is an important criterion, especially if the manufacturer ties the price figures to the exchange rate.

Decision	Terrasoft CRM	RegionSoft CRM	Microsoft Dynamics CRM	ELMA	Bitrix 24
Editors	Bpm'online sales enterprise	Professional	Online Professional	CRM +	Team
System class	CRM	CRM	CRM	BPM + ECM + CRM	Enterprise portal with integrated CRM
Business process interface	Logic + Graphics	Logic + Graphics	Logics	Logic + Graphics	Logic + Graphics
Notation	BPMN	Without notation	Without notation	BPMN	Without notation
Deployment Scheme	Cloud, some versions of on-site	Desktop	Cloud, on-site	Cloud + desktop	Cloud, on-site
Website integration	Is possible	Is possible	Is possible	Is possible	Is possible
Basic purchase price of 15 licenses	400 € - user / year in the cloud 550 € - user at on-site For prices as of December 5, 2014: cloud: 389 040 rub. per year on-site: 534 930 rub. / at a time	144 900 rub. / at a time	421 560 RUB in year	281 875 RUR / at a time = CRM: 130 000 p. + BPM: 106 875 p. + MS SQL Server minimum 45 000r.	Cloud - from 59 880 rub. / year Box - 129 500 rub. / at a time

Summarizing a short review of solutions, I want to say that when choosing a CRM with integrated business processes, three important principles must be followed.

1. It is important to understand how large are the business processes in the organization . So, if we are talking about a plant with production cycles, approvals and numerous distributors, then you should choose a system with BPMN notation (I would prefer Terrasoft in the “full” configuration or ELMA). If your company is more interested in CRM and business processes are not overloaded, then I would prefer the fast, universal, functional RegionSoft CRM or bpm'online sales. Do not underestimate or overestimate your company in terms of the complexity of the processes - only a real picture will allow you to make the right choice.
2. Be aware of the level of implementation costs . So, a platform for building serious business processes can be delivered separately and cost almost 100% of the cost of licenses. Or, for example, the introduction of a cloud project in the period of 2-3 years can be much more expensive than the delivery of the desktop once and for all.
3. You need to be prepared to bear the additional costs of training employees . Moreover, training their specialists is much more effective than buying ready-made models - processes can change and grow, and an employee within the staff will always be ready to make changes quickly.

Each company is looking for its own path to success. In the XXI century, on this road it is important to be able to competently automate your business so that software becomes a reliable chain mail, and not a hated burden. Test, try on, do not hesitate to contact the vendors and view their presentations - make an informed decision. And then any business process will work clearly, smoothly, without failures, and your business will develop intensively, bringing more pleasure than hassle.

Note: billing processes based on screenshots are test ones and do not reflect the real processes of any company in the world.