Development of CRM for the agricultural complex

It would seem that the managers already remember all their clients, and all the details of the negotiations can be easily written down in an excel file. At the first stages of the existence of the agricultural complex, perhaps this will indeed be enough, but if you want to expand the client base and bring the level of sales to a new level, you cannot do without CRM.

CRM is a customer relationship management system. It helps to automate the sales process and marketing activities, to form a customer base and to build the right communication with them.

In simple words, CRM makes business easier and more convenient. For example, the manager does not need to keep in mind when he promised to call the client back or what preliminary agreements were reached – the CRM system will remind him of all this.

In this way, you will not lose a single lead and free up staff time that can be spent on searching for new customers.

Modern CRMs have great technical capabilities and help businesses:

• collect and segment the customer base;
• save the history of interaction with customers;
• handle all communication channels in one interface;
• carry out e-mail and sms-mailings;

• plan the placement of content on social networks;
• keep records of product balances;
• automate routine processes;
• speed up the processing time of customer requests.

When developing CRM systems, the business processes of each individual company are taken into account, so the list of tasks that they solve can vary significantly.

There are two main types of customer relationship management systems: boxed and custom.

In the first case, these are ready-made CRMs that are distributed according to the SaaS model, that is, with payment for use. They are distinguished by extensive functionality and multitasking, but at the same time, they solve problems rather superficially, since they are created for general consumption, without taking into account the needs of each company.

Custom CRMs are the other side of this coin. There is nothing superfluous in them, but each module is designed for a specific purpose and solves specific problems. Thanks to this, you get the most functional product, with all the necessary integrations and a convenient, not overloaded interface.

With all the advantages of individual CRM, their development requires a significant investment of time and money. Let’s take a look at how this process goes.

The technologies that will be used to create a CRM system affect many factors: performance, the ability to integrate with third-party services, implementation speed, development cost, and so on. Therefore, in order to determine the optimal stack, specialists need to perform some preparatory work:

• collect customer’s ideas about the product;
• get acquainted with his experience of using third-party software;
• study the IT infrastructure of the company;
• form the concept of the project and top-level documentation.

An important role in choosing technologies is played by the platforms on which CRM is planned to work. There may be different options here.

For example, the desktop version is convenient to use in the office, the mobile application is convenient to use on a business trip, and the web version can be launched on any device with a browser installed. Given all these features, the final technology stack might look like this:

• For desktop applications. Python/PHP programming languages and their Django/Flask or Yii2/Laravel frameworks respectively.
• For mobile applications. Native development: on IOS – Objective-C / Swift languages, and on Android – Java / Kotlin, with a frontend on Vue.js / React.js. Cross-platform development: on Flutter/Dart.
• For web applications. Frontend development: HTML/CSS/JavaScript or Vue.js/React.js reactive frameworks. Backend development: Node.js platform, Python language and Django/Flask frameworks, or PHP language and Yii2/Laravel frameworks.

There are different software development methodologies. In our work, we prefer to use SCRUM, where all tasks are distributed among specialists and performed in short sprints. So the project goes through many iterations and gets better each time.

Another plus of the SCRUM methodology is that it helps to build close communication with the client – he always knows what kind of work is being done now and what the result should be, and if necessary, he can correct the work of specialists in a timely manner if their actions do not correspond to his vision of the project.

In addition to the methodology, there are also development stages – this is the so-called CRM life cycle. Consider what work is performed on each of them.

Stage 1. Gathering information

CRM development starts with research. To create an effective product, our specialists study the business processes of your agricultural complex, marketing and sales cycles, existing IT infrastructure and experience of interaction with similar tools. To do this, meetings are held with a representative of the client, at which each issue is carefully discussed.

Stage 2. Design, documentation and technology selection

When all the necessary information is collected, the specialists begin to form the concept of the project and create a prototype, including:

• schematic representation of interface pages;
• functional description;
• navigation system;
• technology stack;
• development approach.

After that, developers need to coordinate their plans with the views of the client. To do this, a mockup is presented and, if necessary, adjustments are made to it.

Stage 3. Design development

The CRM of an agricultural complex can store data on hundreds and thousands of customers and the history of communication with each of them. Therefore, in order to avoid confusion among your staff, the system should have a simple, understandable and user-friendly interface. To make this task a reality, a UI designer joins the project.

To take into account the functionality and all the features of using CRM in your company, the design is often developed individually. If the budget is limited, template solutions are also possible, but in this case, you often have to compromise on convenience.

Stage 4. Programming

At the stage of technical development, it is quite difficult for the client to evaluate the work done. To ensure effective communication, team leaders participate in the sprints, who answer all questions, give recommendations and advice on the technical part. This part of the development can be divided into two parts:

• Frontend. Implementation of the client side of CRM, which provides a comfortable user interaction with the server.
• Backend. The backend is responsible for all the processes that take place on the server. At this stage, programmers build the logic of the functionality, the database architecture and ensure the interaction of the product with external systems.

Stage 5. Testing

To ensure the quality of CRM, QA engineers participate in sprints. They test all the modules and functions of the system and check how their actual behavior corresponds to the expected one. In case of problems, a bug report is compiled and the product is sent for revision to the responsible specialist, after which re-testing is carried out.

In addition, after the development is fully completed, QA engineers perform acceptance testing, which helps determine the readiness of CRM for release.

Stage 6. Technical support and development

It is simply not possible to foresee and test all scenarios for using CRM in real conditions, which is why after the project is put into operation, your employees may still encounter some errors. To solve such problems quickly and efficiently, CRM needs professional technical support after the release.

You also need to remember that CRM is one of the main tools for business development. As the company grows, you may also need to improve existing system functionality or develop new ones. In this case, our specialists study the updated requirements, design their implementation, refine the design, and translate your ideas into program code. Then the changes are tested and installed in the already working CRM as an update.

A CRM system will help you automate most of the processes associated with sales and maintaining a customer base. With it, you can get to know your customers better, launch more effective marketing campaigns, and free up employee time to attract new customers and, as a result, take your business to a whole new level.

AVADA MEDIA specializes in developing CRM for various business areas. Thanks to the use of innovative technologies and the well-coordinated work of a team of high-class developers, we can implement almost any, even the most daring ideas of our customers.