The traditional spreadsheet may be doing companies more harm than good, it has been claimed.
(1888PressRelease) September 30, 2011 - Customer relationship management (CRM) firm webCRM says firms that rely on out-of-date, unsecure and inaccessible spreadsheets could be losing sales opportunities, holding inaccurate data and risk having sales staff duplicating on leads.
The firm recommends that employers transport their existing spreadsheets to web-based systems where data can be refreshed and updated easily.
"It's important for a company of any size to have instant and up-to-date access to sales lead details, customer information and other data, otherwise everyone's working on different information, most of which will be out-of-date before they begin a task," said James Bogue of webCRM.
"Businesses are often too reliant on spreadsheets. Every sales lead is vital - not to mention expensive. Managing these leads can mean the difference between success and failure or even profit and loss."
Some 77 per cent of UK organisations now use a CRM system, according to research by the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management.