We no longer bother to explain the acronyms TV, DVD, RAM, and more...
I'm working on a white paper introducing RedHen CRM. In geek-speak, RedHen is a CRM framework built within the Drupal content management platform. On its own, it's a suite of modules that literally don't do anything if you just download and install them on your Drupal site. RedHen provides the building blocks for developing your own customized CRM solution - be it a small business customer relationship management system, a nonprofit constituent management solution, an association management system (AMS), an enterprise resource planning (ERP) tool, whatever.
Over the next few months, ThinkShout and our partners will be releasing different configurations of RedHen to solve different social data problems. For example, we've released a RedHen Demonstration CRM that models how RedHen could be leveraged to meet the AMS needs of a fictional "national pet shelter association."
Given this technical introduction, I'm wondering the extent to which our shop needs to define "CRM" in writing about RedHen. Sure, it's a nerdy acronym - but if you look at how the larger CRM SaaS offerings describe their products, fewer and fewer are bothering to define the term "CRM", in favor succinctly describing what their tools actually do.
As excited as I am about the geeky guts of RedHen, my opinion is that "CRM and CMS platforms" are largely becoming commodified. The strategies and consulting services that are built on top of these platforms are really the differentiable products that we vendors bring to market. In which case, I'd rather you show me what you can do with a CRM framework, rather than arbitrarily define its underlying architecture. (This is especially true when the CRM framework is free and open source - consulting and expertise are the only sellable products…)
Thoughts?
(Please no Friday flames or peacocks replying that they single-handled coined the term CRM in the nonprofit space...)
Comments
Please do...
...define the acronym. I started working with Civi about 9 or so months ago, and I had no idea what the acronym meant. Now, I know... but then, I didn't. After a quick google search, I landed at the wikipedia entry for "Customer relationship management" which answered my question... I'm not stupid, I just didn't know what those three letters meant. So, I vote for succinctly describing the acronym... like in one sentence. 'Cause not everybody knows to google it... and they might feel stupid.
Probably not
What I find most helpful when glossing over software product descriptions are the 'What it is' and more importantly 'What it isn't' sections. So I can quickly determine if it will be beneficial to my current scenario.
Hope that helps.
You mean it doesn't stand for
You mean it doesn't stand for Consumer Relationship Mangler?
I'm for succinctly defining it.
But that's the thing...
Galaxies have been conquered in the debate between whether a CRM tool is a "Customer Relationship Management" solution or a "Constituent Relationship Management" solution. Ya choose the former, and nonprofits often feel like you're shoehorning them into a corporate solution. Ya choose the latter, and businesses think you just want to give them a hug, or worse, trying to manage voter data.
That's why Salesforce, Salsa Labs, and other providers sidestep the definition. Heck, the new buzz phrase for CRM is "social enterprise solution" (whatever that means...).
Regardless, I appreciate your feedback. Happy Friday.
acronomical
IMO, in the true spirit of authoring white papers, it is the job of the author to disambiguate everything. Especially when disseminating technical information to an audience that you may or may not know much about. In my experience, i always lean towards slight redundancy and at least define the salient terms in an introductory manner.
To the everyday user, the real power or novelty of some system can be lost in explanation if the underlying concepts are not clear. Providing that basis allows us to not have to assume anything, and more advanced readers will appreciate the completeness.
($0.02)
How's this?....
Just a starting point...I really do appreciate your feedback and am trying to incorporate it:
Meet RedHen CRM, an open source CRM framework built natively within the Drupal content management solution.
RedHen CRM is free, web-based software for building productive relationships with your contacts and sharing your organization’s mission. With RedHen CRM and Drupal, you can quickly and easily engage your contacts and community - learning more about them through their interactions with your website, and in turn providing them with personalized content that resonates with their interests.
RedHen CRM is flexible, open source, and widely supported. Drupal is a leading, enterprise-worthy web publishing platform leveraged by hundreds of thousands of web developers around the world. RedHen CRM builds upon this rich, open source ecosystem to allow you to create affordable, highly-customized solutions that meet your organization’s specific needs.
No more shoehorning your organization into tools that almost work. Whether you are a business, where CRM stands for customer relationship management, or a nonprofit where CRM refers to constituent relationship management, RedHen CRM is the starting place for developing the integrated solution you need.
Thanks friends!
Sean
RedHen CRM is free, web-based
(Seems unnecessary/awkward.)
Last papagraph strikes a good balance in addressing non-profits and for-profits.
Amber Matz
Good feedback, Amber. TY.
Good feedback, Amber. TY.
Good
Thanks RedHen..Its really good software help me
http://www.peritocer.com Offshore Software Development Company
It might be worth explaining
It might be worth explaining that the "C" can stand for whatever you want it to stand for, depending on how you use the software. It could be for Customers, for an online web shop, or Constituents for a political organization or campaign, or even Contacts for a non-profit organization. The bottom line is that it is for describing people, their activities, and their relationships to other people, groups, and organizations. What you call those people is up to the end user.
Ask your mom
Ask your mom "What is a DVD and what is a CRM?"
I'd be wary of comments
I'd be wary of comments suggesting moms are any less technical than any other target audience....
Regardless, you unintentionally make my point, John, which is that someone who is looking for what we refer to as CRM software is either informed about the acronym or searching for such software by terms other than "customer relationship management". (Take for example, Jesse's comment. He might not have known what CRM stood for, but he knew that he needed a tool that integrated with Drupal for managing contacts - and that will pull up CiviCRM first thing in Google.)
Based upon the feedback in this thread, as well as researching a dozen or so of the major SaaS offerings, my conclusion is that the functionality and tools provided with a CRM solution should be highlighted - with clear, but passing explanation of the acronym.
Thanks again, everyone, for your feedback.
Whenever I use the term CRM,
Dang... This wasn't in reply to your comment but somehow I managed to place it here.
Whenever I use the term CRM, I clarify the the C is for "Contact". This resonates with my clientele as they are generally not-for-profit professional organizations who want to manage their membership database of contacts. It seems the most intuitive approach for my purposes.
Thinking out loud
Coupla thoughts ...
I find it awesome that you are taking the time to strive for clarity.
Thanks everyone!
Definitely appreciate the feedback. As you can probably tell, we're very excited to be getting close to a beta release of RedHen. We've been very heads down in development the last few months - working towards a stable release with clear/consistent architectural patterns what will provide a solid base for others to build upon.
We're thrilled to see folks like Nedjo Rogers (ChocolateLilyWeb.ca) start building RedHen into their own distros. Check out: http://drupal.org/sandbox/nedjo/1679816.
Cheers,
Sean
And here's what you helped us create!
Thanks again for your feedback folks. Just in case you are curious, or you need a one-pager to explain the value proposition of native CRM solutions to your own clients, please check out:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17914943/RedHenCRM_Introduction.pdf
(Note: this resource and design assets are copyrighted by ThinkShout, Inc., so please don't pillage it. But if it helps you get more folks interested in native CRM and increases the credibility of this and similar solutions, rock it out.)