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CMS, CRM, Social CRM...

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

January 31, 2011
CMS = Content Management System, NOT 10,000 modules.

CRM = Customer Relationship Management which by definition better be social.
Like you, we monitor twitter using hash tags and terms that are relevant to our areas of business interest. Like you, we understand that 9 tweets out of 10, twitter is the place where meaning and understanding go to die. However, we have been watching this steady confusing stream of tweets go by on the topics of CRM, CMS and Social Media that would make your head spin.

If you were to follow the twittersphere / blogosphere on these subjects, you would quickly develop the understanding that a CMS is something that is either free or incredibly expensive. It’s a collection of thousands of modules you integrate together and then apply a generic theme to create your website.

Likewise, you would come to believe that CRM is a tool that involves incredibly complex workflows largely focused around sales. You would also come to believe that CRM is not social but that the earth shattering development of 2010 and 2011 is that you might use CRM in a social context, that you might be able to buy some modules and components and even send an eblast.

Let us set the record straight, simply.

Let’s begin with CMS. CMS means Content Management System. At it’s core, it is a two sided coin. On the one side you manage your organization’s content that you post to places like your website. On the other side your users and customers interact with that collection of information to learn more about your products and services.

We know you’re clever and that you already notice that this CMS of yours manages content. Not only that, but by so doing, you are also managing some aspects of your relationships with your customers.

We find ourselves scratching our heads when we see people tweet and post about thousands of different “modules” that you can add to your “CMS” to enable you to manage content.

A very popular CMS recently announced it’s new version. It literally listed as new features, the ability to add photos. We found modules that you can add to do all kinds of things, like show lists of documents or even image rotators. Our question is why should you have to worry about that? Shouldn’t a CMS by default manage content and shouldn’t it already do all of these things? I guess that’s why most people think a CMS is something you have to beat with a hammer to get it to do something, like manage content.

CRM is as simple a concept as CMS, it means Customer Relationship Management. Isn’t a large part of this process hearing from your users? Isn’t it engaging with them socially by having conversations both virtual and actual. Isn’t it keeping them informed through tools like twitter, facebook and email or even the telephone?

Yet we see tweet after tweet about major (read expensive) CRM tools that have new third party modules that help you manage your relationships with your customers by adding amazing functionality like sending eblasts.

What’s more, that CMS and it’s 10,000 modules is a completely different discussion than the CRM system and it’s bagillion modules. With all this complexity and all this money and effort, they aren’t even integrated.

At GeekPAK we think that CMS and CRM are elegantly and fundamentally intertwined in purpose and function. We believe that when you speak, and that’s what you are doing when you post using your CMS, you are speaking to the world, you ought to be able to do that in the ways and places your users and customers will hear. LIkewise, when they hear you, when they find you, you ought to be able to listen and respond to them immediately.

No 10,000 modules, no spiderweb of plugins, no multiple redundant disorganized, unintegrated tools.

At GeekPAK we believe that CMS means:

Content Management System.

Customer Management System.

Communication Management System.

We enable you to focus on your message, your messengers, and the customers who receive that message. We do it simply. We do it powerfully and most importantly we work with you from day one to do it strategically.

Don’t worry about the technology, the plugins, the modules, the themes, focus on your business. Our PAK of geeks will take care of the rest.

Content Management...Simply.
CMS Content Management Systems provide a structured, database driven suite of tools for managing your website. At GeekPAK our CMS can help you manage your website and your business.
CRM Customer Relationship Management involves managing relationships with current, former and prospective customers. The web is one of your primary contact points with your customers. Shouldn’t your website be a part of your CRM strategy? At GeekPAK we think it should, which is why we built our CMS from the ground up to do just that.
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