Contact manager

A contact manager enables users to easily store and find contact information, such as names, addresses and telephone numbers. They are contact-centric databases that provide a fully integrated approach to tracking of all information and communication activities linked to contacts. Sophisticated contact managers provide calendar sharing features and allow several people in a company to access the same database.

Benefits

A Contact Management System (CMS) may be chosen because it is thought to provide the following advantages:^[1]

• Centralized repository of contact information
• Ready to use database with searching
• Sales tracking
• Email integration
• Scheduling of appointments and meetings
• Document management
• Notes and conversation management
• Customizable fields
• Drip marketing
• Import/export utility

Differences from customer relationship management

A contact manager is usually used for instances where the sales interaction model of the organization is a one-to-many interaction model, in which a single sales representative is responsible for multiple roles within a company. Alternatively, a company with a many-to-many interaction model, in which many sales representatives are targeting a single job role, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is preferred.:^[1]

CRM's usually extend the features of a contact management solution into a more comprehensive record of all interactions as now many people need to collaborate on the same information.^{[citation needed]}

Current market trends

The current trend is an integrated CMS and CRM solutions that can provide both one-to-one and many-to-many capabilities.^{[citation needed]} It can allow a user to have their own contact list and manage their contacts, while at the same time provide complete collaboration options.^{[citation needed]} These are the optimal solutions as they provide a SMB or SOHO the option to grow without having to upgrade to a CRM later on.^{[citation needed]}

See also

Automated online assistant Business intelligence Business relationship management Comparison of CRM systems Consumer relationship system Customer experience Customer experience transformation Customer intelligence Customer service – contains ISO standards Data management Real-time marketing

Data mining Database marketing E-crm Employee experience management (EEM) Enterprise feedback management (EFM) Farley File Help desk Mystery shopping Partner relationship management (PRM) Predictive analytics Professional services automation software (PSA)

Public relations Sales force management system Sales intelligence Sales process engineering Support automation Supplier relationship management The International Customer Service Institute - contains customer service standards Vendor relationship management or VRM

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Aberdeen Group (January 2009) Automating Success: The Choice Between Contact Management and Customer Relationship Management [1]