Change of power in CRM?

The European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes over from May 25. Uncertainty is spreading. Crisis scenarios about severe penalties are doing the rounds.

The company becomes the supposed aggressor, disregarding the rights of individuals with its superior power. The new General Data Protection Regulation forces us to take a closer look:

Eliminating data waste, establishing legally compliant processes and, last but not least, using intelligence to determine the meaningful and usable data content are the order of the day.

Collaboration between CRM experts, data protection officers and IT experts is the key to new, legal data storage and use.

Whoever has the data has the power, because only then is the way clear for the implementation of profit-promising strategies. Once these prerequisites are met, companies can devote themselves to the customer experience.

This means conducting an intelligent, individual dialog and offering the customer an "interaction experience" that leads to sales success.

CRM trends with potential

From the plethora of CRM trend topics, the following aspects are particularly promising on the path to the digital enterprise:

AI deployment: Artificial intelligence helps companies to complete their knowledge of the customer and thus to predict customer wishes. There are also new opportunities for process control in sales:

Unimportant action steps can be distinguished from important tasks. The former are largely automated, while the decisive tasks are the responsibility of humans.

Social CRM: Whereas social media activities were previously primarily conducted in the form of building and maintaining communities and interactions via platforms, social CRM aims to manage communication in a new style. The focus is on the individual: processes are no longer geared to a target group, but to the specific person.

Messaging: While the focus of CRM implementations in the past was often on target group creation and campaign execution, the focus is now shifting to the delivery of specifically placed content.

The central question of whether the campaign message or interaction reaches the customer has remained unanswered until now. This success factor is now moving to the center. How is it possible to reach the right customer at the right time via the right channel?

AI software combined with the appropriate messaging can help get this triad right.

SAP tools and cloud software

On the part of SAP, the tools for implementing the General Data Protection Regulation are ready: SAP Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) provides the functions for retention, blocking and deletion of data for the on-premise world.

In Cloud for Customer, these services are grouped under the "Data protection" entry. Management and documentation of customer consent are included in the standard. Access rights are to be regulated and accesses documented.

For this purpose, the standard SAP options are supplemented by third-party products such as ComplianceNow. These analyze and monitor SAP usage and identify any need for adjustments in the role and user concept.

In addition, further steps need to be taken to enter the real digital dialog. These include the real-time processing of large volumes of data, the structured application of forecasting methods, and the automation of process steps using artificial intelligence.

To do this, CRM managers need quickly adaptable and scalable IT solutions. Cloud software such as the Hybris tools play a decisive role in the market. They promise fast implementation, high scalability, and permanent functional growth.